Page 10 of Maximus

“There’s a hit out on you, Eva.”

Oh, fuck.

It was questionable which one of us, Max or me, tensed more. It looked like every muscle in his body had frozen, but every cell in mine burned.

“Wh-what?” I stammered.

“Who put out the hit?” Max inquired angrily.

“I’m still working on finding who put out the contract. The payout is low so there weren’t that many bites. But someone finally put in a bid, it was accepted this morning. You have a hitman-for-hire now hunting Eva.”

“Um… are you sure? You could be wrong, right?”

Dear God, I sounded like an idiot but my mind was buzzing. A hitman?

“Wish I were, Eva, but I’m not wrong.”

“I haven’t done anything,” I blurted out. “I swear it.”

Max’s glacial stare was still watchful, but now there was a sliver of pity.

God. I didn’t want his pity. I didn’t want anyone’s. I just wanted to be left alone me and my boys.

“The boys!”

“The contract is for one hit—you,” Tex gently told me.

“But just like before, they’ll use my boys, they’ll hurt—”

“Calm down, Eva,” Max snapped.

“Don’t you tell me to calm down. My boys are in danger—again. Because of me.”

I was up for the worst mother of the year. Fuck that, worst mother in history. Guilt flowed through my body and fear pounded in my chest.

Not my boys—not again. They’d been through enough because of me.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you or them,” Max vowed. “Tex, how much time do you think we have?”

“You know I can’t tell you that. I tracked the IP to Idaho, but that means nothing. Though with the low payout, I doubt we’re dealing with a professional.”

Low payout, oh my God. I’m not even worth the cost of a professional.

“Keep digging and call us back,” Max told Tex.

“Stay safe.”

Tex disconnected and Max set his phone down and studied me. Not that he hadn’t been focusing on me through the conversation, but now he seemed to be working something out in his mind.

“You’re gonna take a vacation.”

“What?”

“That’s how we’re gonna play this with the boys.”

My boys!

“I need to go get them from daycare—”