Page 15 of Girl in the Water

The boss queued the video footage right then and there, turned his laptop toward the cops. They all watched as the dickheads went for Ian. He clearly had not initiated the altercation.

“I’m going to need a copy,” the male cop said, the suspicion not exactly gone from his eyes, but he had another look now too, as if he was impressed, at least a little.

The lady cop looked at Ian as if she knew where the girl had been headed last night. She said nothing. Gave him no grief. Ian supposed she’d seen a thing or two on the job. He liked her.

After the cops walked out, Ian stayed, since Chandler’s pointed stare said the man wasn’t done with him yet.

The manager leaned back in his seat, his mouth still in a pissed, hard line. Eyes still full of unhappy. “You’re a good bouncer. But if the cops have to come here one more time because of you, you’re fired. Just so we understand each other.”

“Understood, sir.”

Chandler watched him. Shook his head with a slow intake of breath that sounded suspiciously like a sigh. As the irritation leaked out of him, his shoulders deflated. “You have to stop punishing yourself.”

Ian pressed his lips together. He hadn’t discussed his past with Chandler.

Freaking Dean.

Dean Shanahan knew Chandler, had gotten Ian this job.

“I’m not—” Ian bit off the rest.

To his credit, Chandler didn’t point out that this was Ian’s third fight this month, always outnumbered, always letting the jackasses beat him up first.

Instead of saying any of that, the boss nodded. “Forget about it.”

Ian did just that for two mind-numbing, uneventful weeks until, one morning, just before dawn, he woke to the crash of his door being kicked in. The next second, four men were on him with baseball bats.

Christ, for a second, he didn’t even know where he was, with Linda or in Afghanistan…What the hell?

Then someone flipped on the lamp, probably so the four attackers wouldn’t accidentally hit each other.

Ian blinked in the bright light, still fuzzy around the edges, but his body knew what to do without his brain having to be engaged. His military training kicked in.

He grabbed for a bat, ripping it from the man who held it, knocked him back.Oh, hello.Recognition flashed. One of the jerkwads who’d tried to force that girl into going home from the club with them.

At one point they must have followed him home to figure out where he lived.

The idiot’s buddy was here too, and slammed his baseball bat into Ian’s knee. Ian dipped but didn’t go down. Teeth grinding, he forced himself back up.

Shit.He was too old for this.

He smacked his bat into the face of the little bastard like he meant it. Blood spurted as the guy went down with a scream.

His buddies fought harder. So did Ian. He kicked one back so hard, the guy skidded halfway across the room on his back. But, to his credit, he came back up. Hell, Ian hadn’t wanted to kill him. He didn’t want to have to talk to the damn police again.

Another idiot flew at him. Gently, Ian tapped him back with a right hook, but not before he got his ribs bruised first. Because he was holding back.All right. This needs to end.

Most of the time he didn’t mind a good fight, but they’d woken him up when he’d finally been sleeping. That made him grumpy. He wanted them out before he got grumpier and did something he’d live to regret in a jail cell.

Only two of the jerkwads had a personal stake in the fight. Ian just needed to show those two that they’d made a mistake when they came for a visit. One was already down. Ian sideswiped the other with his bat, and that one dropped too, blinking hard and bleeding harder. And as he felt that blood run down his temple, he panicked, scrambled back.

As the two injured men crawled for the door, the other two ran too, dragging their buddies with them, yelling back from the threshold, when they thought they were safe. “Don’t think this is finished, asshole. We’ll be back.”

“I’ll be here.” Ian was breathing hard but buzzing nicely with adrenaline. “Bring a few more friends. We’ll make it a proper party.”

He limped to the door and slammed it shut behind them, then limped back to the living room.

The adrenaline ebbed. His knee was throbbing. And his ribs. And his head.