Page 140 of Downforce

“Why would I calm down, Anna, when this … guy,” he spits, “is obviously somewhere he shouldn’t be?”

“Am I?” Max asks, his voice markedly darker than it was moments ago.

“Yeah,” Travis answers, approaching the both of us. “You’re too fucking close to my sister.” As soon as Travis says this, his eyes drop to our joined hands. Max hasn’t let mine go, and while it’s probably best that I pull my hand away, I can’t.

“Your sister has a mouth of her own, and if I were too close, she’d be the first one to tell me.”

Travis moves to get in Max’s face, but Alyssia holds onto his arm, stopping him.

“Don’t tell me shit about my sister,” he seethes. “You don’t know jack shit about her.”

“Travis, that’s enough.”

“How about we not do this here?” Alyssia says.

“We’re not doing anything because he’s leaving.”

“No.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

Alyssia and I say at the same time. Trav looks at his wife, and my heart falls to the pit of my stomach. He hasn’t looked me in the eye since this exchange began.

“Why would I let him stay? He’s obviously here to stir shit and he’s confused my sister into⁠—”

“Into what?” I ask tersely, not liking the way he’s talking about me as if I’m not standing right here.

“He’s clearly fucked with your head to mess with me.”

Now, Max and I speak in unison.

“Never.”

“That’s bullshit.”

Travis tuts. “Right. So this,” he waves a hand between the two of us, “is real?” He doesn’t wait for an answer. “No. First you came over to Amato to fuck with me, and when that wasn’t enough, you sidle up to my sister, run game on her to⁠—”

“And you think I’m that naïve? Or stupid?”

“What?” Travis blinks and looks at me as if seeing me for the first time.

“I can assure you that your sister is none of the above,” Max says. “Nor is she a pawn in whatever grand plan you think I’ve contrived to get inside of your head.”

“Then what is she to you?”

“The love of my life.”

A gasp comes from Alyssia who quickly covers her mouth with her hand.

“Liar,” Travis throws at Max.

Max steps forward. “There’s not a damn thing I have to lie to you about.”

“Right? Then what the fuck is this? I come out here to find you two sneaking around at my son’s birthday party.”

“We weren’t sneaking,” I say, lamely, because that kind of is what we were doing.

“You need to leave,” Travis says, his voice filling with finality.