Hold On (The 'Burg #6)(153)

“So much for ‘to have and to hold, for better or for worse, until death do you part,’” McClintock sniped.

Garrett sighed, not about to get into explaining the concept of divorce to a stubborn man.

He was done.

“If that’s all you got, Justin, I got a killer to catch.”

“When you come to your senses, Garrett, and try to get my daughter back, do not expect me to be your champion,” he warned.

Garrett very nearly rolled his eyes, and he didn’t think he’d rolled his eyes since he was about twelve years old.

“Consider me informed,” Garrett muttered.

They stared at each other and Garrett did it with his face set studiously blank.

He did this to hide the fact that he didn’t like this because he’d always liked Mia’s father.

He spoiled the girls in his life, but he was a good guy. Funny. He told a great joke, was usually in a mood that could only be described as jovial, and he’d liked and accepted Garrett easily. His continuing to spoil his daughter when she was Garrett’s wife was marginally uncool, but it wasn’t heinous. And when the marriage finally disintegrated, he’d only sought Garrett out once to have a chat with him, hoping his intervention might get Garrett’s head out of his ass.

That chat had gone entirely differently than this one.

Garrett hadn’t relented then when McClintock had shown him patience and respect.

He didn’t relent now either, and it wasn’t because McClintock had not shown patience or respect.

It sucked that the vague but benign ending to Justin McClintock being in his life had turned malignant.

But it was what it was, and frankly, the way father and daughter were behaving, he didn’t give a f*ck.

His phone beeped with a message and Garrett decided the staring contest was over.

“Be well, Justin,” he muttered, turning as he reached into his jacket to pull out his phone.

He’d taken one step away from McClintock when the man called his name.

Garrett drew in a calming breath and turned back.

“She loves you,” McClintock said quietly. “Loves you like you wouldn’t believe.”

Out of respect for a decent man, just a shit father, he replied quietly, “If she did it the way we both needed it, Justin, she would have weathered the storm.”

McClintock flinched.

That got in there.

Yeah, he wasn’t stupid. He’d raised a weak daughter. One who had no idea how to fight her own battles. One who had no idea how to hold on.

Not all McClintock’s fault. Mia was an adult.

But he hadn’t helped.

“Like I said, and I meant it, be well,” Garrett repeated, then he turned and jogged up the steps so McClintock couldn’t suck any more of his time.

As he went, he saw the voicemail was from Tanner. At the top of the steps, he slid his thumb across the cracked screen as he glanced toward Mike, lifting his chin to say he was ready to roll.

He put the phone to his ear, moving to his desk to nab the car keys.

“Merry, brother, don’t know what you’re doin’ but need you at my office as soon as you can get here. Found Ryker, or I should say, Ryker found me. He’s got company. They’ve all got a story to tell and these stories are ones both you and Mike are not gonna wanna wait too long to hear. Give me a call and then get your ass over here. They don’t got a lot of time and you need to hear it before that time runs out and they take off.”

While listening, Garrett had stopped not only because he got the news that the vanished Ryker had resurfaced and all the other things his brother-in-law had shared, but because Tanner’s voice sounded strange.

It sounded like he was close to laughing.

He took the phone from his ear and looked to his partner.

“Ryker’s at Tanner’s office,” he told Mike.

Up from his desk, ready to go, Mike’s brows rose. “No shit?”

“They’ve got someone with them and Tanner said we need to get there ASAP.”

“Then let’s go.”

They headed to the front stairs, Garrett texting Tanner, On our way.

“Things go okay with Mia’s dad?” Mike asked as they moved down the steps, both their eyes scanning the area at the bottom to see Kath back at her desk and Justin McClintock gone.

“No. But it went,” Garrett answered.

Mike didn’t reply. Then again, there wasn’t much more for Garrett to say.

On the sidewalk, as they hoofed their way down the block toward Tanner’s office, they had a brief discussion about the fact that they’d be swinging by Mimi’s to get a coffee on their way back.

This being after Mike and Tanner hopefully successfully stopped Garrett from going apeshit on Ryker.

They hit the door next to Mimi’s that had a brass plaque next to it that read Tanner Layne Investigations. The door led right to a set of stairs. The stairs led to a landing and one door, that door belonging to Tanner’s offices.

They pushed through, moved through the reception area, walked into Tanner’s personal office situated at the front of the building, and both of them stopped dead.

Even though he felt the pulse of alertness beat off Mike, Garrett reckoned it was only him whose vision went blurry with rage.

This was because Ryker’s long, beefy frame was lounging negligently in a chair in front of Tanner’s desk and he was eating a Hilligoss powdered sugar, chocolate-buttercream-filled donut. The donut wasn’t his first, seeing as his lips were lined with sugar and that sugar liberally dusted the front of his black tank as well as the lapels of his leather jacket.