Page 13

12

WEST

I closed the tap and thunked a full pint glass down in front of Clancy Neal just as the pub door swung open and Joanna strode in, followed quickly by her partner, Hanson.

“That’ll be five,” I told Neal.

He passed me a five dollar note. No tip because he was a miserable bastard. Ridiculous considering I was reasonably sure he earned far more money than he declared in his annual taxes.

I added it to the cash register and glanced back over at Joanna. She looked beautiful, with her hair in a ponytail down her back, her blazer switched out for a leather jacket that I knew had a cozy fleece interior. A week ago, she’d have come straight over to give me a kiss, but now she delayed, speaking to a pair of missing persons detectives.

Neal, who was seated at the bar, to the left of the cash register, followed my gaze and sneered. “Ah yes, your lovely wife.”

Somehow, he made it sound like an insult.

I wanted to needle him with a quip about how well her investigation into Sasha Sloane’s death was going, but my cover required me to get close to Neal. Alienating him wouldn’t help me achieve that.

“She is lovely, isn’t she?” I murmured, pretending not to notice his sarcasm.

I was surprised to see Joanna here. We’d already spent more time together today than she was probably comfortable with, and she wasn’t the type of person to come to the bar after her shift ended unless it was to visit me.

Henry’s was currently packed with police officers, detectives, and managers whose shifts had recently ended. Joanna glanced up and caught my eye. Her gaze darted to Neal briefly, and she nudged Hanson’s elbow and made her way through the crowd to the bar.

“I’m buying,” she called over the hum of conversation. “Two of whatever beer is on tap.”

She swiped her card to pay, and I poured the drinks and pushed them across the bar. To my surprise, she leaned over, her lips brushing my cheek. A sizzle of lust shot straight to my groin, but I positioned myself so she wouldn’t see the slight plumping of my cock behind the fly of my jeans.

“I thought you might be able to test the waters with Hanson,” she whispered, the tickle of her breath sending electricity along the nerves of my face and neck. Every part of me was aware of her. “I haven’t had any luck figuring out if he’s the detective your friend mentioned.”

“I’ll try,” I replied quietly.

She drew back, smiling, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Thanks.”

She took the drinks and shifted along the bar. She left Hanson’s beer close enough to me that he and I would be able to chat when I wasn’t serving people. Leaning against the counter, she gazed at the bottles behind the bar as if enthralled, probably assuming that Hanson would talk to me while she was distracted.

“Hey, Denny.” I greeted her partner with a nod.

I understood why she wanted me to take a shot at him. While he’d been a dependable partner for Joanna, he had a few old school beliefs and might be more inclined to share with another man than with her.

“West.” He eyed me warily. Interesting. I wondered what had brought that on.

“How’s your day been?” I asked, glad when Dean, the other bartender scheduled tonight, passed behind me and began serving the line forming at the bar.

Hanson grunted. By now, I was adept at interpreting his non-vocal noises, and this wasn’t a happy one.

“Any interesting cases?” I persisted.

Hanson gave me a look. “Not that I can tell you about.”

“What about me?” Neal called from the other side of the line. “I’d like to know how the Sloane investigation is going.”

Hanson leaned forward to look around someone and glared at Neal. “You know I can’t share details.”

“Not with people outside the department,” Neal agreed, standing and shuffling through the queue to get to Hanson. “But surely, we can talk privately. Brainstorm. Share ideas. Maybe I’ll be able to help since she lived in my usual patch.”

“Piss off,” Hanson snapped.

I raised my eyebrow, surprised. Hanson could be a grump, but he wasn’t usually so blatantly rude. I glanced between the men, my internal antennae pinging at the hostility that vibrated between them.

A light touch brushed over the back of my hand, and I jolted, spinning to find Joanna beside me. She blinked up at me with her gorgeous, dark eyes, a hint of a smile on her lips.

“I’m going to play pool with Matthews,” she said.

