Colorado 01 The Gamble (66 page)

My eyes got wide and my body grew
still.
That
was news.
Linda’s gaze slid to me and I tried to act casual but I found it
extremely difficult.

Kami was shaking her head and Mick entered
the conversation. “Sorry, Kami, but thought you should know.”

Kami just tipped her head back to stare at
him and my heart went out to her. She looked beaten down by the
betrayal. She might act like a bitch a lot of the time but, bottom
line, she was a good friend.

Mick went on, “You’re free to go but I might
need to ask you more questions so I want you to stick close to
town.”

“Why?” Linda was back to snapping at
Mick.

“Because we need to talk to this Robert
Winston guy and we need to ask Shauna a few questions and we can’t
find her. And, seein’ as this has all come to light, we might have
a few more things to get clear with Kami,” Mick answered.

“What things?” I asked.

“Don’t know yet, just don’t want her leavin’
town,” Mick told me.

“You can see that Kami had nothing to do
with this, her statement checks out,” I said to Mick.

“Yeah, but –”

“Did you find anything to place her at the
construction site? Dirt on her shoes? Rocks?” I pushed.

“No, but –”

“Did you find roofies in her house?”

“No –”

“Do you have any known dealers who have
admitted to supplying roofies to Kami?”

“Nina –”

“Do you?”

“No.”

“You have her gun in your possession and it
hasn’t been loaded or fired; a warrant to search her house which
has pulled up nothing or she wouldn’t be free to go; a cancelled
check that proves what Kami told you she’d done with that money
true, whether it was to a known acquaintance of Shauna’s or Shauna,
that doesn’t change the fact the money was meant for Shauna. You
have no physical evidence that places Kami at the construction site
and no other evidence whatsoever to link Kami to either murder. All
you have, as far as I can see, is the fact that Kami Maxwell was
asleep between one and four the morning of the murders which, by
the way, so was the vast majority of the residents of Gnaw Bone and
the entire Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones.”

“Except we got the fact that Shauna Fontaine
is on our suspect list, Robert Winston is now a person of interest
and Kami gave him twenty-five thousand dollars.”

“
And a jury will be made up of her peers
and everyone knows Kami and Shauna have been close since grade
school and friends help friends in a tight spot. It gets down to
it, I’ll call Max, Brody and Mindy to the stand to testify that
they heard Shauna announce to Max she was pregnant and needed
money, thus corroborating Kami’s story if not Shauna’s lie. They’ll
also all testify to the fact that Shauna was with a gentleman by
the name of Robert, he was protective of her, as in
over
protective
considering he engaged in physical combat with Harry at The Rooster
in front of dozens of witnesses in defense of Shauna.”

Mick tried to interrupt. “Nina –”

I cut him off. “Kami thought her friend was
up to her eyeballs in debt, had no insurance and a baby on the way.
Shauna asked for the transaction to be private, for her own ends
but telling Kami it was to save face. We’ve all been there before,
needing to save face or helping a friend who needs it. Every jury
member will have faced that same scenario in their lives. But
friends do what they can which is what Kami did and a jury will
believe that too and you know it.”

“Shit Nina, you’re tryin’ the case in this
room,” Mick mumbled.

“You wanted her to lawyer up, Mick, she’s
lawyered up. You don’t want her to leave town, okay, where’s she
going to go? But she isn’t leaving this room thinking this
nightmare isn’t over for her. She’s got a life to live, Curtis Dodd
meant something to her, his death is already taking its toll and
she doesn’t need this hanging over her head.”

“I’m just askin’ her not to leave town,”
Mick noted.

“Okay, she won’t leave town,” I assured him.
“But I’ll remind you, on top of all that, there’s a good
possibility that she’s just found out her friend took advantage of
her so she’s dealing with enough. You need to question her, you
call me and I’ll set it up. Yes?”

Mick turned beleaguered eyes to Max but he
was barking up the wrong tree. I looked to Max and saw he was
leaning with his shoulders against the wall, arms crossed on his
chest, eyes on me and a huge grin on his face.

“Remind me never to do any more favors even
if it’s for one of our own,” Mick muttered to no one.

