Chapter 18 Hollie
HOLLIE
Performing on a Sunday is always strange. While New York City never sleeps, I’m usually hired for late-night events during the week or a party on Saturday, but the client Tiffany put me in touch with booked me for Sunday evening.
With Maxim already busy with work, I had to turn to Stu and Toto to take me to the party.
“Are you sure this is the right address?” Toto leans up from his seat and peers out the window, and Stu pulls onto a long winding drive that leads up to a gigantic square house ablaze with golden light.
“Mhm.” I double-check my phone. “Yeah, this is the place. Is something wrong?”
Stu glances over his shoulder. “Does Maxim know?”
“I told him I had to work. I didn’t tell him where. Why, what’s wrong?”
Toto and Stu exchange a silent glance and my frustration builds. Snatching up my violin case, I hold it in my lap while glaring at Toto. “The silent treatment sucks, by the way. If there’s something wrong with my being here, then you'd better tell me because I can’t afford to cancel this gig.”
“Money isn’t the issue,” Toto remarks, bringing his phone out from his pocket.
“Maybe not, but my reputation can’t be bought and I don’t need another cancellation on my bookings.
So is there a problem?” I can’t imagine what the issue could be other than the fact that we’re on the outskirts of the city.
If this goes against one of Maxim’s secret rules that I know nothing about, then I’ll be having strong words with him later.
Toto stares at his phone for a long moment, then he looks at Stu. “There’s no problem?”
“You sure?” Stu’s brows lift.
“Yup.”
Since they refuse to clue me in, I open the door and slip from the car with a grunt.
Toto’s exclamation barely reaches me as I clutch my dress up to my knees and stomp up the driveway, leaving the two of them to keep their secrets while I get to work.
Regardless of Maxim’s influence over my life now, I’m not turning away from my music for anyone.
I climb six white stone steps to a white and gold front door that opens the moment I reach the top. A man dressed in a black suit with dark shades tilts his head at me while I place my best smile across my lips.
“Hi, I’m Hollie Wolfe. I’m booked in for three hours of music?”
“ID?” The man speaks with a waspish voice.
Digging in my purse, I locate my ID just as Toto and Stu arrive behind me, but for some reason, the man loses interest in my ID and waves me inside without a word.
“What is going on?” I murmur, stepping into an extravagantly decorated hallway with large stairs ascending up to the next floor where they split in two directions, right and left.
“Miss Wolfe?” A woman with poker-straight dark hair hurries up to me wearing a navy blue dress.
“That’s me.”
“Right this way, my dear. You’re right on time!”
I only manage to glance at Toto before I’m whisked through to the next room and helped up onto a small black stage that surrounds a crystal Christmas tree.
The lights are turned low and the woman, who introduces herself as Lara, brings me water while I get set up.
Three hours of violin work is a challenge solo, but as Lara goes over the song requests with me, the room begins to fill up.
Countless men in gorgeously tailored suits and women in sparkling dresses more expensive than the mortgage on my parents’ house glide in like sparkling angels, and soon, the room is filled with warmth and the gentle murmur of conversation.
Lara wishes me luck and melts off the stage, leaving me to my dark corner.
So I begin to play.
Music is where I find peace. With the violin under my chin and the bow resting in my fingers like an extension of my own soul, I pour everything into my performance.
I was hired to be background, but as I weave multiple songs together, a small crowd begins to grow near the stage.
One woman sways back and forth, dabbing the corners of her eyes, while another clutches at her pearls as if my music keeps her on the very edge of an abyss.
The crowd grows until soft applause ripples through the room each time I pause.
One pause lasts fifteen minutes where Lara brings me ice water to combat the heat, an energy bar, and praise from the host, a man I haven’t even met.
While chewing quickly on the sweet cherry and dark chocolate bar, I bring the water bottle to my lips… and freeze.
In the crowd, standing almost a head above everyone else, is a familiar set of deep blue eyes that lock onto me and don’t waver.
Maxim.
What the hell is he doing here? Did he follow me here or something?
Just as my annoyance spikes, the crowd parts slightly and his suit is just as exquisitely fitted as everyone else's. And someone stands next to him, talking his ear off, even though his attention is clearly elsewhere.
He didn’t follow me here. Maxim was invited. No wonder Stu and Toto were so concerned about this being the address.
If Maxim is here, then this is no ordinary party.
Suddenly, every pair of eyes on me becomes a threat. Handsome men morph into dangerous killers and beautiful women become cold assassins. My heart begins to race and my hand trembles as I drink.
If this party is in Maxim’s world, am I even safe? Did he even know I was coming?
Judging by his calm expression, there’s nothing around to visibly concern him and once he catches my eye, his lips curl up into a slight, knowing smile.
If he isn’t worried, then why should I be?
My timer ends, my break is over, and it’s back to the music.
Only this time, Maxim stands out like a beacon in the crowd and I can’t tear my attention away from him.
The growing crowd melts into the shadows, the lights dim, and it feels like I’m playing just for him.
So I play harder. I pour everything I have into the music, caress my violin like a lover, and lock eyes with Maxim through every flourish and accent that I bring to familiar Christmas songs that everyone loves.
He never looks away.
