Rome (Marked Men, #3)(57)

“What if it does work out, though? What if he’s your imperfect Mr. Perfect?”

I pulled away because if I was in love with him or not, it was irrelevant to me right in this moment. He needed me, and I wasn’t ever going to leave him hanging if I could avoid it.

“Then he’ll be the first to know. Call Ayden and tell her Asa just got robbed. She might want to check in on him.” I didn’t bother to say good-bye; I was in too much of a hurry to get to my guy.

When I got to the bar, everyone was standing outside. Rome was with Brite talking to a couple of police officers, a few of the regulars were huddled together looking lost and nervous in the bright light of day, but what really had my attention was the fact that Ayden and Jet were also there. Only instead of worrying over her brother, she seemed furious. She was pointing a finger in his chest and Jet was doing his best to hold her back.

I walked up to Rome and put an arm around his waist. He had on black track pants and a black T-shirt. Clearly, he had been at the gym. He looked like he should be on the cover of a men’s fitness magazine.

“What’s that all about?”

“I don’t know. She laid into him as soon as she got out of the car.”

He gave me a squeeze as I pulled away.

“I’m going to see what’s going on. You okay?”

He nodded and Brite just grunted.

“I’m getting too old for this shit. Bar brawls with bikers, armed robbery on a Sunday, this is getting to be too much.”

I saw Rome wince a little but the older guy just clapped him on the shoulder and shook his head.

“I’ll finish up with the cops; you go check on the Southern Casanova.”

I took his hand in mine and led him across the parking lot. He nodded at a couple of the regulars and looked down at me.

“Thanks for dropping everything and racing over here. I couldn’t get ahold of Brite. I was worried something happened to him. Asa only said he was robbed and then hung up. Every worst-case scenario I could think of started running through my head.”

I bumped his shoulder with my own and grinned up at him. “But instead of going off the deep end, you called me and asked for help. That’s all you can do, big guy.”

He looked like he was going to say something back but ended up grunting in surprise when Ayden shoved Asa in the chest with both hands so hard that he actually stumbled back a few steps into us. Jet swore and wrapped his obviously angry bride up in a tight grip.

“Ayd, cool it. There are cops everywhere and I don’t need to spend one of my few days home getting your fine ass out of jail.”

She was breathing hard and her light eyes were glowing in a way only pure fury could provide.

I grabbed Asa’s elbow and turned him around to look at me. His mouth was pulled down tight in a frown, and he was meeting his little sister glare for glare.

“Hey now. What’s all this noise about?”

He pulled away from me and shoved his hands through his tousled blond hair.

“Ask her. It’s not bad enough I just had a gun shoved in my face and had to hand over the entire till to some * in a ski mask, but Miss Perfect Timing has to show up and accuse me of being in on it.”

Jet swore, Rome frowned, and Ayden stood stubborn, with her arms crossed over her chest.

“I know you better than anyone, Asa. I know it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility.”

“Ayd.” Jet’s tone was warning, but he was running soothing hands up and down her arms. “Maybe not the time or the place, yeah?”

She shook her dark head and continued to glare at her brother.

Rome looked at Asa out of the corner of his eye.

“What exactly happened?”

Asa sighed and started to pace back and forth in front of us. I knew he had a shady history, a spotty reputation at best, but this seemed pretty terrible. I didn’t want to imagine he could have anything to do with it, but Ayden’s stony expression made me have my doubts.

“I was setting up the Bloody Mary bar just like I do every Sunday. There were only a few regulars sitting at the bar and Brite told me he had to run a couple errands, so I was on my own. I went in the back to get a case of vodka, and when I came back to the front a guy in a black mask, wearing a flannel shirt and jeans, was behind the bar messing with the register. I was confused, so I asked him what he was doing there, and when he turned he had a freaking Glock pointed at my face.”

As he told his sister the rundown he refused to look at anyone but her. It was like he was trying to force her to believe him, even though it was doubtful she would.

“He told me to get on the other side of the bar. He emptied out the register and took off out the front door. It happened in like a minute.”

“He didn’t say anything else?” Rome’s voice was gruff and I could tell he was struggling with the robbery happening while he wasn’t there. He cared a lot about this place, cared a lot about Brite. This was a surefire way to get all that guilt he struggled with on a daily basis churning up inside of him.

Asa shifted those glittering gold eyes in our direction. “He said, ‘Payback’s a bitch.’”

I looked up at Rome, who was now scowling.

“You know what that means?”

He grunted. “Did you tell Brite that?”

Asa nodded. “Yeah, and he told me not to mention it to the cops.”