I knew the man was getting frustrated with me. It was written all over his features. The way he furrowed his brow. The way he stood and cracked his neck. His knuckles. His back. He was tired, and probably near the end of his shift, and all he wanted was to go home. But if he wanted to threaten me with a good time in a holding cell, the least I could do was repay the favor.
Plus, I wasn’t lying. We didn’t peddle fucking drugs out of Heist. Sure, we had been in the arms’ dealing game at one point, but once we opened up our clubs and raked in decent money regularly, we abandoned that post. Drugs weren’t our thing. Never had been, never would be.
That’s Devil’s Rage territory.
“Well,” Officer Burke said as he sat back down, “maybe if we sit here for a while and your back gets stiff, you’ll be more likely to talk.”
I nodded. “Sure, we can try. In the meantime, how’s Aria doing?”
He paused. “Why the fuck would you care about that?”
I shrugged. “She seems like a nice girl. Very pretty. I bet she’s a great lay, too.”
He slammed his fist against the metal table. “Don’t you fucking dare talk about her like that. She’s a respectable woman—”
“A respectable woman that you tell to buzz off? Doesn't quite compute in my mind. If anything, if I was around her? I’d sit her right on my lap and—”
Before it even registered that he had moved, the man slapped me across the face. My head tilted off to the side as a trickle of blood dripped down my cheek and I knew I had him. My gaze slowly pivoted to his. He stood there with a mixture of shock and anger in his face. And as I raised my head, I let a chuckle slip off the tip of my tongue.
“Your superiors aren’t going to like it when I tell a lawyer what you just did,” I said.
He pressed his hands into the table, leveling his eyes with my own. “You listen to me and you listen good. You stay the hell away from Aria. She’s got good things going for her despite the fact that she’s a nosy little bitch sometimes, and I’m not going to let you destroy that just because you want to get your dick wet. You want pussy? That’s fine. Go fuck your drug dealer for more shit to peddle on the streets. But you keep your talons away from her. Understood?”
I leaned back, knowing damn good and well that I had the upper hand. “Funny. Is she the one you’re waiting on outside? Because I could’ve sworn that—”
He pointed his finger into my face. “You stay. The hell. Away from her. Otherwise, I’ll toss your sorry ass in prison for a fucking license plate violation and you’ll never see the light of day again.”
I grinned from ear to ear. “Man, I can’t wait for her to pay my bail so we can go lawyer-shopping together. Did you guys ever do that when you were dating? Lawyer-shopping? I bet it’s romantic as hell.”
The man practically vibrated with anger as he straightened his back.
“What? Cat got your tongue? Or are you still in love with a woman that doesn’t give a shit about you?” I asked.
The second the man let that growl peel from between his lips, he shoved his chair out of the way. He came around behind the table and wrapped his hand around my neck, and I had to admit he had a decent grasp. He ripped me out of that chair and slammed me down onto the table, cocking my wrists at such an odd angle that I actually cried out in pain.
“Holy fucking shit!” I roared.
While he hissed in my ear. “You’ll pay for this. If you lay a hand on her, I swear to fucking hell on high I’m gonna—”
The door ripped open. “Officer Burke! Outside! Now!”
And as he shoved my head against the table one last time, he stormed his way out of the interrogation room.
While my craving for his woman mounted in the marrow of my bones.
TEN
ARIA
A commotion sounded in the hallway behind the door that I couldn't get through, and while I had no way of witnessing everything that was going on, I got up and rushed toward the small rectangular window that spanned pretty much the length of the door itself.
“Hey!” the officer behind the front desk barked. “Get away from there!”
I rolled my eyes. “You can’t tell me that I can’t look through a window, my guy.”
I watched as a couple of officers wrestled someone out of the interrogation room. The man barked orders before two guys charged in and dragged someone out. The yelling took me by surprise. All sorts of slurs and names were thrown while a low chuckle resonated above everything else.
And when I watched the two officers pin Jason to the wall, I gasped.
