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CHAPTER 18
Anna
I rub my hands up and down Maxim’s back, I don’t like seeing him so upset, so emotional. I just wish I could take his pain away. That last thought shocks me. I should be trying to get away from him. I should be trying to find a place for us to hide for a long time. I should be trying to convince him to not go after my brothers anymore.
I go and grab my drink that hasn’t been touched off Maxim’s desk, and head over to the lounge area. I’m going to need this liquid courage to talk to him. It’s only fair, he told me everything about his sister and what was on his mind.
I sit down, and let the words flow. “When I got there that night, I knew something was off. Normally it’s loud, I can hear noise from Sophia or from the other guards. None of that happened.” I take a huge gulp of the whiskey, then set it back down. The liquid burns fire down the back of my throat, heating up my stomach and giving me courage to continue.
“Normally, we’d red flag things when they feel off, but I had to go through with it. She didn’t look very good the last time I saw her.” I glance over at Maxim his eyes are squinted. His hands are gripping too hard to the armrests. He needs to hear this just as much as I need to tell this.
“I made my way downstairs, that’s the only place I figured they would keep her. She was in a corner, chained to a bed. She’d been gone for several hours.” I take another drink and I shift my attention over to Maxim, his eyes look very glassy now.
“I texted my brother and told him something was wrong. Jared Cooper is a sick fuck, but he also was madly in love with her. He wouldn’t have killed her for no reason.” Maxim nods as he supports my theory.
“When I got upstairs, it was an ambush. I was set up somehow, they were waiting for me.” I look down, a tear falling from my eye, “I was able to take two of the men down and break Jared’s nose. Somehow I was distracted, and I forgot about the other guy I didn’t hurt bad enough. That’s when he sank a knife into my side.”
My hand goes back down to rub the area that’s now covered in scar tissue as Maxim watches my movements. This is so hard to talk about. Even when we do have bad cases, we never detail our work with clients. It’s not something they need to remember their loved ones by, but I know that Maxim has already seen Sophia. He made sure of that when he got back to town.
Maxim stares at me for several seconds before he asks, “what do you think happened?”
“In all honesty, I think someone ratted us out. Someone that was close enough to know exactly what we were doing. I know it wasn’t my brothers. It might’ve been one of our guards, but I highly doubt that.” I didn’t even need to think before I answered him. This question’s been on my mind for a while.
“You guys have any idea of who the traitor might be?” I shake my head no. I have no freaking clue.
“Has anybody been acting weird toward you lately. Too flirty or too mean?” I’m shaking my head no again, then it hits me.
“What if this is all tied to the stalker? I know it sounds a little far-fetched, but this guy seem to know a lot about me. I can’t even comprehend how somebody on our team would do this.” Maxim uses his thumb and forefinger to rub his chin. He’s in deep thought right now.
Maxim nods, “that could be the case. Maybe somebody that wanted you to fail so drastically, they could easily get you then. Someone that wanted you to take a vacation perhaps from a botched job. Someone that wanted to get you by themselves, but they never planned on me entering the situation.”
“No, they didn’t,” I say softly.
Maxim gets up and goes behind his desk and he grabs a pad of paper and one of his fancier pens. “Write down the guys or even women, really close to you. Relationships and stuff like that.”
I take the pad of paper from him. This can’t hurt, there might even be something there. I give him the pad back with three names.
“You were involved with Ray Sanchez?”
“Yes,” I don’t see how that shocks him so much. Unless he didn’t know. But, Maxim seems to know everything.
“Who is Jack Donahue and Carl Melinda?”
“Carl was a very sweet and kind guy. That boy doesn’t even have a mean bone in his body. In fact, he’s the one that broke up with me once he found out who my family is, and what they did for a living.”
Maxim takes notes on what I say to him. “Ray’s as sweet as they come. It’s been a couple years since we dated. We both wanted to end it amicably. Both of us were always out on different jobs and it was too hard to keep everything together.” I stop talking and look directly at Maxim. “He is not the stalker, he’s involved in my life almost every day. There would be no reason for him to be that person.”
Maxim watches me and smiles, “you never really know about anyone. You probably thought I was the nice new neighbor.” He laughs as my eyes widen. Fucker, he’s right.
“If I had to pick one of them out of all these guys, I would say it was Jack. A couple times he went too far. I warned him, the last time I couldn’t handle it anymore.” I look away from Maxim. I don’t want him to try to see how I’m feeling just by looking in my eyes. “He jammed his fingers in me, while his other hand held me down. He kept telling me how hard he was going to fuck me. It hurt because I was so dry and scared.
Maxim’s eyes narrow as he listens to me, he’s getting mad. “I was able to bounce him off, then I beat the shit out of him.” I look up at Maxim and smile, “after I was done, I called my brothers to let them know what happened.”
Even though that day was filled with horrible memories, I know that if I wasn’t trained, I most definitely would’ve been raped. My first time would’ve been taken from me by somebody I didn’t want to have it. Maxim’s not the greatest guy, but I’m happy that I gave him my first time.
“I’m going to give these names to Booker. It wouldn’t even shock me if it was Carl. For some reason though, I don’t believe it’s Jack. Usually when a woman can fight back, she isn’t as fun anymore. We’re most likely looking between Ray and Carl.”
I shake my head no, “Ray would never do anything like that, he’s too close to all of us. He’s practically family.”
“You honestly know that? I was able to trick you. I’m pretty sure others have been able to, too.” His words make my heart race. He’s right, it could pretty much be anyone. I shake my head, no, I refuse to believe that it’s Ray or even Carl. It has to be Jack.
Booker opens the door and gives us a cheeky smile. I know he’s happy to see us working together, most importantly getting along. Maxim nods for him to come over. Booker walks with grace and an aura of confidence over to his boss.
Maxim gives Booker the list of guys we were just talking about. He looks at Booker, “as we discussed. Make it fast.”
Booker nods at him and then gives me his devious smile, then he quickly leaves the room. Maxim refills our glasses and hands one to me.
A weight has been lifted off my chest being able to talk about everything. We have dinner brought to us later in the night. Neither one of us holds anything back. I learn everything about Sophia when she was growing up. I go over details that are more descriptive regarding the job. I also talk about my brothers and some stories from our childhood that have us both laughing.
Right now, things couldn’t be better.