I kissed her cheek the same way she had mine earlier, taking advantage of the opportunity to breathe her in. She smelled faintly of coffee. Perhaps she’d spilled some on herself earlier, or maybe she’d just drunk a lot of it today.

“Have fun.”

I watched as she sauntered around the bar and joined Officer Matthews at the pool table in front of the window. No matter how long I lived, I’d never get tired of looking at her.

Hanson snorted. “Pick up your jaw or you’ll let the bugs in.”

I closed my mouth and glanced at him. “You don’t ogle your wife?”

One corner of his mouth tipped up slyly. “Every chance I get.” Immediately, any sign of his smile vanished, and his expression became oddly intent. He leaned closer, beckoning for me to do the same. “I don’t know what you have going on with that blonde, but Joanna is a damn fine woman, and you’d better not do anything to upset her again.”

I swallowed around a lump in my throat, taken aback by the warning. I forced myself to laugh. “I didn’t know you cared.”

His eyes narrowed. “I may not go in for all the feeling crap, but the day I don’t care about my partner is the day I ought to turn in my badge. Just know that I’m watching you.”

I crossed my arms. “Don’t worry. I don’t have anything going on with anyone other than Jo.”

“Uh-huh.” He looked like he believed me about as much as I believed that Batman was real. “People make mistakes. It happens. But it better not happen twice.”

“It won’t.” Obviously, the only way through this conversation was by being firm and redirecting. “Since we’re having a heart to heart, what’s up with you and Neal? You got something against him?”

Hanson grunted again. “Nothing like that. He just sticks his nose into places it has no right to be.”

I cocked my head. “You don’t like nosiness?”

“There’s never a good reason for it.” He looked left and right, then dropped his voice until it was barely audible. “I’m not stupid, Gallo. I know you’re somehow involved in Sasha Sloane’s death. Perhaps I wouldn’t have put two and two together otherwise, but your wife isn’t as sneaky as she thinks.”

My stomach clenched, but I refused to let him see that he’d gotten to me. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Don’t try to play me, kid. I’ve been bullshitting since before you were born. Lee needed a private word with one of our witnesses, who described a man friend of Sloane’s who looked a lot like you. Next thing I know, she’s taking off, and when she comes back, it’s with the news that our vic was a mob boss’s girlfriend. I’m willing to bet you told her that.”

I opened my mouth to scoff and make a joke about how he was pulling a bunch of random things together to make an image that didn’t fit, but he cut me off.

“If you’re going to spout more crap, then don’t say anything. I’m letting you know where things stand. Somehow, you knew our victim. A beautiful exotic dancer. I don’t know how, and I don’t want to, but if there’s anything you know that might help our investigation—things you aren’t willing to share with your wife—you have my number.”

“I got it.” Even if I was a bit confused. First, he’d warned me not to upset Joanna, and now, I got the feeling he thought I was seeing strippers behind her back, but he was willing to hide it from her for the good of the investigation. What was I supposed to make of that?

“West, I need help,” Dean called.

“Be there in a sec.” I nodded to Hanson, who drained half his beer in one go. “We’ll talk later.”

I reported to Dean for instructions and poured drinks while he took orders and payment. As I worked, I mulled over Joanna’s decision to tell Hanson about Sasha’s relationship with Ortez. It was interesting that she’d shared that information with him but hadn’t said where she’d learned it from, even if he’d put two and two together.

Did that mean she didn’t trust Hanson? Or was she just trying to protect me as best she could without putting the investigation on hold?

When business died down, I looked around for Hanson, but he’d gone.

“What were you and Hanson talking about?” Neal asked. He’d resumed his position near the cash register and had been steadily downing beers. “He looked even angrier than usual.”

“I think that’s your effect on him,” I teased, deflecting the question. “He didn’t get all surly until after you started asking about his case.”

Neal sneered. “It should be my case. It’s my area.”

