AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He moved to the kitchen and pried out the top shelf of the cabinet. Taped to the rear of the shelf were two more pages, which he handed over to Ed.
“Hey, Charlie! Can you get that curtain rod they tossed on the floor? There should be two more pages inside there,” Max called out as he moved to the bathroom to grab some pages he’d taped to the back of the mirror and more that were in the false bottom of a drawer. And then there were the pages on the top of the blades of the ceiling fan.
Each time Max found what he’d squirreled away, he cackled. They could try to break him. They could even trash his place. But they’d still failed to get the notes they wanted. He’d outsmarted them all. Yep, he hadn’t lost a step yet.
They gathered in the center of the room, and Ed counted up the pages he’d collected.
“Twenty-two,” he announced, holding them up for Max to see.
“Is that all of them?” Charlie asked.
Max nodded. “There’s more stuff on the cloud, but these are all my key notes. The information I thought would ultimately lead me to the tomb.”
Charlie grunted. “Okay. Kairo will have a secure laptop for you today, so you can get to work finishing your research.”
Somewhere down the hall, the door to a neighbor’s apartment opened and closed, followed by the soft scrape of shoes on the cracked tile in the hallway. Part of Max mentally cringed. In the small time he’d spent at the apartment before he moved on to the dig site, he’d seen his neighbor twice. The guy probably had a few things to say about the recent redecorating of his place.
He lifted his gaze to the open doorway, waiting to see him stick his head in the space, but the words died in his throat. The elderly neighbor with the grizzled beard and poor eyesight was not who stepped into his place. Rather, it was the enormous asshole with the meaty fists who had taken too much pleasure in beating the shit out of him for a week. Apparently, Max had failed to kill him. His mistake.
Big Guy’s dark eyes scanned the room, only to settle on Max. He smiled his evil, crooked grin and closed a fist, cracking his knuckles.
Oh, he’d had enough of that intimidation bullshit. This prick wasn’t going to hurt him or anyone else.
While Ed shoved the precious pages of his journal into his pocket, Max stepped around him so that his body was between Ed and the asshole. “This is your one chance to get out of here with all your limbs still working,” Max snarled in coarse Arabic. “I’m not going with you. And I’m not telling Mironov where the tomb is. Leave me alone!”
Ed grabbed his elbow and tugged on him, trying to pull him behind his larger body, but Max dug his heels into the ragged remains of the rug that had covered the center of the main living space.
“Max—”
“Don’t! This is one of the guys who kidnapped me and tortured me,” Max barked.
Ed sighed behind him, sounding exasperated with him. “All the more reason for you to move and let us work.”
He blinked, his brain tangling up in that thought. Oh. Right. He’d hired Charlie, Ed, and the others to keep him safe. He was in the way.
But Big ‘n’ Sexy didn’t give him a chance to finish processing that thought. He just wrapped a massive arm around his waist and lifted him.
Max squeezed out an “Eep!” as Ed carried him back a few steps. They hadn’t gotten far when there was the sharp crack of glass followed by Big Guy slamming into the wall, his shoulder blooming brightly with blood. A second bullet hit the wall, narrowly missing the bastard’s ear.
Fuck! West!
He’d forgotten about the sniper waiting outside for them.
Max tried to twist in Ed’s arm, but it wasn’t easy, considering his toes barely scraped the ground while the mercenary carried him about like a rag doll.
“Ed!” he moaned, trying to wiggle free without distracting him from what he was doing. “I—shit! Move! Bedroom!”
Big Guy brought friends with him. Two men were walking through the front door with guns drawn. The bastards just kept coming, and there weren’t a lot of great places to hide in the apartment.
Ed didn’t need to be told twice. Still holding on to Max, he ran for the bedroom and lunged inside, Charlie following close behind. Charlie slammed the door shut, and Ed put Max on his feet.
“Not exactly the best plan,” Charlie muttered as he pulled out his gun. “We’re trapped. West can keep them pinned down in the living room. If they’re stupid, he can pick them off.”
“I thought you said you checked the building and area!” Ed bellowed.
“We did! We didn’t check the other apartments. Apparently, this asshole kicked out the neighbor or simply killed him so he could wait for Max to return.”
