Chapter Twenty-Six
Maximus
From the moment Olivia had been attacked, I had set plans in motion for this moment. This house had more security in it than Dad’s, and everything was to my specifications from the foundations up. Not even the local racoon population was able to walk across the lawn without me knowing about it.
Our organisation had always consisted of Dad’s men and my men. Since I came into power, I had been pushing Dad’s faithful men toward his home, and spreading mine further into the business.
Right now, only my most trusted men knew where I was, and that included Jordan and his allies, including that fucker Caine.
Hearing about his saintly attributes had already set my back molars grinding, but seeing my wife seeking comfort from him had been a kick to my guts.
It had taken all my self-restraint not to shoot him.
“I hate to say it, but Olivia is your best way to draw them out,” Nicklas said from his seat beside the window.
“No,” I snapped in reply. There was absolutely no way I was putting my wife in the line of danger.
“Nicklas is right,” Jordan said, leaning back in his chair, and steepling his hands under his chin. “We had to use Sophia to lure Silas out. Whoever is playing in the darkness has a desire for Olivia. Putting her in plain sight would be too much of a temptation.”
“What part of no did you not understand?” I demanded.
“The n,” Jordan replied like an asshole. “I have a problem with that letter in the alphabet.”
“I thought they were trying to hurt me to annoy Maximus,” Olivia said, her face still pale from lack of sleep. She had tossed and turned the entire night.
“They tried to use Megan to get to me,” Jordan replied. “I avoided relationships so no one I cared about would be targeted. This doesn’t feel the same, it’s more like Silas and Sofia.”
“Fucker,” Nicklas muttered. “I wish I could kill him all over again.”
“Then you shouldn’t have put so many bullets in him,” Jordan replied, turning to stare at him. “That way we could have kept him alive and tortured him.”
Nicklas rolled his eyes. “He stabbed my wife. You eradicated the entire council for daring to harm Megan.”
Jordan shrugged one shoulder. “In fairness, they shouldn’t touch what doesn’t belong to them.”
This was the reason I liked Jordan. He had no problem being a psychopath, and wore his membership badge with pride.
“Would you expose your wife to the wolves at our door?” I asked Jordan, since he seemed to be the voice of reason in this mess.
His gaze moved to Megan, and I watched as he warred with his emotions. “There was a time I would have said no,” he replied slowly. “Megan has trained with Caine, and can defend herself. My answer is that I would ask her what she wanted to do.”
A slow smile curved Megan’s mouth, showing her radiant beauty to everyone here. “That answer is the reason why I married you,” Megan said with a wink.
“I want to do it,” Olivia said, scaring the shit out of me. “I need this to be over because I can’t keep living in the shadows, and hoping that no one will find us.”
“Livvie—” I tried to interrupt her, but she shook her head.
“You started a war, Max. There isn’t just a price on my head, they are after you as well.
That is why we are all hiding in a house with more security that Buckingham Palace.
I want to be able to go and walk through the town, have a coffee with friends, or not have to look over my shoulder in case the bogeyman is following me.
” She trailed her fingers through her long hair, her head falling back for her to stare at the ceiling. “This isn’t our life anymore.”
“She’s right,” Jordan said. “There are times you have to say fuck it, and just keep killing everyone until they get the message, and piss off.”
“Seems to have worked so far,” Nicklas agreed. “When you kill enough of the assholes, the rest go back and hide in the darkness to save their sorry asses. Keep cutting the heads off the hydra until it can no longer bite you.”
“This is a huge organisation,” I said, knowing how impossible this task was.
“So was the council.” Jordan smiled at the memory. “It had spanned several hundred years of generations, and had infiltrated so many organisations they thought they were unstoppable. That was their greatest weakness.”
“Their greatest weakness was that their head of security hated them, and planned their demise,” Nicklas corrected him. “You tagged their asses with trackers, and went on a big game hunt.”
Jordan grinned, and stretched like a cat. “Happy memories.”
“How the hell did you tag them all?” I asked with admiration for his tenacity.
“We faked a gas leak at a meeting. Zee, Ash, and I used fake pens to insert trackers in them. It made it easier to find them,” Jordan replied. “I had run out of patience.”
“I doubt they’d invite me to a meeting,” I said in disgust since Dad hadn’t once tried to ring me.
