Raging Heart On (Lucas Brothers #2)(137)

“Like you are an expert on women,” I come back at him, but it’s weak. I know it is, and he knows it is.

“Are you done blubbering out of your * and finally ready to listen to your old man?”

“I don’t…”

“I guess not.”

I take a breath and bite my tongue. Everything is f*cked up. Marcum might be a lot of things, but he’s not wrong about this.

“It’s too late,” I say the words I believe down deep, half hoping he’ll tell me I’m wrong.

“Maybe,” he says, and that one word is f*cking hard to hear.





32


Tess


Max has been MIA. I have no idea where he is. When we got back to the Marcum’s, I was immediately sent to my room like a naughty little child. I didn’t care. My arm hurt, I was sick to my stomach, and I had a headache. I was also acknowledging that my choices were coming back to haunt me. I am officially a felon now. The cops were shooting and intent on apprehending Max, and they no longer considered me collateral damage. I am part of the problem in their eyes. I can’t be surprised about it. I’m not sure how I feel. I made my own decisions. I chose Max. He pretty much gave me an out after that first day. I didn’t take it. I ran straight into the shit storm that I’m in now, and I’m pretty sure I would do the same thing again. I love Max. That’s a constant. The plain truth is, I’ve gone too far to turn back.

Cherry came by and made sure I ate. I took a quick bath. My arm hurts like hell, but the injury is superficial. I only needed three stitches. Ride gave me some pain medication, but I didn’t take it. I opted for Tylenol instead. Pretty soon, I’ll need to face reality on a lot of things…

“You’re looking better.” Max’s deep voice grabs my attention. I’m looking out of the window wondering exactly, what is going to happen next and scared of finding out. I guess it’s out of my hands now. I try to mentally prepare myself for whatever Max is going to tell me. Before I can turn around, he’s standing beside me, pulling the curtains closed over the window. “Standing in front of a window might not be the wisest thing just now, Kitten.”

He pulls me away from the window, and we sit down on the bed. Nerves are overtaking me, and I’m not sure what to say to, Max. “I thought the compound was locked down?” I ask instead and hope he doesn’t notice how strained and timid my voice sounds.

“It is, Kitten. It is. We’re safe here for now.” His hand cups the side of my face, and I lean into it and close my eyes. I take a deep breath and let his scent and presence envelope me. It calms me. As long as Max is here, then I’m okay. As long as he’s with me, we’re okay.

“What comes next, Max?” I ask the one question that won’t leave me alone. The one question I’m terrified of knowing the answer to, but have to know either way.

Max sighs and joins our hands together. I watch him, and he’s staring at our linked hands and looking deep in thought. I hold my breath and bite my tongue against the questions I want to ask him. I’m afraid to spook him. I’m petrified he’s going to leave me behind. That’s it. That’s what everything boils down to. Is Max going to leave me?

“We need to talk, Kitten.” There’s a sentence to ease the fear that’s gripping your heart. Not.

“Save it, Mad Max. You are not leaving me behind. It’s not happening. You asked me to go to Aruba with you and other places from there, and I’m doing that. It’s done; we made our choices, and there’s no going back. You might as well just…”

His lips crush mine, stopping my nervous tirade. The flavor of him in my mouth makes me moan. So I open, and my tongue wars with his. I feel his hand grip the side of my neck and his thumb slides up and down against the center of my throat in a steady movement that accentuates the drumming of my pulse. He bites on my bottom lip, and I gasp from the sting, and then murmur approval as his tongue slides along the worried skin, soothing it. I raise my hand to pull him close, and my body goes still and tight from the pain. Damn stitches.

Max pulls away when he feels me tense up. “I’m sorry, Kitten,” he says, helping me bring the arm back down. It might be just three stitches, but I guess the placement of them, or whatever, makes them hurt with every movement. It’s either that or the fact I refused the meds that Ride warned I would need. “Tess, I have to give you the option. Marcum and the boys can make sure you go back to your life. The police will release a statement saying you were held against your will, and that I only released you once I had jumped the border. You won’t need to worry about anything and your life can go back to…”

It’s me who stops him this time. I put my fingers against his lips.

“I don’t want to go back to life before you, Max.”

“Tess.”

“Do you want me to leave? Is that it? Would you rather I wasn’t a part of this?” I ask, afraid of the answer, but needing to know, regardless.

That’s when Max surprises me. He gathers me in his arms, careful with my bad arm. He sits me in his lap while somehow pushing us back on the bed so he can recline against the headboard. Then, he places a kiss against my temple and situates me so I’m lying against his heart, and the beat of it is drumming in my ear.

“I don’t want to let you go, Tess. Ever. What you are to me, has nothing to do with what we started out as.”