Colorado 01 The Gamble (57 page)

Now what did I do?

I pulled in a breath, turned my head and
positioned my mouth at Brody’s ear.

“Brody,” I called.

He didn’t answer.

Hesitantly, I put my hand to his hair.
“Brody, darling, look at me.”

He did, pulling his face out of my neck and
tipping it back, he looked at me and spoke.

“Owe you the world,” he whispered.

I forgot my discomfiture, settled into him
and put my hand to his neck. “Brody –”

“She’s my world, my baby sister,” he said.
“She’d not be here, if not for you. Owe you the world.”

I didn’t know what to say to that because
essentially it was true.

So I decided to change subjects. “Promise me
we’re going to have this moment and you’re going to let it go.”

“I’ll never forget,” Brody vowed.

I nodded and said, “Yes, I know, you’ll
never forget, I’ll never forget, Max won’t ever forget but after
this, will you promise to let it go?”

His eyes held mine for several long moments
before his lit and he asked, “If I don’t, will you arrange an
intervention for me?”

I felt my mouth move into a mini-smile.
“Probably.”

“I won’t have to hug Max, will I?” he went
on.

“Maybe, if you don’t let it go,” I
threatened. “Cotton, Mick, Jeff and Pete too, since they’re the
only men I know in town. Oh wait, today I met George Nielson, I’ll
have to invite him along.”

Brody gave me a small grin before it faded
but the light in his eyes grew more intense and he whispered, “Then
I’ll let it go.”

“Good,” I whispered back.

“Coffee,” Max grunted from close.

I looked up at him to see he was, indeed,
close and he was holding a cup to me. I also realized that I was
still in Brody’s lap and I mostly realized this because Max was
staring at my behind in a way that communicated a good degree of
displeasure.

I scooted off Brody’s lap, took the cup of
coffee Max was offering with a murmured thanks and made my way to
the safe haven of Steve.

No one spoke, even when Mom and Barb came
back. Max didn’t get close. Instead, he seemed lost in his thoughts
as he stared out the kitchen window to the backyard.

I tried not to look at him doing this but I
couldn’t keep my eyes from going to him as I sipped my coffee
feeling, for the first time since I walked up the steps to his
A-Frame, lost and alone.

I felt this way until Steve got close, slid
an arm along my waist and put his lips to the side of my head.

“That couldn’t have been easy, with Charlie
and all,” he murmured to me. “Proud of you, doll.”

“Thanks,” I murmured back and Max must have
heard, for his eyes came to us, that muscle jerked in his jaw again
before he turned back to his intense perusal of the backyard.

* * * * *

At Bitsy’s request, I stood in the sliding
door of the van that brought her to Barb and Darren’s house. The
man I hadn’t met who I saw in the house (his name, I found out, was
Burt) was her driver.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Thanks, Nina,” she answered and my head
jerked at her words.

“I thought you’d be mad at me, putting you
on the spot in there, um –”

“Nope,” Bitsy told me, smiling but there was
something sad about it. “You know, all these years in this chair,
people still handle me like I’m made of glass. It sucks. Everyone’s
always taking care of me. That sucks too. Not once, not even once
that I can remember for ten years, did anyone need me, make me feel
like I still had something to give.” She reached out a hand to me
and I took it before she finished. “In there, I had something to
give. You knew my day was shit but you trusted me to do it, you
trusted me to be strong enough, you knew Mindy’s problems were
bigger than mine and you treated me like a normal person instead of
someone made of glass. So, thanks.”

“Um… you’re welcome?” I said on a question,
she laughed softly and even her laughter did nothing to lessen the
sadness in her features.

The laughter died away, her eyes went funny
and she whispered, “Wish you’d come here ages ago.”

I studied her then asked quietly, “You
okay?”

She pulled in a breath through her nose,
seemed to shake off whatever had hold of her and she nodded. Then
her eyes slid over my shoulder before they swiftly shot back to
me.

Then for some reason, she whispered
urgently, “Take care of Max.”

