Chapter 32 Maxim
MAXIM
Grace and Elena have been gone for a while, and I feel uneasy about this. Dmitri is thinking the same from the way he is looking around the ballroom. The wives are back from the bathrooms so should Grace and Elena. Where the hell are they?
Our main course has arrived, which makes the girls’ absence more noticeable.
“They’re in the garden, talking,” Damon says in my ear. “Oh, shit!”
I cover my mouth with my serviette. “What?” I hiss behind it.
“Your sister is CIA,” Damon says quickly.
What the hell?
“Can you excuse me for a moment? I seemed to have lost my date,” I say, leaving the table, not caring if they think I’m being rude. I make my way through the tables and head out to the gardens. Opening the French doors, I see Elena and Grace talking animatedly.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Maxim, what are you doing here?” Grace asks, looking nervous.
“I could ask the same thing of you both.”
“We were just grabbing some fresh air before going back inside.”
I know Grace is covering for Elena, and if I wasn’t so confused by Damon’s comments, I would be proud she’s protecting her.
“Grace, it’s okay.” Elena steps closer to me. “I know you know. Grace told me.” Elena smiles over at my girl, the camaraderie already there between them.
My body relaxes as if this stupid charade can finally be over. “Elena?” My throat is dry saying her name out loud, the emotions of finally being able to acknowledge that my dead sister is alive hitting me.
“Maxim.” Her tears begin to fall as she stares at me.
“How? I don’t understand.”
“I have so much to tell you, but I don’t have time, Dmitri is probably wondering where I am.”
“I’ve missed you,” I tell her.
“And I’ve missed you.” She rushes to me, pulling me into her arms. She wraps herself tightly around me as if she doesn’t ever want to let me go. “I’m so sorry.” She’s crying, her face buried in my chest.
I pat her hair. “Ssh, it’s okay. I don’t care—you are alive; my sister is alive.”
“Your sister?” Dmitri’s voice echoes through the still night.
I push Elena away, shielding her. Then I pull my handgun from my side holster and point it straight at Dmitri.
“Don’t give me an excuse to end you right here, right now.”
“Fuck you, Maxim,” Dmitri spits at me. “Is this true?” he asks Elena. “Is it fucking true?”
“Yes.” Elena steps out from behind me.
Dmitri is shaking his head in disbelief. “No, there is no way.” He looks stunned. “Who the fuck are you?”
Is that hurt on his face? Does he have feelings for my sister?
He takes a step toward her.
“Don’t move, fucker.”
“Fuck off, Maxim. If you kill me now, there will be a bounty on
your head, and I bet there are tons of people who would love the scalp of the Shadow of Death.”
“Like I give a shit.”
“Maxim!” Grace screams.
I turn and see a man holding a gun to her temple.
Motherfucker.
Where the fuck did he come from? I turn the gun on the man.
Dmitri smirks. “Which one is it going to be, Maxim? Your sister or
your lover?”
“Don’t you fucking touch her.” I can see the fear in Grace’s eyes.
“Sergei is on his way!” Brooks yells into my ear. “ETA five minutes.”
I need to stall them until he arrives.
“You do realize I can shoot both of you in the time it takes him to
release his trigger?” I growl.
“True, but there’s the chance that the bullet could hit Grace, and I
have a feeling you don’t want that to happen. She may be your pet, Maxim, but I bet there’s more to it. I think you have feelings for this woman.” He steps toward us. “I know the feeling, falling for a pet.” He looks at Elena.
“I’m sorry I lied to you, Dmitri. But I thought he was dead,” Elena says, making Dmitri pause.
“Who told you he was dead?”
“Your uncle.”
Dmitri stops. “My uncle? What does he have to do with it all?”
“He’s the one who stole me. I was a ballerina. He watched me
dance at school. I guess he wanted me, so he took me.”
Dmitri rakes his hands through his hair. “Did he touch you?”
“Yes, of course.”
Dmitri lets out a roar that echoes through the gardens. “That mother
fucker. He always has to take my things.”
I’m shocked that Dmitri is so upset over his uncle touching Elena,
and fuck, I really hope it isn’t true.
“I’m going to fucking kill him. Why, why does he always have to
touch my things?” he mumbles to himself as he stomps across the grass.
“Let Diamond go, and I will kill your uncle,” Elena says.
“No.” The word comes out of my mouth before I have a chance to think it through.
“Max.” Elena looks at me, and that’s when I see it. The same look I get when I’m working a job: the assassin’s stare. She’s gone dark. She’s moved into the zone.
“I can’t let Grace go, she’s a jewel,” Dmitri says.
“Ask your man to put the gun down, and we can go back inside, finish our meal, and work out our next step.”
“Tell Maxim to put his down first,” Dmitri counters.
Elena looks at me.
“No, he’s a madman,” I say, shaking my gun.
“Trust me,” she pleads.
