Maximus

by Riley Edwards

  “Whose idea was it for you to become a pilot?”

  “His. Jay said I needed to go back to work, he was tired of supporting us on his own. He said he’d pay for the flying lessons. I felt guilty because he had been supporting us for almost three years. So I went along with his plan and became a pilot, which are always needed in Alaska. I had a job with a private charter company a month after I finished my mandatory hours.”

  “Did you like it?”

  “I hated it. But I made decent money. Then I started planning my escape. I was in hell and I wanted out. Having a job was going to make it possible.”

  Until it wasn’t, because I was fired.

  “Why’d you agree to run drugs for him?”

  There it was—I was a convicted drug trafficker. Well, sort of; I was arrested, convicted, and served time, but my charges had been reduced, thanks to one of Jay’s buddies who was a lawyer and owed him a favor. But there was more to it than that. It was Jay’s scheming, all the way down.

  “I didn’t. It was all bullshit. I was set up. I didn’t know there were drugs in my plane. And not that anyone would’ve believed me, but Jay planted them there, then he was the one that called it in and tipped off the authorities. Just enough to get me busted, but not enough for me to do any real time.”

  “What the fuck? I read the arrest report and the trial notes, why didn’t you fight the charges? You pled guilty.”

  “Can we stop talking about this?”

  Max’s features softened and for a moment I thought he was going to acquiesce, but then he frowned and I knew he wasn’t going to let up.

  “This is important.”

  “Why is it important for you to hear about what a fool I am?”

  “Do you think you’re so unique you’re the first woman to be snowed by a con-man?”

  “No, but I wasn’t snowed. I was buried in an avalanche. Most women are smart enough to get out long before I did.”

  “You did what you could—”

  “I stayed with him for three years after the first time I saw him deal drugs. I was pregnant with Eli. I should’ve taken Liam and ran then. But I didn’t, I stayed. That is not doing what I could, Max, that’s just plain ridiculousness.”

  “So he used your arrest record to get custody?”

  “Yes. But Jay had dirt on the judge, so he was gonna get the kids no matter what. His whole plan hinged on me losing the kids. Once that happened, he had full control.”

  “Why’d he want them?”

  “He had four thousand pounds of cocaine he and his partner, Novak Yazzie, wanted me to fly down to Seattle for them.”

  Max let out a low whistle and his eyes widened. “Seriously?”

  I didn’t answer his question. Instead, I told him, “One-thousand-fourteen kilos. Four-point-five million dollars. I refused. He burned Liam. I went to the DEA. I wanted to make a deal, but they were taking too long. Then suddenly Jay had a different plan—if I paid him three-hundred-thousand dollars, he’d give me back the kids.”

  “That’s when you—”

  “Yes, that is when I was hired to leave Mark and Zoey in the middle of nowhere.”

  I couldn’t bring myself to say the truth out loud. I was hired to kill them. Leaving them stranded in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness would’ve been certain death for the average person. Thankfully, Mark Wright wasn’t your everyday average man, he was a highly trained SEAL, and he and Zoey had survived.

  “Fuck.” Max tore his fingers through his hair and he shook his head. “You weren’t supposed to strand Bubba and Zoey. All three of you were supposed to die. Malcom Wright’s plan didn’t work if his brother was only missing. He needed him dead. Malcom and Tracy Eklund had no intention of paying you. Hell, Eva, they didn’t have the money.”

  I tried to keep my face blank. I was afraid of what it said about me if I allowed my hurt to surface. After all, I’d tried to kill Mark Wright and Zoey Knight. Why shouldn’t I have died right along with them?

  “You didn’t know?” Max inquired.

  “That I was supposed to die? Yeah, I knew. When I got to Seattle and reported the job was done, she told me, she never had the money I was promised. Though I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s not like criminals and assholes keep their word.”

  “What else did she say?”

  “No more, Max. I’ve told you enough and you’ve yet to tell me what happened at the restaurant.”

