Chapter 17 - Maxim

I shake my head looking down her, her hands wrapped around a coffee mug as we stand outside on the balcony in the fresh morning air.

“How can you still not suspect your father, after what you saw?”

“Because—he”s my father. I know him. I must have misunderstood what I saw. I mean, I looked so quickly. Maybe I made a mistake.”

“Chiara, I saw the state you were in when you got home. How do you misread a scene like that? Your father is involved. And you told me that Stefano mentioned that Angelo was happy with the new clients coming in, clients that were leaving our family to go to his business.”

“So? Of course my dad would be happy that business was going well. It doesn’t mean that he knows why, or that he had anything to do with how Stefano got the clients.”

“I think you underestimate your father. He is a smart man. A sharp thinker. There is no way that he doesn’t know exactly what is going on with every aspect of his business.”

“But he wants to retire soon, he told us he was stepping back.”

I smile. “Chiara, people will say what they want you to hear.”

She isn’t able to see the whole picture here. She has an image of her father in her mind, and it isn’t budging. I think because of the shock of what she saw yesterday she”s somehow managed to block it from her memory and isn”t taking it into account. Her father is not the man she thinks he is.

I need to try and show her this.

“What if I managed to prove it to you? Kiril and Paval were talking about a warehouse address, mentioned by one of our clients, which we know belongs to Angelo. If we can get inside there and find something, we”ll know just how involved Angelo is in the business, or if it”s only Stefano running the show.”

She sighs in frustration.

“I think if that”s what you need to do to understand that Stefano is acting alone, then you should do it. I’ll get ready and we can leave—”

“Not a fucking a chance.”

She turns to glare at me. “What?”

“I will take Paval with me. You are not going anywhere near that warehouse.”

“Maxim—”

“No. That is my final word on the matter.”

I lean down to kiss her forehead. “I”ll see you later. Stay home today. After yesterday, I just want to be cautious. We still don’t know if anyone noticed you on the security footage or if that guy, Ivan, will mention to your father that he saw you.”

“Fine,” she sulks, her lips pouting slightly, accentuating her dimples.

I chuckle. “You really are cute when you”re mad.”

***

On the drive there Paval begins to question me.

“Don’t you think that this girl is clouding your judgment?”

“You mean my wife?”

“I mean your forced marriage to the woman who we were meant to use to get close and find out who is sabotaging our business. I think you have feelings for her, and they might be getting in the way of what we are trying to do.”

I chuckle. “No, I don’t have feelings for her. She’s hot. She’s great in bed. That’s as far as it goes. Sex and a marriage certificate.”

Paval glances over at me, and I look out of the window, worried that my expression doesn’t match my words. Denying that I have feelings for her is difficult for some reason. My throat feels tight now, as though the words aren’t true.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yep,” I nod, one firm tilt of my head to emphasize my answer.

Paval and I park the SUV out of sight and away from the warehouse entrance. We climb out, kitted in Kevlar vests with our handguns at our side, ready to draw if needed.

“We stay low, we keep quiet. This mission is about gathering information, not about anything else,” Paval says.

“Agreed,” I nod.

We walk toward the back of the warehouse, finding a side entrance used by the workers.

Inside, the warehouse is busy. Workers are moving back and forth, packing, moving and organizing crates.

“Stay low,” Paval whispers.

We make our way toward a group of men in business suits. Stefano is talking to them about their order. I recognize them; they”re the same two men who were at my warehouse the other day, placing an order with me before shit hit the fan and things went wrong.

Stefano is gunning after our clients.

I was wondering why they were not returning my calls anymore.

We stay crouched behind a wall of crates, making sure we are far away enough not to be spotted.

”That means that we”re able to provide secure movement of your order—”

A massive explosion erupts to the left of where the men are standing. Paval grabs me and pushes me to the floor. The crates we are hiding behind begin to sway and tilt. We leap up and run out of the way as they crash to the ground.

Men are shouting, screaming and running away from the direction of the explosion.

The scene is a smaller replica of my own warehouse after the explosion happened there. Only one bomb went off here, but it”s still deafening and unleashes mayhem.

“What the fuck just happened?” Paval shouts over the chaos.

“How the fuck should I know?” I shout back.

We stand, knowing we have to get out of here right now. If they see us here, they will obviously think that we are the ones who planted the bomb.