I frown. I want to but ...
“Please, Maxim.”
Slowly, I lower my arm and watch as the other man takes the gun away
from Grace’s head. She rushes to me, and I open my arms. She’s shaking.
“We’re all going to walk back into that ballroom, finish having
Dinner, and then I’m going to kill Dmitri’s uncle,” Elena says.
I shake my head. “No, you can’t. Do you have any idea who he is?” I look at Dmitri for support, but he has this crooked smile on his face.
The power he is about to collect if his uncle dies is enormous.
“I know who he is, Max,” Elena says through gritted teeth. “But I
owe this to Dmitri.”
I watch as she walks to him. Dmitri looks into Elena’s eyes.
“You know I love you.” Her words are tender.
“I know.”
“I will do this for you, but you need to let Grace and Max go.”
Dmitri looks over her shoulder at us, and I can see his hatred
clearly.
“No, Grace is a jewel. I need the jewels.”
Elena shakes her head.
“If your uncle is dead, you don’t need to find them anymore. He’s
the one who put the hit out on you.”
Dmitri’s eyes widen. “Excuse me?”
“If you don’t find the jewels, he’ll have you killed,” Elena explains to him.
He’s shaking his head in disbelief.
“He wouldn’t. I’m like a son to him.”
“No, babe, Nikolai was. He blames you for getting him killed.”
I see the realization on Dmitri’s face—he knows what Elena is saying is true.
“How do you know this?” he asks.
She reaches out and runs her hand over his cheek. “Because I’m his mistress, too.”
If Dmitri had a heart, I think it would be breaking in this moment. “You’ve been sleeping with my uncle?”
“I had to. It was the only way to keep you alive.”
“What do you mean?”
Elena steps closer to him, cupping his face. “I would do anything to
protect you, Dmitri. He made me an offer, my body for your life.” She leans forward and kisses him on the lips, trying to calm him.
My trigger finger isn’t happy, and neither am I.
Elena sounds so convincing, telling Dmitri that she cares for him, and it’s confusing.
“When did he ask you?”
“Just after Morocco.”
“And he told you that if you slept with him, he wouldn’t kill me?”
She nods.
“Is that why he sent Maxim to Morocco to rough me up?”
She turns and looks at me.
“It’s true,” I say.
“I’m so sorry, baby, I had no idea,” Elena tells Dmitri.
“Thank you for trying to look out for me, babe, but my uncle
played you. Maxim’s mission is to kill me in six months if I don’t find the jewels. That’s right, isn’t it, Maxim?”
“That is correct.”
“At least he gave you six months,” Elena says.
“You know what your uncle is like, especially after losing Nikolai. He was training him to take over. He was devastated when he was killed. He would have killed you then, but the jewels are worth more to him. Having them in his pocket means he can control almost anyone.”
“You’re right. He must die and, Maxim, I’m going to need your help to do it,” Dmitri says.
Walking back to the table after the revelation in the garden was hard to do. I had Brooks and Sergei screaming in my earpiece about what Dmitri had just suggested, telling me to get out of there, that we’re putting ourselves in more danger, but I’m not going to leave my sister.
“Sorry about that.” Dmitri smooths his tuxedo jacket as we sit at the table. “It was such a beautiful night, we just had to enjoy it.”
Elena flirtatiously slaps his arm, pretending to be embarrassed.
One of the men chuckles at Dmitri while his wife glares at Elena and Grace.
“Sometimes you just can’t help it when beautiful women are around,” Dmitri boasts.
We sit down and fall into a comfortable silence as we eat dinner.
I lean over and kiss Grace on the temple. “I promise I will get you out of here.”
She doesn’t say anything, just picks at her food. Conversations go on around us while I try to work out a plan to get us out.
“Let’s dance,” Dmitri says to the table once dessert is finished.
I take Grace’s hand and follow them onto the dancefloor.
Tonight has been surreal. It’s also not working out how I planned. I pull Grace into my arms as we sway to the orchestra’s music.
“What do you think Dmitri has planned?” she whispers into my ear. “I’m thinking he’s going to knock off his uncle. How do we fit into all this?”
That’s what I’m trying to work out.
“You need to get Grace out of there,” Brooks says through my earpiece.
“No shit,” I hiss. “But all eyes are on me.”
Grace wraps herself tightly around me. “I’ll be okay.”
She looks up at me and I can see the pure, blind faith she has in me. She knows that I will protect her. I lean down and kiss her, showing her the feelings swirling inside me.
Dmitri interrupts our moment. “Wow, by the looks of things, Maxim has fallen for his pet.”
“Fuck off,” I sneer, which makes him laugh.
“Not just yet, I won’t.” He turns Elena around to the music. “If you help me tonight, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll let Grace go. I won’t come for her or her family.”
I don’t believe him. That deal seems too good to be true.
“And what about the other jewels?”