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‘Wha—”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Something happened. She’s upset—”

“It’s Garrett!” Claudia cried. “He’s… he’s…”

Garrett. Her ex husband’s name.

That asshole, was my first thought. I’ll kill him.

I pried her from my chest. Already I was filled with such rage it was going to be hard to stop me from doing something very, very bad.

“Claudia, calm down,” Colin said. His voice was softer than mine. More placating. “Tell us what happened.”

Instead of responding she merely pulled out her phone. She pressed a few buttons. Called up a text message.

I swiped the phone from her hand and read it. Instantly my whole body felt ten degrees hotter.

“Oh he’s dead!” I growled. “He’s—”

“Brandon!” I heard Hunter warn. “Calm down! Right now.”

It was his stern voice. The one he reserved for giving orders. Only this time, orders didn’t matter. Not after this.

I held up the phone so he could see. “LOOK!”

He looked, and his mouth went tight. His whole expression changed.

“You’re right,” he said venomously. “He’s dead.”

Colin grabbed it next and flipped through the images. Being the smarter one, he also pulled up the call log.

“You called him back?”

Claudia nodded. She was finally pulling herself together.

“And what did he say?”

“He said he wanted to meet with me,” she sobbed. “T—That I’d been somehow ignoring him, and he wanted to talk to me face to face.”

“Have you been ignoring him?” I asked.

“Of course,” she sniffed. “He… well… he actually tracked me down last month.”

This was all news to us. Claudia sensed it, and lowered her head.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Hunter asked coldly.

“I—I didn’t think anything of it,” she said. “It lasted fifteen minutes. Garrett made me sit down and have coffee with him, but that was weeks ago and—”

“Coffee?” Hunter growled.

“What did he want?” asked Colin.

Tears dripped from her chin now, so I wiped her face with my hand. Hunter left the room and came back with a stack of tissues.

“He wanted me back,” she said miserably. “Of course I laughed in his face. I didn’t even have coffee, I just got up and left.”

“And what did he want this time,” I asked. “Other than ask to meet you again?”