Passing His Guard

“Let go of me, Nikko.”

They stood there a moment, staring at each other in a wordless standoff. After several tense seconds ticked by, he muttered a foul curse and released her arm. “I’ll go find him,” he grumbled. “As long as you promise to stay put.”

“I promise,” she agreed. At this point she’d say just about anything to know Aiden was all right. Now whether or not she actually did it was another story.

Nikko pulled his cell from his pocket and pushed a few buttons. As he stared at the screen, his generally disgruntled countenance darkened.

“What’s wrong? What are you doing?”

“I’m pinging him on my GPS.”

Un-fucking-believable . . . “You’ve known where he was this entire time and you didn’t tell me?”

“I didn’t know, because I don’t check up on him. I’m not his mother, and neither are you. Sometimes people need their space.”

He means from me . . . Maybe Nikko noticed the glassiness in her eyes, or maybe he realized what he’d said, because he muttered another curse and dragged his hand through his close-cropped hair. “I didn’t mean he doesn’t want to be with you. That’s not what I was saying . . .”

Oh, no? Well, it sure as hell sounded like it. She held up her hand when he took a step toward her. “It’s fine.” She turned away to face the window, feigning interest in the skylights. It wasn’t like her to be this emotional, but with all the stress of the last few days, and Aiden’s growing distance . . . “Just please go and make sure he’s all right. I think I’d like a little space myself.”

Nikko didn’t say anything else as he shrugged on his coat and left. Something was wrong. Rya

Note to self: Be careful what you wish for.

CHAPTER

40

What in the hell are you doing here?”

Aiden didn’t need to turn and look at the man taking the seat next to him to know he was fucked. Dammit, he hated lying to his friend almost as much as he hated lying to Rya

“You haven’t changed, have you?”

The accusing growl spoken above the bump-and-grind bass coming from the center stage lit the very short fuse of Aiden’s even-shorter temper. Never mind that his back was to the topless dancers. Of course Del Toro would believe the worst. It was a believable front for Disco Stick Kruze, and exactly why he’d chosen this place to meet Ike for the last two weeks. Still, it would have been nice if his friend had given him the benefit of the doubt for even one fucking second.

Today had been hell. After confronting his father about Rya

He told Aiden it would take roughly twenty-four hours to file the indictments and obtain their warrants. They pla

“What in the hell is wrong with you, man? You’ve been a goddamn ghost for days and this is what you’re doing? This is where I find you? Do you have any idea what it would do to Rya

Aiden snapped, and he was just drunk enough to cast caution to the wind. Spi

“If you don’t get your hands off me right now, I’m going to plant my fist in your face and then drag your stupid ass back home and let you explain to Rya

By the determination in Del Toro’s steely glare, he knew his friend wasn’t fronting. Aiden might be lit, but he wasn’t wasted enough to miss the edge of protectiveness that iced into Nikko’s voice when he mentioned Rya

Sure, he’d stayed here longer than he needed to, and he’d had a lot more whiskey than he should have, but dammit, he needed to decompress after one hell of a bad day. Right or wrong, part of him was desperate to purge the guilt from his conscience. For just a little while he wanted to escape the weight of condemnation pressing down on him. Was that so fucking horrible? Looking at Del Toro’s forbidding countenance right now, the answer to that question was most assuredly yes.

After a long pause, he released his friend with a fuck off shove and turned back to the bar, draining his glass of whiskey before waving the bartender over for a refill.

“How many of those have you had?”

“Not enough,” he growled.

“Too fucking many, by the looks of it. You know, she’s not stupid, man. Rya

Dammit, he had changed. And there it was again, that unmistakable icy shard spiking him in the back. “Perhaps you should take care with your concern, friend, that I don’t misunderstand your intentions.”

“If you’re going to fuck around on her, perhaps you haven’t.”

Well, what do you know . . . the cherry on top of the goddamn cake. Just when he didn’t think this day could get any worse. Aiden sat there, statue still, gripping his glass and putting its durability to the test. He kept his gaze locked on the ice cubes floating in his whiskey. He should have seen this fucking coming. “Does Rya

“Nope, and neither would you if you weren’t such an asshole.”

Rage exploded inside him. In all of two seconds, Aiden was out of his chair and in Del Toro’s face. “I’m the asshole? I’m not the prick getting hard for my friend’s girl. Let’s get something straight here. I am not cheating on Rya