AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Max?”
“Shh,” he says quietly. His eyes harden. His body tightens and coils. He suddenly lets go of me and slips from the bed. He grabs his gun from where I left it on a table near the sofa. I tremble as he cocks it and goes still.
Then I hear it too. It’s the sound of footsteps trying and failing to be quiet coming up the staircase, and it sounds like a lot of footsteps. Max’s eyes dart to me.
“Get some clothes on, baby,” he hisses. “Fast.”
I bolt from the bed and start tugging my clothes back on. Max does the same, pulling his jeans up and grabbing a button up plaid shirt from the back of the sofa. He winces at his wound, but we’re both silent.
“Do we have a plan here?” I whisper.
He smiles grimly. “The door is rigged to blow. Wait until they’re all at the door,” he growls quietly.
The footsteps keep coming. God, it sounds like there’s twenty people out there. But at last, they stop, and I know it means they’re clustered outside the door ready to come in.
“Cops?” I whisper?
Max shakes his head. “Cops would’ve come in through the windows.” He looks at me grimly. “I think this is your father.”
I hear muttering from the other side of the door. Max reaches under the bed and pulls out a black box with a button on it. He glances at me. “Cover your ears, sweetheart,” he growls. “One…”
I cover my ears.
“Two,” I see him mouth. But before he can say three, thunder erupts through the door. I scream as he tackles me behind the couch. Gunfire sprays the room and peppers the back wall with holes instantly. The windows shatter. Brick dust flies into the air. Max grabs me tight and reaches for the box. Our eyes meet, and he kisses me. Then he pulls me down and covers me with his body.
I feel the boom before I hear it muffled through my hands and Max’s body covering mine. The whole building seems to shake with thunder. Then it goes utterly silent. Max waits a second and then rises from me. His hands pull me up. I’m shaking when I finally open my eyes and pull my hands from my ears.
“Holy shit,” I breath.
The doorway is just a smoking black hole now. It looks like someone drove a train through it. Thankfully, the blast has been so big that I don’t even see a trace of any of the men who were shooting at us.
“We need to move, Tessa,” Max grunts. He holds out his hand, and I take it. I know wherever he goes, I’m going to go. He helps me through the charred doorway hole and out onto the landing. We hear a groan and the click of a gun hammer. Max whirls and pulls his own gun out. He fires first, and the sole survivor of the blast slumps against the wall. My eyes widen in horror.
“I… I know him,” I gasp. I don’t know his name, but I’ve seen him before… at my father’s house.
Max grits his jaw. “Your father’s men?”
I nod slowly. It feels like I’m underwater. I knew my dad was a bad man. Hearing about what he’s up to now only made it worse. But this?
“They… they knew I was here,” I whisper.
“Tessa…” Max says gently.
“No, I mean I know he sent them for you, but they just started shooting!” I’m starting to shake. “And heknewI was here with you!”
It clicks into place that my father was ready to take Max out no matter what happened to me. It’s a horrible feeling, but somehow it also feels like closure. And it makes knowing what I have to do crystal clear.
“My father has to pay for his crimes,” I hiss. I look at Max. His face is just as hardened, and he nods.
“The girls are a step too far,” he grunts. “Even for me.”
“I want him to go down,” I mutter coldly. “Family is family, but after this?” I shake my head. “No, I’m done. I’ve known what he is my whole life. But I’m not going to ignore it and be a passive enabler of his crimes anymore.” My jaw clenches with conviction. I turn to Max. “So how do we take him down?”
“Are you sure about this, Tessa? You can’t take this back…”
“Good,” I hiss. “And yeah, I’m damn sure.”
He smiles thinly. “Then I think I know exactly what to do.”
