Ash Rising (DEAd Series) (3 page)

Ash stared at her fitfully sleeping form
and then reached out to stroke the sleek black hair on the crown of her head.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, and left.

“C’mon, Ash. Let’s go shoot some pool.” Andy tipped his head toward the back room of the bar.

Ash gave the girl sitting in his lap a last lingering kiss and whispered in her ear before lifting her to her feet. She pouted and walked away, casting looks over her shoulder until she disappeared into the crowd around the bar.

“You can do Brunette of the Night any time. It’s our last night together before you leave for your new post. Who knows when we’ll be able to see each other again?” Daniel gave him a wide-eyed, pleading look, and Ash snorted. The puppy-dog shit might work on Maggie, but Ash knew him too well.

“Or Blonde of the Night. Or redhead. Or even—”

“Okay, okay.” Ash held his hands up with a laugh. “No girls tonight. I’ll just have to make do with you guys.”

“Yay,” Andy drawled.

“Yay,” Lisa r
epeated in the same tone, rising to her feet and pointing to Ash. “I’ll be right back. You buy the beer.”

“Why do I have to buy?” Ash grumbled, but reached into his back pocket for his wallet as Lisa eased her way between tables.

She’d been acting like her usual self—a huge relief. No lingering awkwardness from the odd scene in her apartment after he’d driven her home from the graduation party the week before. She hadn’t mentioned the incident, and he had no intention of bringing that night up ever again.

“Having trouble there?” Daniel asked as Ash patted himself down when he couldn’t find his money clip.

“Maybe Brunette stole it,” Andy teased.

“That’s not what she was fumbling around for in my jeans,” Ash deadpanned. “I think I know the difference. Ah. Found it.”

He brandished the clip triumphantly and slid out of the booth, but Daniel’s hand on his arm stopped him.

“Aw
, hell,” Daniel muttered. Ash glanced up at the tone of his voice, and Andy turned toward them. “Greg’s here with that girl.”

“You
’ve got to be shitting me.” Ash followed Daniel’s glare to spot Greg getting up from his table in the middle of the room. “Is the son of a bitch following Lisa around just to torment her? Where is she?”

“At the bar?” Andy twisted in his seat to scan
. “Or the bathroom, maybe?”

“I th
ought she went to check the pool tables.”

“You hit the bar,” Ash told
Daniel. “We’ll take the game room.”

They got up from the table and veered
off in different directions. Last thing Ash wanted was a repeat of the night of the graduation party.
Shudder.

When he and Andy didn’t see her in the poolroom, Ash turned back toward the bar. “
I’ll check the bathrooms.”

He entered
the short hallway leading to both men’s and women’s restrooms and found Lisa crowded against the wall by Greg’s much larger form in the narrow corridor. Ash slowed, his gait deceptively lazy as he ambled toward them.

“You okay, Lisa?”

She gave him a terse smile and crossed her arms over her middle. Greg stood much too close, in Ash’s opinion.

“Fucking
Asher,” Greg jeered. “Coming to her rescue again, hero?”

Ash didn’t respond as he
cocked a brow at Lisa. She swiped at her eyes but shook her head, silently telling him to back off. Ash started to walk past, but then Greg put his hand on the wall over Lisa’s head and leaned in tauntingly.

“I heard Beaulieu fucked you good
last weekend,” he mocked, and Ash froze mid-stride. “He’s had a lot of real women, enough to be an expert judge. Did he think you were a lousy lay, too?”

Lisa let out a shaky, shocked
gasp. Ash had Greg up against the wall with his arm across his throat so fast the other man never saw him coming. Greg grabbed at his wrist, but he applied pressure until Greg wheezed and spluttered, up on his toes. Ash lowered his head only inches from his ear.

“You don’t talk to her anymor
e,” he growled, low and mean, and emphasized his words by shoving his arm harder into Greg’s windpipe. “You see her, you go the other way from now on, got it? You don’t look at her, you don’t think about her, you certainly don’t go anywhere near her, and you and I don’t have a problem. You do, and I’ll rain down a shitstorm of problems on your ass.”

He shoved once more
to be sure he got his point across before Andy and Daniel appeared behind him.

“Ash,” Daniel
settled a hand on his shoulder. “Security is on their way.”

Ash snarled in Greg’s face. “Do we understand each other?”

Greg nodded as best he could while being strangled. Ash eased his arm away, and the other man staggered forward. His face flushed red, from anger more than lack of air. Ash sidestepped neatly when Greg took a clumsy swing at him.

“Whoa there.” Andy grabbed Greg’s arms
while Daniel took hold of Ash.

Ash
caught a brief glimpse of Lisa standing off to one side of the altercation. The expression on her face wasn’t fear, anger, or distress, but almost…eager.

“Go ahead and fuck her,” Greg rasped, his eyes alight with malice. “You’re
the one she’s always wanted, anyway. What she deserves—being just another worthless fuck on a long list of them, right?”

As
h lunged, but Daniel held fast.