Somehow, that makes me feel safe, that even in this crowded room filled with likely criminals, I’m not under any threat.
As my bow glides over the strings to the final notes of my last song, a loud applause rises up from the gatherers who chose to admire my playing over dancing themselves.
It’s then that Maxim vanishes, swallowed by a crowd that surges forward with such loud praise that I can barely decipher any of the words.
People clap and compliment my style, my poise, my playing, and my flair as I try to climb down from the stage, and just when it grows overwhelming, a rough hand suddenly glides into mine and the crowd falls silent.
Maxim.
His presence is enough to disperse the crowd within seconds, and there’s not a single complaint from anyone.
With flushed cheeks and sweat clinging to the back of my neck, I gratefully clutch his hand while he leads me silently through the room and out a set of glass doors onto a glittering, snow-covered patio.
The chill in the air momentarily soothes my overheating skin, but just as the biting cold grows too much, Maxim’s suit jacket lands heavily over my shoulders.
“Thanks,” I say, finally finding my voice. Despite the clammy sweat coating my arms, his jacket is welcoming and I huddle inside it, wrapping it around my shoulder while soaking up his lingering warmth.
“I had no idea you could play like that,” Maxim says as he steps down from the patio and onto a rocky path illuminated by garden lights.
“You never asked to see me play,” I reply, following him carefully in my heels.
“You’re right. My error.” He speaks quietly, as if fearing the falling snow will steal away his words if he speaks too loudly.
“I didn’t know you would be here.” Stepping from smooth rock to smooth rock, I follow until my heel slips on some snow. Before I can fall, Maxim’s arm is there for me to grasp and I gratefully cling to his elbow.
“I didn’t know you would be, either.”
Smirking softly, I glance up at him. “You never asked me where I was performing.”
“It felt like prying. Given everything that’s happened, I’ve been trying to respect what privacy you have left.”
What a surprising answer. “Curiosity isn’t prying. Unless you decide to force me to tell you something I don’t want to.”
“I don’t intend for that to happen.” Maxim keeps his walking pace slow after my slip. “Would you have told me if I asked?”
I squint up at the dark sky, watching the snowflakes seemingly materialize from nothing. “I don’t know. Maybe not. But why are you here?”
“I enjoy parties.”
“Is everyone in there like you?”
“In what way?”
“Mafia.”
Maxim comes to a stop under a wooden trellis covered in vines and snowdrops that look synthetic. He turns to face me, gazing down with blue eyes so intense that they draw me in like rolling dark waves.
“Yes. Everyone in there is like me. You saw a party and I saw a meeting.”
“What about?”
Maxim smirks. “Looking for dirt on me?”
My hand remains on his elbow and I shake my head. “Not exactly. But given that I have to speak to someone about getting paid, I’d like to know just exactly how much risk I’ll be in.”
“Risk?” His brows knit together. “I would never put you at risk.”
“You didn’t know I was going to be here.”
“True, but as soon as Toto told me, I made sure there was no risk.”
“How?” My eyes narrow. “Did you kill them like that other poor man?”
Something akin to surprise flashes in his eyes. “Why would you think that?”
“That’s what you do, right? You kill the people who get in the way. Or marry them.” My thumb teases the back of my wedding ring. “Just like you’d kill my parents if they became a threat, right?”
“I’m not what you think I am, Hollie.”
I pout, slightly mocking. “Is this when you tell me that my kidnapper has a heart?”
There’s a note of humor in Maxim’s snort. “Maybe.”
Snow clings to the spikes of his dark hair and in the low light, he looks… softer. Shadows ease the sharp line of his jaw. They soften the bulk of his muscles and tease out the true, almost human softness in his face. When he smiles, his eyes crinkle and there’s something much softer about him.
My heart skips a beat and warmth flushes through me like a rampant fever. Here, in the snow and the dark, he’s like the man who attracted me back at the bar. Right now, I see Maxim, the man so sexy that my core aches thinking about what he has between his legs.
Not the killer who upended my life.
“Hollie… come with me tomorrow.”
“Where?”
“To work. Come to the clubs with me.”
My mouth twists. “Why?”
“I want to show you what I do.”
“Why?”
“Because what you think of me matters.”
I tilt my head and huddle closer into his suit jacket. “Why do you care what I think?”
Maxim leans in closer and my heart skips up to my throat, trembling in the hollow of my neck. I glance at his lips and a sudden yearning pulls through my chest like warm taffy. Do I… do I want him to kiss me?
“I care because—”
“Miss Wolfe?” Lara’s voice cuts through the dark. Maxim and I jerk apart as if we’ve been caught doing something we shouldn’t, and my cheeks heat up as if I’ve been slapped. Maxim appears much more relaxed, rubbing his jaw and adjusting himself to be slightly in front of me as Lara approaches.
“Yes?” I say, fighting to keep my voice steady as the fuzzy desire for a kiss fades in my mind.
“Our host is eager to pay you so the party can end. Do you have a moment?” Lara asks.
“Uh…” I glance at Maxim, surprised to see disappointment in his eyes. “Yeah, I have time.”
“Great!” Lara claps her hands together for warmth. “Let’s get you paid!”