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Maximoff nodded. “Yes,” he said. He raised an eyebrow quizzically. “You didn’t know.”
I shook my head as things started to fall into place. “No,” I said plainly.
“She must be the reason why Rome gave you such a large donation,” Marcel said. I had forgotten all about him. My mind was in overdrive as I thought about the implications of what Maximoff had just unwittingly revealed. He’d basically told me that Annie had sacrificed her freedom for my campaign.
My stomach lurched, and it took everything in me not being able to speak.
“Why did you call me here?” Maximoff asked. His demeanor switched slightly, and I watched him shed the persona of a concerned father and become every inch the mob boss.
I walked toward the coffee table where I’d left the O’Connor’s package. I hadn’t been able to stop staring at it since I received it early this afternoon. I’d been so focused on finding a solution to all of this that I hadn’t allowed myself to really feel.
“What the hell is this?” Maximoff asked.
“Annie’s ear.” I should have let him open the package, but I couldn’t be so cruel. I would never forget how it felt to see Annie’s earring attached to a strip of her bloody skin.
Maximoff was frozen, and I wondered if that was what I looked like when I had opened the box.
“The O’Connors sent it.”
Maximoff was a man trained in hiding his true emotions, but even he couldn’t stop the anger that was coursing through him. I watched as his fingers tightened around the box. He still hadn’t opened it.
“Patrick O’Connor—”
‘I’m aware of who Patrick O’Connor is and why he would take Annie.”
I felt my chest tighten as Maximoff looked at me. He blamed me for this, and I couldn’t argue with him. It was my fault. Annie had obviously tried to get away from her father, and while I didn’t specifically know why, I suspected it had something to do with the fact that Nikolai had shot her.
“He wants to become mayor,” Maximoff said. “He’s been desperate for power for years. He’s ordered his younger brother to take one of the Blanchi women…” He trailed off his eyes meeting mine. “It didn’t end well for him.”
I knew what he was saying without him actually speaking the words.
“You can’t kill him,” Marcel said.
He’d jumped up from the couch and inserted himself in between Maximoff and me. Maximoff turned his attention to Marcel, who still looked nauseous, but I could see parts of his normal self-starting to return. “He’s a mayoral candidate. If he ends up dead, people are going to have questions.”
I reached out and snatched the box from Maximoff’s hand. “He cut Annie’s fucking ear off!” I yelled, shaking the box. The anger that I had suppressed had finally come to a head. “I don’t give a fuck if the cops are crawling up my ass. We need to take care of O’Connor.”
Marcel’s eyes widened. “This doesn’t sound like you.”
“It’s not every day that your girlfriend’s ear is sent to you in the mail.”
Marcel’s mouth snapped closed. I knew that my words were shocking to him. Hell, they were shocking to me. I wasn’t someone who liked violence, at all, but if it came down to O’Connor or Annie, he’d be the one who needed to go.
Maximoff had said nothing during my rant. His dark eyes flirted back and forth between myself and Marcel, and I wondered what he was thinking about.
“O’Connor would have taken her to get something from you,” he said after a few moments.
“He wants me to drop out of the race.”
“Which you can’t do,” Marcel said.
I remained quiet. I had been mulling over things for the last few hours wondering what I would do when the time came. And there really had not been any question in regard to what I would be doing.
“If it’s between getting Annie back and becoming the mayor, I will happily give it up.” Any sane person wasn’t going to risk someone’s life in order to get what they wanted, but it was more than that. The thought of Annie being in danger because of me made my stomach turn, and I knew that there was no way that I was going to allow Annie to pay for my mistakes.
After all, I loved her. Despite everything, I truly did.
“Your friend is right,” Maximoff said finally.