  There was no chance in hell I was talking about sitting alone in that stupid, fucking hotel room in Seattle knowing, knowing, my life was over. The deal that Jay had set up had gone to shit. I wasn’t going to get the money to pay him off. I was beyond crushed—at my absolute lowest. I didn’t know what Jay was going to do, but I didn’t think I’d ever see my kids again. I would never admit to him or anyone what I was contemplating in that room.

  “This is important, Eva. I need all the facts, every detail. I can imagine this is hard—”

  “You cannot imagine shit, Max. You can’t begin to know what it feels like to have your heart ripped from your body. My children were in danger and I was literally powerless to help them. I was hundreds of miles from them and they were in the hands of a monster. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t think of anything other than my babies being tortured by a ruthless man who hated me so much he’d do anything to hurt me. Any-damn-thing, including physically hurting my kids. So, no, you don’t know what I was going through, you can’t imagine, and you have no fucking clue what I’m still going through. That there’s not a day that’s gone by I don’t remember what happened to them. Not a night I don’t lie in my bed and know down deep into my soul that it is because of me that my children suffered. Every time I help Liam dress, I see the marks Jay left on my son’s arms. I see them. My little boy has physical reminders of what that motherfucker did to him and he will for the rest of his life.

  “And I will never forget that I nearly killed Mark and Zoey. Thank God, Mark had his pockets full of—”

  “What about Bubba’s pockets?” Max stopped my tirade.

  “The pockets of his cargo pants were stuffed full. I saw him at the vending machine before I went out to do my pre-flight check. He pulled out a compass and a flint. I think he was looking for change or something. Anyway, I knew he was a SEAL and I prayed that whatever else he had in those pockets would keep him and Zoey alive until someone found them.”

  “You knew he was a SEAL?” Max asked incredulously.

  “I looked him up on the internet. I found an article about Heritage Plastics. An interview where Colin Wright boasted about his son, Mark Wright, being a Navy SEAL and his other son, Mark’s twin, Malcom, being his right-hand man in the business. Colin was proud of both of his sons.”

  It was a horrible thought, but thankfully, Colin had passed away before he knew that it was his son Malcom who’d tried to kill Mark. Though, Malcom had killed Colin, so maybe my thinking was wrong. In a perfect world, Colin would still be alive and Malcom wouldn’t have been a greedy, lowlife swine.

  “What do you know about Malcom and Tracy?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Has anyone from Alaska been in touch with you since you moved to Florida?”

  “No. Now, please tell me about the explosion?”

  “It was your car,” he said without preamble.

  “What?”

  “Your car blew up. Tex thought there might’ve been a tracking device on your car and asked me to go check it over. That’s what I was doing outside.”

  My ass was up off the couch. I spun in a circle, undecided why I was up and where I was going. I just couldn’t sit anymore. I couldn’t live under this cloud any longer.

  “Whoa!” Max was up, his hand shot out, and he grabbed my arm before I could flee. Not that I would’ve been able to go far, I was locked in a fucking safehouse, my boys in the other room, all of us under threat.

  “Let go of me.”

  “Calm down.”

  “Calm is a thing of the
past, Max. Someone blew up my car. My boys…” I tried to yank my arm free but he held tight. “They could’ve…”

  “But they didn’t. Right now, they’re down the hall asleep, something they’re not gonna be if you keep shouting.”

  I clamped my mouth closed and stared up at Max—jaw tight, mouth hard, eyes narrowed. I was so sick and tired of being on the receiving end of his scowl.

  “God, you’re always mad at me,” I blurted.

  “Come again?”

  “Never mind, it doesn’t matter,” I mumbled, and his scowl deepened. Time to move on. “Why did Tex think my car had a tracking device?”

  “Eva?” Max’s hand tightened around my bicep before it trailed down my arm and he captured my hand and tugged me forward. I stumbled into him. My free hand shot forward and landed on an impressive hard, wall of muscle. It was either that or faceplant into his chest. “Tell me why you think I’m always mad at you.”

