Chapter Twenty-Seven
Olivia
“Does that make you a Lady?” I asked Megan.
“I think the title transfers when his Grampa dies, which we both hope is still a few years away,” she replied. “Horatio is a force of nature, and if he had his way, Jordan and I would have at least a hundred babies by now.” She spoke with affection, smiling as if she was viewing a memory.
“You’re lucky,” I said, taking a sip from the tea Megan had made earlier using a pot just like my Grandmama. “You and Jordan love each other. It’s in his eyes every time he looks at you.”
Megan tilted her head to the side, watching me. “You say that as if Maximus doesn’t love you.”
I pursed my lips together to keep my words hidden.
Megan grabbed my hand. “We are married to strong men. They do not marry out of duty or obligation. Men like Jordan and Maximus only marry for love.”
I watched her out of the side of my eye. “Marriages are arranged all the time between our families,” I replied.
“Maybe,” Megan said, shaking her head. “But that is for the weaker men who follow orders. Our husbands are leaders who follow their own path.”
I scrubbed my hands down my face. “Maximus married me because my brother was auctioning me off, and he agreed to help me.”
Megan smiled at me, wrinkling her nose. “If he is anything like my Jordan, my guess is that he gamed the system so you’d find yourself in that situation with only him to help you.”
I opened my mouth to say something, snapping it closed again as I contemplated her words. “My previous fiancé was thrown off a roof by my brother,” I eventually said. “Maximus wasn’t there.”
“Did you love him?” Megan asked.
“No.” I shook my head. “Dale and I had a business agreement. I decided to arrange my own marriage before my brother did.”
Megan pouted for a moment, her bright red fingernails tapping the table. “I still go with my original suspicion. We tend not to see what is happening in the background. If Maximus had decided that you belonged with him, then I have no doubt that he was moving chess pieces in the background.”
“What makes you think that?” I asked, genuinely curious, and realising how much I had missed talking to another woman.
“I was engaged, and even though I begged Jordan to save me from that miserable fate, he refused because he believed I was better without him. What I never knew was that he put a gun to Mark’s head the night before my wedding.
He never arrived at the ceremony the next day, running away with the other woman I knew nothing about. ”
Stunned. I was completely stunned by her revelation. It had never occurred to me that Maximus could have wanted me. I had spent months believing I had trapped him.
“How did you end up married to Jordan?” I asked, resting my head on my hands.
Megan smiled at the memory. “Life is a complex creature, her twists and turns bringing us to where we should be every so often. We got another chance, and decided to take it because Jordan decided to finally get his head out of his ass.”
“How lovely to hear my wife praising me,” Jordan said, walking into the kitchen with Maximus, Jake, and Caine. He stopped to press a kiss to her forehead. “Why was my head up my ass?”
“I was just telling Olivia our story and how you cost us several years of happiness together.”
“Ah.” Jordan flashed a mocking grin, transforming his features. “In my defence, I believed I was protecting Megan.”
“Did that include getting rid of her previous fiancé?” I asked. “That was a romantic gesture worthy of Mr. Darcy.”
Jordan laughed, running his fingers through his hair. “Mark was a complete dick. At least he took the hint, and I didn’t have to push him off a roof.”
My eyes flashed to Maximus. He looked at me for a moment, before turning to help himself to a bottle of water from the fridge. For the first time, I started to question everything that had happened this past year.
“My brother pushed my previous fiancé from a roof,” I replied, glancing at Maximus again. He kept his back firmly to me which wasn’t like him.
“Good for him. I hear Dale was a dick as well,” Jordan commented, obviously aware of my past. “Sometimes gravity is our best friend as no one can prove if he fell or was pushed.”
“I was there to say he was pushed,” I replied.
Jordan stared at me for several moments. “And yet you did nothing to bring Roberto to justice. He may be the murderer, but he obviously saved you from a life you didn’t want.”
His words were like a slap to my face.
“In England, you would be equally culpable in the eyes of the law since you were present and did nothing,” Jordan finished.
“Stop being a barrister!” Megan said, giving him a look that made him roll his eyes. “Sorry, but he can’t help himself sometimes. There’s a reason Jordan is booked years in advance.”
Their exchange intrigued me. “You’re King’s Counsel, and live in this world?” He defended the law, and was at the highest level of criminality in a disturbing paradox.
“I’m excellent at my job because I live in this world,” Jordan replied with a smile. “I make the world a safer place in both my roles.”
Caine snorted, diverting everyone’s attention to him. “Safer place,” he chuckled. “That is like the grim reaper saying he brings joy and hope.”
“I’m wounded.” Jordan held a hand over his heart.
“I highly doubt that,” Maximus said. “I’ve seen you in action. No one ever gets close enough to wound you.”
“Says the man with a reputation of death, and the ability to always get what he wants no matter the cost,” Jordan replied.
Once again today I wondered how well I knew the man I married.
He had been my best friend in the past, the only person I could confide in, and now I questioned what he did with all that information.
Maximus knew I didn’t love Dale, that it was a marriage of convenience.
He had only once commented that I deserved to marry for love.
I had lived in relative isolation since we married, and now I was beginning to see behind the curtain.
Memories from long ago crept back into my head of Maximus plotting and planning while we chatted.
I had heard Papa and Roberto talking about the downfall of men in their organisation while listening at doors, and knew it had been Maximus who was behind it.
I sipped my tea and watched my husband. His expression was blank which meant he was hiding something.
My mind took a trip down memory lane to the night Dale died.
Roberto had accused him of deliberately wrecking a business deal he had been working on, one that had been worth a huge amount of money to my brother.