I glance over to where the business men are lying covered in blood, their bodies smashes by the impact. “We have to help them.”

“We have to go,” Paval demands.

“No, we have to help.”

I run toward one of them and roll him over. He”s dead. Both of them are dead.

“Stefano is alive, but he is unconscious,” Paval says, kneeling over Stefano’s limp figure.

“Fuck,” I mutter.

“He might be seriously injured, but I think we should leave him here to die.”

“No, we take him with us.”

“Maxim—”

“He’s coming with us.”

Paval grinds his jaw but helps me lift Stefano. We carry him out to the car and place him in the back.

“Where are we taking him?”

“My place.”

Paval drives toward my home, where Chiara is waiting.

We carry him inside to one of the back rooms, and Paval calls the doctor.

Chiara rushes in. “Maxim, what happened? Is that Stefano?”

“Yes, there was an explosion at his warehouse before we even had a chance to look around.”

“Is he alive?”

“Injured, but alive. Paval, how long will the doc take?”

“Ten minutes.”

The doctor confirms that Stefano will be fine. He patches up some small cuts and bandages his leg where a piece of metal sliced pretty deeply into his flesh.

“Keep an eye on him, though. Just to be sure. If anything changes, he needs to be brought to my clinic.”

“Thanks, doc. We will call if we need you.”

The doctor gathers his things and leaves.

Chiara sits down on the bed next to Stefano and reaches out to touch his forehead.

I watch her with jealously burning inside me. I don’t want her to touch him. I don’t want her to help him. I don’t even want her near that asshole.

“Chiara, leave him. He needs rest.”

“It doesn’t make sense though, does it? Why would he blow up his own warehouse? Why would he put himself in danger like that? You said the explosion killed the two men who were standing right next to him. He”s an asshole, but he isn’t stupid.” Her eyes are still locked onto his face, a concerned look twisting her brows together as she bites her lower lip.

“Chiara, I said get away from him. We can’t trust him. He might have set the bomb with wrong timing. Maybe he didn’t intend to be there when it went off.”

“That’s ridiculous, Maxim.”

I walk over to her and pull her away from him.

“Let him rest. We”ll ask him about it when he wakes up.”

For two days Chiara and I tend to Stefano’s wounds, changing the bandage on his leg and keeping an eye on him. Chiara is gentle and caring, while I am perhaps a little more crass about it all. Paval checks in every day as well. We all want answers.

“Nothing yet?” Paval says, standing next to the bed and looking down at Stefano’s peaceful form.

“Nothing. The bleeding on his leg stopped—”

“What the fuck is going on?” Stefano leaps out of bed, his eyes wild and delirious.

“Fuck,” I say, holding up both hands. “Stefano, calm down, man, there was an explosion.”

“A fucking explosion you set, you motherfuckers. What the fuck is going on, where I am?”

“You are in my house—”

Stefano comes flying at me, his shoulder slamming into my chest. I grab him and use his own momentum to spin him away from me, and he falls to the floor, skidding across the carpet.

He leaps back to his haunches, springing up again. I grab him around the neck, locking him in a tight grip, and he grabs at my arm, trying to bend it backwards.

“Stop,” Chiara shouts from the doorway. “Stop right now.”

“He just woke up and went crazy,” I say, not letting him go.

“Max is right, Stefano started this,” Paval shrugs.

“I don’t care who started it, both of you stop. Paval, Maxim, get out of the room. I need to talk to Stefano in private.”

I shoot her a look that says not a fucking chance.

But I do release my grip on Stefano’s neck. He steps away angrily.

Then he moves towards me again. “Stefano, stop,” Chiara says. “Seriously, let me talk to him in private,” she insists.

Paval looks from me to Chiara. “Let her.”

I hate this. I don’t want her alone with him. But at least they are in my house, and if he tries anything, I will hear.

“We will be right outside the door,” I say.

“No, you won’t. I said in private.”

I snarl. “If he hurts you, he won’t survive the things that I am going to do to him.”

“Fine,” Chiara says with a heavy sigh.

I storm out of the room and Paval follows me downstairs. Every muscle in my body is tense. My adrenaline is pumping. That asshole was not even grateful that we helped him, that we most likely saved his fucking life.