  There was a lot going on in my muddled mind. I was raw from over-sharing, scared, emotional, and now I was utterly confused. Why on earth would he care what I thought? Max wasn’t with me to make friends. He was there to play bodyguard—as a favor to his friend, no less.

  I seriously needed to watch what I said to Max.

  Bodyguard. That’s all he was, all he’d ever be.

  Chapter 12

  I was very aware of Eva’s palm on my chest and her hand in mine. So goddamn aware, my body was reacting to her touch in ways I couldn’t explain. She was looking up at me with wide, scared eyes and damn, if I didn’t want to soothe the fear.

  I probably should’ve found a better way to tell her about her car. I’d been told a time or a hundred I lacked finesse. Under normal circumstances, I found pussyfooting around a subject a waste of time. Shit was what it was, so why waste time sugarcoating it?

  Life happens—you deal and move on.

  But watching Eva’s face grow pale and her eyes go guarded churned my stomach. I should’ve found a way to break the news gently. And the mere recognition of that made me wonder what in the hell was wrong with me. I wasn’t a complete asshole but I dealt in facts, not emotions. And the fact was, her car had been used as a bomb. But fuck if it didn’t suck watching her take in that information and try to process it.

  Of course her mind went immediately to her boys. They’d indeed been in that car not even thirty minutes before it exploded.

  That thought ate at me. Why the fuck hadn’t I checked her car before we’d left Georgia? I knew better and my lack of attention to detail could’ve gotten them killed. I’d been too caught up in giving Eva what she wanted that I’d let her call the shots.

  That shit had to end.

  From there on out, I was in charge. No more bullshit games.

  “It really doesn’t matter, Max,” she whispered. “Just please tell me why Tex thought my car was being tracked.”

  “You keep saying it doesn’t matter, but it does. You said you weren’t afraid of me. So why do you think I’m always mad at you?”

  “Because you’re constantly scowling at me. I know you don’t like me and I don’t blame you. I’ve done things I’m ashamed of. I’ve made more than my fair share of bad decisions. But I’m not a bad person. Everything I’ve done was in an effort to protect my kids. Everything, Max. Jay infiltrated my life and once he was in it, I couldn’t get him out. He was a cancer that ate away at my soul. I hated everything about him, everything about the person I had to become to get my boys away from him. But since Tex… I haven’t done one single thing that I’m not proud of.”

  Her hand in mine tensed and her fingers flexed against my chest. Another reminder I’d pulled her close, and not because I didn’t want her to flee. I’d simply wanted all of her attention. And if I was being honest, I’d wanted to touch her since I’d walked into her living room. Even knowing what she’d done to Bubba and Zoey, I couldn’t help the attraction. And the truth was, that made me feel like a disloyal dick. Mark Wright was a friend and by extension, so was Zoey.

  I should not want to touch this woman. I shouldn’t want her close, I shouldn’t want to make her feel better, and I sure as fuck shouldn’t want to lean down and kiss the hell out of her. But I wanted all of these things with an unhealthy desperation.

  Maybe that’s why I was always frowning. Because I could not for the life of me figure out why I would be infatuated with Eva Dawson.

  But there it fucking was—a spark of interest that I couldn’t stop. And the hell of it was, it was more than lust. Eva intrigued me. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know I had mommy issues. I’d grown up with a shit mother, so maybe my infatuation had to do with how she was with Liam and Elijah.

  Yeah, asshole, keep telling yourself that big honkin’ lie.

  “I don’t dislike you,” I told her.

  Disbelieving eyes met mine and a small, deprecating smile tipped her lips.

  “Right.”

  “Straight up, Eva, what you did to Bubba and Zoey was jacked. But believe it or not, they understand why you did it. Which I’ll admit, until I met you and heard you explain why you did it—rather than reading it in a report—I did not understand how they could’ve forgiven you. But they have. Tex saw something good in you, and I know you don’t know the man all that well, so let me explain this to you—Tex is as loyal as they come. If he didn’t believe with a hundred percent conviction you were a good person made to do something unbelievably shitty, he would’ve let you rot in jail. What he wouldn’t’ve done was save your ass. He would’ve gotten your boys help, because that’s the type of man he is, but he wouldn’t’ve busted his ass to protect you.