Her mood had shifted yet again and surprised
at her tone, her words and the fervor behind them, I started to
turn but heard Max’s deep voice asking, “Ready?”

I nodded to him and then looked back at
Bitsy, leaned in, gave her a kiss on the cheek and then moved away.
Max moved in, slid the door closed then pounded on the roof twice
with his open palm.

When the counselor from the rape crisis
center had arrived, Mom and Steve left (this was also in order that
Mom could get ready for The Rooster). Shortly after that, Max and I
said our good-byes to Mindy, Brody and Barb and we went out with
Bitsy and Burt to the van.

Now it was time to go back to the
A-Frame.

Max stood by me and watched Bitsy’s van pull
away and she and I waved at each other when it did. Max didn’t
move, just watched silently. Then without looking at me he walked
to the Cherokee. I followed.

He didn’t open my door, just bleeped the
locks and I climbed in, buckled up and Max had the SUV out of the
drive before I got myself situated in my seat.

We were in town when I hazarded words.

“Everything okay?”

“We’ll talk when we get home,” was Max’s
alarming answer.

I wanted to push it, in fact, my palms were
itching and words were on the tip of my tongue, I wanted so badly
to push it. Something was wrong and I didn’t know what it was. I
didn’t even know if I wanted to know what it was. I just knew I had
to know. With effort, I kept silent all the way to the house.

Snow had started gently falling by the time
we turned into the road that would turn into the other road that
led to his house.

Max parked and jumped down. I did too.

He hit the front door far faster than me
mainly because he wasn’t wearing high-heeled boots but this could
also be attributed to the fact that his legs were a lot longer than
mine.

I followed through the open door Max didn’t
close. I closed it and my eyes went to him as I shrugged off my
coat. He was in the kitchen heading to the fridge. I hooked my coat
on a dining room chair and heard the hiss of a cap coming off a
beer. I turned to the kitchen and saw him with his head back,
taking a drink.

I stopped at the edge of the counter and
watched as he dropped his beer hand and leaned into his other hand
on the counter.

I pulled up the courage to start. “Max
–”

But Max spoke over me.

“
I know the situation was extreme but is it
too fuckin’ much to ask you not to sit in another man’s lap when
I’m standin’ in the room? Scratch that. Is it too fuckin’ much to
ask it even if I’m in another fuckin’
state
?”

I felt my mouth drop open and my stomach
pitch.

“Sorry?” I whispered.

“For what?” Max asked.

Unnerved, I didn’t know what to say, so I
stammered, “I… but… but it was Brody.”

“Don’t give a fuck who it was.”

“But –”

“Don’t give a fuck why you did it either,
Nina, just don’t do it again. Yeah?”

“He… Max, he pulled me in his lap,” I
reminded him. “Under the circumstances, I could hardly pull
away.”

“No circumstances are the right
circumstances for you to have your ass in another man’s lap.”

I shook my head, those short, quick shakes
again.

“Are we… are we really talking about this?”
I asked in disbelief.

“Positions reversed, Nina, you were in a
room and I had a woman in my lap, would you like that?”

My stomach pitched again at the thought he
planted in my head and at the fact he kept calling me Nina.

“No, of course not,” I told him.

“Point made,” he replied curtly.

“Unless it was Mindy or something,” I
added.

“I fed Mindy baby food. You’ve known Brody a
coupla days. That’s hardly the same fuckin’ thing.”

“In a way, it is.”

“What it is, is, I’ve known you a week and
you’re fuckin’ me. You’ve known Brody –”

I lost my incredulity at our conversation
and my mild confusion and the fear that I felt whenever he was
angry at me and that red film covered my eyes again.

“Don’t you finish that!” I warned.

“Again, point made,” Max shot back.

I leaned in and snapped, “You’re
impossible!”

“Yeah, you’ve mentioned that.”

I glared at him and he held my glare.
Neither of us spoke, neither of us moved. I wanted to throw
something at him but nothing was in reach and if I had to reach for
something I could swear at that moment my entire body would
shatter.

Regrettably, I was unable to hold his clear,
angry gray eyes so I turned my head, looked into the house and
realized there was really nowhere to go to escape him. Except one
place. So I went there.

