Page 46 of Mountain Man Bad Boy

“And?”

“Just that. Just my T-shirt.” I looked up to the ceiling, wishing I was out there hunting for her instead of sitting in here playing games. “I’m sure she’s got on jeans or something else.”

“Is that what she would likely wear?” the officer asked. “Jeans?”

“Yes!” I shouted.

“Easy,” Jason scolded.

I stared daggers at the table.

There was a look exchanged between Jason and the other officer, one that said, This guy is crazy. I had seen it a lot in my drinking days. The only problem with getting it now was that I wanted them to take me seriously. I was convinced that Gina was in trouble, and the longer we waited to begin the search, the worse the outcome would be. I inhaled, letting the insult roll off my shoulders. They could think what they wanted; nothing we were doing was getting us closer to finding Gina.

“Now the car,” the officer began. “You said it was blue. Would you say sky blue or navy blue?”

“Navy.” I took a deep breath. I reminded myself every second that they were only trying to be helpful.

“You don’t have any pictures?” he asked, circling back to a point I had made several minutes ago.

“No,” I said.

He typed something much longer than the word “no” onto his laptop, then spoke, paying more attention to the screen than to me. “Where does she work?”

“Westview Hospital in Nashville,” I responded.

“Have you tried reaching her there?” the officer asked.

“No.”

There was another silent communication between Jason and the other officer and Jason stood up. “I’ll do it.” He walked out of the room, leaving me alone with Mike and the douche.

“So,” the officer said, “tell me why she came to visit you again?”

When I finally got out of the interrogation room, I was pretty sure the police thought I had killed her. It did help that Mike and Jason were vouching for me. It did not help that I was a known drug user who had just gotten out of treatment. My attempts to explain my relationship with Gina fell on deaf ears. As much as I wanted to defend our choices, it wouldn’t get me any closer to determining where Gina had gone.

Jason came back into the room, tagging his fellow officer out. “Here’s what we’re gonna do. We put out an APB on Gina’s car with the description you gave us. We’re gonna send someone to her apartment in Nashville just to check on her. If we find her there, we’re gonna ask her if she’s okay.”

“That’s all I want.” I exhaled in frustration. “But what if she’s not there? I know you think I had something to do with this, but I promise you, I didn’t. She wouldn’t have left without telling me.”

“I don’t think you had anything to do with this, Porter, come on.” Jason dropped a palm on the table, shocking me out of my grief. “Mike told me how you don’t want to come around to our cookouts anymore because you think we’re too good for you.”

I snapped a glance at Mike, who opened his mouth to speak.

“No.” Jason pointed a finger at me. “I don’t think you’re trash—I never thought that. If you say your girl is in trouble, I’m gonna help you find her.”

My eyes softened and I let out a small noise of shock. All this time I had been thinking that I was too far gone to connect with people and that no one understood me except Gina. I had been wrong. I had friends, real friends, who believed in me and wanted to help. I refocused my energy on helping save the woman I loved.

“I’m sorry,” I said, holding up my hands. “I was wrong to assume that you don’t have your own shit to deal with.”

“Damn straight.” Jason sat back down. “As I was saying, we’re gonna watch the highways and send a patrol to her door.”

“What can I do?” I asked.

I could see that the answer was “nothing,” but that he knew that wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “Go back home,” he said finally. “Let us do our jobs and we’ll let you know what we find out.”

I stood up. “I guess you need a lift?” I asked Mike.

“I’ll get a ride with Jason,” Mike said. “Just take care of yourself.”

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