Colorado 01 The Gamble (38 page)

“
You gave up Shauna so you could end up
with the likes of
that?
” Kami
asked, gesturing with her hand at me.

Kami’s comment about Bitsy had been my final
straw. Her insult to me was Max’s.

“
I gave up Shauna because she was fuckin’
Curt at the same time she was fuckin’ me, hedgin’ her bets and
tryin’ to talk Curt into leavin’ Bitsy so she could land him if she
didn’t manage to land me. And I gave her up because, once she
thought she was in, she was mostly a bitch and thought she could
lead me around by my dick. She couldn’t, she didn’t like that, so
she got even bitchier. When I finally scraped her off, she latched
onto Harry who she
could
lead
around by his dick at the same time spendin’ his money and fuckin’
around on him. Now, you got your explanation, you got your scene,
go sit the fuck down and, I swear to Christ Kami, you don’t leave
the drama behind next time I see you, I won’t fuckin’ see you.
Yeah?”

My goodness. Max, I realized, was mostly
patient in his Mountain Man way but when he was done being patient,
he didn’t take any shit either.

“High and mighty, always were,” Kami shot
back, still raring to go.

Max shook his head. He was done and I knew
this because he slid in beside me and looked at Brody, remarking,
“Remind me to thank you for this great fuckin’ idea. Steaks at The
Rooster. Fuckin’ brilliant.”

“Don’t blame me,” Brody muttered,
grinning.

“Waitress!” I called, lifting up my martini
glass when I caught her eye and then circling it around the table
indicating she should bring a fresh round for all.

“I love your top, Neens, I forgot to say,”
Mindy told me.

“Oh yes, darling, and yours is lovely. I
forgot to say that too,” I replied.

“
And that thing in your hair,” Mindy
continued. “It’s
fab
.”

“Thanks,” I smiled at her.

Kami emitted an annoyed, unladylike snort
and stomped away.

When her lingering malevolent presence
wafted away on her heels, Max’s arm came around me and he
suggested, “Maybe we should put Kami in a room with your Dad, see
who’s the last one standing.”

I looked at Max and proclaimed, “Dad would
kick her ass.”

Max grinned and stated, “Babe, Kami ain’t no
slouch.”

“I can see, still, Dad hadn’t given me the
good stuff this morning. Probably jetlagged.”

Max was still grinning when he muttered,
“That ain’t good news Duchess.”

“What’s this about?” Mindy asked and Max and
I looked at her.

“Nina’s Dad’s a dick,” Max answered
bluntly.

“What?” It was Brody’s turn to ask.

I explained, “My ex-fiancé told my father I
was here and my father is concerned about losing the social status
he was counting on gaining through my marriage. Therefore my father
flew out here to tell me I was making a big mistake, he did so this
morning in his uniquely insulting way, managing also to utter slurs
against Max who he doesn’t even know before Max had to chase him
out of his house. However he hasn’t left town which means he’s at
the hotel in Gnaw Bone likely planning to hatch a sinister scheme
against Max, me, both of us, the town of Gnaw Bone and all its
inhabitants or maybe even the entire county.”

Mindy and Brody both stared silently at
me.

“Like I said,” Max summed up, “Nina’s Dad’s
a dick.”

“Wow, you’ve really had a bad day,” Mindy
said softly.

She didn’t know the half of it.

“Thus me ordering another martini,” I
replied on a teasing smile.

Max’s arm gave me a squeeze but when I
looked at him he was looking at Brody. Then he spoke in a tone that
could only be read one way and that was extreme approval.

“You should have seen her with her Dad this
morning, Brody. Christ, she chewed him up and spit him out. Thought
I’d have to get out the mop and clean the floor.”

Brody grinned but noted, “Bro, not sure that
bodes well for you.”

“I’m not a dick,” Max replied. “I’ve noticed
Nina saves the lethal stuff for bitches and dicks. Me, even pissed,
she’s tame.”

My eyes narrowed on him and I asked,
“Tame?”

Max’s eyes came to me and he murmured,
“Honey, with me, your claws are like a kitten’s.”

Mindy giggled. Brody chuckled. My eyes
narrowed further and our appetizers arrived.

