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Sloane’s strong fingers massage the area until I no longer feel the stress choking me and the knot is sent packing.
Evicted, bitch!
Fucking finally.
My body feels like a limp noodle, and it would be so damn easy to just collapse onto her bed and make love to her all night without saying a word. So tempting.
I pull away from her grip and look down at her. “Babe.”
“I know. You want to talk.” She smiles. “I’d rather do other things, though.”
“Oh, I want to do those things, too. Believe me. But there are reasons why I came here tonight, and I have to let you in on some stuff. If you really are serious about the whole honesty thing. Because we can just forget all of that and jump into bed, maybe not come out of your bedroom for the next week or so, and then—”
“I know we need to talk, Max. I was only kidding.” Her grin widens. “Kind of. But there will be plenty of time for that. Later.”
She takes my hand and leads me into the living room, flopping onto the couch. “Come here and tell me what’s on your mind because it looks like there are a lot of wheels turning, or maybe those are fires that need to be put out, either way, the look is very intense.”
I sink into the cushion next to her, taking a deep breath. “There’s a lot I’ve done in the past that I’m not proud of. I want you to know that.”
Sloane tucks her legs under her. “I don’t care about what you’ve done in the past, Max. I care about the person you are now.”
“Yeah, I know.” I push back my hair and sigh. “But a lot of that is because of who I am. My dad, you know how he is. He beat me into the ground every chance he got, and for years, I did everything I could to get his approval. Trying to advance in the Salesi family businesses, taking chances and risks to set myself apart, making a name for myself…it was all to make him proud of me. But it all backfired. I did stupid crap. I hurt a lot of people. I caused a lot of issues for the family, and my dad saw me as a liability. Reckless, impulsive, a loose cannon.” A hint of a smile lifts the corners of my lips. “That was his favorite description, anyway.”
“Was?”
I nod. “Yeah, well, I’m thinking his feelings about that have changed recently. Hoping is more like it.”
A confused look shadows Sloane’s face and she shakes her head slowly. “I’m not getting this at all. If this is you being honest, I’m not really sure how to read it.”
I take a deep breath. “Last night, I stopped at the florist I know you like. I wanted to bring you flowers on your special night.”
“That was a sweet thought.” Her face relaxes into a smile and she leans forward, her eyes wide as if she’s expecting what comes next. Not like she ever could.
“Well, I tried. But before I could get to my car, I had an, um, altercation with someone.”
“Someone you knew?”
“Yeah, someone who I’d run up against in the past. You remember Gianni? And the fork,” I mumble.
“Yes…”
“This was his brother Mikey. Another dangerous guy. And, um, well, there were some words. Some punches,” I say, waving a hand at my face. “That one’s kind of obvious. And, uh, he was coming to let me know something about my dad. Something that required my immediate attention.”
“Like what? How does he know your dad?”
“Everyone knows everyone, babe. And as it happens, my dad was involved with some pretty serious stuff. Stuff Shaye doesn’t know about. Stuff that can be really bad for all of us. Stuff you can’t repeat to anyone.”
“Are you going to tell me about the ‘stuff’?”
“Let’s just say that he did some pretty bad things for money. Things he never should have done. All because…” I scrub a hand down the front of my face. Do I tell her? How can I dangle a carrot and keep yanking it away? At least I didn’t say anything about the fingers. I want to forget about those… “He has a gambling problem. I never knew about it. Nobody did, except the dirtbags who he kept borrowing money from. Mikey and Gianni were two of them. There were others, though, and he has a pretty big debt to pay off.”
A hand flies over Sloane’s mouth. “Oh, no. Your poor father. Is he okay?”
“I don’t know. They went after him and beat him up pretty bad. He’s…” I pause. “He’s staying with me right now. My mom and Shaye are away, so I didn’t want him home alone.” I rake a hand through my hair. “But last night, after I found him, he told me everything. What he’s been hiding from us for all of this time…the reasons why he’s been so hard on me, and why he made me believe I was disappointing him. He didn’t want me to ever be vulnerable or weak like he was. He figured if he kept laying into me, I’d eventually become the man he’d wanted me to be…someone so different from him. But instead I kept trying to figure out ways to make him proud. When I couldn’t…when I kept failing…I let the anger and rage swallow me whole. It drove me to do a lot of bad shit.” I shake my head, tearing my eyes away from her pained expression. I shouldn’t be telling you any of this. There are a lot of bad people after him. And for me, it’s guilt by association.”
“They’re coming after you, too?” She leaps up from the couch and rushes over to the windows, pulling the blinds and curtains down so nobody can see inside.
“Sloane, my car is a block away. It’s not right outside. I’d have never put you in jeopardy like that.”
