Page 75 of Against The Tide

With a grimacing glance from my head to my toes, he shakes his head at me. “I want to see my daughter.”

His daughter? Until now she’s always been my daughter, yet all of a sudden, he wants to set a claim he relinquished a long time ago. I don’t think so, and I won’t play whatever bullshit game he’s come here with.

“Where is she?”

“At a friend’s house.”

The withering look he gives would normally make me take a step back, but instead I keep holding my ground in the pouring rain. I might resemble a drowned rat by the time we’re done, but I don’t care.

“You’re shipping her off to other people so you can fuck your boyfriend now?”

Rhett steps between us the second Carl comes toward me. His hands are fisted at his sides, and there’s that mean look again. Sharp and severe. Protective and possessive, even, and I find solace in that one small detail. Rhett Reynolds is possessive of me, and I love it. Which throws me because of how controlling Carl was over every aspect of mine and Iris’s life.

“Nice, Avery.” He looks Rhett up and down as though he’s somehow beneath him. How wrong he is.

Slipping beside Rhett, I move forward a little to stand in front of him. I know he won’t make any brash moves with me in the way, and as great as it was having him fight my corner, I need to do this for myself. If not to show Carl that he has nothing over me, then to protect Rhett from both of their tempers.

Carl is a snake, and him showing up here like this…pretending he wants to see Iris…it’s all an act. A guise for a trick he has up his sleeve.

“Look at you,” he sneers, reaching toward me.

Rhett slaps his hand away hard enough that the sound cuts through the storm.

“Classy.”

“Oh, you know me, Carl, I’m all class.”

“More like high-class whore,” he retorts sourly.

Without pause, I hold my arm out to stop Rhett from falling for his antagonistic crap. But before I can stop him from lunging forward, Carl is drawing a gun from the inside of his suit jacket. Frozen by the chill that courses through me, I can’t push Rhett away when he pulls me behind him. All the threats Carl’s ever made come back to haunt me, and cold terror racks through me.

“I’d put that away if I were you. Shooting on someone else’s property isn’t a good career move. For you.” Jesse appears from the darkness behind Carl. His firearm is steady in his hand, and he doesn’t look like he would miss a single shot if a wrong move was made.

“Got any other tin soldiers in the wings?” Carl turns, coming down a step closer to us and away from Jesse.

“Why don’t you two go on inside, I’ve got this.” Jesse nods toward the front door, gesturing for us to follow his instruction.

My bare feet are suckered to the ground as Rhett wraps his arm around me, urging me forward. Trembling as I take each remaining step up the porch, my only saving grace is Rhett’s hand on my hip, squeezing and kneading at my flesh, his silent way of telling me he’s got my back.

“Where is my daughter?” Carl grabs my wrist as I pass him.

“Don’t touch me!” The cry is garbled by my frayed nerves as I yank my arm back and Rhett pushes him away.

“I want to see her now!”

“No.”

Jesse comes closer at the advancement Carl makes toward me.

“She’s my daughter and you can’t⁠—”

“No! You had every chance to be a father to her, but you didn’t care. After what you’ve done, I am never letting you near my daughter ever again.”

“You can’t keep her from me,” he calls after me as I walk away.

“Watch me.” Asshole! I add the last part silently. Rhett unlocks the door to let us in, and as I turn to follow him in, I pause at the sound of Carl’s laugh.

“First the congressman, and now the doctor…your standards are slipping.”