* * * * *

I’d finished martini number two and was
enjoying the final sips of the glass of full-bodied, delightful red
wine I had with my now consumed, utterly delicious steak, its
accompanying sautéed mushrooms and loaded baked potato after an
individual, baked camembert, my appetizer, which was superb when
our next incident hit.

Shauna.

Brody spoke first and he did it the instant
his eyes hit her standing at the end of the table.

“Seriously?” he asked disbelievingly.

She ignored him and everyone else. She only
had eyes for Max.

“Max, can we talk a second?” she asked
politely, her voice unlike it was the night of the buffalo burgers.
It was lower, sultry, cajoling.

“Nope,” Max replied curtly and I noted
happily he was immune to her sultry cajoling.

She leaned in and said softly,
“Honey,
please.
”

I was, unfortunately, even though Max asked
me to be careful, slightly inebriated. Therefore when she called
Max “honey”, I was not in any shape to fully consider my response
as in, perhaps not have one at all.

Instead, my happiness about Max’s immunity
to Shauna melted clean away, my back went ramrod straight, I looked
at Mindy and I asked loudly, “Did she just call Max ‘honey’ in
front of me?”

“Fuck,” Max muttered and his arm wound
around my waist, pulling my lower body tight to his.

“I think she did,” Mindy whispered, her face
again pale and she was watching me closely likely uncertain whether
to jump across the table and hold me down or jump into the fray
with me.

I looked at Shauna and told her, “You just
called Max ‘honey’.”

“I’m sorry, Nina, this’ll only take a
minute,” Shauna said, having decided that she was not a cold,
heartless, cheating, she bitch from hell but, tonight, she was
sugar sweet on the surface, however still unsuccessfully hiding the
heartless, cheating, she bitch from hell she was to her core.

“No, it won’t take a minute, Shauna, because
in one second you’re going to walk away.”

“Nina, honey,” Max murmured.

I threw out a hand my eyes glued to Shauna
and declared grandly, “I got this.”

Max’s arm tightened and he said, “Shauna,
Nina’s unpredictable when riled. Do yourself a favor, take
off.”

“Max, seriously, this is important,” Shauna
replied.

“Let’s go back to you calling Max ‘honey’,”
I suggested.

“Nina, again, sorry but I really need a word
with Max,” Shauna pushed.

“
I might have been willing to allow that
had you not called him ‘honey’ right… in…
front
… of… me. Now you’ll get one over my cold, dead
body,” I retorted.

“Baby, calm down,” Max said on another
squeeze.

“It slipped, habit,” Shauna said, the ice
queen frosting her features for a second before she could hide it,
her words meant to remind me she’d enjoyed Max, even if just for
awhile then she fought it back and said, again low and fake sweet,
“Sorry, really.”

“Apology accepted,” I declared
magnanimously. “Now please, we’re nearing dessert, the best part of
the meal. Don’t ruin it.”

She looked back at Max and said, “Max, you
know I wouldn’t bother you if it wasn’t important.”

“Spit it out, Shauna, and go,” Brody
ordered, sounding impatient.

She didn’t pry her eyes from Max. “It’s
private. Max,
please.
”

Max’s mouth got tight as he tired of her
game and stated, “We don’t share anything private, Shauna.”

“Max,” she begged and Max’s patience slipped
too.

“Honest to God, Shauna, Brody’s in town and
we’re tryin’ to have a nice meal. What the fuck?”

She realized she was getting nowhere so she
changed tacks and announced, “I’m pregnant.”

The air at our table went static.

I was watching Max, my lungs burning due to
the fact I was not breathing, wondering when he “scraped her off”
and if there was a possibility this child was his as I watched him
blink slowly.

Then he growled in his now lethally
dangerous, deep, gravelly voice, “Come again?”

“Can we talk privately?” she repeated.

“No, Shauna, why are you tellin’ me this
shit?” Max asked.

“Because it’s Curt’s.”

“Holy crap,” Mindy whispered.

“Jesus Christ,” Brody muttered.

“Oh my God,” I breathed.

“What the fuck?” Max clipped.

She squatted at the table beside Max and
looked up at him.

“Max, you have to talk to Bitsy,” she
entreated.

“
Why in the
hell
would I do that?” Max asked.

