“Well, open it first. You should always read something before you sign it. That’s some legal advice I’ll give you for free.”
I glance up at him. “You’re a lawyer?”
He nods, his mouth curling into a smirk. “And you’ve just been served, asshole.”
I go still. “What?”
He takes a step closer, his voice lowering as he glares at me, his mask of fake civility dropping away. “Open the fucking document and read it, you ignorant piece of shit.”
“Fuck you. I’m not signing anything,” I say, trying to hand the papers back to him.
He laughs again. It’s a cold, hollow sound that sets my teeth on edge. “You don’t actually need to sign them,” he says. “The order is going into effect either way.”
“What order?” I say, my mind spinning.
“Open it and see,” he replies, a self-righteous smirk on his face.
I jerk open the pages, finding the first one, and look down, trying to make sense of the thick block of black text. It looks like a legal document of some kind. It’s got a set of tabs sticking out at the bottom, flagging all the lines that need signatures. But he’s right, someone has already signed it with blue ink. All the signature lines are signed. “What the fuck is this?”
“You tell me,” he jeers. “Any real man would be able to take care of his business. Look at the fucking document and read it, asshole.”
Panic lances my chest as I try to make sense of what I’m reading, but the font is impossibly small. I realize with a jolt that this was intentional. This smarmy lawyer guy took a normal document and purposefully shrunk the font. He wanted to come here and give this to me. He wanted to watch me struggle to read it. Why? Who would—
Oh, fuck.
The creeping feeling that’s been inching up my neck since this guy first walked up to me suddenly turns to ice. It shoots through my veins as I lower the papers, my gaze settling on the monster in front of me. I know exactly who he is. My hands shake as my pulse races.
“Troy.” I spit out his name like the foulest curse.
“In the flesh.” He holds out his hand again, as if he really expects me to shake it. “But I prefer the title ‘Tess’s husband.’”
“Fuck you.”
“Careful there, hotshot,” he teases, dropping his hand back to his side. “We wouldn’t want to make a scene now, would we? Lots of important people here tonight. Coaches and donors, city councilors, the press…”
I glance around, and he’s right. I’m not ten feet away from Head Coach Johnson and his wife. And we were all warned by Poppy, like, ten times that Press was here. They did a little TV spot earlier with Tess and Mars over by the turtles. My panic starts to build. We don’t have a plan yet. Nothing is set. I don’t know what I can say or how to make this go away.
“You make a scene now, it’ll make the front page,” says Troy. “You’ll ruin our Tessy’s big night…and your career…and your life.”
I’m not buying his bullshit, not with Coach’s reassurance that the Rays will take my side. “Get the fuck out of here, Troy.”
“Actually, I was invited,” he counters, oozing his self-righteous confidence all over me. “I have the invitation in my pocket if you don’t believe me. Wanna try reading that instead?”
It’s all I can do to keep my cool and not pound him into the floor. My hands shake as I hold up the papers. “What is this?” I say, shaking them in his face. “More empty fucking threats? More blackmail? It’s not gonna work. My coaches already know—”
“None of my threats are ever empty,” he replies, his fake smile falling.
“Do your worst,” I counter. “You’ve got nothing on us. It won’t be bad press when Tess and I explain the truth. And unlike you, I actually have credibility. My team believes me. Tess is gone, and she’s never coming back to you.”
“That’s good,” he replies, his voice lowering. “Practice saying it now. It will make it that much easier for you to accept later…you know, unless you like the idea of going to jail.”
My heart fucking stops. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I already told you.” He taps the papers in my hand. “Ryan Langley, you’ve been served. I’ll go ahead and leave this with you. It’s just a copy. The originals have been filed back in Cincinnati. And don’t worry, I’ll make sure my connection over at Jacksonville PD gets a copy too.”