Page 6 of Maximus

My body sagged with relief. That was good news. No, great news. Tex was being over-protective and Max would be on his way.

“Then I don’t need protection.”

“I didn’t say that. I said no one was following you, not that someone wasn’t planning on hurting you.”

Well, that was just peachy.

“You don’t beat around the bush, do you?”

His cold blue eyes narrowed and I fought the urge to shrink away.

Never again will I cower to a man.

“Would you rather I blew smoke up your ass and let you go on your merry way, continuing to walk around with your head down, completely oblivious to what’s going on around you? So if there is a threat you don’t see it coming? Because I gotta tell you, you’re an easy mark. I could’ve snatched your ass from work fifty different ways and you would’ve never seen me coming. Which, after reading the report I have on you, surprises the shit out of me. You’re no stranger to trouble. I’d think someone like you would have more sense than to walk around in a haze.”

Acid burned in my veins. Shame and guilt.

He knew about my past. Knew what I’d done and what I allowed myself to get pulled into. That’s why he was looking at me with disgust when I opened the door. Of course he’d think I was an easy mark because I had been one my whole miserable life.

But not anymore. Never fucking again would someone make me weak.

Chapter 2

Whatever was going through Eva’s mind looked painful. Not that I understood why she looked like what I said gutted her. Everything had been the truth.

She needed to pay attention. And someone with her past should know better than to let her guard down.

“And another thing,” I continued. “When you drop the boys off at daycare—”

“Say again?”

“Daycare, Eva. You need to park in the lot. Not on the street.”

The change in her was immediate. Steel infused her spine, her yellow-green eyes fired to life, and she took a step closer to me.

“You were watching my kids?” she growled. The sound guttural, feral, enraged.

Holy fuck, this little slip of a woman was going head-to-head with me.

She looked poised to attack, which was laughable, considering I could not only contain her, but take her out without effort. But there she was, in full-on mama bear battle mode.

Christ. I wasn’t sure what to think. I didn’t trust this woman, didn’t know her—and what I did know I didn’t like—but damn, I was impressed.

“I was watching you, which one could deduce means I saw you with your children. But my intent was to—”

“Follow me. Right, I know. To recon. But what that really means is, you wanted to make sure I was keeping on the straight and narrow. You didn’t trust I wasn’t up to my old tricks.”

Well, for someone who sucked at personal safety, she wasn’t stupid.

“Yeah, that was part of why,” I answered.

There was no point in lying to her, and as a general rule, I didn’t lie. Certainly not to save the feelings of an attempted murderer.

“And did I pass?”

“I don’t know, did you?”

Eva stepped closer, and the sweet, fruity scent of her perfume wafted across the distance. Not at all what I thought she’d smell like.