Page 24 of Delusional

“Believe me, I appreciate you coming out here. I really think you can help me with my problem,” Gary said. “But as your brother, I’d like to see you happy. Happy and in a relationship. Cindy never even crossed my mind when I called you. I heard you tell Lillian you’re interested in a girl back in New York. What’s the story with her?”

Rob shrugged. “I have no idea what’s going to happen, but Juliana is great.”

His eyes shifted to the front door as a man and a woman walked in and sat at the end of the bar. He had already been keeping his eye on two men playing pool. There was nothing really unusual about any of them. Except it didn’t seem like the man and woman were a couple. And they looked pretty hard in the Trilling brothers’ direction.

Something about the newcomers set Rob on edge. Maybe he was finally developing that sixth sense cops were supposed to have. He’d seen his partner, Michael Bennett, display it a number of times. The guy seemed to have a sense for when someone was about to cause trouble. Rob didn’t want to ignore his own intuition now.

Gary said, “So what do you think? If you’re not sure about this Juliana, will you ask Cindy out?”

Rob listened to his brother but kept his eyes on the two people at the end of the bar. Then he said, “I don’t know.”

“I’m not saying you should marry Cindy. Just grab dinner one night.”

Before Rob could answer, one of the pool players backed away from the table until he was only a few feet away from them. He leaned down like he was surveying a shot and allowed his pool stick to swing up behind him and strike Gary on the leg.

The man turned around and said, “Watch it.”

Gary said, “You hit me. You watch it.”

Rob stayed silent. He assessed the other pool player. He was a little older than his partner, but both were in good shape. He noticed the man and the woman at the end of the bar getting up from their stools.

Rob flexed his ankles and hands. He knew what was coming and wanted to loosen up. No one ever really won a bar fight.

But Rob Trilling didn’t intend to lose either.

CHAPTER 27

EVEN GARY KNEW what was happening with the pool players. But he hadn’t noticed the couple from the bar stand up.

Gary leaned in close to his brother and said, “You take the one closest to us. Then move on to the other one at the far end of the pool table. I’ll make sure no one touches your soda.”

Rob appreciated his brother staying calm in a tense situation. But he was also speaking the truth. Gary wasn’t a fighter. Thankfully, most people weren’t.

Rob didn’t know who was a bigger threat: the pool players or the couple, now stepping along the bar toward them.

Both of the pool players were standing in front of them, still holding their cues. The first guy was slapping his cue into his hand like a baseball bat. It was pretty clear what was about to happen.

Rob glanced over at the bartender, who was trying his hardest to pretend not to see anything. This had the potential to get ugly.

Then a wide beam of sunlight hit the two pool players right in their faces as the front door opened. For a moment, Rob worried these four had brought in even more reinforcements. Then he looked over to the door and saw that it was a uniformed county sheriff’s deputy.

The deputy’s leather creaked under his phenomenally wide stomach. He nodded to the bartender, then looked at the couple standing now near the end of the bar. They almost immediately turned and stepped out the front door.

The deputy continued to stroll down the bar toward the Trillings and stopped in front of Gary.

“Hey, Gary. Lillian called me about the fire at your car lot. Did you want to make a report?”

Rob watched the pool players ease back toward the table, then casually walk out the front door. He finally let out a sigh of relief.

Gary told the huge deputy, “We looked at the security footage and couldn’t identify anything about the truck that threw the burning packet into my Corvette.”

“Nothing that gave you a hint? What make and model was the truck?”

“Ford F-150. You can’t see the tag or anyone inside the truck.”

Rob stayed silent as the deputy took out a hard-sided pad and wrote a few notes. When he finished, he looked up at Gary, snapped his notepad shut, and said, “I’ll write a report so there’s something on record.” He nodded and turned toward the door.

Rob couldn’t contain himself any longer. “Wait a minute. That’s it? You’re not even gonna look at the security footage yourself?”