“Really? It looked to me like you were antagonizing him.” Nic pointed at Burke and, switching from rapid sign language, he said, “And you! We’re law enforcement. We don’t go around attacking people and jamming broken bottles against their necks.”

Burke sat down nonchalantly in one of the leather chairs in front of Romeo’s desk. Then he calmly laid his iPad on the desk’s surface and said, “Guy was a prick. And I can’t stand bullies.”

“I don’t care if he pissed in your root beer and insulted your mother. We don’t go around in polite society asking people if they ‘want to die today’.”

With a big smile on his face, apparently finding the whole situation hilarious, Romeo flopped down in his own chair and said, “Well, some of us do.”

Nic ignored his uncle, still focused on Burke. “That guy could press charges against you. Maybe even sue the FBI. I’m going to tell ASAC Carter all about this.”

Burke pulled out a cigarette and lit it up. With the smoking Marlboro dangling from his mouth, Burke said, “I’m shaking. You think he’ll take my next birthday away?”

Nic shook his head in disgust. “I thought you were a genius.”

“I never claimed to be anything. I’m just a mechanic who enjoys learning. I didn’t ask for any of this.”

“You really don’t get it, do you? A lot of people would kill for a chance to work at the FBI for a guy like Carter. I know I would. A lot of people would do anything to have your brains, the gifts that you’ve been given. But you just want to piss on all that. There’s a lot of us out there killing ourselves every day for the knowledge and opportunities that have fallen in your lap, but you just want to turn your nose up and squander it away.”

Burke blew out a large cloud of smoke in Nic’s direction. “Ignorance is bliss. I would give anything to be left alone, to not have to suffer through a world that makes no sense to me, struggling against a bunch of people whose thoughts, feelings, and reactions I have no way of understanding.”

Nic grabbed Burke by his shirt and pulled him to his feet, knocking over the leather chair. He leaned down and said, “You want to hide from the world? Fine with me. You want to piss away your God-given gifts and treat people like you need to get them before they get you? I couldn’t care less. But if you ever put my little girl in danger again, I will bust your head in until you’re just as dumb as you think the rest of us are.”

Burke still held the cigarette between his lips. He took a puff and blew the smoke into Nic’s face. Then in a flash of movement, Burke shoved both his fists up between Nic arms, breaking the hold Nic had on his shirt, and in the same movement, Burke shoved Nic back.