Irish Throwdown (What Happens In Vegas Book 4) by Matt Lincoln (short books for teens .TXT) 📕

tossed me a sideways glance. “So how do you know I’m not ‘rough around the edges,’ then? Appearances can be deceiving, you know.”

“Not for me,” I replied confidently. “I’m good at reading people.”

“Are you?” She raised an eyebrow at me. “Okay then. Tell me what you can read about me.”

“I can tell you’re confident,” I replied. “You didn’t blush or fake modesty when I complimented you, and you even sounded kind of annoyed when I first approached you. It’s eight in the evening, and you’re at a dive bar in work clothes. That tells me that you take your job seriously. You probably worked later and came here right after. You know you’re gorgeous, but you’re not interested in keeping up fake appearances, or you would have gone to some ritzy, overpriced bar instead of slumming it here. How am I doing so far?”

“Obnoxiously accurate.” She frowned in mock annoyance. “What are you, some kind of detective or something?”

“Federal agent, actually,” I corrected.

“Ooh, how exciting,” she purred. “I’m Ana.”

We spent another hour or so talking and having drinks after that before I finally asked her back to my place.

I motioned for the bartender and paid our tab before getting up to leave. We were both several drinks in by then, having lost track of time as we talked, and she leaned heavily against me as we stood up from the bar.

“After you,” I smiled as I held the door open for her. I was just about to step out after her when I heard a commotion in the bar behind me.

“What did you just say?” A young man in a bright red hoodie was looming over one of the other patrons. His face was red, and he was gritting his teeth angrily.

“Bro, what are you talking about?” the other man replied. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You did!” Red Hoodie yelled as he jabbed his finger into the other man. “I heard you! Don’t lie to me!”

“What the heck,” another man said as he tried to step between the two feuding men. “Calm down, dude.”

Suddenly it was like a switch had flipped, and Red Hoodie shrank away from the other man in fear.

“I’m sorry,” he whimpered as he glanced frantically around the room. “I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry. I was just kidding.” His eyes were wide, and he was stumbling around as if he saw things that weren’t there.

“Yo, he’s so high,” the second man laughed as he watched his friend’s antics.

I wondered if I should step in. The man wasn’t acting aggressively anymore, but there was no telling what he might do next if he really was under the influence. I wasn’t a cop, but I couldn’t just walk away from a potential crime in the making as a federal agent.

“Charlie, you coming?” Ana suddenly called out. “Come on, it’s cold out here.”

I glanced back toward the group. Red Hoodie was sitting in a booth with the other men, who were apparently poking fun at him. He still seemed dazed, but if he was with his friends, then he’d probably be okay.

“I’m coming!” I called back before turning to leave the bar. I couldn’t completely shake the crazed young man’s expression from my mind, but I wasn’t about to turn away a beautiful woman over what was probably just a bunch of kids acting dumb. I pushed my worries away as I led Ana back to my apartment.

3

Charlie

Ana was gone when I woke up the following day, which I was actually grateful for. It saved me the awkwardness of having to shoo her away before I headed to the office. Work started early for me, and I couldn’t really leave a strange woman alone in my home.

I showered and got ready quickly. Now that I didn’t have the stress of the conduct hearing looming over my head, I felt much more eager to go to work.

The drive over to the office was pleasant. Traffic was light, and despite the chill in the air, the sky was sunny and clear. It was October now, which meant it had been a full year since I’d started working for MBLIS. I smiled as I thought about that. It felt like it had flown by, but at the same time, so much had happened and changed.

I pulled into the parking lot and parked in my usual space beneath the largest tree. It was far from the entrance, but it kept my car shaded and cool, which was necessary with the heat Las Vegas got even during the fall months.

I made my way up the elevator and down the hall toward our office entrance, and then I punched my code automatically. Months of doing so had etched the motions into my muscle memory.

“Hey, Charlie!” Miranda called as I stepped into the office. “I baked us some snacks to celebrate our freedom from the review board!”

“They’re so good,” Fiona smiled, though she sounded like she was being held at gunpoint.

Junior shook his head minutely.

“I saw that,” Miranda snapped at him. “Don’t listen to him. They are good.”

I leaned forward to look at the tray set on her desk. They were shaped like bats and pumpkins, but I couldn’t tell much beyond that.

“What are they?” I asked.

“Cookies,” she responded as if that much was obvious. “Halloween-themed since it’s almost the thirty-first. Fiona’s always baking stuff, so I thought I’d try it too.”

“Fiona knows how to cook, though,” Junior mumbled. Miranda swatted his arm.

“Shut up, Junior,” she groused. “Just try them, Charlie.”

I lifted one of the cookies out of the tray and was unpleasantly surprised to discover that they were rock-hard.

“Why does it feel like a brick?” I asked as I brought the snack up to my eye level. It was dark brown with bits of what was possibly supposed to be chocolate embedded throughout.

“I had to change the recipe a little,” Miranda explained. “I didn’t have any eggs, and I only had one stick of butter, so I used coconut oil as a substitute. Then it