CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
FOR A MONDAY night, they were busier than usual. Rowdy did his best to keep an eye on Avery. Seemed every damned guy in the place found a reason to chat her up.
He’d known she was popular, an integral part of the bar’s success. But he hadn’t before realized how often she got hit on. He couldn’t deny a touch of jealousy. But he also felt pride.
Because Avery didn’t reciprocate.
She was friendly and funny and always professional. She served up drinks and laughs and the occasional advice, all without taking any guy too seriously.
Her smiles were kind, not a come-on.
Without trying too hard, mostly just by being herself, she drew attention. The way she tucked a wayward curl behind her ear. How she twisted that supple little body from the ice chest to the tap to the bar top.
She was fanatical about keeping things clean and tidy, and she organized like a librarian.
Better still, when danger came calling, she utilized a wealth of common sense.
All in all, there wasn’t a single thing about Avery not to love. From the start, he hadn’t stood a chance against her.
He was lost in thought, staring at Avery and trying to decide what his next move should be, when he saw her glance toward the door.
He followed her gaze—and got caught.
Well, hell, the night needed only this.
Unable to help himself, Rowdy looked over the lady. She wore skintight black jeans with heels and a V-neck sweater that exposed a notable rack.
Reese and Logan might like to deny that their lieutenant was a woman, but no other man seeing her now would make that mistake—and plenty of men were looking.
Why the hell was she here?
Only one other time had Rowdy seen her dressed in anything other than her business suits or uniform, and that was during a sting where she’d been undercover.
A ballbuster of the first order, Lieutenant Peterson liked her stiff, mannish attire. Probably because it kept guys like Reese and Logan in line. It hadn’t really worked on him.
Or on Dash, Logan’s brother.
Lieutenant Peterson scanned the crowd, and Rowdy had a horrible suspicion she was looking for him.
“Shit.” He hadn’t figured Peterson as the type of woman who liked to walk on the wild side, but there’d be no other reason for her to show up in his bar dressed like that and looking for him.
One glance at Avery and Rowdy knew this night wouldn’t end well unless he took some precautionary measures right now.
Turning his back to the lieutenant, Rowdy strode away to his office. Dropping into the chair behind his desk, he flipped through the contacts on his phone, located the number he wanted and hit the call button.
What was Lieutenant Margaret Peterson doing here this time of night on a Monday? The phone rang five times before Dashiel Riske picked up. “I’m listening.”
“Did I wake you?”
“Rowdy?” Around a loud yawn, Dash said, “What’s up, man? Everything okay?”
Might as well lay it out there. “I know it might be inconvenient, but you need to come to the bar.”
“Yeah? How come?”
“Trust me, you’ll thank me.”
“Meaning you have naked ladies dancing on the tables or something? Because seriously, I was about to turn in.”
Logan might be in denial about Dash’s attraction to the lieutenant, but Rowdy had no such qualms. “One lady, and no, she’s not naked—though she does look pretty fine in tight jeans and a low-cut sweater.”
“I’m listening.”
Rowdy was about to explain further when a knock sounded on his open door. “Hang on, Dash.” He covered the phone and said, “What is it?”
Ella leaned in. “Avery wants you up front. She says you have a visitor.”
Damn it, had Peterson already approached Avery to ask for him? She’d been through enough today without the additional hassle. “Tell her I’ll be right there.” When he returned to the call, he said to Dash, “You coming or not?”
“You have me curious, so sure. I’ll see you in a few.”
Luckily Dash wasn’t more than fifteen minutes away. That is, if he headed right out. Working at his own construction company, Logan’s younger brother rose with the birds. He occasionally hung out at the bar, but only on weekends.
Rowdy found Avery engaged in conversation with Margaret as she poured her a glass of wine. Though her smile looked a little tight, Avery was her usual pleasant self.
The lieutenant had her shapely little ass perched on a bar stool, legs crossed, elbows on the bar. Silver hoops dangled from her ears, reflecting the ambient light. More makeup than usual turned her smoky blue eyes mysterious. As she turned toward him, Rowdy saw a nice display of cleavage. Yeah, Dash would definitely thank him.
Stopping beside her, Rowdy said, “Lieute—”
“Shhh.” Leaning toward him, she touched a fingertip to his bottom lip. In a husky whisper, her eyes gazing into his, she said, “Not tonight. Tonight I’m just Margaret.”
Oh, hell. “Sure thing.” He took the stool next to her. “So, Margaret, you’ve been drinking already?”
“Not much.” Smiling, she let her gaze travel all over him. “How’ve you been, Rowdy?”
