Makhi snorts and says sarcastically, “I know army folk aren’t the smartest tools in the shed, but evenyoumust know how big New Mexico is.”
Vonn is on his feet and drives his fist into Makhi’s jaw before I can intervene.
A chair goes skittering across the room, and Makhi crashes to the ground with a grunt. Vonn must have been too angry to strike where he intended, or he pulled his punch, because Makhi is up again. Usually, when Vonn hits, people stay down.
It turns into a one-sided brawl, and not because Vonn was trained to fight by the government. Makhi does nothing to defend himself or even fight back. He gets up, prolonging the fight, and lets Vonn hit him again and again.
Vonn realizes Makhi isn’t fighting back before I can shove myself between them, pulling his next punch.
With blood dripping from Makhi’s nose and light gray eyes filled with rage, he steps up to Vonn and shoves. “Hit me. Go on. Fucking hit me.”
Vonn lowers his arm to his side. “No.”
Makhi shoves him. And again. When Vonn doesn’t retaliate, he swings a fist at Vonn’s face. Vonn catches Makhi’s wrist before he can land his blow, and nudges him back a step.
Makhi snarls in Vonn’s face. “I know what I did.Ipushed her out of the door. She was afraid and hiding, and right this fucking second, she could be being raped or hit or whatever the fuck some piece of shit did to her that had her flinching and hiding in shadows.”
He’s breathing hard, and the room is silent as he squares up to Vonn and shoves him again, sending Vonn back a half-step.
Vonn grasps him and holds him. “Stop.”
I should have known Makhi was about to blow. He’s been too quiet.
I take a step toward him. “Makhi…”
He rips himself out of Vonn’s grip, growling and cursing. "Fuck!" He kicks the desk. Then a chair. There’s as much rage as there is pain in the curses that fall from his lips.
I move toward him. "It's okay, she--"
"I. Slammed. The. Door. In. Her. Face." He grabs the front of my shirt and shakes me with each snarled word, then shoves me away. "In her fucking face."
He moves to punch the wall. Vonn grabs his shoulder, drags him back, and into his chest. He wraps his arms around Makhi in a bear hug, holding him as Makhi curses and fights to get free.
“Fuckingstop,” Vonn growls. “Just… stop.”
It takes five minutes before Makhi stops fighting Vonn.
“We’ll find her,” Vonn says. “Wewillfind her.”
Makhi looks at him, and his eyes are bleak. “And if she’s dead?”
Vonn hardens his expression. “We’ll make whoever hurt her pay. Let it go now. You fucked up. Do it again, and I’ll fucking kill you. Call me stupid, and I’ll stop pulling my punches.”
Nance, who calmly sat through the brawl on the other side of my desk, looks from Vonn to Makhi and arches her eyebrow. “Now that you’ve gotten that out of your system, can we get back to the task at hand?”
It’s hard not to smile at that.
With blood dripping from his nose, even Makhi cracks a smile. Vonn shakes his head and looks away, but not before I spot the flicker of amusement in his amber gaze.
And the tension that has been growing over the last three days pops.
A germ of an idea takes root in my mind. “Other people would have been on the bus.”
Everyone looks at me.
I explain. “It’s a long shot, but maybe someone got on at the same stop she did. Nance, you know more locals than we do. Who do you know in town with relatives from New Mexico?”
Chapter 4
