Jacked (Trent Brothers #1)(44)

I noticed the squad car sitting out in the parking lot.

“Come for your donut fix, Castoll, or are you just here to creep out the customers?”

Bastard smirked. “Nope. Just doing my normal patrol. Wanted to make sure some lowlife wasn’t in here causing trouble.” He nodded at my bandaged hand. “I see the grapevine wasn’t lying. Surprised they actually let you out in the field these days, Trent. Aren’t you just for show now?”

It took everything within me to keep my hands from crushing his windpipe. “Well, you know how it is, Castoll. Someone’s got to catch the bad guys while you’re busy writing out all them parking tickets.”

Erin couldn’t hold back her laugh. One chuckle slipped out of her.

Castoll glared at her. “I didn’t know your shrink saw you outside of her office. Be careful, honey. You may think he’s charming but this one will screw anything with open legs—”

I turned on the bench seat to face him, fuming. “Do not f*cking speak to her. Eyes on me.”

His head jerked at my tone. So did Erin’s, but I didn’t care. This game with him was old and tiring.

“Careful, Trent.”

Are you serious? Brushing your hand over your service weapon—here? “Or what, Castoll?” I tugged my badge off my belt and slapped it on the tabletop. “I’ve got one of them too, remember? You want to see my Glock?”

Castoll scoffed. “Surprised they even let you carry. What you’ve been doing is a joke, Trent. An embarrassment to the shield. You might as well be a whore—”

Fucker shrank a bit when I surged to my feet and got in his face. “I think it’s best if you move on now. I’m about to lose my temper if you keep talking and we both know who will win if we throw it down.”

Even though I was locked in a stare-down I still saw Erin move. Please don’t get in the middle of this, baby.

“What’s going on here, boys?” Kathy wedged her way in between us, grabbing a dirty plate off the table.

Castoll stepped back. “Just letting Trent here know some things, that’s all.”

She glared up at him. “Well I think you’ve made your point. Your order’s ready. How about you quit making a scene and get back to doing whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing.”

He stepped back and tipped his head at Erin. “Miss.”

“Officer C*,” she returned with a grin.

I stood there fuming, making sure he left before I sat back down. Desire to put his head through the wall had me clenching and unclenching my fists.

“Hey, are you okay?” She reached back across the table for me but I just stared at her proffered hand until she withdrew. Fuck being consoled and to hell with the pain in my hand; I wanted to hit something. I knew withdrawing was a mistake, but I couldn’t help it.

“You want to tell me what all of that was about? Why’d he say stuff about me being your shrink?”

Yeah, we so aren’t going there. After what Nikki did, the choices she made without me. I swore then and there that I’d never get put back in that pain. And here I was, inviting that shit back in again with open arms.

This beautiful woman sitting across from me had the power to eviscerate my soul. I could feel it slipping away with every second I spent around her. Fun or not, that shit wasn’t happening to me twice in one lifetime. Fuck that.

Kathy interrupted me. “How’s everything? I see you’re finished. Can I get you anything else?”

I looked over at Erin, catching her hiding a yawn. She probably looks like a little kitten once she’s well sated and nestled in bed. Too bad I’d never get to see it. Erin shook her head.

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “We’re done. Take the check then, Kathy.”

As soon as Kathy walked away with our dirty plates Erin said, “Adam, I need to know something. What was up with the camera crew? I keep waiting for you to tell me, but it seems to be a topic you don’t want to discuss.”

I felt my jaw crack. “You’re right.”

I knew when a woman was incensed, and the one sitting across from me was well on her way.

“I suppose it’s for the same reasons that everyone in this place keeps looking at you. At first I thought it was because we live around here but they all keep gawking and whispering. That older woman over there has taken it one step further to pointing. I feel like everyone around me is in on some big secret and I’m apparently too lost to know what that is. So please, enlighten me. What’s the deal?”

I stared at the tabletop, seeing patterns in the veneer, while I rubbed my hand over my head. Another reason this was a bad idea. I so didn’t want to bring a woman into this shit.

“You a dirty cop?” she asked outright.

“What? No. No, I’m not a dirty cop.” How could she even think that? Once she finds out the truth though, I’m gonna be nothing but a novelty for her, just like the rest of the women that don’t see me for me. Or worse—she’d become a target for hate, just like Marcus’s wife. I’d be a selfish bastard to subject a woman I cared about to that. Girls were already camping on my front lawn. “Can we just not discuss it right now?”

“Why won’t you tell me?”

Something in me snapped. “Because I don’t want to. Can’t you just leave it the f*ck alone?”