Max dips his head and presses his forehead to mine. “I told you
before, I could never be angry with you, baby. You are who you are.
I was angry at myself for not managing the situation better, but the
minute we stepped through the door I put it aside. You were so wound
up I thought you could handle something more intense. I am a violent
man, but I don’t want you ever to worry that I’ll be violent with you. I
would rather cut off my hand than hurt you.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. “Okay.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
“I think I just need a bit of time.”
His brow creases with worry. “Are you…do you want to—”
I kiss him softly. “No, Max. I’m not running away this time.”
Chapter 23
You Didn't Trust Me
We make it back to the club just before opening. I have just prepped
the first aid room when my phone vibrates. I check the Caller ID. Max.
He tried to be respectful of my need to be alone on our trip home, but
now that we’re back, my brief respite appears to be over.
....
Where are u?
First aid room. U know this **raises eyebrows**
Just checking
Okay
Do you need anything?
No, thanks
Medical supplies?
No
Are you thirsty?
No
Hungry?
No
Cold?
No
Lonely?
No
I miss you
U just saw me ten minutes ago
Ten minutes is a long time
This is true
Do you need more time alone?
If I did, I wouldn’t be here
Good. I’m coming to see you
Bad Max. Injured fighters only
I am injured
U r not **folds arms**
I need minx medicine
Have to go. Amanda calling
.....
Within ten seconds of speaking to Amanda on the phone, I deduce she
is drunk. She only ever calls me Makayla when she is over her limit.
“What have you been up to this afternoon?” I ask, after she mumbles
something unintelligible into the phone. “It’s only seven o’clock on a
Saturday night. You’re wasting your weekend.”
“We settled a big case and the clients took us out for a few drinks.”
“On a Saturday?”
“Time has no meaning in a law firm,” she admonishes me. “You
know that.”
“Where are you now?”
She giggles. “In a cab on my way to the Geek Club. I need to speak
to Jake. I want to know if we would have had a chance if I hadn’t called
a break.”
Oh God. “You don’t want to do that, honey. He’s done with you.
He’s moved on. You’re just going to embarrass yourself and get hurt in
the process.”
“I need closure,” she snaps. “I need to understand what went wrong.
How could he choose that skinny society bitch over me?”
“You hurt him.”
“I didn’t mean to,” she says quietly.
I fiddle with my first aid kit, repacking things that don’t need
packing. “Couldn’t you go another night? Maybe when you haven’t
been drinking all afternoon? Max and I could come with you.”
“I’m going now. I need to get it over with.”
I ball my skirt in my fist. “You can’t go there alone. It’s dangerous.
She groans into the phone. “Seriously? You worry too much. I’ll go
in, see if he’s there. If he is, I’ll talk to him, and leave. I’m not sticking
around for the fights. And it’s not like I’m going alone to Ghost Town.
It’s an upscale residential neighborhood. What could possibly happen?”
“Something bad enough to cause Max to make me promise never
to go there again.”
Amanda snorts a laugh. “If Max had his way he would probably
wrap you in cotton and lock you up so nothing could ever happen to
you. He takes overprotectiveness to the extreme.”
“He’s not that bad.”
“Just sayin’.”
“If I wanted to do something dangerous, he wouldn’t stop me,” I
lie. “We have an open relationship. We would discuss it and he would
understand my point of view.”
“I thought I was the inebriated person in this conversation,” she
laughs. Amanda knows me too well to be fooled. “Have a nice evening
surrounded by hot, sweaty men.”
“Wait,” I bark into the phone. “I’ll come with you. Promise you
won’t go in until I get there.”
“Don’t you have to work?”
“I’m not leaving my best friend to wander drunk into a dangerous
fight club looking for an altercation with her ex.”
“You’re so sweet,” she sighs. “I remember seeing a bus stop about
half a block away. I’ll wait for you there. DO NOT tell Max where you
are going. I don’t want him to tip off Jake.”
“But—”
“If you tell him, don’t bother coming. If I find out Jake skipped out
because you couldn’t keep a secret, I’ll be so mad at you…”
My heart sinks. “Just promise you won’t go in without me.”
“Pinky promise.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Max?” I knock on the door to his office and peek inside. Max
points to the phone in his hand and waves me in.
I take a seat on the big, comfy leather chair in front of his desk
and wait for him to finish his call. His office reminds me of his suite
upstairs—polished wood floors, exposed brick walls, modern fittings,
and the big oak desk covered in D-rings. Only the paintings on the wall
behind him don’t fit with the wood and stone decor. Both are framed
tribal prints, one red and one green. They remind me of his tattoos.
“Minx. What’s up?” Max asks after he finishes his call.