I shrugged, hoping to make my interest seem casual. “Why do you care? Isn’t it one less thing for you to do?”

“Because it’s my patch,” he growled, slurring slightly. “People know that I work the area. They expect to see me, and they know I like things done a certain way. Hanson and Lee will barge in and change things up, and then I’ll have to train everyone to do it right all over again. No offense,” he added, as if recalling at the last minute that Joanna was my wife.

I rested my elbows on the bar. “If you tell them your usual protocol, perhaps they’ll follow it, and you can avoid the hassle. ”

I didn’t believe his claims about why he was unhappy with losing the Sloane investigation, but I was curious to find out how committed he was to the lie.

“Nah.” He shook his head. “Hanson is set in his ways, and can you really tell me you think Lee would be open to changing anything just because of my preferences?”

“She might surprise you.”

He swirled the beer in his pint glass. “Is she always so straitlaced?”

I stiffened. “What do you mean?”

His face twisted into one of those expressions that said, “Come on, tell me everything. We’re all boys here.”

“I mean, someone that repressed, she must be kinky as hell in the sack, right?”

Fury knifed through me. If not for the fact that his tongue had tripped over itself so much he was clearly drunk, I might’ve hit him.

“I think you’ve had enough.” I took his drink off him, my hands trembling with rage. I ached to wipe the smirk off his smarmy face.

You can’t beat up the people you’re trying to get close to, I told myself. No matter what kind of dirtbag they are.

“Maybe we’re about to find out,” Neal muttered.

“What?” My attention snapped to Joanna. Last I’d seen, she’d been playing pool with Matthews, a female officer she got along well with.

Now, she and Matthews were no longer alone. Detective Zachary De Luca was hovering behind Joanna as she bent over the table, his hungry stare locked on her ass. As I watched, he adjusted the position of her arm. His touch lingered for a little too long.

“Fucking De Luca.” I pushed away from the bar and strode around it, my long legs eating up the space between me and Joanna. The bar’s patrons wisely got out of my way when they saw me coming.

Joanna took her shot, knocking a purple ball into the pocket. She stepped back to study the table and determine her next shot. De Luca’s lips moved, as if he were making a suggestion, and she nodded. She bent and hit the ball again, this time without him laying his hands on her. She missed.

“Your turn,” she told Matthews.

I wrapped my arm around Joanna’s waist, drawing her close, and glared at De Luca. “Thanks for keeping my wife company while I was busy, but I can take over now.”

De Luca’s grin was far too cocky as he backed away. I kept my gaze on him until he’d returned to his table, and then I grabbed Joanna’s hand and tugged her toward the bar.

“I’m halfway through a game,” she protested.

“We’ll be back in a minute, Matthews,” I called to her friend.

Matthews quirked an eyebrow. “I can’t promise not to cheat while you’re gone.”

Joanna grumbled as I led her behind the bar and through the door to the Staff Only area. As soon as the door shut behind us, she snatched her hand away from me.

“What was that about?” I demanded, jerking my chin toward the bar.

She put her hands on her hips. “I could ask you the same thing. That was quite a temper tantrum.”

“That was nothing,” I bit out, seething inside at the memory of the casual way De Luca had touched her. Had he done so before? He flirted with her often enough, but she always shot him down. What was different now?

Was allowing the flirtation her way of getting back at me for lying to her? If so, it was damned effective. I wanted to tear the asshole’s hand off if he ever laid it on her again. I couldn’t tell her that though. She was already having a difficult time reconciling my real identity with who she thought I was. If I came on too strong, I’d scare her away.

“We need to be seen to be happy.” I inhaled slowly to steady my breathing. “That means no flirting with anyone else.”

Joanna raised her chin, uncowed. “I wasn’t flirting.”

“Maybe not,” I allowed. “But De Luca was.”

She marched closer to me and jabbed me in the chest with her pointer finger. “You don’t get to be upset about that. You and I aren’t even married.”