Eric (Men of Honor 2)

I also felt a way about keeping things from Justine. Not that I would share this worrisome shit with her, but I felt like she should know enough to keep her on guard. Since I haven’t had a real relationship in so long, I’m amazed at how much I’ve changed when it comes to sharing certain things with my woman.

In the past, I’d probably have been the first to scoff at any man who thought it was best to keep shit from his woman. I’d have probably spouted some shit about women’s rights and not to treat your woman like a child. That’s before I met and fell in love with the most amazing creature there is. Now I don’t want any of this negative shit touching her.

As far as I’m concerned, her days should be filled with nothing but rainbows and sunshine. Especially after the hell, her ex had put her through. And the fact that I know exactly how it feels to have an asshole for an ex only solidified that for me. So I got over my guilt for not telling her about what Janine was up to real quick. Leaving it to Tyler to handle was a whole other kettle of fish, though.

As Janelle had said, there wasn’t much going on at the office today, and I didn’t need to go to the site since my guys knew what they were doing, and I’d been there the day before. I grabbed my keys and stood up to leave with a semi plan forming in my head.

I won’t go to the cops because, as Ty had said, what he’d done to get the information on his mother was illegal, but there’s no way I’m going to let this shit go for another day. The sooner I end this, the better, and yes, I have to be the one to do it. This way, I can protect Tyler from having to be the one to go up against his mom and save my wife in the process.

I know my boy is strong, but I don’t ever want him looking back at this thing with regret. Especially when it’s for me to handle as his dad. I felt much better when I headed down to my SUV than I had when I was coming here this morning. I looked at my watch and checked the time before grabbing my phone and calling Warren, the ex-military vet who worked for me doing construction and who I’d hired to keep tabs on Janine.

“Where is she?”

“She’s been at the country club for about ten minutes. Looks like they have something going on here today with the number of women I see coming and going.”

“Okay, cool. I’m headed out that way.”

* * *

TYLER

* * *

“Dude, isn’t that your stepmom?”

“Where?” I stopped with my hand on the car door and looked in the direction Paul was pointing.

“What the hell?” What was Justine doing here, and with Janelle? I creased my brow in concentration, trying to figure out what I’d missed.

As far as I know, dad and Justine hate this place and have avoided it every chance they get, even when they kept getting invites to become members. It still amazes me that dad and I had gone from barely being able to put food on the table to being on everyone’s list of invites.

I had no interest in this place either, even though I go to school with most of the kids of the members and have even been through the doors a time or two. The fact that Janine and her husband are members is more than enough to have me looking at this place side-eyed.

I’d checked Janine’s Instagram and knew that she had something going on here today and thought it was the best opportunity to confront her. I wanted to take her down in her natural habitat, in front of the women she has hoodwinked into thinking she’s something she’s not.

Dad might’ve been able to move on and forgive her for all the skeezy shit she did to him in the past, and I might’ve too. Like the rumors she’d spread about him hitting her and how that was the reason for the divorce when she didn’t want the world to know that she was a cheating slag.

That one could’ve done a hell of a lot of damage had the people who knew him not stood by him until the rumors died down. Thank heaven for those people and men like Grey who’d seen through the bullshit and given my dad a chance, which in the end had made him come out on top.

Like I said, I might’ve given her a pass since it was nothing more than water under the bridge, but she had to go and set her sights on the wrong one. Granted, she didn’t know that Lora was the one I’d chosen to protect, that even though I didn’t see a future for us, this was the hill I had decided to die on.