Page 15 of Maximus

The kid couldn’t hide it. Not only did it break my heart, it pissed me right the fuck off.

“Liam. Nice to meet you.”

He didn’t answer, he just moved closer to Eva. A wholly protective maneuver.

Jesus Almighty—this kid!

Chapter 5

“If you work with my mom, why are you all the way here?” Liam asked suspiciously.

“Maybe he likes trains, too,” I cut in.

“Do you?” Liam looked up at Max.

“Trains are okay.” Max shrugged. “But that’s not why I came here.”

What was Max doing? He said he wouldn’t tell the boys the truth. Liam shuffled his way closer to me, which was damn close, and his little body went on alert.

Fucking Max Brown was scaring my son.

“Then wh-why are you here?”

Max’s glittery cold eyes came to mine—pure ice. Yet the burning fire was present. He was angry at something. Oh, well, fuck him, I’m angry, too.

“There’s a veteran exhibit I came to see.”

“What’s that?” Liam asked.

“A veteran is someone who served in the military,” Max quickly explained. “Here at the museum they don’t only have trains, they also have a room with a military display.”

“Oh.”

“Maybe when you’re done looking at the trains, you could have your mom take you in to see it. I’ve heard there’s a cool motorcycle in there.”

Liam glanced up at me, his question clear, so I answered. “If you’d like to see it, we’ll go in.”

My son nodded and Max just stared at him.

What the hell is that about?

“Eli, would you like to see a motorcycle?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

My baby boy; shy and quiet. That had always been Eli. At four, he often deferred to his brother and I wondered if that was a biproduct of the trauma he’d endured, or if Eli simply had a case of big-brother hero worship. Liam had always been the protector, especially in my absence.

“All right. Maybe I’ll see you in there.”

Now, that had been part of the plan, Max agreed not to push the boys into spending time with him. We’d introduce them and wait for the boys to get comfortable. I knew Max wasn’t going to leave to go inside. He’d said he was going to watch us, but do it at a distance so the boys—mainly Liam—couldn’t see him.

“It was great seeing you, Max,” I lied.

It wasn’t great seeing the man, he was the reminder that someone was trying to kill me. An invisible threat that had me lying once again.

God, when does it end? When can I just be normal?

“You, too, Eva. Nice to meet both of you.”