“Because this is Curt’s baby. Because Curt
would have taken care of me, of the baby. He told me so. And
because, now, Curt’s gone,” Shauna explained.

“
You have got to be shittin’ me,” Max bit
out and I could tell he was beyond angry, he was building up to
enraged and it was my turn to put my arm around
his
waist.

“Can we talk about this privately?” she
asked again.

“
No, Shauna, fuck, I don’t wanna talk about
this at all. I don’t even wanna
know
this shit.”

She shuffled closer and put her hand on
Max’s knee and my eyes honed in on it as she begged, “Curt would
take care of me, you know it, you
know
he would. I can’t afford to raise a baby by
myself.”

“Are you mad?” I asked and her eyes sliced
to me.

“What?” she asked back.

“
Mad? Insane? Crazy? Nutty? Bonkers? Round
the twist?
Mad?
” I
explained, my voice rising.

“Of course not,” she snapped.

“Then first, get your hand off Max’s knee,”
I snapped back and her hand shot away like Max’s skin burned.
“Second, trot away and find someone else who might be heartless
enough to help you try to fleece Bitsy out of money. You have got
to know Max would never do that.”

“It’s Curt’s child and that’s Curt’s money
and Max knew Curt and knows Bitsy and everyone knows Max is
fair.”

“
And you were sleeping with
Curt
when he was married to
Bitsy,
” I
retorted. “Hard knocks but you live by the sword, Shauna, you must
be prepared to die by it.”

Her eyes narrowed and the frost started
setting in. “What does that mean?”

“That means you played with fire now you’ve
been burned. Live with it. Now, honestly, just go away.”

“This is none of your business,” she
snapped, standing, the mask slipping completely, now she was
staring ice daggers at me.

“
Sorry?
I’m
sleeping in Max’s bed. They were
my
jeans Max’s hand was down tonight. But it
was
you
who called
Max ‘honey’,
you
who put your
hand on him right in front of me and
you
who walked up to our table, interrupting a lovely evening
and laying this rubbish on us. So I’m making it my business. Go
away.”

“We’re talkin’ about an innocent baby here,”
Shauna returned.

“
We’re talking about you still digging for
gold even though the vein has run dry
and
having the sheer gall to walk up to Max in a nice
restaurant and try to drag him into it!” I shot back.

“What’s happening here?” a man asked and I
looked over Max’s shoulder with hopes of seeing a manager or
someone of that ilk but Harry was standing there.

“Fuckin’ A,” Brody mumbled.

Max slid out of the booth. “Everything’s
fine, Harry, Shauna was just leavin’.”

Harry ignored Max and stared at Shauna,
asking, “Why’re you botherin’ Max and Nina?”

“Harry –” Shauna was back to her fake sugar
sweet pleading tone.

“
Thinkin’ you can fuck Nina over like you
fucked over Bitsy and
me?
”
Harry asked loudly and I studied him somewhat drunkenly, thinking
he was a lot less goofy when he was angry.

“Can we go somewhere private?” Shauna asked
demurely.

“No, everyone in the restaurant already
knows you’re a fuckin’ slut, why would we need to be private about
it?”

“Fuckin’ A,” Brody repeated on a mumble and
also stood. “Harry, man, seriously, let’s you and me take a
walk.”

“Yeah,” Harry answered. “We’ll take a walk,
when Shauna takes a hike.”

“Harry,” I called. “Why don’t you pull up a
chair, have a drink with us?”

Harry glanced down at me then his eyes cut
back to Shauna. “I’d like that, Nina, and I’ll be happy to oblige,
soon as Shauna slithers away.”

“Is there a problem, Shauna?” the man who
was having dinner with Shauna was now there.

“Yikes-o-rama,” Mindy whispered and I gave
her a wide-eyed look.

“It’s fine, Robert,” Shauna replied.

“You should calm down and sit down,” Robert
unwisely advised Harry and he did it in a somewhat threatening
way.

“Yeah? I should?” Harry asked, still loud.
“She fuckin’ you now? ‘Cause you should know, a week ago she was
fuckin’ me, Curtis Dodd and God knows who else.”

“As I said, you should calm down,” Robert
repeated, stepping forward and Brody brought up a hand to hold him
back.