“Max curses all the time, Jeff, you don’t have to apologize for saying the f-word,” I assured, smiling at him, he smiled back, headed to the chair opposite us, dumped his papers and sat down.
“Shit, Jeff, we been here twenty minutes,” Max put in, proving me right about the swearing.
“Yeah, I know, things are crazy.” He looked at Max then he looked at me. “Sorry to say, Nina, we can’t find Damon.”
This wasn’t exactly good news.
Max straightened in his chair and glared at Jeff. “Jesus, we’re talkin’ Mathews here. He ain’t the brightest bulb.”
Jeff nodded. “I know but he’s proving elusive. We been lookin’ for him since the spray paint incident, talkin’ to folks all over town. His boss says he hasn’t been to work since you and he had your thing and he wants him to come back real bad, mostly so he can fire his ass.”
That wasn’t good news for Damon but I couldn’t find it in me to care since maybe it would mean he’d be forced to move away from Gnaw Bone, his self-appointed stalker duties and Mindy.
Jeff kept talking. “And none of his friends admit to knowin’ where he is. His old landlord said he caught him last Friday tryin’ to put a bolt cutter to the lock on one of the storage units he’s got. The old guy aimed some buckshot at him, chased him off, didn’t know we were lookin’ for him. Other than that, we got nothin’. Mathews is in the wind.”
“He doesn’t even know how to spell ‘wind’, he can’t be in it,” Max bit out and I pressed my lips together to stop from laughing.
“We’ll find him,” Jeff promised. “But we’re low on resources, seein’ as we got every man we can spare here, at the county sheriff’s and even the frickin’ highway patrol tryin’ to track down Shauna and that Robert Winston guy.”
Both Max and I stiffened but it was me who spoke. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Jeff answered, distracted and sorting through the papers he’d put on the table. “She’s vanished. Gone.” He looked up at me and said, “We got a warrant to search her house, nothin’ there, no furniture, no clothes, nada. Totally clean. Last person to see her was Kami and Mick said we can’t talk to Kami, ‘less we talk to you, so, by the way, Mick says I need to set that up while you’re here.”
“Of course,” I told him.
“Anyway,” he went on, all business, “right now I’ll take your statement, get Jane to type it out and then you can read it, make sure we got everything down right then you can sign it. Cool?”
I smiled again and said, “Cool.”
“Then you can call Kami and we’ll set something up,” he finished and I got an idea.
“Sure,” I replied then invited, “Maybe, while Jane is typing out my statement and we’re calling Kami, you can come and have a cup of coffee with us.”
“Babe,” Max said low, reading my intent.
“Thanks but we’re hammered. It’s all hands on deck,” Jeff answered.
“Yes, of course,” I agreed then pressed, “but everyone needs a break and the coffee at the café is better than Station coffee, I know, I’ve sampled them both. Anyway, it’ll be my treat.”
“Babe,” Max repeated, still low.
“Really appreciate that, Nina, but, like I say, we’re hammered,” Jeff said politely.
It was time to dangle my golden carrot so I did. “We’re meeting Linda and Barb and Mindy will be there.”
Max sighed. Jeff stopped looking hurried and distracted and focused fully on me.
Then he said firmly, “Tell her I said hi.”
I blinked and Max got tense at my side.
“Okay, let’s start at the beginnin’,” Jeff instructed, looking down at the papers and picking up the pen.
“Tell her you said hi?” Max asked, his voice even more of a gravelly rumble than usual and his tone made me look at him to see he was staring intently at Jeff.
I looked back at Jeff and his head was up, his eyes on Max.
“Yeah, hi,” Jeff answered.
“That’s it?” Max asked, beginning for some reason to sound angry.
“Max,” I whispered, putting a hand to his thigh.
“That’s it,” Jeff affirmed.
I felt Max go even more tense, I felt this both physically as well as his tenseness shimmering in the very air.
Definitely sounding angry now, Max asked, “Coupla days ago, you couldn’t keep your eyes off her ass, now all you got to say is hi?”
My hand gave his thigh a squeeze and I again whispered, “Max,” but this time I did it more urgently.
“Yeah, Max, now all I got to say is hi,” Jeff stated and I looked to him because now he sounded angry and when my eyes hit his face, I noted he looked it too.
“Gents –” I started but Max spoke over me.
“So you’re happy to check out her ass until you find out she’s dealin’ with some serious shit then you’re not interested anymore?” Max enquired, his eyes narrow.
“No,” Jeff bit off.
“Sounds like it to me,” Max told him.
“Yeah, then I guess you don’t know that I been by Barb and Darren’s every day since that scene at the river,” Jeff returned. “And Mindy’s made it clear she don’t wanna see me and I figured that out since each time I went she said she don’t wanna see me but she didn’t say it to me, she told her Mom to say it to me and Mindy didn’t fuckin’ see me.”
“So?” Max asked and Jeff’s brows drew together.
“So, she don’t wanna see me, that’s it. I can take a hint.”
“You like her?” Max asked straight out.
“Max!” I hissed but Jeff answered.
“Not your concern.”
“You like Mindy, it’s my concern,” Max countered.
“Better answer, it doesn’t matter,” Jeff retorted.
“Do you like her?” Max repeated.
“Max, please –” I began but Jeff didn’t answer and Max leaned forward, taking his arm from my chair.
“Jeff, man, I’m askin’ you a question.”
“She’s the prettiest girl in town,” Jeff clipped, obviously not wanting to share but doing it anyway probably knowing Max enough to know he wouldn’t let it go, a lesson I too had learned and I’d known him a lot less time than Jeff. “She’s also the sweetest by a long shot. So, yeah, I guess you could say I like her.”
My stomach melted and I stared at Jeff, seeing his anger at Max was covering a much deeper emotion. He didn’t like Mindy, he liked her. And I liked that.
“Come with us to get coffee,” Max ordered, obviously liking it too.
“I’m tellin’ you, Max, don’t have time,” Jeff replied.
“Then get it to go.”
“Max –” Jeff started but Max leaned further in and cut him off.
“A few days ago Nina told me, when a woman gets fucked over by a dickhead, or a bunch of dickheads, she needs to learn there are good guys out there. You’re a good guy and you like her. She’s got serious shit to deal with now. She needs all the help she can get, especially from good guys who like her.” A muscle jumped in Jeff’s jaw but he stayed silent so Max finished, “Nothin’ worth havin’, it ain’t worth fightin’ for even if the thing you gotta fight is the thing you want. She don’t wanna see you right now because she’s embarrassed, thinks you think less of her because of what you saw and, I’m guessin’, the guys she’s picked in the past, maybe she thinks she’s not worthy. You want her, man, your job is to convince her she’s wrong.”
I’d stopped breathing and was staring at Max’s profile as he spoke to Jeff.
Every word he said about Mindy slid through me like an invisible blade shrouded in velvet, cutting me to the quick but doing it a way that felt like he was surgically removing a malignant tumor that I’d been carrying around for years. A tumor that had been eating away at my insides. A tumor that, with his words, suddenly was gone.