I stomped across the room, my boots loud
against the wood floors. Then I stomped up the stairs. Then I
stomped to the armchair to see my bag was gone and I stopped,
staring at the chair. Then I stomped to the closet, threw open the
door and turned on the light inside. I saw my limited amount of
clothes hanging next to Max’s, my sweaters tidily folded on the
fitted shelves again next to Max’s and my shoes lined up on the
tilted rods also next to Max’s. My suitcase was folded up and
tucked into a corner. All of my clothes had been laundered and,
those that needed it, ironed and so had Max’s.

Caroline was good at her job.

I turned out the light, slammed the door and
stomped to the bathroom. I opened the medicine cabinet and saw my
toiletries tucked neatly away. Then I opened a drawer in the vanity
and saw my makeup. So I stomped back to the door, saw my robe was
on a hook at the back and I felt like shouting with glee when I saw
it. Then I slammed the door and locked it.

Then I drew a bath and started the long,
complicated procedure of giving myself a facial.

What I wanted to do was leave Max’s
presence, his house and the state in which he currently
resided.

Something else I wanted to do was walk
downstairs and scream in his face.

Since I didn’t have a car and since I was so
angry I couldn’t trust my own mouth and since my Mom and Steve
worshipped the ground Max walked on and they’d planned a romantic
dinner a deux at The Rooster thus I couldn’t call them to come and
get me, I was stuck with the facial.

So I gave myself the longest facial in the
history of me giving myself facials.

The water in the tub was cool but even after
the facial, I had not cooled down when I climbed out and toweled
off. I lotioned my body like I’d be graded for the endeavor and
then I wrapped myself in my robe, grabbed my clothes and boots and
walked out.

The house was lit downstairs and up with
both lights illuminated on both nightstands but I could see and
hear no Max.

I dumped my clothes and boots in the
closet and went in search of my underwear which I found in one of
the drawers (yes, by
Max’s
).
I snatched out a pair and put them on, pulled on my last pair of
pajama bottoms and a shelf-bra camisole. The bottoms were cotton
with tiny, retro daisies in sherbet colors against a raspberry
sherbet background with the camisole being lime sherbet. I shrugged
my robe back on and confiscated a pair of Max’s socks, the best
ones I could find deciding I’d steal them just to tick him off. I
yanked them on while hopping around foot to foot.

Then I went across the room, slid open the
doors to the TV, selected the most gruesome horror movie I could
find even though I didn’t normally watch horror movies since they
were horror and thus scared the dickens out of me, even the silly,
bad ones which always made Charlie laugh his behind off when he
used to force me to watch them with him and put it in the DVD
player. Then I curled up on the bed, shoving most of the pillows
behind me, tucking one to my front and I glued my eyes to the
television set.

My stomach reminded me I hadn’t had lunch
and I silently told it to shut the hell up.

The movie had scarcely started before a
young woman was being chased through the woods, the blood of her
hacked up boyfriend covering her barely clad body when I felt Max’s
presence hit the loft.

Although a part of me I was
not
listening to was glad he was
there (simply because the movie was scaring the dickens out of me),
I didn’t look at him. I kept my eyes fixed on the TV even as I felt
the bed move when he sat on it and I heard one boot then the other
hit the floor. The bed moved again and I stayed completely still
and focused on the TV.

Max slid in behind me, his arm went around
my middle and he pulled me into his hard body. With a forceful jerk
I pulled myself forward and with an equally forceful jerk he hauled
me right back.

I gave up and held myself completely
still.

“Turn off the movie, Duchess.”

Oh, so
now
I was Duchess. Now, after he proved, like most – no
all
men (except Charlie and Steve)
– that he was a world class jerk.

I didn’t move nor speak.

“Baby, turn it off.”

Now I was baby. Nice.

He sighed then he pressed closer to my
back.

“It’s been a shit day.”

I stayed silent and watched the young,
barely clad damsel come to a bloody end in the woods.

“Curtis knew someone wanted him dead.”