“I don’t really feel like company,” he said.
“I know. If you felt like company, Taka would be here. But he’s not. Usually you two are joined at the hip.” The chief rubbed his chin and sat back in his chair, sipped at his whisky. “So, if it’s not about your family, you could be brooding about Rose again…”
Fucker. Trust the chief to throw it in his face. Very helpful.
“But I saw the way you looked at your wife, so I’m thinking that isn’t it,” the idiot said. To think he’d followed this man into fire fights, trusted him with his life. It defied logic. “You made big, liquid cow’s eyes at her. I was a little embarrassed for you.”
“Thanks.”
“But she’s cute, your wife. I like her. You know, you never looked at Rose the way you look at Louise.”
Adam grunted. It didn’t warrant a response. He wasn’t in the mood for sharing his worries. Not yet. He had more thinking to do, a puzzle to solve.
The chief breathed deeply and gritted his teeth. “That’s the problem with the lack of women out here. People wind up mooning over the ones they can’t have.”
“I’m not brooding about Rose and I’m not in the mood for company.”
“You really don’t want to talk, huh?”
“No. I really don’t. So is there a point to your bullshit?”
“You have got your panties in a knot. Goodness.” The chief watched him with amused eyes. The sort that made Adam want to hit him. “Of course, some men don’t mind sharing their women, but those are few and far between. Unless…you wouldn’t happen to be one, would you? Because when I said your wife was cute, I may have downplayed how much I like her.”
“You need to shut it. Now.” Adam’s fingers tightened around his beer. Another man touching his wife? His princess? No matter what was going on between them, over his dead fucking body.
The chief tapped a finger on the bar. “So it’s about Louise.”
“Go away, Nathan. I’m not in the mood.”
“That surprises me. You two were so couple-y this morning.”
Adam said nothing.
“Let me guess—she just doesn’t understand you. Doesn’t respect you anymore. Takes you for granted?”
“You’re not funny.”
“’Course I am. Now, I’m guessing it’s not the sex, because she looked well-ruffled this morning with her bed-hair and everything. She really is a sweet-looking thing.”
Adam said nothing and pushed his glass of scotch away for safety’s sake. Much more and he might smash the glass with his bare hands.
“You’re really not going to talk to me about it, are you?”
“No. I’m really not.”
“Okay. Okay. I give up.”
Thank the gods. “Good.”
“But I just have to say, your wife, she looks to me like one of those quiet types who just goes wild with the right influence. Am I right?” The fucker smacked his lips and wiggled his brows. He thought he was funny. He was wrong. “Get her in the right mood and she’d just eat you alive. I’d really love to see that.”
Adam could have sworn he heard a tooth crack, he clenched them so tight. “Nathan, what the fuck is your problem?”
The chief sighed loudly. “Come on. You shouldn’t keep pretty * all to yourself, Adam. Be a pal and share. And your wife—now, she is some pretty *. I can tell.”
Adam smacked his fist into the bastard’s jaw without further thought. Nathan and his chair both flew back and hit the floor. The sudden silence in the bar would have been deafening if not for the continued pounding in his brain. He felt well past reason. So angry he was shaking. “You don’t talk about her that way.”
“Well.” The chief worked his jaw and looked up at him from the ground, face bland. “That was easier than I thought it would be. You still hit like a girl, Elliot. Maybe I should just go and wrestle with your wife, huh?”
With a roar, Adam launched himself at the man.
*
Bon dumped him on the cot inside the holding cell with not-so-gentle hands. A pity, because Adam hurt. Bon was huge—no doubt that was why the chief had had him waiting in the wings during the scene in the bar. He’d been set up by his supposed friends.
“Consider this your intervention,” Bon said, looming over him like a mountain.
“You planned all this, you bastards.” His split, swollen lip made his words slur. One side of his face throbbed and his right earlobe felt a bloody mess. Nothing too serious, just mighty damn painful. He hadn’t been in a bar fight in years. Usually left such shit for the kids, with good reason. “Why?”
Even Taka was watching, leaning against the metal bars with his arms crossed. “You’ve been drinking too much,” he said. “Ever since the accident.”
“We decided next time we found you laying into it, we’d step in,” Bon said.
“I lost the draw.” The chief looked worse than Adam did. Or he hoped he did. The man stood in the doorway rubbing his side. “I think you cracked a rib.”
“You nearly bit my ear off.”
The man shrugged, then winced. “It was just a love bite.”
“Whatever’s going on between you and Louise, sort it out,” Taka said. “She’s good for you.”