Page 31 of Maximus

But it did sting.

Chapter 10

What the hell has Tex gotten me into?

Fucking hell, when Elijah asked Eva if Jay was going to take him again, something inside of me snapped. The unmistakable fear in the little boy’s voice was enough to make me want to take Eva and the boys and hide them away so nothing could ever touch them again.

Christ, the kid was four. Four goddamn years old and scared to death he’s going to be taken from his mother. That fear born from experience.

And Liam, the ever-watchful son and brother. The kid was sharp, he picked up on everything. Sometimes it was hard to remember he was only six.

Then there was Eva. I didn’t have the first idea how to deal with her.

I needed to remember who she was and what she’d done. She was a liar—but was she really? At every turn, she insisted on telling the truth or the closest version of it the situation allowed for. She’d even fessed up about who I really was and why I was with them. Even though she knew that meant Liam would call her out on it.

Now I was making excuses for her, spinning the lies she had indeed told to Bubba and Zoey, excusing them because she wasn’t as horrible as I’d thought. Or, maybe she was a better liar than I thought. Maybe this was what she was best at—manipulating people. She certainly had me twisted in knots and that was damn near impossible to do.

“Let me help Max put a bandage on his shoulder, then we’ll start dinner,” Eva said.

I suppose she was speaking to her kids, but she was looking at me.

Perplexed—that’s what she looked like. She was trying to figure me out—good luck with that, honey— but I’d carefully blanked my expression. Something I was good at.

“I’ll get everything ready,” Liam chimed in excitedly. “Eli, let go of Mom and help me.”

There it was, Liam taking charge. Eva’s brows pinched and I wondered how she felt about her six-year-old playing sentry over his baby brother. Had that protectiveness been born into him, or had he learned that? My guess was Jay had taught him that the hard way.

“You wanna help your brother or do you want to watch TV?” Eva murmured.

“Help.”

“All right.”

Eva set Elijah down, ruffled his hair, and smiled the worst fake grin I’d ever witnessed. Thankfully, the boy didn’t pick up on it and walked to his brother, awaiting instruction on what to do next.

“Liam, set everything on the counter. I won’t be long.” Then Eva turned to me, the fake smile faded and she asked, “Ready?”

“Yep.”

Wordlessly, I made my way back to the bathroom. Eva followed me in and went directly to the vanity. Everything was laid out and ready to go. I pulled my shirt over my head. Now that the glass had been removed, the pain had subsided to a manageable throb.

“Go ahead and clean it with the alcohol,” I told her and gave her my back so she could get to my shoulder wound.

“Isn’t that gonna sting?”

“Yep.”

“I guess that’s better than getting infected,” she murmured.

I heard rustling, and a moment later, she dabbed a wet gauze pad over the gash. Holy fucking hell. I clenched my jaw, ground my molars, and worked to block out the pain. Then I felt it, Eva’s warm breath blowing on the area she just cleaned, followed by a few moments of relief. In that moment, I didn’t care she’d just introduced all sorts of germs that could cause infection. I didn’t care she’d done the exact wrong thing. All I could focus on was that she was the first person in my entire life to ever try to dull my pain.

I didn’t know what to do with that, so I shoved it aside and added it to all of the other shit I didn’t understand about Eva Dawson. A place inside of me that was quickly filling up with all sorts of bits and fragments of information that needed to be dealt with, but I knew I never would.

Eva was a puzzle I didn’t want to solve because if I did, once the pieces came together the picture wouldn’t be what I’d thought. She wouldn’t be the lying bitch—the villain who tried to kill my friend. She’d be a desperate mother, a devastated woman who’d been taken advantage of, a victim in a game she wanted nothing to do with.

I couldn’t deal with that Eva.

For my own peace of mind, she had to remain the villain.