Dale had denied everything, begging for his life, and swearing he would help Roberto find who had destroyed the deal.
“What would have happened if Mark hadn’t taken the hint?” I asked, and the conversation around me stilled. “Would you have let him marry Megan?”
I continued to watch Maximus, not bothering to look at Jordan or Megan.
“Fuck no. Megan belonged to me, she had been my salvation, a secret who had kept what little remained of my humanity in her keeping,” Jordan said to my left.
Maximus held my gaze, never once looking away.
“When did you know that she belonged to you?” I asked in a low voice.
“Probably from the moment she wandered into my life unexpectedly a few years ago. She allowed me to be myself behind closed doors. Sometimes we discover love where we least expect to find it.” Jordan laughed, and Megan joined in.
Maximus glanced away, and that was the moment I knew he was involved in Dale’s death. It had been Roberto on that roof who had pushed him off, but Maximus had been the reason he was currently in his family vault.
“I believe we are going shopping,” I said, pushing myself to my feet, and turning to face Megan. “We are the bait.”
Caine moved forward. “Do you need to go through all the safety procedures again?”
“Nope. You trained both Megan and I, so we already know what your preference for security is,” I replied.
“No engaging with anyone,” Jordan instructed. “There will be eyes on you at all times, so you don’t need to be a hero. Flynn and his team are already on the ground.”
“Stop worrying so much, both Olivia and I have survived an assassination attempt.” She stood on her tiptoes to kiss Jordan on the cheek. “We were both trained by the best.”
Jordan narrowed his eyes at her. “You were taught self-defence to ensure your safety, not to deliberately engage the enemy.”
“Ryan has access to all the CCTV, as long as you stay in the specified area,” Maximus said. “One hair of Olivia’s hair is touched, and I’ll hold you personally responsible.”
He didn’t like Caine, and made it apparent every time he spoke to him.
Caine returned his stare. “I appreciate you have a reputation for killing people, but some of us have been successful assassins for years while living in the shadows. I’ll look after Olivia, but not because you are threatening me.
I’ll keep her safe because she’s like a little sister to me.
” He turned on his heel, and walked out of the room.
I glared at Maximus until he finally looked at me. I raised an eyebrow, and he gave me a wide-eyed innocent stare. He knew I was pissed and was ignoring the fact.
“We’ll talk about this later,” I said in a low voice.
Maximus’ eyebrows flew up for a brief moment. “There’s nothing to discuss,” he replied, closing the conversation, and turning his attention to Jake. “We need to know who the players are, but I don’t want any of them following us back here.”
“Roger that. There’s a lot of chatter out there at the moment, and a lot of men very unhappy,” Jake replied.
“I’m very unhappy,” I muttered.
“Noted,” Maximus snapped. “But right now we have bigger problems than me insulting your friend.”
“In fairness, he’s insulted a lot of people,” Jake said. “Maximus is famous for his lack of manners.”
Jake received a stink eye stare in return.
“Caine is family,” I replied. “He deserves to be treated as such.” I left without another word, making my way to my walk-in wardrobe.
There was an entire section for handbags, and I had a special bag kept on the top shelf that had been brought across from our home.
Inside were different compartments that had been hand stitched and held closed with Velcro to house my self-defence kit.
Mum had known what it was to be a woman in this world and that everyone needed to protect themselves.
My taser was in the side panel, my kitty knuckle duster at the front alongside my pepper spray.
I hated guns, and refused to carry one even though I knew how to use them.
“You got everything you need?” Maximus stood with his ass against the doorframe watching me.
I slowly turned to face him. “I have one question for you, and I want you to answer truthfully. Can you do that?”
“Depends on the question,” he replied.
“Just forget it.” I returned to checking my bag.
He spun me to face him, and I swear I could drown in his dark eyes. “Ask your question.”
“Were you involved in Dale’s death?” I asked, my voice trembling.
He didn’t need to say the words. I knew by the expression in his eyes. “He was involved in some really sick shit. He would have ended up hurting you.”
I blinked, overwhelmed. “Why would that matter?” I whispered, my throat tight.
Maximus tucked an errant curl behind my ear. “Because it did,” he replied. “Be careful out there. I would hate to have to shoot your family friend.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Leave Caine alone. His only crime is ensuring Megan and I can defend ourselves.”
“Did you pack your taser?” he asked, changing the topic of conversation, and nodding at my bag. He had collected it from the house, adding a few presents of his own.
“Yeah, but I hate using it.” I wrinkled my nose in disgust.
“It will stop a grown man attacking you. That’s all that matters.”
“Does Roberto know you were behind his failed business deal he killed Dale over?” I asked, gripping the side of the countertop, and staring at my bag.
“Nope.” He made the word pop. “The men in our organisation are so self-obsessed they rarely look further than their own thoughts and opinions. Roberto is a man constantly in need of money, he gets angry when his financial supply chain dries up.”
“He wanted to live a quiet life and breed racehorses.”
“He wanted to hide and continue to abuse little boys. His family were making him live away from them so they didn’t see the monster he had become.”
I spun to face him, and as much as I wanted to defend Dale, my heart knew Maximus never lied. He avoided answering instead of not telling the truth.
“We don’t have time for this,” he said, cutting through my thoughts. “All our teams are on the ground.”
His hand cupped the side of my face, and the emotions in his eyes made my breath falter. Instead of speaking, Maximus pressed a hard kiss to my lips, silencing my thoughts. He left me standing in the wardrobe, stunned and speechless as I watched him walk away.
He always had been an enigma, but now he was something different – and my future depended on deciphering him.