“Getting by.” He leaned a forearm on the bar and smiled at Avery. “You met Margaret?”
“I served her.”
So during their little chitchat, the lieutenant hadn’t introduced herself? “Margaret Peterson, this is Avery Mullins. Avery, Margaret is the—”
“Rowdy.” The lieutenant slid off the stool and up against him, her gaze smoldering. “Could we talk privately?”
Rowdy tried leaning back, but Margaret just followed. “Uh...”
Abandoning him, Avery said, “Excuse me” in clipped tones as she moved down the bar away from them.
The lieutenant’s thighs were against his, her breasts almost touching his chest. She stared up at him with some silent message that Rowdy didn’t want to read.
Her tongue came out to dampen her lips, and she whispered, “Say yes, damn you,” with a smile that contradicted the words.
Hurry up, Dash.
“All right.” No way in hell would Rowdy take her to his office. He just knew what Avery would think if he did. “Let’s go to a booth.” Rowdy picked up her wine, then took her arm and started her toward the back near the billiard room.
“Thank you.”
There was no real privacy on the floor, not for anything...intimate. But in the booth, with the clatter of pool balls behind them and the jukebox in front of them, they could talk a little more freely without anyone hearing.
Rowdy seated her first, and then slid into the booth across from her. Peterson had her back to the room, but he could see everything—which was the point.
She leaned over the booth toward him, and being male, his gaze just naturally went to her boobs.
“Rowdy?”
“Hmm?” He got his attention up to her face—and saw a wealth of attitude before she masked it. Suspicion prickled.
She stared into his eyes. “I’m hoping you’ll agree to do me a big favor.”
Hopefully the favor had nothing to do with getting naked or horizontal. “If I can.”
“It’s...personal.”
The way she said that made him uneasy. Damn, but he hated games like this.
Luckily, he saw Dash come through the front door. He must have rushed to make it so quickly.
“Hold that thought. Let me take care of something and I’ll be right back.” Ella started past, and Rowdy caught her to say, “Her drinks are on the house, okay?”
Ella eyed Margaret, scowled at Rowdy and cocked out a shapely hip. “Sure, honey. Whatever you want.”
Great. Now Ella thought he was already stepping out on Avery. A week ago he wouldn’t have cared, but in the past week with Avery...yeah, it had started to matter.
A lot.
“She’s a friend,” Rowdy said, but damn it, he felt like an ass for explaining himself. “Forget it. Just give her whatever she wants until I return.”
With any luck, Peterson would play her games with Dash and let him off the hook.
Hoping Margaret wouldn’t yet notice Dash—just in case she planned to be stubborn about things—Rowdy made his way across the crowded floor to meet him. One way or another, he would excuse himself from her attentions.
He had something solid going with Avery, and he wouldn’t let an uptight, prickly, pain-in-the-ass cop ruin it for him.
* * *
PLENTY OF WOMEN noticed Dash when he came in. Rowdy supposed it was the prospect of fresh blood to the weekday crowd. Most of them had never seen Dash before.
After meeting under shitty circumstances—with serious threats against Pepper—he and Dash had hit it off. Dash was only a year older, and they shared a near-identical height of six feet four inches. But where Rowdy saw the worst in most everyone and everything, Dash saw the best.
He was a funny guy, much more so than his brother Logan. Of course, Rowdy’s opinion on that might be biased by the fact Logan was a cop and married to Pepper.
Like Logan, Dash was well-off, gifted with financial security from their parents. Rowdy respected the fact that Dash still worked damn hard at his construction company.
The physical labor showed, evidenced by all the female attention Dash got as he stripped off his coat.
And thinking about how the ladies were all drooling over him—Rowdy twisted around to look at Avery.
She was watching him.
Him, not Dash. Not any other man.
That fact filled Rowdy with incredible satisfaction.
Bringing him back to the here and now, Dash clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re this busy on a Monday night? Nice.” He gazed around. “The setup is different.”
“We’ve made a few changes. Got rid of the poles, put in a billiards room.”
“It’s looking good. More upstanding.”
“That’s the point.”
Smiling, Dash eyed a tableful of women. “I bet the weekends are insane.”
“We do all right. We’re not open on Sunday, but I have a new employee who’s working out, so that might be changing, too.” Cannon could fill in when Rowdy was away. He’d need to hire a few more people, especially someone to help Jones in the kitchen. But he’d figure it out.
“I can see it now,” Dash said. “Folks will hit up church first, then plan on Getting Rowdy.”
He never should have let Avery name the place. “The rowdiest crowd waits for the weekend. The weekday regulars aren’t too bad.”
“Obviously I’ve been away too long.” He nodded to two women flirting with him. “Sorry about that. Overload of work lately.”
