Read Online Scars (Nevada James #2) (Nevada James Mysteries) by Matthew Storm - Free Book Online Page B

that.”
    “Damn
it, Nevada, you know what I’m getting at.” He leaned forward on the bed and
interlaced his fingers. “Human beings react to that kind of thing.”
    I stood
up. “I’m getting a Diet Coke,” I said. “You want a Diet Coke?”
    “Did you
hear anything I just said?”
    “Yeah,
but I’m thirsty. Do you want the soda or not?”
    He
shrugged. “Sure.”
    I went
to the refrigerator and took two cans out, handing him one as I went back to my
chair. Mine I popped open and raised like I was toasting him, then took a
drink. “I don’t know what you want to hear,” I said after a minute. “No, that’s
not true. I do know what you want to hear. You want to hear that I was affected
by it.”
    He
opened his own can and took a sip. “I do want to hear that, yeah.”
    “Too
bad,” I said. “I wasn’t. I don’t have that in me anymore, Dan. Don’t get me
wrong. I know I should . I’m perfectly aware that I’ve lost some part of
me I used to have. Well, that’s just too bad. It’s just spilt milk.”
    He
nearly choked on his soda. “It’s spilt milk ? That may be the worst
analogy you’ve ever made.”
    “Well,
technically it’s an idiom, but I don’t think it quite worked. It’s water under
the bridge? No…”
    “We’re
having a serious conversation, Nevada. Remember?”
    “I think
you’re the one having a serious conversation,” I said. “I’m still worried about
those robots from my dream.”
    He
ignored that. “I remember you were upset when you broke that guy’s neck. The
one Emerson sent over to waste you. You’re telling me you went from that to
this in three months?”
    “No,” I
said, “but I was drunk then. And I was the one who killed him, and I
didn’t mean to do it. He was just some stooge I hit too hard. It’s not the same
thing as seeing some dead guy in an alley.” Dan grunted. “Give me a break,” I
said. “Do Sarah and that guy Ellis come cry on your shoulder every time they
catch a homicide?”
    “No.”
    “Would
they be good detectives if they did?”
    “No, but
everyone deals with it differently. Sarah’s been in therapy for five years and Brad…he
was for a while, anyway. He was in a shoot a while back and couldn’t clear his
psych evaluation after, so I made him do some couch time until he could.”
    I put my
soda down. “Sarah’s in therapy?”
    He
smirked. “Oh, look at you now. Are you actually concerned with another person’s
welfare?”
    “Don’t
be a dick,” I said, just a little more coldly than I meant to.
    “I
wasn’t. It’s nice to see you have an emotion. Yeah, Sarah’s in therapy. I
encourage my people to talk to a professional whether they think they need to
or not. You can’t take all that shit home. If I’d made you go when you worked
for me maybe you wouldn’t have lost your shit the way you did.”
    “I’d
have liked to see you try to ‘make me’ do anything,” I said. “That would have
been fun.”
    He drank
his soda. “I really don’t know what I expected this conversation to sound
like,” he said, “but this wasn’t it.”
    “Me
neither,” I said. “This is the longest we’ve talked in a while without you
offering me my badge back.”
    “It’s in
my desk at the office. You want me to go get it?”
    “No.”
    “It
would be good for you,” he said. “At least you wouldn’t be sitting around here
all day.”
    For a
moment I thought about telling him about my conversation with Anita Collins,
but I decided against it. He’d probably just find a reason to lecture me. “I’m
fine,” I said. “I could never go back, anyway. Somehow I think I’d fail the
background check now.”
    He gave
me a contemplative look. “There are ways.”
    “You
going to strong-arm someone?” I asked. “Blackmail the Chief if he says no?”
    “The
Chief would take you back.”
    “The
Chief hates me,” I said.
    “Oh, he
does hate you, Nevada. He hates you worse than Hitler. But you close cases. He
likes that