Page 3 of Property of Whiskey

Whiskey gets there first. He picks it up, twists the cap loose, and holds it out.

I look at the bottle, then at him. “You roofie this?”

“Thought about it.”

“Could arrest you for that.”

“For thinking?”

“For a start.”

He keeps holding out the water. “Drink, Twister.”

“My name is Deputy Dix.”

“Not in those shorts.”

I snatch the bottle from his hand. “You discuss my shorts again, and I’ll make sure your next drink comes through a straw.” I take a long swallow anyway. The cold water hits the raw place inside my lower lip and cools the back of my throat. “Keep your eyes off the shorts.”

Whiskey’s gaze drops again, taking its time now that I’ve specifically warned him not to.

“They look dangerous.”

“They are.”

“To you or everybody else?”

“To any man stupid enough to believe they’re an invitation.”

His eyes come back to mine. They’re a strange shade, somewhere between brown and green, warmer beneath the dirty gold bar lights than they ever look outdoors.

“I ain’t stupid,” he says.

“No, you’re a career criminal. Different category.”

“Never been convicted of most of it.”

“Not the defense you think it is.”

One corner of his mouth hooks higher, and something low in my stomach answers before I can threaten it back into submission.

Whiskey has always irritated me.

He irritated me the first time he leaned against my Interceptor during a traffic stop and asked whether the county issued handcuffs in my size. He irritated me when he paid a parking ticket with pennies. He irritated me when he walked into the sheriff’s department carrying barbecue and somehow convinced every cop in the building to eat with him while I was still trying to question him about a stolen trailer.

Mostly, he irritates me because every conversation with him feels like a fight I haven’t figured out how to win.

His attention shifts from my eyes to my mouth.

“You got blood on you.”

I swipe beneath my nose.

Nothing.

He reaches out.

My hand closes around his wrist before his thumb gets anywhere near my face.