“You have a life.” And he wasn’t obligated to visit the bar.
“So you haven’t missed me, huh?”
Rowdy checked his watch. “I would have figured you’d lose some of your good humor after ten.”
Dash grinned at him. “Okay, so let’s hear it. What’s my surprise?”
“More like a problem. A woman problem.”
Dash looked first at Avery behind the bar, and then, somehow, despite the crowd, his gaze shot straight to where Lieutenant Margaret Peterson sat.
He didn’t look away. “More than one, from the looks of it.”
“Yeah, well, she was getting clingy.” Rowdy rubbed the back of his neck. He wasn’t in the habit of fobbing women off on other men and he felt a little awkward. “I know it’s late for you, but do you think you can do me a solid and take her off my hands?”
“Sure,” Dash said without hesitation, but then added, “Which one are we talking about?”
What the... Dash would have made a move on Avery? Rowdy thought about flattening him. “Peterson.”
While still staring toward the lieutenant, Dash smiled. “Oh, yeah, I can handle that.”
As if she felt the way Dash stared at her, Margaret twisted in her seat to search the room.
She zeroed in on Dash.
For an uncomfortably long time, they locked gazes. Rowdy shouldered Dash hard. “Quit eye fucking her already. It’s embarrassing.”
Suddenly Margaret jerked away, giving them her back. She was always rigid, but never more so than now with the current set of her shoulders and the steel in her spine.
Undisturbed by Rowdy’s crude comment, Dash whispered to himself, “Surprise, sweetheart.”
Rowdy witnessed Dash’s satisfaction with a shake of his head. “Hate to break it to you, but she looks pissed.”
“She’s fighting herself.” Dash slowly inhaled. “And she’s losing.”
Sure, the lieutenant was a looker, but still a lieutenant. Rowdy didn’t quite understand Dash’s fascination with her, but to each his own.
Suddenly Margaret stood, snatched up her purse and headed back toward the pool tables. Rowdy expected Dash to go after her.
He didn’t.
“Think I’ll let her stew a minute or two. She’s less guarded and more entertaining when she’s riled.” Dash started for the bar. “Why don’t you get me a drink? It’s the least you can do for dragging me out tonight.”
Bullshit. With the way the two of them had shot sparks off each other, Rowdy was starting to think Dash owed him for the favor.
At least now he could reassure Avery; she had no reason at all to be jealous of the lieutenant’s attention, not with the way she’d reacted to Dash.
They’d just paused by the bar and Rowdy was waiting for Avery to finish serving a customer, when from behind them, a female customer said, “Hey, sexy,” and they both turned.
A tableful of ladies issued a lusty invite to join them.
Dash looked interested; Rowdy was not.
When he turned back to Avery, she started snickering and couldn’t stop.
Glad she wasn’t stewing, Rowdy asked, “What?”
That only ramped up her hilarity until she was laughing outright.
Folding his arms over the bar, Rowdy waited. “Are you going hysterical on me?”
“You both looked!” She covered her mouth, trying to muffle her humor. “Both of you!”
Leaving Dash to deal with the ladies, Rowdy circled the bar. As long as Dash didn’t forget about Peterson, he could do whatever he pleased.
When he got close, Avery fought her humor long enough to say, “Hey, sexy.”
“Smart-ass.” He caught her hips and pulled her in close to kiss her. It was a tickling kiss at first because of her giggles, but as he kept at it, she mellowed and heated and soon he had her in a full-blown mating of the mouths.
Damn, she tasted good.
She eased away, breathing fast. “People are looking.”
“Let them.” He wanted everyone to know that Avery wasn’t alone, not anymore.
She looked around, saw Dash and grinned again.
“It’s not that funny.” But he found himself smiling, too. Before Avery, he couldn’t remember ever being so lighthearted.
She’d changed him, maybe irrevocably.
Probably for the better.
“It’s hilarious.” Hands on his chest, Avery frowned up at him. “Unless you’re planning something unseemly for that poor woman.”
Did she miss nothing? “If you mean Lieutenant Margaret Peterson, she is not a poor woman, trust me. She devours guys like Dash. I just threw him to the wolves. It’ll be a miracle if he survives.”
One brow lifted, Avery gave a pointed look at where Dash talked with four women while they more or less fawned on him. “Yeah, poor guy. He looks like a lamb to the slaughter.”
“He’s just warming up. Wait and see.”
Not a minute later, Dash excused himself from his admirers and started toward the back.
“He’s going to her?”
“Yeah.” Rowdy pitched in, helping Avery with refills. “She’s up to something, but no idea what.” He only knew he didn’t want to be a part of it.