  “I’m telling you all of that to say this—I understand why you did what you did. Beyond that, I respect how much you love your boys. The lengths you’ll go to protect them I admire. I didn’t have a good mom. Mine was pretty much the opposite of everything that you are. So I’m telling you, I do not dislike you. I’m not scowling at you. I’m simply not finding anything to smile about. The situation you’ve been put in is fucked. I’m not being nosy asking you personal questions, I’m trying to gather as much information as I can to catch the motherfucker who is after you. That’s the only way I can make you and the boys safe.”

  Eva remained silent, either from stubbornness or disbelief. Either way, I didn’t have time to convince her I was being honest, and frankly, I hated having to prove to people I was being honest. Either they trusted my word or they didn’t. The irony of that wasn’t lost on me. I trusted no one until they demonstrated I could, and even after that, I rarely extended the gesture.

  “Tex sent in a team to intercept the man who accepted the contract to take you out.” Good Lord, those words tasted foul. “Intel says Chris Peters is on a flight to Florida. One man went to the airport to look for him as he disembarked. The others went to your house. When they opened the front door, they smelled gas.” I paused and waited for her to digest the new information.

  I didn’t get to continue. Eva’s eyes turned glassy and wetness pooled before the first fat tear slid down her cheek.

  “Why?” The question was barely audible—more like a warm puff of breath that I felt wash over me. The feel of it crawled inside and seeped so deep I didn’t think I’d ever forget her terrified whisper.

  “I don’t know, babe, but I promise you I’m gonna find out.”

  “Wait.” Eva’s brows drew together and I knew the moment she figured it out—her palm on my chest spasmed right before she fisted my tee. “If that Chris guy wasn’t in Florida yet, why did my house smell like gas? Was there a leak?”

  “No, Eva. Someone set your house to explode.”

  “But…but Tex said…”

  I was losing her, I knew it when her eyes went wild, her lips stretched into two flat lines, and the unshed tears started to fall. I couldn’t watch Eva crumble, so I did something incredibly stupid and pulled her into my arms and held her tight.

  I learned two things: Eva’s body pressed against mine, arms
wrapped around me, cheek to my chest, felt fucking great. The other was even more disconcerting—she fit perfectly. Her petite frame molded to my larger one and her head tucked under my chin. She felt right, almost as if she was made to be there. The perfect size to hold and protect.

  “Babe, we’re gonna figure this out.”

  “You already said that,” she hiccupped.

  “And I’ll keep saying it until you believe it.”

  “When?”

  “When, what?”

  “When will this be over? When can me and my boys just live? Be normal? That’s all I want, Max. I want them to be safe, to live a normal, happy life. And I feel like every time I get close to being able to give them that, something happens.”

  I had no answers, so I remained quiet. The silence stretched, and with every passing second that ticked, Eva relaxed until her erratic breathing evened out. Her head tilted up, mine tipped down, and goddamn, her mouth was a hair’s breadth away. Right fucking there—so close I could feel her breath on my lips.

  So wrong.

  So achingly beautiful.

  “Max,” she whispered my name and before I could stop myself, my lips were on hers.

  There was no hesitation. Eva’s mouth opened, her tongue brushed mine, and I was lost. One taste was all it took. The salt from her tears mixed with the apple juice she had with dinner. Salty and sweet—a deadly combination I couldn’t get enough of. I took more until Eva was whimpering, the sound snapping my control. My hands went to her ass, lifted, and her legs wrapped around my hips.

  There was nothing gentle about this kiss. No finesse, no long, slow seduction. All tongues and teeth, clashing, battling, violent passion. Need took over common sense and I was walking down the hall toward the bedroom. I waited for Eva to protest, to stop the madness before it went any further. But by the time I had the door closed, locked, her back pressed against the wall, she was yanking my shirt up and grinding down on my cock.

  Fuck this, there was a perfectly good bed five feet away and I needed her naked and under me with a craving I’d never felt.