“That is why we are here,” Flynn said from where he stood at the window.
“No one knows us, and that makes us invisible. People rarely notice tourists and handymen. I spent a lot of time and effort cleaning up Jordan’s killing spree, and I learnt one thing.
Men in power feel most safe in the sanctity of their own home, or when they think people don’t know where they are. ”
I stared at Olivia, my head filled with all these revelations. At one point, I thought the best option was to ride out the storm, but Dad’s silence told me this was turning into a hurricane of epic proportions.
“I want the life you promised me,” Olivia said, and it felt like she had kicked me in the solar plexus.
“We showed you to the world, and they nearly killed you at the Opera,” I replied, trying to make her see sense.
“What if they were not trying to kill her, but to kidnap her?” Caine asked, and I wanted to groan out loud. “In my experience, if an assassin wants you dead, they’re gone before you’re dead.”
“What do you suggest?” Olivia asked, and her words tasted bitter because she looked to Caine for advice.
“Maximus owns a sex club,” Caine replied, and every muscle in my body froze. “If Jordan is right, and he is rarely wrong, then the thought of Olivia in that place would be too much for them.”
“I like it,” Jordan continued, pointing at Caine. “An extravagant event to prove you couldn’t give a fuck about what has happened. Send out exclusive invitations, and create a stir by saying you want to introduce your wife to the lifestyle.”
“In the background, we’ll start to eliminate the main players,” Nicklas said. “My men are in place across the city as tourists so no one suspects anything. Ryan has already been sharing information with Kristian, and he has eyes on our first target.”
“Shit,” Jake said, finally joining in the conversation. “This is really happening. These men have ruled this city for so long, they feel like part of the architecture.”
“Let your men be seen, so they aren’t linked to any of the accidents,” Flynn said.
“Accidents?” Olivia echoed.
“They are my speciality,” Flynn confirmed. “Too many murders and questions are raised. Accidents are unfortunate turns of fate which are a terrible tragedy.”
Olivia looked at me, her eyes wide. She was too innocent for my world, but there was no way I was giving her back now that I had claimed her.
“Okay,” I said, pushing myself to stand since I couldn’t sit here any longer. “I’ll contact my manager, and tell her to set up an event. But right now, I need to get out of here for a few hours before I go mad.”
Without another word, I strode out of the room, and up to our bedroom, my fingers gripping the wooden frame at the bottom of the bed as I tried to calm my temper.
A minute or two later, the door closed in the corner.
“Megan said I should follow you, because men like you go nuclear if they’re not calmed down.” Olivia stood staring at me as if I was a monster ready to bite.
“Megan doesn’t know me,” I snapped, but a tiny voice in my head admitted she was right.
“I’m your wife, and I don’t know you,” she replied. “I thought I did, but this distant stranger standing here isn’t the person I used to share all my problems and dreams with. Where did the man who made me smile go?”
I stared at her, every word stabbing into me.
“Alexander was proud that you accepted his daughter to use—”
I cut her off. “He sent her as a gift, and Jake can confirm that I sent her away. Allowing him to think I accepted his gift gave her a few moments of peace,” I said. “Some men are able to control their dicks.”
Olivia gave me the look that all men dreaded. The one that said she was in control of the situation, and I was a lovesick asshole who was putty in her hands.
“Olivia.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’m trying to keep us all safe. If I had remained single, you wouldn’t have been put up for auction.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Roberto would have married me into one of the families, so it would have happened eventually.”
“Putting you up for auction was to punish me for not conforming. They want to break me, so I will do what they want.” Everything that had happened to her was because I had been an unapologetic asshole.
“Putting me up for auction was an exercise in power against both of us. I didn’t marry who Roberto had sold me to at auction, so they were selling me again.
They were trying to break both of us.” She continued to glare at me until I felt uncomfortable.
“Maybe they see a strength in our union that scares them.”
I hadn’t considered her suggestion, but it put a different slant on everything.
“We can only get through this if we stand together,” Olivia continued, stepping forward. “The more you freeze me out, the more they win.”
“I’m not freezing you out.”
“You are!” Her tone surprised me, her arms cutting through the air as if to destroy my words. “You don’t touch me except in bed, you rarely talk to me, and all you do is stare at me as if trying to decide if I’m your enemy.”