“She came to see you.”
“Maybe.” He wasn’t entirely convinced of that, either. He and Peterson had come to an understanding of sorts, but there’d been no sparks between them. Before Avery, sure, he wouldn’t have kicked the lieutenant out of bed. But she was a lieutenant, so he wouldn’t have pursued her, either.
Cops in general put him on edge. Female cops with a mean streak...not really his thing.
And now that he’d had Avery he plain wasn’t interested in anyone else.
Dash disappeared from sight into the back room where Peterson had gone, but Rowdy didn’t hear any fireworks, so maybe they’d work it out.
“She’s very attractive,” Avery pointed out.
“In a cold-steel type of way, sure.” Avery and the lieutenant were both petite women, but that’s where the similarity ended. The lieutenant had short-cropped dark curls and a military posture. Avery’s long red hair, even when tied back, could inspire fantasies, and he much preferred her laid-back, easy way.
Just then, Peterson and Dash emerged. Dash tried to lead her back to the booth, but Peterson wasn’t cooperating. People glanced their way as Dash grinned at her and Peterson balled up her fists as if she might attack.
“Shit.” Rowdy handed over a beer mug he’d just refilled and wiped off his hands. “Looks like I need to run interference.” He gave it some quick thought, and made a decision. “Have Cannon give you a break and then join us.”
Avery stepped back. “Oh, I don’t want to intrude—”
“I need you with me, okay?” What better way to dissuade Peterson than by showing her he had other interests?
Avery looked like he’d doused her in ice water. She stood there staring up at him, lips parted, eyes wide.
What the hell?
Belatedly, she got herself together. “Yes, of course.” She smiled brightly. “Go on. I’ll be over as soon as I can get Cannon here.”
Was she that thrown by him asking a favor? “Thanks, babe.”
He reached Dash and the lieutenant in time to hear her say, “I am not doing this with you, Dash.”
“Well, Rowdy’s out, so it’s me or you go home empty-handed.”
Ah, hell. Were they bartering sex? Rowdy nudged Peterson toward the booth, saying, “How about we sit down and talk this out?”
She wrapped her arms around one of his and dragged him into the seat with her. Pulling him close, so close Rowdy thought she was going to kiss him, Peterson said, “I’m undercover, you ass.”
Huh.
“I need you to shore up my cover.” She slid a hand to his chest, stroking him. “And I don’t want this other ass—” she looked at Dash so there’d be no misunderstandings “—in my way.”
Dash said, “And yet, here I am.”
When the lieutenant’s thumb brushed over his left nipple, Rowdy nearly jumped out of the booth. Catching her wrist and lifting it away, Rowdy disengaged as much as he could. “Why are you here, in my place, if you’re undercover?” The last thing the bar needed was more trouble.
She leaned in again, so close that her boobs were on his arm, her moist breath in his ear. “What do you know about BD videos?”
Bondage and discipline pornos? He rubbed his ear, wishing Avery would hurry it up. “That I don’t need or want to see them. Why?”
“Sometimes...” Her mouth firmed. “Sometimes the women aren’t as willing as you’d think.”
As he made some quick mental connections, ice ran through his veins. “You think someone is forcing them? Women from my bar?”
“I think the ones producing the videos might hang out here.”
“Why would you think that?”
Her fingers walked up his chest to his chin. “Evidence.”
“See what I’m dealing with?” Dash leaned forward, forearms on the booth. “She needs help with her cover. If she just hangs out here looking like that, every dick in the place will be on her.”
“You,” Peterson said, still teasing her fingers over Rowdy. She turned those big blue eyes on Dash and enunciated clearly, “Not him.”
No, and no again. “Sorry, I can’t oblige.” Rowdy forcibly set her a few inches away. “Earlier today I went out of my way to let all and sundry know that I’m with Avery. If I mix it up with you, they’ll think she’s fair game again.”
Peterson’s brows lifted. “And she’s not?”
“Definitely not.”
“And here I got the impression you weren’t the type to settle on one woman. Interesting.” Her gaze slid to Dash. “You still won’t do.”
“You’d have to try me on for size before you make that judgment.”
Rowdy half expected Peterson to shoot Dash. He didn’t have a single doubt that she was packing. The lieutenant was not a woman who went out and about unarmed.
She surprised him by being reasonable. “I need to be here in the evenings. You work construction. The nights could be late....”
“I’ll persevere.” Knowing he had her, Dash sat back and smiled. “I own the company, remember. I can set any hours for myself that I want.”
Finally Avery showed up. With her bottom lip caught in her teeth, her gaze tentative, she paused by the booth and dried her hands on her apron.