I bite my lip and stare at the floor. The lie I had prepared sours on
my tongue. I don’t want to lie to Max, but I can’t let Amanda go into
the Geek Club alone. Maybe I can fudge it.
“What’s wrong?” Max voice drops, and I look up just as his
brow furrows.
“Amanda needs me,” I say in a rush. “She’s about to do some-
thing crazy. I know this is unprofessional, and I would never normally
ever ask—”
“Go, baby. I’ll find someone to cover for you.”
My tension lifts and I exhale the breath I didn’t realize I was
holding. “Aren’t you going to ask where or why?”
Max grins. “I trust you. I can be reasonable, except when it comes
to your safety.”
My lungs tighten. I could have dealt with angry, shouting Max,
but his kind understanding is almost too much too bear. I am an awful,
horrible person. I am betraying his trust. He deserves better than me.
I push myself up and ’round his desk. “Thank you.” I press a kiss
to his forehead, but before I can turn away, he sweeps me into his lap.
“That’s all I get?” he teases, and his dark eyes warm. “I suffer
through an afternoon of silence and manage to restrain myself when my
girl wants to disappear on a mysteri
ous errand, and all I get is a kiss on
the forehead?”
“Maybe you get a kiss on the cheek, too.” I brush my lips over his
cheek, scratchy with his five o’clock shadow and smelling deliciously
of cologne.
Max frowns and twists his lips. “Hmmm.”
“Maybe you get a kiss here, too.” I trace the outline of his lips with
the tip of my tongue and nibble and suck his bottom lip. When he
threads his fingers through my hair to pull me closer, I press my lips
against his and dip my tongue into his warmth. Max moans into my
mouth. A hot surge of need rushes through me.
My phone rings and I look over at my purse on the chair. What if
Amanda decided not to wait?
“I’d better go.” I push myself away but Max holds me firm.
“I might need more convincing.” He kisses me so hard and deep,
my toes curl.
My phone rings again, and I wiggle off his lap. “That’s probably
Amanda.” I race over to the chair, grab my phone on the last ring, and
accept the call. “Amanda. Don’t you dare go without me,” I bark into
the receiver.
“Ms. Delaney. Name is Ty. I’m a collector at Collections R Us. I’ve
taken over your file from Sergio. Says here you missed a payment on
Monday. I’m after our money.”
My blood runs cold. “Where’s Sergio? Why are you calling me
now?” I can’t disguise the horror in my voice.
“You know why I’m calling.” His voice is low, rough, and nothing
short of menacing. “Sergio is away to deal with a family emergency. I’m
handling his files for him, and I want the fucking money.”
“But…it’s Saturday night…you’re harassing me.”
Ty makes a tsk tsk sound. “I’ll fucking call you whenever I fucking
want you little deadbeat. Don’t think you’ll be putting me off the way
you did to Serge. You had him twisted around your little finger but that
crap doesn’t work with me. The money better be in our account first
thing Monday morning or I’ll be taking a part of your paycheck for
the rest of your fucking life and selling your parents’ house so fast they
won’t know what hit them.”
My hands shake so hard I have to grip the chair. “You aren’t allowed
to threaten me. I’ll report you.”
He snorts a laugh. “Christ. Like I haven’t heard that one before.
How are you going to prove it? You got a record of this call? No fucking
way. You got money to go to court? I don’t think so. I want my money
honey or you and I will have a date at your workplace Monday morning
eight a.m.”
“Please,” I choke back a sob. “You’ll have your money. Just please
leave my parents alone and don’t come to my work…”
Work. Oh. My. God. I’m in Max’s office.
I spin around. Max is standing behind me, only a few feet away.
When I catch his gaze, his expression hardens into stone.
“Give me the phone.” His face and his voice command compliance,
and right now, I’m not up for a fight.
“I have someone who wants to speak to you,” I say to Ty. I hand
over the phone.
“Who is this?” Max thunders.
Ty talks for at least a minute. Max’s lips press into a thin line. His
body stills. His face turns purple. Anger rolls off him in waves. His fury
at my strip poker shenanigans was nothing compared to this. My thighs
quiver and I curl up in the chair with my arms wrapped tight around
my knees.
“Tell me how much? The full amount.” After thirty seconds, he
barks, “You’ll have your money on Friday and you will NEVER contact
her again. Give me the account details.” He stalks over to his desk and
writes the numbers on a piece of paper, and then he ends the call.
I shake my head. “I can’t take your money, Max.”
“You will.”
“It’s my problem. I’ll deal with it.”
His jaw clenches. “You don’t deal with people like that. He’ll run
you into the ground and your parents too.”
