Page 73 of Come A Little Closer

I shrugged. “No idea, but the more important question is why you think they called.”

Profound sadness filled her gaze as it hooked on mine. “I think the timing is suspicious. It’s been years, and yet, not a couple weeks after you paid off the debt, I suddenly get a call from them. I think Carter found out it’s been paid off and he told them to call to find out how it was possible.”

“You think they want money?” I spat out the last word, my features scrunching up as the situation took on a whole new level of disgusting. “After everything they did to you, would they stoop so low as to try to get money out of you now?”

She nodded, her expression miserable. “My parents probably wouldn’t take anything from me, but Carter? You bet he would. If he thinks he could get even another dollar out of me, he’d fight to the death for it and he’d use my parents to do it.”

I inhaled deeply through my nostrils, determined to get rid of the dick once and for all, but first, I had to take care of my girl. Tightening my grip on her hands, I scooted forward to get up. “He won’t touch you, Tallulah. You have my word. He won’t get so much as a penny out of you. Come with me. Let’s go to bed and put on a movie. It’s getting late and you look like you’ve been through the emotional wringer these last couple hours.”

She nodded, wordlessly following me to her bedroom. When we got there, I tucked her in and let her choose the movie, crawling in with her and holding her until she fell asleep. As soon as I was sure it wouldn’t wake her, I got out of bed and headed back downstairs to call Jake.

His brother worked for the police force and I wanted some more information on this Carter guy. If Tallulah was right, he wasn’t done with her yet and I wasn’t about to let him use her parents to get to her.

Over my dead goddamn body.

“Niall?” Jake said when he picked up, his tone urgent and alert. “What is it? What’s wrong? It’s really late, man.”

“I know,” I said. “I’m sorry, but I need your help. It’s not a life-threatening emergency or anything, but I need contact details for Tallulah’s ex-husband as well as anything else Darren can dig up on him. Do you think he could do that for me?”

“Dig up some info? Sure. Easy. Let me call him. I’ll get right back to you. Is Tallulah okay? What happened?”

“Her mom tried to call her. Long story short, she thinks the ex put her parents up to reaching out after he learned that the debt had been paid off. If she’s right, Carter and I need to have a little chat. He needs to know that if he ever even thinks her name again, we’re going to have a problem.”

Jake snorted. “Fucking dickhead. Of course, he’d come after her for money if he thinks she’s somehow fallen into a pot of the stuff. Guys like that always seem to think they’re entitled to everything the woman’s got or will ever have. I’ll call Darren and get back to you in a few.”

“Thanks, bud,” I said, exhaling and tossing the phone down on the couch next to me.

I sat down. Silently fuming, I stayed up waiting until Jake texted me Carter’s phone number, and I grinned when I saw the digits on my screen. I felt like I’d just found a pot of gold, and while I knew I had no right to do this, I hit dial anyway. If Tallulah’s parents were going to cause trouble for us, I at least wanted to get Carter out of the way.

As I listened to the phone ring and ring in my ear, I wondered if he’d even pick up, and I was pleasantly surprised when he did. Even if it was a couple hours earlier in California than it was here, it was still late, but I wanted to have this over and done with.

“Hullo?” he grunted. “Who is this?”

“Is this Carter Gibson?”

“Yeah?” he drawled, sounding irritated. “Who are you?”

“Niall Morrisson,” I said, my tone clipped. “I’d like to make it very, very clear to you that if Tallulah or I ever hear anything from you or ever see you anywhere near us, you’ll have hell to pay. Google my name. You’ll learn that my reputation precedes me and that I have the resources to make it happen.”

“Are you threatening me? Who the fuck even are you?” He scoffed. “Tallulah is my wife. I’ll⁠—”

“Ex wife,” I said, speaking over him. “I’m not threatening you, Carter. I’m simply warning you. However, if you should choose to refuse to heed the warning, you can absolutely consider it a threat. I can and will make your life incredibly difficult and I wouldn’t even break a sweat.”

The guy scoffed again. “She has debt that⁠—”

“If you’re talking about the debt you put her in before the divorce, that’s been paid off,” I said. “You also still don’t seem to have realized that this is not a negotiation or a debate. I have the ability to get you into a mess of financial trouble if I see fit, and I won’t hesitate to do it if you keep pulling strings with her parents. Take my advice, Mr. Gibson. Put all this behind you and forget Tallulah’s name. Don’t think about her, don’t contact her, and don’t get others to do your bidding, or you and I will speak again, and next time, I won’t be nearly as patient.”

He finally fell silent, letting me know that he’d obviously realized I meant business. The thing about me was that I always did. There was a reason people didn’t mess with me, either professionally or otherwise. I liked to think I was a nice guy. I’d certainly gotten a lot nicer since I’d met Tallulah, but ultimately, I didn’t like playing games and I didn’t appreciate being crossed.

It was as simple as that, and either my tone of voice had convinced him of that, or he’d looked me up while we’d been on the phone. There was a whole slew of features about me on the internet that some might not have thought of as complimentary, but I didn’t mind being written about as being cold, ruthless, or mean-spirited.

I was all those things. When I had to be. I was unafraid of standing up, speaking out, or making things happen.

Carter spoke then, drawing me out of my thoughts of what he might’ve been reading about me. “Fine. No alimony, then.”

“Alimony?” I heard the incredulity ringing from my tone and snorted. “That’s the debt you were talking about, alimony?”

“We were married,” he said dully. “If she suddenly has money to pay it all off, at least half that money should be mine.”