“Are we done here?” I asked, standing and
grabbing my coat.

“You movin’ to town?” Mick asked back and my
head tilted with confusion at the somewhat nosy change of
subject.

Even so, I answered, “More than likely,
yes.”

“You gonna practice?” Mick went on.

“Of course,” I replied.

“Great,” Mick muttered, sounding aggrieved
and I understood so I smiled.

“Don’t worry, Mick, if it isn’t a member of
Max’s family or a friend, I’m a pussycat,” I assured him.

“Why don’t I believe you?” Mick queried.

“Don’t, she’s on one, she’s a tiger,” Max
put in. He had pushed from the wall and had his hand on Linda’s
arm, helping her from her seat.

“Yeah,” Mick mumbled.

I headed toward the door. “By the way, it’d
be nice, anyone asks, you tell them Kami was assisting with the
investigation and you might want to mention how cooperative she
was.”

Mick looked at me, clearly shocked. “Now
you’re askin’ a favor?”

“I did you one, I’m calling my marker.
Anyway, it might be good, me moving to town and putting out a
shingle, you start collecting them,” I advised as I grabbed my
purse and Mick’s eyes again went to Max.

And again he was barking up the wrong tree.
Max had opened the door for his mother and sister and he burst into
laughter when he caught Mick’s eyes. Then he slung an arm around my
shoulders and guided me out the door.

As we neared the outer door, not taking his
arm from around me, Max leaned down to put his mouth to my ear.

“Just in case I didn’t mention it, Duchess,
not so sure about the truth comin’ out, what I am sure of is that I
can trust you to take care of my sister.” I pulled my head back as
I twisted my neck to look at him but I had no chance to speak
because he stopped me and he finished with, “Thank you, baby.”

Then again before I could respond, he kissed
me deep, with some tongue action but, although deep, the kiss was
not long.

“Max!” Kami snapped when his head came up.
“I need a drink.”

I looked in their direction to see Linda’s
eyes were on me. “I think pasta bake is out. Can I treat you and
your folks to a buffalo burger at The Mark?”

I glanced at Max then back to Linda.

Then I said, “They’d love that.”

* * * * *

I sat at on a stool at a high, round table
at The Dog with a drunken Mom, Linda, Kami, Arlene and Jenna. Becca
was our waitress.

At Arlene’s edict with Mom and Linda backing
her up, Max had been quarantined across the room in what had been
decreed (again, by Arlene) as the Guys’ Night Out Section of The
Dog. He was playing pool with Brody and Steve and he was not to
approach under threat of Arlene’s wrath.

Regardless of my roller coaster day and my
current enforced separation from Max, seeing as I, too, was
slightly inebriated; I’d been adventurous at The Mark, demanded to
see a menu and ordered the chicken fried steak which was made with
an actual
steak
and
therefore was
amazing
; I
followed that with a Mile Hi Mud Pie which was five layers of
chocolate cake, separated by dreamy chocolate mousse and covered
with chocolate ganache; Becca had reported that not only had Mindy
seen the rape center’s counselor yesterday, she’d gone down there
to visit her again that day, asking Bitsy to go with her (and Bitsy
did, even with the funeral, she’d carved out time); and I was
finding out that Kami was a lot more fun when she was fed a buffalo
burger and was also drunk, therefore, I was feeling quite
happy.

“
You. Cannot. Be.
Serious!
” Arlene shouted and I looked at her, having been
thinking about my evening, I hadn’t been paying attention and I
didn’t know what she was shouting about. Then again Arlene,
Mom
and
Linda had
been shouting everything they said for about half an hour, mostly
while Kami, Jenna and I giggled, unable to get a word in edgewise,
so it wasn’t the first time I lost track.

“
I. Am.
Not!
” Mom shouted back and I felt something, something warm and
sweet and instinctively I looked to the pool tables and saw Max,
Brody and Steve all looking at us.

Seeing Max looking so handsome standing
across the room from me, holding a pool cue, its handle to the
ground, I had an overwhelming urge and I didn’t try to fight
it.

“Be back,” I muttered to Linda who was
sitting beside me, I slipped off my stool and weaved my way through
the bar to Max.

