Hold On (The 'Burg #6)(151)

Game to possibly stir up a hornet’s nest they had no idea what was buzzing around it?

“Fuck yeah,” he answered Mike, looking at his phone. The display said it was reception. “Just a sec. It’s Kath,” he said, and took the call. “Merrick.”

“Uh…sorry, Merry,” Kath replied, for some reason sounding like she was talking under her breath. “But Justin McClintock is here and he says he wants to talk to you.”

Garrett stared unseeing at the phone.

He could not believe this shit.

“I’m in the middle of a murder investigation, Kath,” he told their girl downstairs something she knew.

“I explained that, but Merry, he demanded to have a word, he didn’t back down when I shared that tidbit, and he seems kind of…perturbed.”

Goddammit.

He did not need this.

And what this was, was Mia’s dad coming to Garrett’s place of work to get in his face in an effort to give his daughter what she wanted.

Eyes to Mike, Garrett said into the phone, “Reiterate to him I’ve got important shit I gotta see to in order to solve a murder. I’m comin’ down, but he’s only got five minutes.”

“Will do,” she replied, and disconnected.

Garrett put his phone in the cradle. “Mia’s dad’s downstairs and Kath says he’s ‘perturbed.’ I gotta give him five minutes, then we can go.”

Now Mike was perturbed.

“Her dad? Jesus, how old is she?” Mike asked.

“You spoil a kid like McClintock spoiled his daughter, I’m findin’ she never grows up,” Garrett replied, straightening from the desk, snatching his suit jacket from the back of his chair, and shrugging it on as he headed to the stairs that led down to the reception area.

He saw McClintock pacing just inside the front doors.

Both of Mia’s parents were height challenged—her mom Mia’s height, her dad about five foot five.

In life, this gave Justin McClintock something to prove.

It had served him well, because in business, the man took no prisoners. He wasn’t completely loaded, but he was far from hurting. He drove a Lexus. His wife drove a Jag. They still lived in a big house in a nice development even though their daughter and two sons had long since moved out.

And he gave his daughter a piece of jewelry, the like Garrett learned early he could never compete with, doing that every year, birthday and Christmas.

In the beginning, Garrett had given her other things. He’d made her laugh, made her happy. They were living the good life and he was a part of that, so this wasn’t a problem; if they had that, he didn’t care if her father gave her jewelry.

But in the end, they’d fought about it because he’d used something he didn’t care smack about to drive the wedge he was building between them deeper.

Mia had never asked her dad to lay off, though. She took the diamonds. The emeralds. The tennis bracelets. And she did it with glee, right in front of her husband, even after he’d laid it out—no matter how f*cked up it was or how false—that he hated that shit.

Christ, but it seemed he hadn’t paid attention at all.

Walking down the stairs, watching Mia’s father turn angry eyes to him, and all he felt was relief that Cher’s father wasn’t in the picture.

And that he’d finally started paying attention.

He glanced at Kath as he walked by her, giving her a look that said he’d rather not have an audience for this.

She read his look, gave a short nod, grabbed some papers off her desk, and hurried toward the copy machine.

Garrett looked to McClintock. “Justin. Sorry, you picked a bad time.”

Justin puffed up his chest and skewered Garrett with his eyes. “Don’t give a shit if it’s a bad time, Garrett.”

His tone was antagonistic.

Garrett stopped three paces from him.

“Right. I’m down here outta respect but also to share we’re not only not gonna do this now, we’re not ever gonna do this.”

His tone was steel.

McClintock took a step toward him. “You think that, you think wrong.”

“Okay, then, Justin. How about after I wrap up a homicide investigation, I go to your office and we have whatever this is out on your turf?” Garrett suggested sarcastically.

“You f*ck with my daughter, you don’t get to f*ck with me. I f*ck with you,” McClintock snapped.

Garrett crossed his arms on his chest. “I see Mia’s told you some tales, so I’ll give this the time it takes to set that straight. Your daughter and I divorced five years ago. I’m now in a serious relationship with another woman. Mia’s not in my life and hasn’t been in my life in any kind of healthy way for half a decade, so she doesn’t get any say about who is in my life. That’s it. There’s nothin’ more to it.”

“Mia’s shared how you’ve been stringing her along in a very unhealthy way. Those’re the ‘tales’ she’s been telling, Merrick,” McClintock returned. “Now, are you saying my daughter’s a liar?”

If Mia shared that kind of thing with her father, it was clear that the f*cked-up non-relationship he’d had with his ex for five years after their divorce wasn’t the only unhealthy relationship in her life.