Page 132 of Maximus

Good Lord, the woman was strong.

“Where are you from?” Owen asked.

“Nowhere.”

“What does that mean, darlin’? Where did Novak take you from?”

“Chicago.”

“We can take you back—”

“No. I can’t go back there. You can just drop me off wherever you’re going.”

“That’s not gonna happen. I’m not leaving you outside an airport.”

“Really—”

“Not gonna happen, Natasha. Get some rest, we’ll figure it out. But I’m not leaving you stranded.”

It was safe to say, I really liked Owen.

“Glad you’re okay, Eva. You gave us all a scare.”

“Um…I’m sorry.” Owen chuckled like he found me amusing. “Thanks for finding me when you did, I was running out of things to talk to Novak about and I was afraid I’d have to crash the plane to get away from him.”

Owen’s features darkened but just as swiftly, he covered his irritation and cleared his anger.

“We were watching. You did a good job.” Then Owen’s face split into a shit-eating grin and he continued. “And I hope to God that shot you got on Gabe’s cheek bruises. I can’t wait to tell Max his woman got the drop on the Great Gabe CQB.”

“CQB?” I asked.

“Close-quarters battle. Gabe’s the best on our team at hand-to-hand combat. No one ever gets the drop on him. Well, that is, until your right hook.”

“Ohmigod. You can’t tell anyone that. I feel bad. I was a little crazy.”

“You shouldn’t feel bad. And besides, Max will be proud as hell to know his woman fought hard.”

That was weirdly nice. And since the last twenty-seven hours—not that I could remember all of them—had been filled with more stress and anxiety than I could handle, I decided not to think about Owen telling Max anything.

Instead, I sat quietly, holding hands with a woman I didn’t know, and watched the clouds fly by.

I was alive.

Chapter 36

“Are we almost to Tex’s?” Liam asked from the back seat and I smiled.

This was not the first road trip I’d taken with Eva and the boys but it was the first one that was for fun.

And strangely, it didn’t bother me that Liam had asked that very question no less than ten times and Elijah had asked double that.

No, I didn’t give the first fuck the boys needed to stop every thirty minutes to use the bathroom. I didn’t care we’d stopped to eat lunch even though we’d had breakfast before we left and the drive to Pennsylvania and Tex’s house was only three hours.

This was because Eva was sitting next to me smiling and happy and my boys were in the back seat and they, too, were smiling.

Life was good.

It had been good before Eva had been taken. But something had changed in those twenty-seven hours she’d been missing. I’d never be able to say I was grateful my woman had been kidnapped, but now I understood Bubba.