Chapter 25 Hollie
HOLLIE
“Where is she?” As soon as the door is open, Maxim leads the way into the apartment while I hesitate on the steps.
An elderly woman clings to the door with tears in her eyes and points down the hallway. “She locked herself in the bathroom.”
“Zoe?” Maxim doesn’t falter.
As I step inside, a large pair of curious, wary eyes peers up at me from behind the elderly woman. A boy. He can’t be older than four and he clutches at the woman’s skirt with one fist.
“Hi. I’m Hollie.”
My plans to sit down and talk to Maxim have been derailed by whatever’s happened here, but as soon as he explained that Zoe was the survivor of that terrible attack, nothing else mattered.
The child doesn’t reply and neither does the woman, so I cautiously follow Maxim’s path to the end of the hall as Toto and Stu file in behind me. Maxim stands against a locked door with one hand against it.
“Are you sure, Zoe?”
“Are you calling me a liar?” screeches a panicked voice from inside.
“No, but I want to make sure before I hurt someone who doesn’t deserve it.”
“It was him! I saw him! Please, Maxim, don’t let him find me!”
Maxim glances at me, kisses me on the top of the head, and rushes back down the hall toward Toto and Stu. A brief discussion ensues, and then Maxim and Stu bolt out the door.
“Maxim?” Zoe calls cautiously.
“He’s gone,” I reply cautiously. “I think he’s away to look for…” I hesitate. Not wanting to say the wrong thing, I end up remaining completely quiet.
“Who are you?” hiccups the tear-filled voice.
“I’m Hollie. I’m Maxim’s… wife.”
“Oh. He brought you?”
“We were going to go shopping, but he got your message and this is more important.”
“Oh.” The voice cracks slightly and sniffling follows. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” I say softly. “Maxim is here for you.” I can’t fathom what this woman has been through, even from Nancy’s tale of the kidnapping. Surviving it might almost be worse than experiencing it.
“I saw him,” Zoe weeps, and the door creaks as if she’s leaning against it. “I swear it was him.”
My chest tightens. “You saw who?”
“The man who did this to me.” More sniffles follow. “I didn’t think I would recognize him, but I saw him and his dark hair and that cold smirk and the heart on his wrist when he reached for me, and I just—”
“He tried to grab you?”
Zoe dissolves into tears on the other side of the door. I crouch down as her voice seems to be lower now. She cries, and my heart breaks, so I press one hand to the door. “Maxim will find him.”
“What if he followed me?” she gasps. “I ran and I ran. All over. I ran for hours so he couldn’t follow me home, but what if he still did?”
“I know Maxim will take care of this. He will find a new place for you and your family, I have no doubt. And he will find the man who did this to you.” If the determined look on Maxim’s face was anything to go by, it’s only a matter of time.
“You don’t know that,” Zoe weeps. “He won’t ever leave me alone!”
She cries until she starts to choke and Toto has to break down the door because I’m terrified something will happen to her.
In the end, she’s only choking on her own tears and she dissolves into frantic weeping in my arms. She cries until she has nothing left, and then she lets me gently clean her up and tend to the cuts and scrapes on her bare feet from when she abandoned her shoes because she thought they hindered her escape.
She signed herself out of the hospital against medical advice two days ago, and he already found her.
No wonder Maxim is furious. He’s been searching for that bastard for weeks.
I’ve never seen someone look as broken as Zoe. She’s covered in bandages with a few of them stained red from reopened wounds. Her breathing is labored and by the time Maxim returns, my concern is so high that he immediately agrees with me.
Zoe and her family are taken by Stu to a private hospital where she will receive medical care and round-the-clock security until that monster is found. She doesn’t protest. She falls scarily quiet when being loaded into the ambulance and the sight of her confused, upset child haunts me.
“Will she be safe?” I ask Maxim as we walk together under the twinkling streetlights that capture the snow as it drifts down around us. I won the argument about being driven home while Maxim walked to process everything, insisting we should stay together.
Toto lingers somewhere behind along with a few other guards I’ve not been told the names of.
“Yes,” Maxim replies, rubbing his eyes. “She would have been if she hadn’t checked out.”
“She wanted to be back with her family. I can’t blame her.”
“Family,” Maxim murmurs. “It makes people do the craziest things.”
I slide my hand into Maxim’s and grip tightly. My heart lifts when he clutches me back. “Did you find him, then?”
“No. We tracked the store she saw him at and Rex was working on the security tapes, but so far, it looks like she just had a flashback and scared herself. We’ll keep looking, though.”
