Page 34 of Maximus

“Why does it matter?”

That was something I wasn’t willing to answer.

It shouldn’t have had any bearing over the mission and really, it didn’t change a damn thing about how I was going to keep her safe. But I cared, probably too much.

Chapter 11

This was not how I pictured my evening.

I went back to the living room after the boys were asleep to find out the details about the explosion at the restaurant. There was also the small detail of my car. With the fleeing for our lives, and the safehouse, and Max being hurt, it seemed rather insignificant at the time. I mean, Max was injured and bleeding and he’d gotten that way protecting us.

Not even I was naïve enough to think that an explosion at an eatery I happened to be dining at could be a coincidence. I liked to live in denial most of the time, like believing the best in people and not paying attention to huge red flashing neon warning signs, but I wasn’t dumb.

“Humor me.” Max’s nonchalance pissed me right the hell off.

“Humor you?” I spat. “Seriously, you want me to spill my guts, for what? Your entertainment?”

“There’s not a damn thing entertaining about children being taken from their mother.” Every muscle in my body seized at his angry tone. “I need to understand how a judge awarded a drug dealing, money laundering prick custody of two boys—one of them not even his blood.”

“Have you ever been to Kenai, Alaska?” I found myself asking.

“Nope.”

“Picture this, the prettiest little town you’ve ever seen. Cook Inlet and all its beauty. The Kenai River so blue-green you wouldn’t believe. Except at sunset, when the Kenai turns pink. Mount Redoubt in the distance, tall and proud, a beacon of splendor. Beauty all around you, Mother Nature at her finest. The whitest of whites. The deepest greens and yellows. Eagles soar, whales play, salmon run, trout plentiful. Glaciers and brilliant, vivid wildflowers in bloom, the contrast is mind-blowing.”

“It sounds beautiful.”

Beautiful didn’t begin to describe the majesty. Nor could I begin to explain the magnitude of the pain that had sliced me to shreds while living amongst all that magnificence.

“It is. There is so much to love about Kenai. About Alaska.”

Though there was way more for me to hate.

“I’m not understanding how that has to do with—”

“Population under eight-thousand,” I interrupted. “Now, that sounds like a lot of people, but it’s not. Not when you’re involved with the criminal underbelly. Jay had a knack for collecting favors. But he was better at collecting dirt. And once Jay had something on you, you were screwed. He played the long game, he’d bide his time, hold his cards, and wait for the perfect time.”

And when Jay found his perfect time, he brought me to my knees.

“So he blackmailed someone,” Max surmised.

“A lot of someones.”

“What happened when you were arrested?”

Whoa! That was a cold hard slap.

But of course he knew. He knew everything about me and I knew nothing about him.

And the way Max framed his question annoyed me—he sounded so casual, like he was asking about the weather, not one of the worst days of my life. Yet surprisingly, his tone didn’t hold any of the disgust I felt for myself.

Disgust and shame seemed to be the running themes of my life. I swallowed down the humiliation, cleared my throat, and with my palms sticky with sweat, I explained.

“Jay set me up. Start to finish. He played me, but it began long before I was arrested. When I met Jay, I was eighteen, pregnant with Liam. He was just some guy who came into the sporting goods store where I worked. Looking back, I see it; he went out of his way to be nice to me. Every time he came in, he asked me how I was feeling, then after Liam was born, he’d ask about him, too. But of course he knew who I was—who my parents were—so I’m positive he saw me as an easy mark.”

“Who are your parents?”

My arms tensed around my legs, pressing my knees tighter to my chest. My heart pounded so hard I felt the beat against my thighs as I curled into myself.