Page 21 of Creed

I don’t know how I missed it.

The shape of the jaw. The eyes. The scar on his left cheek.

Devin’s husband.

She’d started dating him just a few months after she walked out. They were married less than a year after that. It was tough to stomach. Hell, I couldn’t even touch another woman without thinking about her, and she had his ring on her finger.

As I stood there looking at him, I couldn’t understand why she’d done it. He looked like a real douchebag. I did my best to keep my expression neutral as I asked, “What do you need?”

“We’re following up on a report of an attempted abduction.” He glanced toward the front door of the Vault, then back to me. “Happened the night of the sixteenth.”

“That so?”

He cocked his brow. “That’s so.”

“I don’t know anything about that.”

“I find that hard to believe.” Maddox kept his eyes trained on mine. “You strike me as the kind of guy who knowsexactlywhat goes down at his club. Every brawl. Every spilled drink. Every move that’s made. So, why don’t you save us both the trouble and just tell me what you know?”

He was right.

I knew everything that went down at the Vault. It was my job to know. I knew the two assholes who had tried to take the girl were up to no good. It’s why I sent them to Grim. He had special skills in the field of information extraction, and I had no doubt that he’d find out exactly what they were up to.

And he had.

They’d confessed to drugging her and trying to take her.

He’d even called me the night before and had me to come in, so I could hear it for myself. We both could tell there was more tothe story, so we decided to hold onto them and see if they stuck to their story.

But I didn’t want Detective Maddox thinking I was keeping anything from him, so I told him, “Like I said, I don’t know anything about it.”

“Yeah, I heard you the first time.” He stepped in a little closer. “I’m gonna need to see the security footage from that night.”

My voice stayed calm but stern. “You got a warrant, Detective?”

I could tell by his expression that he didn’t like that answer, and I couldn’t have cared less. Maddox squared up and looked me dead in the eye like he thought he could intimidate me. “No. I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that.”

“I understand.” I could feel the anger rising in my chest, but I didn’t let it show. Just gave him a slow blink and said, “We take privacy real serious around here. Especially when it comes to our girls.”

“We just want to take a quick look at the security footage from that night. You might’ve caught something that can help us find the guys who did this.”

He was saying the right things, but it was the way he said it and the way he was looking at me that got under my skin. There was something up with this guy. I wanted to punch him square in the face, and it wasn’t just the fact that he was Devin’s husband. There was something going on here. I just didn’t know what it was. I wasn’t taking any chances, so I stuck with my response. “Yeah, well, unless you’ve got something official, this conversation’s done.”

The younger officer shifted uncomfortably, but Maddox didn’t budge. He just stood there, stiff and clearly irritated. And I stared right back at him, and I didn’t flinch when he announced,“I’ll be back with the warrant.”

I gave him a slight smile. “Looking forward to it.”

He grumbled something under his breath, then turned and walked off like I hadn’t just rattled his cage. I wouldn’t ever let him know, but he’d rattled mine. If he wanted to dig, he could try, and it wouldn’t be long before the dirt swallowed him whole.

As soon as they got in the car, Skid came over to me, and he looked to be sweating bullets. “You think he’ll be back?”

“Possibly, but we aren’t gonna make it easy for him.” I grabbed my phone and called Preacher. As soon as he answered, I told him, “We had a couple of cops sniffing around at the Vault.”

“Let me guess. It has something to do with our guests?”

“Afraid so.”

“Damn. I don’t need this bullshit today.”