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I almost laugh. He must be the kind of man who lets other people fight their battles for him. But he’s about to learn we’re not the same because I have no problem handling my shit all on my own. And Grant? He’s a problem that needs to be taken care of.

“No.”

His mouth pulls into a sneer as he shoves his phone into his pocket. “Then this has nothing to do with you. Whatever happened between me and Goldie is none of your business.”

I stop a few feet away, close enough that neither of us has to raise our voice over the idling delivery truck. Sweat is already prickling at the back of my neck, but I keep my hands loose at my sides.

“Did you know you left marks on her arm? That makes it my fucking business.” The image of them flashes through my head again, four red fingerprints imprinted into her skin, and I have to remind myself why I’m waiting instead of putting him on the ground right now.

Grant shifts his weight and shakes his head. “Jesus Christ. I grabbed her because she kept trying to walk away while I was talking. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“I don’t give a fuck why you grabbed her.”

“If she’d just listened to me, I wouldn’t have had to touch her.” He rolls his eyes. “You’re acting like I beat on her or something.”

For half a second, everything inside me goes quiet, like I just punched through the eyewall.

He says it like Goldie caused the whole thing by refusing to do what he told her. Like putting his hands on her was some reasonable consequence for her trying to walk away from him instead of standing there and taking his shit.

My heartbeat pounds in my ears.

“No.” I take another step toward him, close enough now that he has to tip his chin up to hold my stare. “If you’d hit her, this would be a much different conversation.”

Grant puffs himself up, but I’m not done.

“Did it make you feel powerful to push your weight around? To force yourself on her?”

The muscle in Grant’s jaw flexes, and I can almost hear his teeth grinding together.

“I don’t know how you spent five years with Goldie and didn’t figure out that when she tells you she’s done with a conversation, you leave her the fuck alone.”

He scoffs. “You’ve known her for what? A few months?”

“Your point? It doesn’t change what you did.”

His mouth twists, but he keeps it shut.

I let the silence hang there for a second before I shrug. “You can tell yourself I don’t know her. Doesn’t change where she went the second she got away from you.” I smirk at him. “Where do you think that was?”

I let him stew in the silence for another beat. Two. Then I lean forward the tiniest fraction and fill him in. “Straight to me.”

Grant goes still, and a flush starts creeping up his neck. For the first time since I walked over here, some of the attitude slips off his face.

I give him another metaphorical push. “Back to a life where you’re nothing. Not even a thought in her head.”

Then his whole expression changes. His mouth slowly curves into a smug smile, and he straightens, like he just realized something that’ll let him hit back at me.

“Enjoy playing house while you can. If that baby’s mine, everything changes.”

“A paternity test doesn’t put you back in Goldie’s life. It doesn’t change shit between her and me.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.” His voice gets louder as he steps toward me. “But if that kid is mine, I’ll go for custody. Full custody. I’ll make her fucking beg me every time she wants to see her own kid.”

The inferno inside flickers from blue flame to white, and my vision narrows.

For one second, I almost forget the whole reason I’m holding back and put him through the side of his car. The thought of Goldie having to hand our baby over to this piece of shit, of him using a child to force his way back into her life because she had the nerve to realize she deserves better, hits hard enough that I shift toward him before I stop myself.

“You can ask for whatever the fuck you want,” I say. “If you want a paternity test, have your lawyer contact ours and we’ll handle it. But if you think sharing DNA with this baby gives you an excuse to force your way back into Goldie’s life, you’re even stupider than I thought.”