Chapter 2 Maxim
MAXIM
An ear-piercing shriek fills the kitchen as blood spreads out in a circular pattern from the body at my feet. For the first few seconds, I gaze at the body, unsure how he could be making such a noise with a bullet between his eyes, but as shoes squeak on the kitchen tiles around me, it clicks.
The body isn’t screaming.
Someone else is.
Turning on my heel, I glimpse a woman with her face warped by terror and her mouth open in an almost perfect O shape. Then she whirls around and flees from the kitchen in a flurry of deep crimson hair.
I don’t need to speak. My guards lunge after her in an instant and vanish through the same door she’s just fled.
“Who is she?” I lock eyes with my head of security, Rex, and frown. “You told me this place was on lockdown.
“It was—it is,” Rex corrects himself. “No one has been in or out of here except me since we closed.” He shakes his hand once and flexes his fingers, fighting to ease the throb there from the last two punches he delivered to our captive.
“Clearly not.”
“I’ll deal with it.” Rex takes a step forward, but I stop him with a raised hand.
“No. I will.”
Beyond the double doors, furniture clatters, wood splinters, glass salt shakers smash, and the woman’s screams of terror mingle with the alarmed grunts of my men. One woman can’t be that difficult to subdue, surely?
My answer comes a second later when Toto and Stu drag the woman, kicking and screaming, back through the doors.
Toto has his arms around her middle and has lifted her from the floor, but her arms and legs flail out in all directions.
She thrashes so hard that her crimson hair covers her face.
Her fingers are like clawed hooks, seeking out contact with anything that will save her while her feet jerk and thrust in all directions to keep everyone away.
Stu surges forward and grunts in pain as her foot collides with his stomach.
Toto wrenches her around to one side and leans over just as Stu’s hand snaps back.
Before I can stop him, his open palm collides with her face with such force that her head snaps to the side like the crack of a whip, and she instantly goes limp while the echo of impact rings around the room.
“Stop.” Anger rises in me like the ignition of a furnace, and Stu barely contains the second strike. Our eyes meet, and he glares at me for a second while massaging his stomach.
“You said get her.”
“I did. I didn’t say hurt her, did I?”
“Kind of implied, Boss,” Stu mutters. “She’s violent.”
“She’s scared,” I correct sharply. “If that wasn’t clear, then perhaps you’re losing your edge.
” A thinly veiled threat exists within my words.
Those who lose their edge are not welcome around me.
I need everyone on top of their game, not just for my survival but for their own.
The trust that exists between all four of us is fragile, given how often this world shifts on a dime.
An extra dollar in the wrong person’s pocket can spell the end of a dynasty.
Stu’s jaw flexes back and forth as if he’s wrestling with something he doesn’t dare say, then his shoulders slump. “Sorry.”
Toto blows out a loud breath to free himself from some of the woman’s red strands of hair caught in his stubble from her struggles. “What you wanna do with her, Boss?”
“Take her to the office.”
“We’re not killing her?” Rex’s raised brows catch my eyes as Toto moves past me, dragging the motionless body with him.
“No.”
“Maxim, you know the rules—”
“I’m acutely aware, thank you.”
“No witnesses,” Rex presses. “Your father will—”
“I know exactly what he will want.” I cut through Rex once more. “I know his rules. And I’m telling you, no.”
Rex sighs and crosses his arms over his broad chest. “So we’re playing it like this?”
“Yes. We are.”
“Fine. What about him?” Rex jerks his head down to the dead body on the floor. “We have to clean this up. You also have to make an appearance at your father’s Thanksgiving, and you ordered me to remind you not to miss dinner with the girls. We don’t have time to babysit.”
Rex is right, as always. We’re on borrowed time as it is, but the thought of killing an innocent woman for stumbling into the wrong restaurant curdles my blood. Moving past Rex, I follow Toto’s path into the office and pass him as he leans against the doorframe.
“Take Stu and clean up,” I order curtly.
Toto nods once and dips out of my sight.
He’s placed the woman on the worn fabric couch situated parallel to the office desk. Her head is to the side covered by her hair, one arm crosses her abdomen, and her legs rest askew on the armrest.
A short, pleated skirt ruffles around her golden brown, bare thighs.
Black knee-high boots hug shapely calves and her woolen coat lies open, showing a floral blouse that hugs tightly at her chest and flares out toward her waist. A silver pendant rests around her neck, coiling into the hollow of her collarbone.
Approaching, I lightly grasp the bottom hem of her skirt and straighten out the fabric to cover her thighs, then I lower to my haunches and very gently start pushing strands of her thick, wavy hair away from her face.
It’s as red as a Christmas bauble. More and more of her face reveals to me, and just as I tuck the last strand behind her ear, careful of her glittering earring, familiarity hits me.
I know her face.
The soft slope of her nose with the little bump in the bridge. Her lips with her upper lip being fuller than her lower. Her apple cheeks are so soft and round when she smiles, only now, one carries a rapidly bruising handprint courtesy of Stu.
I met her some time ago before I had to leave the country on business. Back then, her hair was a deep blue and she’d crammed her delicious body into a silver dress that rode up her thighs with every step she took in these gorgeous black heeled pumps.