Dash scooted over to make room for her, and Avery slid into the seat beside him.
Rowdy muttered, “This is fucked up.”
“Rowdy,” Avery chastised, glancing at Peterson in apology. “Language.”
Peterson gave a startled laugh, looked at Rowdy, and then at Avery and laughed again. “Oh, I like her, Rowdy. I really do.”
Dash stretched an arm out along the back of the booth. “Me, too.”
“She’s heard worse,” Rowdy said. And if Dash touched Avery, he’d—
“Still,” Avery said. She held out her hand. “I’m the bartender.”
Peterson looked more than a little delighted. “Very nice to meet you.”
Dash leaned down close to Avery’s ear, no doubt on the pretense of subterfuge, not that anyone paid any attention to them. “She’s Logan’s lieutenant,” Dash said. “And she’s undercover to catch some men who are forcing women into bondage videos.”
Avery’s eyes widened. “That’s why you’re here and why you were hitting on Rowdy?”
“Why else?”
“The usual reasons?” Avery reached over the table and took his hand. “That’s why most of the women chase after him.”
The lieutenant’s mouth quirked. “No, not the usual reasons for me.” Still amused, she turned her attention on Dash. “Overall, I don’t have time or patience to put up with men.”
“But now you need me.” Dash held out his arms. “And lucky for you, I’m ready, willing and able.”
“I suppose you’d be better than some unknown.” Peterson drummed her fingertips on the booth. “I have rules.”
“You can tell me all about them when we’re alone.”
Rowdy looked around, but they still had relative privacy. “You mentioned evidence that involves the bar?”
She glanced at Avery, who looked ready to excuse herself again.
Rowdy laced their fingers together and held on to her. “You can speak in front of Avery. In fact, it’s better if she knows. She interacts with the customers more than I do.”
Giving it some thought, Peterson tugged at a small curl behind her ear. She must have decided to trust Avery because, voice low, she launched into a quick explanation. “Reese and Logan know about this, but not many others.”
Dash said to Avery, “She has major trust issues.”
“I don’t like to take chances,” Peterson corrected.
Rowdy knew the station had once been rife with corruption. To his knowledge, Peterson had cleared house, kicking out everyone on the take. But he didn’t blame her for remaining cautious.
She turned her wineglass, her expression tight. “A young lady claims she was forced to take part in a discipline video. She wasn’t hurt too badly—physically that is. And they eventually let her go. But you can imagine her humiliation and the fear she suffered.”
Avery sat frozen in horror; Dash looked disgusted.
Rowdy thought any man involved needed to spend the rest of his life behind bars—or worse.
“Because she’d been blindfolded during transportation, it took her some time to show us the area where she’d been held. We raided the building where the videos were being shot, but by the time we got there, they’d already cleared out.”
Avery covered her mouth. “The woman is okay?”
“Yes.” Peterson tightened more. “She’s still scared, probably always will be. But other than some bruises, she’s not too badly hurt.”
“You found a connection to the bar?”
“Cocktail napkins and a matchbook.”
And here he’d only recently gotten those in. “That’s not much to go on.”
“It’s all I have right now. But know this, Rowdy. The woman was grabbed right off the street not that far from here. You might want to put up some extra security cameras and be a little more cautious.”
He’d planned to do that anyway, here, at his apartment and at Avery’s. “I’ll get right on it.”
“In the meantime, if you see anything at all that looks suspicious—”
“I’ll let you know first thing.” He had a sudden burning need to get Avery someplace safe—even if it was away from him. She wasn’t cut out for this life, being in this area, surrounded by the worst society had to offer—
Avery took his hand. “We’ll be extra vigilant.” With a squeeze, she reassured him, almost as if she’d known his turbulent thoughts.
Looking at Avery only ramped up his awareness of her, of the reasons why he shouldn’t tie her to him and the sordid, uncertain life he’d built for himself.
He slid out of the seat, drawing Avery out, too. “We need to get back to work.” To Peterson, he added, “I won’t tell the other employees, but feel free to come to Avery or me for anything you need.”
“Thank you.” She smiled at Avery. “I suppose we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”
Avery leaned into him, her hand around his biceps. “Now that I know you’re not actually after Rowdy, I’ll enjoy that.”
As he and Avery went behind the bar to relieve Cannon, Rowdy checked his watch. “Only a few more hours and I can get you alone.”
“I hope you’re thinking what I’m thinking,” she teased. “Because I need one of those hugs that turns into sex.”
Sounded good to him. He planned to fill up every available minute with loving her. And maybe, in the time left to him, it’d be enough.