Page 13 of Max

“No, I said it wasn’t what you were used to. You were the one who assumed it was old and beat-up.”

She climbed in and buckled her seatbelt. The inside was comfortable, or at least as comfy as a truck could be. They weren’t made for luxury, really. She learned that real quick driving around in old S10 pickup doing chores on her daddy’s farm.

Max glanced over at her as he slid into the driver’s seat. She studied the inside of his truck like it was a piece of jewelry she was considering buying. He’d cleaned it out yesterday when he got back from his last assignment. The floorboards had been littered with more than a few fast food bags. When you were on the road as much as he was, eating healthy wasn’t easy. Burgers and fries became a road staple.

She looked completely out of place in his big-ass truck. She was a limousine kind of woman, not a country girl who was more at home in a truck or on a tractor. Despite her saying she grew up on a farm, she didn’t belong on that farm anymore.

“Did you find anything aside from fingerprints the police missed?”

“I’m not sure. Kade was handling that. I’ll call him later. If he did find physical evidence they missed, he’s required to report it to the police.”

“Your forensic team couldn’t deal with it?”

“If it’s something that can be used to arrest him, the police need to know right away. Chain of evidence and all that. We do our best to make sure they can’t get off on a technicality.”

“Seems like it would be a chain of evidence technicality if they missed something you found. Any good attorney would have it thrown out.”

“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”

“I play a police officer on TV. I talk to the people who consult to make sure we’re accurate.”

“Are they ex-police?”

“I’m not sure, but I don’t think so.”

“Then they’re not accurate. Talk to Cole of some of our other guys if you really want to know about police procedure.”

“I might take you up on that.”

He glanced over at her and found her staring out the window as he drove. She looked tired. He hated he was bringing her back to an apartment that was going to require hours of cleaning.

“Do you want to stay at a hotel until a service can come in and clean your place? We’d need to vet the service and whoever they sent, but it might be easier than sleeping in a mess.”

“I never use a cleaning service. My mama taught me to clean up after myself.”

A smile tilted his lips at her surly response.

“Normally, I’d shrug it off, but between the break-in and the police, your home is a real mess.”

“And your guys.”

“We don’t make messes. They even righted some of the furniture as they worked. It’s Kade’s first rule when it comes to the forensic team—you don’t leave an environment worse than when you came into it.”

“That’s probably not saying much for mine, then.”

“No, it’s pretty awful.”

“I don’t have scenes to film tomorrow, so I’ll get it straightened.”

“Do you have days off a lot?”

“No.” She shook her head. “It’s a rare week for me. They were concentrating on the wedding and a new storyline they’re setting up for another cast member. I’m only on screen three days this week. Usually I’m on set Monday through Friday every week. We work weekends when it gets close to the holidays so we can take a few days off. Soaps never get the same downtime normal TV shows do who only have to film a season, not new content for every single week of the year.”

“Sounds exhausting.”

“It is.”

Max turned into the garage for her building and parked in one of the two spots that had been given to him for the detail by the building management group. Cole’s Lexus was in the other.

---