“So were you, Royal.” That was it. The finality of it all when a simple explanation I knew he wouldn’t give could fix everything.

God he was going to murder my heart and it was a crime he was going to get away with scot-free. I was turning around to leave, and he was turning around so he didn’t have to watch me walk away, when the front door slammed open and a disheveled young man came rushing through.

I had been on the streets and on patrol enough to know a strung-out junkie when I saw one, and this guy was higher than a hundred kites. He was twitchy and he was sweaty and his eyes were roaming around the bar in an alarming way. He had on dirty torn jeans and a hoodie that was zipped all the way up even though it was heading into early summer weather and easily sixty-five degrees outside. I shot Asa a look out of the corner of my eye, but he was scowling at the intruder in a threatening and unconcerned way.

“Avett doesn’t work here anymore, Jared. She got fired because of you.” Asa’s voice was calm but his twang was thick in his words, so I knew he was trying to throw the guy off.

The junkie twitched his eyes between the two of us and took a couple of stumbling steps closer to the bar. His skin was an alarming yellow color and his pupils were so dilated that there was no color in his irises, just scary, endless black.

“This is her old man’s bar. She has a right to that money. You and that asshole army guy took what was rightfully hers. So her taking that money wasn’t stealing.”

Asa grunted and moved to cross his arms over his chest. I wanted to tell him that the other guy was way too hyped up to try and reason with or to try and physically intimidate, but I couldn’t take my attention off of what I knew was a major threat. A junkie didn’t just wander in off the streets in the middle of a high this late at night for a friendly chat.

“Yeah, well, what about the stash you took from your supplier that had guys showing up at your place to work her over? I suppose that wasn’t stealing either. They could’ve killed her because of you.”

You couldn’t argue or reason with a junkie and I knew Asa had to be aware of that fact. I shifted just a little so I could keep an eye on Jared and still see Asa in the mirror behind the bar. He was jerking his head to the side as he talked, obviously trying to get me to move toward the back office. I narrowed my eyes at him in the reflection and shook my head ever so slightly in the negative. I dealt with guys like Jared for a living and I was armed. I had my off-duty weapon stashed in my purse if the situation called for it.

“That was a mistake. I didn’t mean for her to get hurt.” The guy moved even farther into the bar and his zealous attention was focused solely on Asa.

“Well, she did, all because of you and your habit.”

“She loves me.” The junkie rubbed a hand over his face and my spine snapped straight as one of his hands dove into the pocket of his hoodie. I slipped my hand inside the opening of my purse. I wasn’t going to leave anything to chance.

“Yeah, and loving you is going to end up with a bullet in her damn head. You want a fix, then leave your girl out of it.”

The junkie swore and an ugly flush worked up into his face. He almost frothed at the mouth like a wild dog when he lurched toward the bar screaming, “You don’t know anything about it!”

Asa just laughed, and if I had been closer I would have kicked him for antagonizing the unpredictable man. I knew he was doing it on purpose, but still.

“I know more about it than you think.” Asa’s voice was full of memory and warning.

Jared drew up short and rubbed a hand across his mouth. His eyes flicked to me and then back to Asa, and I let out a long and steadying breath when he pulled a small, black gun out of the pocket of his sweatshirt. He pointed the barrel right at the center of Asa’s chest and the entire world stopped moving. Everything narrowed in on the barrel of that gun and what it was pointed at.

I saw Asa’s eyebrows twitch up, I saw his mouth pull tight, but other than that, he didn’t move a single muscle.

“You’re gonna give me every single dime that’s in that cash register. I’m gonna take the money and my lady and blow out of town.”

Shit. Drugs and desperation were not a good combination. I saw Asa’s eyes lift up so that he was looking at me over the top of the junkie’s head.

“Avett know you’re doing this?” I bet the answer wasn’t going to make Asa very happy.

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.