Jared just laughed and waved the gun around with more animation. “Just hand over the money.”
Asa slowly turned toward the cash register all the while peppering Jared with questions about his girlfriend. I could see the agitation building and could feel the tension rising. Dealing with someone on drugs was always volatile. Dealing with someone on drugs who was looking for a way out of the trouble they had found themselves in took me right back to that alley and the way things had gone so horribly wrong with Dominic right around Christmastime. I refused to live through a repeat of that night. I refused to watch Asa get hurt like that. Moving at the pace of a glacier, I slowly slipped my off-duty weapon out of my bag, careful not to make any kind of noise or any kind of big motion that would draw Jared’s attention to me.
“Are you the one that sent Avett’s old man after me or was that the army guy?” I watched as Jared took the gun and aimed it right at the back of Asa’s head while he was turned around fiddling the register. The junkie’s hands were shaking and the drugs that were fueling him had him all over the place emotionally, but at that close of a distance there was little chance a bullet was going to miss whatever it was pointed at if he pulled the trigger. Asa stopped what he was doing but the register didn’t open. He kept his back turned for a few minutes and then twisted his head just a little bit and I saw his eyes widen at the sight of the gun leveled directly at him.
“What difference does it make? Every father should have the right to confront the asshole that hit his little girl. Just wait until he hears you tried to rob his bar. There won’t be a hole deep enough for you to hide in when Brite gets word of this.”
Asa was antagonizing the unpredictable man to a dangerous level and I didn’t want to wait until he crossed the line. I let my purse hit the floor with a clatter and leveled my own weapon at the junkie. Jared’s eyes bugged in his face and the weapon swung away from Asa and ended up pointed right at me. I refused to show any reaction or look away even when Asa barked my name like a swearword.
“Jared, you need to listen to me and drop the gun.”
“What the fuck!” He sounded scared, which wasn’t encouraging.
“Put the gun down, Jared.” I made sure I sounded calm and kept his attention on me.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“That’s not important. What’s important is that we all want to walk out of here without anyone getting hurt.”
“Fuck you, lady.” I heard Asa growl and saw Jared start to turn in his direction when suddenly sirens could be heard outside the bar. Jared looked from me and back to Asa, who just shrugged and held up his cell phone. Instead of opening the register when he turned around, he had called 911.
“Sorry, dude, I’m not letting you rob this bar.”
Jared howled like a wounded animal and swung the gun back toward Asa. I knew he was going to pull the trigger, so I didn’t hesitate to pull mine first. The blast of both gunshots simultaneously was deafening and had my ears ringing and my nose twitching from the gunpowder. A bottle shattered behind the bar and I watched as Asa suddenly vaulted over the top of the long bar and took a flying leap through the air to tackle Jared to the ground. I hadn’t aimed to kill the young man, just to get him to drop his weapon. The gun was lying on the ground at Jared’s feet and he was struggling in Asa’s unrelenting hold as he bled from the gunshot wound I had just put in his arm.
I walked over to kick the gun away just as the front doors flew open and several of my coworkers stormed into the building. I laid my own gun on the ground and lifted my hands up in the air, knowing it would take a second to sort out who was who. Luckily one of the guys on scene had gone through the academy with me and Dom, so I got to put my hands down and gave a rundown of the chaotic scene pretty quickly. I knew I was going to have to go through another investigation since it had been an off-duty shooting, but luckily the bar had cameras and there was a viable witness, so I wasn’t too concerned about the fallout this time around. I made sure they knew Asa was a victim and not a suspect because if they ran his background it would raise more questions than the situation called for and he had enough of being accused of crimes he didn’t commit already.
I was sitting on one of the bar stools recounting the events to one of the detectives and Asa was sitting next to me telling his version to another. I don’t know when it happened, but at some point he had reached out and taken one of my hands in his own. His fingers curled around mine and let my fingertips rest against where his pulse was steady and strong. Even if it really was the end of us, I was so grateful for the fact that nothing had happened to him.
“So do either of you know the girl?” The detective that was talking to Asa looked between the two of us as he asked the question. I moved a little closer to Asa so that my side was pressed into his side.
“What girl? Jared came in on his own.”
“He might have entered on his own but he didn’t arrive on his own. There was a girl waiting in front of the building with the car running when we pulled in. She said she was just waiting on him, that he was running in to apologize for some stink he caused, but that sounds suspicious as hell. What kind of junkie needs to make amends in the middle of the night?”
Asa sighed. “Does she have pink hair?”
The detectives shared a look. “Kind of.”
“She’s his girlfriend. Her dad used to own this bar. Jared has her all twisted up and acting crazy. She probably had no idea he was planning on robbing the place.”
“She was in a running vehicle while an attempted armed robbery was taking place. She’s going to get charged as accessory to the crime.”
Asa stiffened. “Don’t do that. I really doubt she understood what he was up to.”
I squeezed the hand I held in mine. “They have to charge her, Asa.”