Page 44 of Witness Security Breach

She shrugged. “Vacation. Hunting trip, I think.”

“They all active over at the Fifth District?”

“Yeah, except Jeff. He retired a couple of years ago.”

The dude sitting beside him gave Aiden the side-eye.

One too many questions asked. Got it. “Thanks,” he said to the waitress and grabbed a handful of nuts from a bowl.

Watching the crowd through the mirror behind the bar, he estimated 75 percent of the patrons, including the man next to him, were cops. Either active or retired.

He nursed his bourbon while Charlie flirted and laughed and slammed back shots, throwing out stellar bait only a eunuch could resist.

A strange possessiveness roared through him. He’d never wanted any woman the way he wanted Charlie. In his bed, beneath him, above him, curled around him. In his life, beside him.

He put his jealousy in check as he’d done many times before, but the ache in his chest didn’t go away. He’d dared showing her his feelings, asked her not to do this, and she’d done it anyway.

Charlie took another shot. He wasn’t worried about her holding her liquor. She was able to drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka. He just didn’t want to watch her throw herself at another man, even if it was playing a role.

In thirty grueling minutes, she had McChatty hooked.

Charlie stood, leaned over the bar, arching her back, projecting her breasts, her tight, round butt high in the air, and whispered in Jeff’s ear.

The massive ball of tension inside Aiden burned hotter than a solar flare.

Every man in the vicinity checked her out, lust stamped on their faces, gleaming in their eyes. They were practically drooling. Aiden couldn’t blame them. With no makeup, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, Charlie was stunning. Truly something to behold.

Jeff spoke to the other bartender for a second, and she responded with a nod and a sly smile. Then he led Charlie through a door outside to the back.

His muscles tightened, but he resisted the urge to jump up and leave right away. With his hand clenched in a fist on his thigh, he finished his drink. When the stopwatch in his head hit two minutes, he spun off his stool, yawned for good measure and went out the front.

As soon as the door closed, he forced himself to walk slow and easy, like time wasn’t a factor, with his hands in his pockets, around the side of the building toward the back. A man running, especially one of color, drew unwanted attention and suspicion faster than one strolling along without a care in the world.

By the time he made his way to the dumpster, Charlie had Jeff pinned with his cheek pressed to the brick wall, his arm twisted behind his back at an angle meant to cause excruciating pain, with his pants down around his ankles.

From the blood on his face, she’d broken his nose first.

“Devlin and the others, who hired them?” she asked as Aiden came up alongside her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“She’s got quite a temper,” Aiden said, “and she’s short on patience. I suggest you start talking.”

“You’re both making a big mistake. Messing with the wrong people.”

Charlie gestured for Aiden to take over holding Jeff. He was more than happy to oblige.

After they swapped places, she snatched his right wrist and twisted until the knuckles were facing her. She grabbed his index finger. “The job in San Diego. Who hired him?”

Jeff called Charlie a bunch of foul names. In Aiden’s experience, she wasn’t going to respond well.

Without a word, she wrenched his finger back ninety degrees, snapping the first knuckle.

Jeff gasped and groaned in sheer shock and pain.

Impressive. He took it like a champ, without screaming.

“I tried to warn you,” Aiden said.