The Gamble (Colorado Mountain 1)

I pulled the seat up at the middle, folding the chair as I’d done to Charlie’s time and time again, thinking Anna was blonde and she was my height. She was also, according to Arlene, funny. She didn’t look like me, I wasn’t hideous but I certainly didn’t have her beauty or her obvious effervescence, but we resembled each other.

Maybe Max, at long last, thought he’d found a replacement. Not the real thing, never to have the real thing again, but close enough.

“I got it, Duchess,” Max told me as I pulled up the back of the Cherokee to load the chair.

“Right,” I muttered and walked around him to sit behind Bitsy, not sparing him a glance. I got in and buckled up.

“It’s nice that you came, Nina,” Bitsy said into the car. “I know you’re on vacation and this is probably the last thing you wanted to do.”

I couldn’t argue with that.

Max got in and I noticed he did this twisted so his clear, gray, too intelligent eyes were on me. I looked out my window.

“Please don’t worry. I’m fine,” I told Bitsy but spoke to the window.

“It’s just that,” Bitsy said as Max switched on the ignition and started to back out, “Max and I’ve been friends for a good long while and I’d heard about you so I was curious. And, without making a big production out of it, I couldn’t come to you.”

“Really, it’s okay,” I assured her again. “It isn’t every day a girl goes to a Police Station. I came out for an adventure and here it is. I’m having it.”

She laughed quietly at my lame joke but she did it without a lot of humor. “Yeah, great adventure, hunh?”

I didn’t reply. Instead I hesitated then leaned forward, reached through and curled my fingers around her shoulder. I felt it tense under my hand but I gave it a squeeze and then pulled away and sat back.

We rode in silence to the Station, not exactly comfortable since everyone was in their own thoughts and none of our thoughts were good. However, fortunately, it wasn’t a long ride.

I stayed silent and hung back as Max took care of Bitsy and she wheeled herself into the Station.

“I’ll go find Mick,” Max said when we were all inside, moving forward, as usual taking charge and Bitsy looked relieved to wheel herself to a bank of chairs.

I followed and she backed in beside one, giving me my cue to sit by her.

“This is stupid, this whole thing,” she muttered when I sat down.

Her head was tilted down but she was looking under her lashes at the reception desk.

“What is?” I asked quietly.

“I shoulda let Mick come up to the house, talk to me there,” Bitsy looked at me, I noticed her face had changed, the mask was falling, grief was moving to the surface and she whispered, “I just couldn’t.”

“It’s okay,” I assured her.

“It’s already a crime scene, my house.” She was still whispering. “I can’t go to the utility room. It’s roped off with yellow tape.”

These words made my heart hurt for her and my stomach pitch in revulsion at the knowledge she shared with me. So without hesitation this time, I covered her hand with mine. She turned hers so it was palm to palm and her fingers curled and, when they did, so did mine.

“You do this as you have to do it,” I said to her.

“I don’t want any more of this in my house.”

“Then that’s how you’re doing it.”

She looked to the reception desk and back at me. “I’m sorry, Nina. Max has enough to do. Mindy, you, all the stuff he has to see to when he’s in town. He doesn’t need me adding to all that stuff.”

I gave her hand a squeeze and said, “I don’t think he minds.”

She looked over my shoulder and replied, “He never minds.”

No, she was right. Apparently Super Max was pretty content with taking care of half the town, such was his wonderfulness.

That, too, I suddenly detested.

Her hand gave mine a squeeze as her attention came back to me. “I promise Nina, because Curtis is gone this won’t get to be a habit. I’ve got people who look out for me, a lot of friends, family close, people who take me grocery shopping, a girl who comes in to clean the house, you know, stuff like that.”

“It’s okay,” I promised, wondering why she felt she had to reassure me about these things. Then again she lived in town and pretty much everyone in town, including Max, thought that he and I were going somewhere and we were doing it together.

“You should know something else too,” Bitsy said, calling my attention to her and she kept talking. “Harry came by yesterday. He’s torn up.” She shook her head but continued. “We won’t talk about that but anyway, he said he met you and so did Shauna.”

“Yes,” I confirmed, she gazed at my face and I knew she read my opinion about Shauna because our eyes locked and we shared a silent moment of keen understanding about Shauna Fontaine.

Then her hand squeezed mine and she carried on, “He told me what Shauna said to you and, you should know, it isn’t true.”

“Sorry?”

“Max,” she went on. “He takes the jobs out of town because he makes really good money doing them. He’s never gone long, three months, sometimes six or eight, but not often and he never takes the big ones that last forever. He likes to be home and, sometimes, even when he’s on a job, he’ll come home for weekends and stuff.” I nodded, she kept tight hold of my hand and continued speaking. “He doesn’t rent that house for the money, like Shauna said. He’s got money. Not only does he make good money but he’s also got some besides, from, um… you know,” she hesitated then finished, “a little nest egg.”

I didn’t know and I didn’t get to ask, not that I would have, she continued.

“It’s just that he’s smart. If he’s going to be gone all that time, why not rent the house? He makes a bucketful when he rents it, he can get top dollar and he demands it. I would too. I mean, who wouldn’t? His house is great.”

I didn’t want to be in another conversation about Max’s finances, especially considering the reasons why I was in another conversation about Max’s finances, so I said, “Of course,” hoping that she’d be reassured and we could stop talking about it.

She nodded and went on, “The other thing…” She paused and her hand squeezed mine, not comfortingly, spasmodically, a reflexive action communicating something else entirely. Then this action was explained when she said in a low voice, the words coming fast and I knew it took a lot for her to utter them, “Beware of Shauna. I know why she was with Curtis and I know why she was with Harry. I’m guessin’, from what Harry told me, that you figured it out so you gotta know, she was with Max for another reason. She wanted him for a long time before she got him and she made no bones about it and when I say that, I mean a long time.” She paused to let that penetrate, before she finished, “She still wants him, maybe even more now that she’s lost him.”