“Poor thing. The trauma and the pain she must be going through.” Any lingering sympathy I held for the monster shot dead in the restaurant vanished the moment I saw Zoe’s beaten face.
There’s no more doubt that someone capable of such cruelty doesn’t deserve to live.
And the second monster out there, hiding, deserves the same fate.
“She’s strong,” Maxim replies. “But she shouldn’t have to be. My men have been working around the clock trying to—” He trails off. “I need to talk about something else before I explode.”
I caress his knuckles with my thumb. “Okay, then tell me, is this sort of thing normal?” We turn into a quiet park enclosed with trees and black fence. “Do you usually kill people in pizzerias?”
Maxim snorts softly. “Not usually. In my line of work, death is rare. It’s a double-edged sword. My father believes getting rid of anyone and everyone who stands in your way or threatens you is the best way.”
“And you don’t?”
He shakes his head and snow crunches nicely under our feet.
“No. Because once you start killing those who don’t deserve it to threaten those who do, you invite in those assholes who don’t fear death.
Then you have nothing to hold over them.
A threat is a delicate thing and only works if someone has something to lose.
In my world, it’s hard to care and harder to put pressure on that care.
But death? You feel it once and it starts to lose its effect. ”
“So, why does he do it? Your Dad?”
“He’s from a time when dying was the scariest thing that could happen. But the world is shittier now. Death, for a lot of people, no longer feels like the worst thing. For many, it’s an escape.”
“That’s so sad.” I lean into him, cradling his hand in both of mine.
“This world is sad. So I try new things. Give people a little hope and they’ll be more loyal than a threat to their family.”
“Threatening their family, hmm?” I gaze up at him. “Where have I heard that before?”
“I had a role to play,” Maxim replies. “I’m sorry. For people outside this world, I suppose the old school threats still work because it is the worst thing that can happen.”
“It is,” I agree. With no stake in this world, Maxim controls. The only thing of worth I have is my parents. And now him, to an extent, and the baby growing inside me. All of them fall under the family umbrella and would make me cave.
“Enough of that, though,” Maxim says. “Tell me about your rehearsal.”
“Oh! It was short, actually. He wanted me to play a few specific songs, which was fine, and he wanted my guarantee that I would be there and not cancel. I told him the money was far too good to cancel, and then he got a call and things were over.”
“Does that happen a lot?” Maxim asks, his breathing becoming less tense. “People want to see you beforehand?”
“Only with private bookings. Everywhere else I've worked relies on word of mouth, and I have a good reputation. Hotels will book me without hesitation if I fit their vibe for that year. But it depends. Some years are better than others.”
“And this is what you want to do with your life?”
“Actually…” I hesitate briefly. “Uhm… I was actually thinking of leaving New York. Signing on for a cruise or something. They pay well, and I’d get to travel and escape this place.”
“You want to escape?”
It sounds silly now and my cheeks warm. “Before… all this, I felt stuck. My mom was always on my case, signing me up for things or volunteering me without letting me know and then getting pissed when I didn’t show.
My dad would have my back, but often, he’d also pull the ‘You only get one mother’ card as if I were letting him down. I felt… smothered.”
“Having a cop for a father must be interesting.”
“Are you digging for dirt?” I tease softly.
“Maybe. Are you going to give it to me?” He meets my eyes with a light smirk. Walking through the park, we approach the exit, and a car pulls up with Stu in the driver’s seat.
“My dad was distant and strict growing up. He became a dad after retiring early due to an injury. That and I think a heart attack scare from my mom finally put things into perspective for him.”
“What did he work on?”
“He never talked about that. Other than a few morality lessons over the rare dinners he would be at. Is it weird for you? That he’s a cop?”
“Well…” Maxim sighs deeply, his breath clouding out past his lips and drifting high into the sky. Our brief walk and chat seem to have relaxed him somewhat. “It certainly puts an odd spotlight on me. People talk. I have loyalties to prove. That sort of thing.”
“Can’t help that you helped decorate his home,” I tease as we reach the car. “Which, speaking of… come to the fair with me.”
Maxim’s hand lingers on the door and he raises one brow. “What?”
“There’s a Christmas fair I love going to. Come with me.”
“I don’t do fairs.”
“And I don’t take no for an answer,” I reply with a pout, releasing his other hand. “Unless this is your way of telling me that you never want to see under this again.” As sexily as I can, I smooth my hands down the thick coat keeping me warm in the cold.
“Targeting what a man holds dear… you learn fast.”
I smirk and stick out my tongue. “You did say you give them hope and then threaten that, so… you’re coming with me.”
“Alright.” Maxim chuckles as he opens the door. “I’ll come to the fair with you.”