Max sat on the couch, flipping through television channels with a bored look on his face. He held up a hand in a halfhearted wave to greet me.

There was no sign of Nathan. “Where is he?”

Max pointed down the hall. “He’s been in there since you left. At least he stopped playing Dark Side of the Moon. I was about to go in there and fling the damn CD player out the window.”

I stomped toward Nathan’s bedroom, but Max’s next statement stopped me.

“We’re going in tomorrow night. Nathan didn’t want me to tell you, but I thought you should know, seeing as it’s your sire and everything we’re going to off.”

So Nathan hadn’t told Max what had transpired the night of the meeting. He must have had his reasons. Maybe Max was as fanatical about the Movement as Nathan had been.

“Why didn’t he want me to know?”

“Probably because he’s crazy about you and doesn’t want you to get hurt.” Max shrugged. “Or maybe he just thinks you’re going to fuck everything up.”

I laughed. “I’ll bet it’s the second one.”

Max dropped the remote and patted the couch beside him. “Come, have a chat with me.”

I really wanted to go into the other room and give Nathan a piece of my mind, but the way Max was looking at me told me that might not be a good idea. I sat next to him, bristling when he wrapped a companionable arm around my shoulder.

“I’m not getting fresh,” he assured me. “I just think better with my arm around a beautiful woman.”

I rolled my eyes. “Then think fast, before I remove that arm.”

“Okay, okay.” He chuckled. “Just let me give you some real quick advice. I’ve known Nathan for a while now. He hasn’t had a girlfriend since, God, I think it was ’84. And she wasn’t what you would call a wild woman. I think she was a CPA.

“The point is, Nathan doesn’t get attached to people, and when he does, he has a tendency to shut down. There’s some scary shit in his past. I’m not even going to pretend to know the whole story. But he won’t let himself get close to anyone. So, if you’re thinking of going in there and tearing him a new one, keep in mind you might hurt him a little more than you intended to. And you’ll just prove his ‘love hurts’ theory right.”

I swallowed hard, remembering words Cyrus had spat in anger. “Max, did Nathan really kill his wife?”

It must have been a secret he was warned not to reveal, because he chewed his lip thoughtfully for a moment.

“Don’t lie to me, Max. I’ll know if you do.” I lifted his arm off my shoulders. “Did Nathan kill his wife?”

Max sighed. “Yes. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.”

“But it wasn’t his fault,” I said, shaking my head. “I mean, he didn’t mean to do it, right?”