One Ring (Suncoast Society #28)(21)

His eyes widened. “So you decided to leave me so you could just slut arou—”

“Hey! Whoa!” both men said, stepping forward and protectively pulling her behind them, crowding in front of Mike and forcing him back a step.

Don leaned in and jabbed a finger in Mike’s face. “She’s our friend, *. She hasn’t even dated anyone, okay?”

Technically the truth, although she suspected getting into the intricacies of orgasm play not technically being sex probably wouldn’t go over so well with Mike.

Carl also leaned in. “And you need to f*cking treat her with respect. Then again, had you been doing that, you wouldn’t be standing here now, would you?”

Mike looked at the two men, then caught her gaze where she was standing behind Don and Carl. “That’s it, Amy,” he said. “You want a f*cking divorce? You’ve got one. Just wait until I tell everyone you were reading those trashy books, and now you’re living with not just one guy, but two!”

He turned and stormed down the walk toward where his car was parked on the street.

Don watched him go. “So that’s the tool you left, huh?”

“Real charmer,” Carl drawled. “Can’t imagine why you weren’t blissfully happy.”

“Tell me about it.” She crossed her arms over her chest and watched Mike peel out. “Guess I can kiss my friends and family good-bye once he finishes with them.”

“Can I ask you a dumb question?” Carl said.

“Yeah.”

He turned to her. “Who the hell is Amy?”





After a very brief and terse conversation with her mom—who’d already heard from Mike several weeks ago, Mel hung up and fought the urge to throw her cell phone into the pool.

“She thinks I’m dumb to divorce Mike,” she said. “He’s already painted himself to be a victim.” She had been working up to the truth with her parents. She’d told them she was separating from him and likely would divorce him, but hadn’t told them when the final hearing was.

“Expect him to double-down when he gets hold of her again,” Don warned.

“You might want to call Ed and give him a head’s-up,” Carl suggested. “He might say let it go, or he might have advice.”

“I hate to bug him on the weekend.”

“It’s what you’re paying for,” Don said.

“True.” She called him, but he wasn’t worried.

“Remember how I mentioned at our first consult that it sounded like he was in denial?”

“Yeah?”

“He’s not in denial anymore, obviously. This was the smack in the face that most people usually feel when they are actually served divorce papers.”

“You’re kidding, right? I mean, moving out and changing bank accounts and hiring attorneys and all that wasn’t enough?”

“Some people are clueless. I’ve seen worse, believe me. Like you said, he was very apathetic. He had likely convinced himself this wasn’t a permanent thing. That he was going to talk to you, you were going to return home, and life would slide back into its normal rut. You just forcibly jacked him out of his rut by dumping a load of killer bees down his pants.”

“Don’t give me ideas,” she muttered.

“That was a metaphor, not a suggestion.”

“I like killer bees better as a suggestion.”

“Try to relax. Nothing, legally, has changed. Call anyone you think he might contact and get ahead of it, if you feel you have to. Tell people he’s pissed off that you left him after years of him neglecting you, and now that he realizes it’s going to cost him, he’s pissed off and spreading lies about you.”

“Technically, most of it isn’t lies. It’s just the context looks horrible.”

“They won’t know that. But if you do want to try to save those friendships, call them. Now. Because he’ll likely be busy going through his contact list.”

“Thanks.” She hung up.

“Killer bees?” Don asked. “Do I even want to know?”

She related the conversation to them.

“I like killer bees better as a suggestion, too,” Carl said.





So did Tilly, who went ballistic that night at the club when Mel told her friend about it.

“That f*cker!” Tilly said. “Let’s go pay that little turdbucket a visit right now. I’m in a mood.” She started to rise.

“You’re always in a mood, my vicious little Redbird,” her husband, Landry, said after placing a staying hand on her shoulder. “And no one is paying anyone a visit. Ed’s right. The man was finally forced to deal with reality. It sounds like he’s skated through most of his adult life without having to do that. This has no bearing on the outcome of their divorce case.”

Tilly stuck her tongue out at Landry. “You’re no fun,” she said. “Killer bees is a lovely sadistic way to extract a little payback.”

“Sticks and stones,” Landry reminded her. “Anyone who is lazy enough to believe his lies about Mel without asking her about them isn’t someone worth the dirt on her shoes.”

Tilly huffed. “Damn Dom logic, anyway.”