The Bodyguard: A BWWM Bad Body Romance(41)
Chapter 9: Complicated
Hank Compton was a volatile man - that much Juliet knew. But she was always surprised by how upset he got over their questioning sessions. It was his job to question her as an informant, and she had no doubt that he’d questioned many people before her.
But watching him stomp out of the room after he’d gotten the details of her depressing life with Solomon was almost enough to yank her from the residual melancholy. Moments after the door slammed behind him, the minute glow of a cigarette lit the evening air and she sighed, glancing up to where Simmons was packing up the recording equipment.
“He’s almost as bad at this as I am.”
The older man’s lips quirked in amusement. “Usually he’s not so righteously pissed after a session, but this is the Aguilers we’re dealing with. It’s personal. That’s something that you two have in common.”
No kidding. It was the only reason they’d been brought together in the first place.
“Simmons…” Juliet bit her lip, hesitating slightly. Though her thoughts had been filled with the idea of having Hank in her bed until the questioning started, now they leaned more towards the man himself - and the prickly aura he always exuded. She’d found, over the past weeks, that she could work her way beneath that aura - as long as she remained persistent. “Can I ask you something, about Hank?”
Something had bothered her, lingering in the back of her mind, ever since she and Hank had been intimate the first time. Juliet couldn’t forget the violent and intimidating story Crowley and Bosh told her about Hank dealing with Solomon’s uncle. They made it sound like Hank’s temper had gotten the better of him and that he had killed the unprepared man in cold blood. Juliet was all for the notion that the Aguilers deserved to kick the bucket, but not when they were unarmed and unexpecting. Those were cowards’ tactics.
She had never questioned Hank’s dedication to his job, but the idea that he might have murdered a man like that bothered her. Solomon murdered men carelessly. He murdered children.
“Ask away, as long as you understand that I might not be able to answer.”
Of course. When a man was as forthright as Simmons, Julia sometimes forgot that he had to be fairly high up the Federal chain to be running his own team.
The young woman twisted her fingers together atop the table where Hank had, until recently, been sitting across from her. “I heard...I heard that once, Hank killed one of the key witnesses for the case. I don’t know if he did it by accident, or if it was intentional,” she went on quickly, afraid to see the expression on Simmons’ face. She could only pray that he didn’t ask her where she’d gotten her information. The last thing she wanted was to get Bosh and Crowley to develop a grudge against her when they were supposed to be watching her back. “But I just...I can’t imagine him killing someone in cold blood like that.”
Sure, Hank was a little rough around the edges, and he could be brusque as hell, but Juliet couldn’t even begin to equate the man with someone as despicable as Solomon Aguiler. No fucking way.
Simmons sighed, pausing to take a swig of the beer he’d grabbed from the fridge when he arrived. By now, it had to be lukewarm, but that didn’t seem to bother him. “That’s something we’re not supposed to talk about.”
Of course it was. They were discussing murder. “Meaning that if you ever repeat this, it’ll be my job. We clear on that, Juliet?” The young woman’s eyes widened as Simmons continued. He perched on the edge of the sofa, finishing his beer in a long swallow before his tired eyes met hers.
“Not that I can go into any huge amount of detail, but suffice it to say that Antonio “Tony” Aguiler thought he could escape. He was a big, mean fucker - so mean that half the guys in the department were scared to interrogate him. Hank was the only one up to the task. During the second session, Tony went in on him.” Simmons’ mouth drew into a tight line. “Got in a few good punches before Hank started fighting back. Size be damned, he got torn the hell up. Hank in a righteous rage is not something I’d want to see, but, on this occasion, you could attribute his actions completely to self-defense. Tony would have killed him and not batted an eyelash over it.”
Juliet didn’t know very much about Solomon’s uncle. She’d only had a few interactions with him, but, over time, she’d come to realize that all the Aguiler men were big and mean. It seemed to run in their blood. She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised that Tony had gone for Hank.
Even if the thought chilled her blood.
“Tony ended up in the hospital and, per regulation, I put Hank on probation for a while. When he came back, the first thing he wanted was to interrogate the man again - and he promised he’d do it right. No physicality. Not that he would have been able to in the hospital. When he got there, Aguiler’s men had already found him. Probably figured the big guy would sing like a bird with all the pressure put on him. The official cause of death was cardiac arrest...but you and I know better.”
It was a brutal story - yet another example that the Aguilers were willing to do any and everything to cover their tracks. But hearing it was enough to lighten the weight on Juliet’s chest.
So Hank hadn’t killed Antonio. Getting into a fist fight was an entirely different matter - especially when his life was on the line. Hank had just been protecting himself…