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Now he stood with his finger on the button of a blender, watching Jason. He wore a white sleeveless T-shirt and a pair of baggy workout pants. Tattoos covered his head, neck, shoulders and arms. Several gold chains hung around his neck, and two chunky rings flashed on his right hand.
For an instant, Jason could actually feel his own tattoos burning into his skin. His grandmother had been so disappointed when she’d first seen them, Jason had felt some remorse. But back then, impressing Eddie had been more important than making his grandmother proud of him.
“Nice place you have here,” Jason commented, glancing around the apartment.
“Yeah, thanks.” Eddie shrugged. “The rent is cheap, and I kinda like the neighborhood.” He paused. “So what brings a U.S. marshal out here? Alone?” He gestured around him with one hand. “This place has been searched at least a dozen times in the last year, and it’s clean. You won’t find anything illegal here, Marshal. I’m an upstanding citizen of San Francisco.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you are,” Jason drawled. Walking over to where Eddie stood, he withdrew a photo of Judge Banks and tossed it onto the counter. “I don’t suppose you recognize this man?”
Eddie’s gaze flicked from Jason to the photo; then he picked it up to study it more closely. “This is that judge that got shot, right?” He flicked the photo back onto the counter. “Wish I could say I’m sorry, but I got two men on death row because of that fucker. Is the judge dead?”
Jason ignored the question. “What do you know about the shooting?”
Eddie’s eyes widened in mock surprise. “Why would I know anything about it? Are you suggesting I had something to do with it?” He snorted. “If you knew anything about me, you’d know that ain’t how I operate.”
Jason leaned over the counter and put his hand over the judge’s photo, sliding it back. “I know exactly how you operate, Eddie. I was your first recruit.”
“Do I know you?” He stared at Jason for a moment, his eyes narrowing, before he gave a bark of astonished laughter. “Jesus Christ! Is that you, Cooper?”
In an instant, his entire demeanor changed. He came around the counter, his hands stretched out. “Jesus, man, you just vanished from the face of the fucking earth, and now here you are, all dressed up like a fucking cop. How you been, man?”
Jason didn’t shake the other man’s hand, but he didn’t object when Eddie gave him a swift, hard embrace. He reeked of some expensive cologne that stayed in Jason’s nostrils even after they stepped apart.
“I’ve been okay,” he replied stiffly. “But Judge Banks is a friend of mine. Somebody shot him on his own front steps, and I intend to find out who.”
Eddie frowned, staring at Jason with an affronted expression. “And you’re pointing the finger at me? Man, I am highly offended by that. It really grieves me to have you believe I would do something so cold-blooded.”
“Not you, Eddie. Your boys. Like you said, Judge Banks sent two of your men to death row. That’s gotta hurt.”
Eddie sniffed and looked away. “Yeah. One of them is my baby brother. But whatever you think of me, you know I got a code of honor. I don’t kill cops, women or kids.” He gave Jason a sly smile. “So you see, you’re safe—I protect the weak.”
Jason ignored the insult. “What do you hear on the street? If it wasn’t your boys, you must know who was responsible.”
Eddie shrugged. “I don’t hear anything, at least not about the judge. But I saw on the news that he has a real pretty daughter.” His expression grew sly. “I saw you on the news, too, all protective and shit, carrying her out of the house. I’ll bet that uniform gets you all kinds of nice perks, huh? You banging the judge’s daughter?”
Jason had to put a choke hold on his gut reaction to Eddie’s crude suggestion. He wanted to smash the other’s man mouth, but instead he ignored the gibe and kept his expression carefully neutral.
He had tried to shield Caroline from the television crew that had lined the street in front of her father’s Sea Cliff house, but there’d been no way to avoid the cameras after she’d fainted in his arms. He’d had to carry her back to the waiting SUV, and the reporters had eaten it up, capturing the footage on film. The last thing Jason wanted was Eddie Green expressing any kind of interest in Caroline. He regretted that Eddie knew she even existed. But he realized the damage had been done, and all he could do now was downplay it and hopefully divert Green’s interest elsewhere.
