Page 33 of Maximus

Liam and Eva echoed their amens, and I quickly turned to leave the hall. I’d heard enough. Fucking hell, I’d heard too much.

More questions. More doubts. More truths about a woman than I ever wanted to know.

* * *

I was sitting on the couch reading an email from Declan, my team leader, when Eva came into the living room.

“If you’re not busy, I’d like to know what happened today.”

I should’ve put her off—I was too raw, too overwhelmed. I needed space and time, two things my current situation wouldn’t allow for.

Without waiting for my answer, Eva sat on the far end of the couch. She pulled her heels up to the edge of the cushion, curled her arms around her shins, and rested her cheek on her knees. She looked so damn small and fragile. Vulnerable within the protective ball she’d folded herself into.

“Are you scared?”

“Yes.”

“Of me?”

Why I’d asked her that, I didn’t know.

“Yes.”

She should be afraid of me—I was a dangerous man. I should’ve left well enough alone. But the thought of her being frightened of me churred my gut. Eva had enough of being scared to last three lifetimes—I didn’t want to add to that.

“I’d never hurt you or the boys.”

“I believe that.”

“Then why are you scared of me?”

“Maybe I’m not scared, maybe I’m more unsure of you. I never know where your mood will take you and when it shifts, it takes on a physical presence. It takes over the room, it fills the air, it presses against my skin, and it either warms me or chills me to my core.”

“Come again?”

“You keep me off-balance. You’re hot and cold. But I do need to thank you for being kind to Liam and Elijah. That hasn’t changed since you first met them. I’m grateful for that. The rest doesn’t really matter.”

What the hell was her game?

“Why do you have your kids pray for Bubba and Zoey?”

Eva’s eyes widened before they narrowed. “You were listening?”

“Yeah.”

There was no sense in bullshitting. I asked her a question, one that I needed the answer to nearly as much as I need oxygen. And she’d never understand how desperately I needed her to answer on the right side of the truth.

“Because what I did to them is horrible. We pray for them so every single night I have to hear my boys say their names and every single night, it hurts. It’s a reminder that I deserve that pain. My penance. But also because I believe in the power of prayer, so yes, we pray for their safety.”

There was so much there to sift through, I wasn’t sure which part to dissect first.

“Why did you do it?”

“You know why.”

She was correct, I did know why—Jay had taken her kids from her. What I didn’t understand was how the hell had the courts awarded the slimeball custody of the boys in the first place. Tex had been unable to uncover how Jay had done it.

“Okay, then tell me how Jay was able to get the boys.”