“C’mon, Ash. Not here. N
ot now.” Daniel glanced at the small crowd that had gathered. “You can’t do this. You’re a constable now. You’re supposed to be breaking up fights, not causing them.”

Ash seethed but forced himself to relax,
never taking his eyes from Greg’s. He’d pound the moron’s stupid face for the comments directed at Lisa, but…

“You’re right.” H
e shook his shoulders to loosen Daniel’s grip and ease the tension. “Not worth the trouble.”

Lisa gave a soft gasp. Ducking her head, she spun toward
the door. Ash motioned Daniel and Andy after her and went to pay their bill at the bar, ignoring Greg as the burly bouncer stepped between them. Andy took off after Lisa, but Daniel stuck around to keep an eye on Ash.

“Fucker,” Ash commented as he gave Greg one last glare on their way out the door.

“Yeah, nice of him to ruin our last night together.”

“Are you okay?” Ash asked
Lisa when he and Daniel joined her and Andy just outside the door.

Lisa’s face
formed hard lines. “He’s not going to leave me alone, is he? He gets off making me feel like shit.”

“You’ve got
to stop letting him get to you.” Daniel slid an arm around her shoulders. “Giving him a response only makes it worse. Any attention is good attention, you know?”

“He ne
ver deserved you,” Andy offered.

Ash exchanged a glance with
Daniel. They’d both listened to Andy mope about his unrequited feelings for Lisa too often over the past decade.

She
snorted a humorless laugh. “Yeah, well, I do know I don’t deserve to be tormented until the end of time by that asshole. I won’t let him get away with it.”

“That’s the spirit.” Daniel
rubbed a hand through her hair and smacked a kiss to her temple. “Let’s go grab something to eat. I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry,” Ash
said, but he grinned. “I’m in.”

“So am I.
” Andy turned expectantly to Lisa.

“I’m going home.” She wouldn’t meet any of their gazes, her mouth tight.

“Come on,” Andy urged. “It’s our last night together for who knows how long. Don’t let that asshole spoil the fun.”

“You guys go on ahead.
I won’t let him ruin any more of my nights. I promise,” she added when Andy started to argue. “I’m just going to go home tonight. I’ll see you all later.”

“Should one of us go with her?” Daniel asked as
she walked to her car, her head bent and shoulders hunched.

Ash suppressed a
shudder at the memory of what had happened the last time he’d taken her back to her apartment when she’d been upset over Greg.

“No,” he said, perhaps a little too sha
rply. Andy narrowed his eyes, but Ash managed a casual smile and slapped him on his back.

“No,” he repeated
in a more normal tone. “Best thing to do is let her work her own way through this.”

Andy sighed, frowning in the direction Lisa had disappeare
d, but then nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go get food.”

“Now you’re talking.” Daniel
rubbed his hands together, and they turned toward the parking lot and Andy’s car.

“Here’s the thing, Beaulieu.” Pete Davenport leaned back in the chair behind his desk, tapping a pen against his lower lip. “You’re just too damned good looking.”

What the hell did that have to do with anything? Maybe the late night with his friends had affected the early morning meeting in Davenport’s Toronto office more than he’d thought.

“Coming on to me, big guy?” he teased.
No way he’d blow this chance to work for a legend in RCMP investigative and undercover operations.

Pete snorted. “You’re not really my type. No, I’m saying you’re noticeable. Most plainclothes and undercovers blend. People see and forget them. You, not so much.” Pete eyed him and winced. “I’ve seen you cause mass shortness of breath and whiplash in your wake
when you’re dressed in uniform.”

“So that’s why I got assigned to Buttfuck, Saskatchewan?” Ash had expected to be assigned away from home, friends, and family, but he didn’t look forward to spending the first years of his career in Saskatchewan or even further north, chasing moose across the tundra.

“Not quite Buttfuck,” Pete said dryly. “But I think we can use your looks to our advantage. No one will believe you’re a Mountie. You need to get some experience working the street and finish your Field Coaching. I’d also like to start you out doing some plainclothes work—hanging around the usual suspects and locations. Let them see you, get you some experience observing, listening, gathering intel. Means a lot of extra hours above and beyond your rookie duties. You’ll put in a full shift, go home, change, and then head out to the locations I give you. You’ll be lucky to get a couple hours sleep before starting all over again.”

“Okay. I can deal with hard work and late hours.” Ash wanted the knowledge and experience.

“Most jobs are going to be a distance away, probably a few back here around Toronto working with the Ontario Provincial Police, airport, Port of Toronto, so it’ll mean a lot of driving.”

“I’ve got my car.”

“Not the Mustang,” Pete told him after a second of thought. “Don’t want you driving anything that can be traced back or associated with Constable Asher Beaulieu. Do you have another car?”

“I can come up with something.” He had the perfect idea.

“Some places I do want you seen in plainclothes, some people you need to be seen with. Opportunities to build your cover for the ops I have in mind. We’ll bring you in slowly, send you on a couple of drops. Get people used to seeing you around. We can increase your involvement gradually.”