But what was her name?
It sits on the back of my tongue, a distant thought that refuses to come forth no matter how long I stare at her peaceful face.
I know it and yet it escapes me. I slowly reach forward, expecting her to wake up at any second, but she doesn’t stir as I press two of my thick fingers to the slope of her neck to check her pulse.
It’s there. Strong and slow.
As I count just to ensure everything remains normal, it’s alarming how easily my entire hand could seal around her throat and crush the life out of her without my having to even break a sweat. She’s as small and lithe as I am tall and broad. And her presence here is alarming.
No one should walk in on us, least of all someone I’ve had previous contact with. Is this some kind of setup or an honest to God mistake?
Following the law set out by the Pakhan, my father, I should torture her to be sure this was just an accident and then kill her.
They won’t find her body until the river thaws, and by then, any possible evidence will have been eaten by the ice and the current.
That’s how Dad deals with everything. If it bothers him, he gets rid of it. No exceptions.
I can’t do that. Not now. Not ever.
Happy that she’s alive, I return to Rex out in the kitchen. The body of my target has been removed, leaving behind a pool of blood that Toto is in the middle of cleaning up.
“I want this kitchen deep cleaned,” I say as a spattering of blood on a nearby cupboard door catches my eye. “Top to bottom. This place has to look brand-new before we reopen, understand?”
Rex, with his arms still crossed, nods. “And her?” He nods past me to the open office door. “You know what we should do.”
“I do. But I’m not going to.”
“Why?” Toto peers up from amid his scrubbing. “We’ve done it before.”
“Toto, when was the last time you pulled the trigger on someone who didn’t explicitly deserve it?”
His lips part and his boyish face melts with confusion as he struggles to recall an exact time. Like a fish gasping for air, his lips part repeatedly and then he leans back onto his knee. “I ain’t got a clue.”
“Exactly. Until I know exactly why she walked in here, she doesn’t deserve anything,” I say, and I lock eyes with Stu as he walks back through those double doors rolling one shoulder to free it from an ache.
“Igor won’t be happy,” Stu comments, wrinkling his nose and causing the scar on his cheek to jump.
“Let me deal with my father. If nothing comes of this and she is innocent, you will owe her an apology.”
“Sure,” Stu replies easily. “If.”
“Take her to my penthouse. From there, we’ll find out the truth and keep her quiet.”
“No!” Her voice rises up from behind me. “You’re not taking me anywhere!”
We all turn. She stands in the doorway of the office on trembling legs, brandishing the desk lamp clutched between both her hands. Despite the evident fear in her stunning, crystal clear green eyes, her brow is pinched in anger and her lips set in a straight line.
“Let. Me. Go.”
It takes balls to face down four members of the Mafia with a desk lamp, I’ll give her that.
“If you can make it past all four of us,” I say casually, “then you’re free to go.”
“Really?” She and Toto speak in unison. Toto earns a slap on the back of the head from Stu.
“You idiot,” Stu mutters.
“You mean it?” the woman challenges again.
“Sure. And I’ll make it easy for you. None of us will even move.”
Her eyes dart back and forth between the four of us and I see the wheels turning behind her eyes. She’s trying to find the path of least resistance between us, a path that doesn’t exist given the close build of the kitchen and the amount of space I alone take up.
“How do I know you’ll keep your word?” Her voice trembles and she takes a wobbling step forward. Her grip on the desk lamp becomes so tight that her knuckles become almost translucent.
“I always keep my word.”
She scoffs weakly, trying to appear stronger than she actually is. “Shit like that doesn’t mean anything between strangers.”
“Then make your choice. Either you’re going to my penthouse or you’re trying to get past us. Decide.”
Her lips part. The lampshade quivers in her grasp and her chest rises so rapidly, it’s a wonder she’s getting any air with how she pants.
There’s a moment of silence broken by Stu popping his gun.
The sound makes her jump, but it spurs her into action.
She sprints from the doorway and reaches Rex first, who watches her with a mildly amused smile.
He doesn’t move and he doesn’t try to reach for her either, so she slips past untouched.
Next is Toto, still kneeling on the tiles next to the stain.
He also doesn’t move other than sliding his bucket of water out of her path so she doesn’t trip.
Each victory gives her confidence, but I’m next.
And she’s not getting away.
She tries to run past me, hair flying and cheeks vibrant from the adrenaline rush of success, but she doesn’t make it.
I sweep my arm out, and she runs right into it with a pained grunt as all the air bursts past her lips.
With one motion, I sweep her right off her feet, and the desk lamp slips from her fingers, then she collides with the fridge next to me as I shove her into it and crowd her in with my entire bulk.
“You said you wouldn’t move!” she gasps as gigantic tears flood her eyes.
“I didn’t. My feet are exactly where they always were.”
“Please let me go. I didn’t see anything, I swear. I won’t tell anyone anything, please!” She dissolves into terrified sobs and tension coils around my beating heart.
“What is there to tell anyone if you didn’t see anything?” My head tilts to the side. “I don’t like liars, and we both know what you saw. So beg all you want. The only place you’re going is my penthouse.”