When I got to him, I wrapped both my arms
around his middle, pressed my front to his side and tipped my head
back to look at him as his arm slid around my shoulders.

“Hi,” I said softly.

He grinned down at me and remarked, “Babe,
you’re breaking the invisible boundary between girls’ night out and
guys’ night out.”

“I think Mom, Arlene and Linda are beyond
enforcing the rules.”

I looked across the room to see Mom hanging
by her fingers from the table, her torso and head thrown back,
laughing. Arlene was slapping the table with the palm of her hand,
laughing. Linda was leaned all the way over, her forehead to the
table, laughing. And Kami and Jenna were staring at each other,
also laughing.

I looked back at Max and pointed out the
obvious, “I don’t think they even know I’m gone.”

Max glanced at the girls then his eyes came
to me. “Doesn’t look like it.”

“You play pool?” Brody asked, coming up on
my side and I looked at him without letting Max go.

“No,” I answered.

“Wanna learn?” Brody enquired on a
smile.

“I’m beyond retaining new skills,” I told
him and Max’s arm around my shoulders gave me a squeeze so I looked
back to him.

“You smashed?”

“No,” and it wasn’t a lie therefore I
explained while pressing closer, “just having a good night.”

“You’re up, Brody,” Steve called then his
eyes came to me. “Since the seal’s been broken, gonna check on
Nellie, make certain she doesn’t fall off her stool.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” I advised and
heard Max chuckle as I saw Steve smile and move away.

“You wanna get us another round?” Brody
suggested, eyeing the pool table to line up his next shot.

“Yeah,” Max answered and then moved.

I was forced to drop an arm to move with him
and we walked with our arms around each other to the heaving bar.
Max pushed in, taking me with him then lifted his chin to the
bartender and it was then I saw Harry sitting alone at the opposite
end of the bar looking more than a little unhappy and staring into
an amber beverage that appeared to have been poured neat.

“Harry drinks bourbon when he’s nursin’ a
bad mood,” Max muttered, likely reading my expression.

The bartender came to us and Max ordered
four beers.

I studied Harry then turned into Max’s body
and wrapped my other arm around him too. “I’ll go and keep him
company.”

Max looked down at me. “I thought you were
keepin’ me company.”

“You have company,” I tipped my head to
Brody at the pool table, “Harry doesn’t.”

Max bent his neck so his face was closer to
mine before he told me, “Brody’s been my best friend for a long
time, honey, and it’s good havin’ him home. Still, prefer your
company.”

This made me feel nice,
very
nice and, again, I pressed
closer but I pointed out, “I can’t do locker room talk.”

“Not that I ever do locker room talk but if
I did, I wouldn’t do it with your Stepdad.”

I nodded my indication that I thought this
was wise. “Then it’s probably not good that I’m around, seeing as
you won’t be able to complain about my foibles and neither can
Steve about Mom’s.”

“Foibles?”

“Faults, bad habits.”

“Tellin’ you a man secret, babe, but men
aren’t like women. We get together, we don’t bitch. We just drink
and, if we talk at all, we talk about the game.” I smiled at him
and he went on, “We did bitch though, again, not sure I’d share my
thoughts on your faults with Steve.”

My happy mood evaporated, my body got tense
and my eyes narrowed. “So you think I have them?”

He grinned. “Baby, you set yourself up for
that one.”

“Okay, what are they then?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Your ass looks too good
in those cords.”

I blinked for this was not what I expected
as a response.

My “attitude”, yes. My habit of trying to
stop a discussion when I was losing an argument, definitely. My
inability to say no to dessert, probably.

My bottom in my cords, no.

So I asked, “Sorry?”

“
You walked across the room and practically
every guy you passed looked at your ass. Hell, you’re standin’ here
pressed up to me and
still
every guy who passes is lookin’ at your ass.”

I glanced over my shoulder to see if this
claim was true. Max’s body started shaking with laughter then he
pulled slightly away to get out his wallet.

“You’re lying,” I accused.

“Nope,” he said, flipping his wallet open
and taking his arm from my shoulders to pull out some bills so I
dropped my arms.