I nod and tears trickle down my cheeks. “That’s why I needed the
second job.”
His face stills and my heart skips a beat.
“So take the money,” he shouts. “My company makes more than
that in an afternoon.”
“I can’t. I don’t want you to ever think it was about the money.”
He closes his eyes and takes several deep breaths. “I know that,
baby. I never thought for one minute you were like the others.”
“I forbid you to make that payment, Max. If you do, I’ll never
speak to you again. I’ll find a way out of it myself. I don’t want to be
indebted to you. I don’t want to feel I owe you anything.” And I have
to know I can walk away. If there was one thing I learned as a child, it
was that.
“Aaaargh.” Max throws the phone against the wall. I jump at the
sharp crack as it hits the exposed brick and slides to the floor with a soft
thud. “Of all the stubborn, irrational…”
He rounds on me, striding toward my chair in a blaze of fury. “Why
didn’t you tell me? After what they did to my family, how could you not
let me know they were after you?”
I exhale a long, slow breath. “It wasn’t him before. It was a guy
named Sergio. He was different. More accommodating. We had a bit of
give-and-take going. And with the second job I was pretty sure I could
make the payments. There was no reason to involve you. And after you
told me about your family, I didn’t want to put you through anything
like that again.”
“Christ.” Max rakes his hand through his hair. “Do you even under-
stand? He will stop at NOTHING to get his money. I went through
this when I was fourteen. He will harass you and torment you. He will
show up at your work, your home, even if you go for a walk in the park.
He will make your life a living hell.”
“I’ll find a way. If it means I have to get another two jobs, then
that’s what I’ll do. I owe the money. I intend to pay it back. If he had
just let me make reasonable payments, it would have been fine. Plus I’ve
filed all sorts of appeals and Amanda’s going to help me out. She’s just
finished a big trial.”
“Take the money and pay me back.”
“I don’t want to owe you anything. My mother never borrowed a
cent off anyone. Even when things were at their worst, she always found
a way to get by. I admired her for that. I would be happy to have half
her character.”
Max slams his hand against the wall. “You didn’t trust me. Again.
You didn’t think I could help you. No matter what I do, you won’t let
me in.”
“That’s not true.”
He pulls open his door and looks back over his shoulder. “I am
paying that debt, Makayla whether you want it or not. I will not let you
suffer the way my family suffered. I won’t have him chasing after you or
threaten your life. I’ll save you even if it means losing you.”
The door swings closed. I am alone.
An hour later my cab pulls up at the bus stop outside the Geek Club.
I have tested my phone
and although it seems to have a few glitches, I
have been able to text Amanda, check the weather, and find the nearest
pizza joint.
I step out of the cab, and Amanda tosses the driver a roll of bills
and then throws her arms around me. “I’m so sorry you had a fight with
Max. I can’t believe you still came.”
My bottom lip quivers and I fight back the tears. I can cry later.
Right now, Amanda needs me.
We walk up the sidewalk to the Geek Club. Light shines from the
edges of the blacked-out windows, and loud punk music almost drowns
out the sounds of the fight going on inside. The night is cool and still.
Wind brushes through the treetops. The street is eerily deserted.
The side door is locked with no attendant in sight. Amanda sug-
gests we walk around the garage and look for another entrance. We slip
through a side gate and follow the wall around to the backyard. I am
about to turn the corner when Amanda grips my shoulder and pulls me
back behind a bush. The hushed murmur of voices carries toward us,
and I peek through the leaves to see what’s going on.
Three men, all wearing jeans and dark T-shirts are huddled in the
corner. One man opens a shopping bag and pulls out four brick-size
packages containing what looks like white powder.
Oh. My. God. I gasp in a breath and stagger backward, pulling
Amanda with me. “Drug deal,” I whisper. “We have to get out of
here.” We turn to run, only to find the gate blocked by a bald giant in
a leather jacket.
I grab Amanda’s hand and we run back into the garden. I glance
over my shoulder. The bruiser has been joined by the three drug dealers,
and they are gaining on us. I wheeze in breath after breath and stumble
over a toy truck and onto my knees. Amanda hauls me up and we keep
running. The fence in front of us is about eight feet high and scalable if
we find a foothold.
Wham. Someone slams into me from behind and throws me up
against the fence. A thick hand clamps around my neck and I suck
frantically, trying to get air.
“Gotcha.” My captor leans in to stare at me, his bald pate glistening
in the moonlight. A smile creases his round, heavy face and his jowls
jiggle as he laughs. His breath smells of garlic and onions. He brushes
his humongous red nose against my cheek and sniffs as if he’s looking
for truffles. I name him Pig.