Chapter 37 - Max

Brooke was fading fast, and I couldn’t blame her. I’d seen some things in my life, but the place that Luca’s ex had described didn’t begin to prepare me for what was actually down there. One thing I was somewhat grateful for was Luca’s arrogance, leaving the property completely devoid of guards. It was a piece of cake getting in, and a mere inconvenience getting through the heavy iron doors that were sealed with electronic locks. Having a brother who was an explosives expert came in handy more times than I liked to admit.

Once Dima blasted us through, and I saw that Brooke was alive, albeit scared out of her wits and a bit bruised and battered, a cold calm enveloped me. Now, she was tucked into the back of my car, with one of my guys ready to drive us to the hospital to make sure she wasn’t more hurt than she looked. The welt on the side of her head and the bruises on her jaw had me losing my cool all over again, but she swore she only wanted to rest and get as far from this house of horrors as possible.

As much as I didn’t want to leave her side, Dima and one of our guards hauled Luca toward another car parked further up the long driveway. His shoulders were slumped, and he had tape wrapped all the way around his head to keep him quiet, since he wouldn’t stop squealing like a stuck pig from the moment we burst in on his private party.

My hands clenched, wanting nothing more than to curl my fingers around his throat and squeeze until he no longer existed, but getting rid of someone who the entire world adored wasn’t going to be easy. As Dima tried to shove him into the trunk of his car for transport, he put up a last bit of fight, headbutting my brother and then trying to run with his hands tied behind his back.

Fucking idiot.

I caught up with him before the other guard could and wrenched his shoulder as I dragged him back. “You don’t want to piss me off more than you already have,” I snarled, tossing him back to Dima, who soundly punched him in the jaw for giving him a nosebleed. “And you really don’t want to piss off my brother.” I turned to Dima, who was clearly only holding back because of my prior instructions. “Remember, he’s mine to deal with.”

In the pale light of the moon, Luca blanched, his eyes bulging as he made frantic grunting noises beneath all the tape wrapped around his head. I clenched my fist, thinking one nice smack to blacken one of those famous eyes would make me feel better, but then I stepped back, only staring at him until he looked down, starting to cry once again.

Beating the shit out of him now would be too easy, and the sick fuck would probably enjoy it anyway. Letting him stew in fear like he’d made Brooke do was going to have to suffice for the moment.

“Don’t accidentally suffocate him,” I warned as Dima folded him into the trunk.

“I’ll do my best,” he said with a smirk, still dabbing at his nose as he slammed Luca into his temporary tomb.

I didn’t think it was petty to enjoy the sound of the actor’s whimpering as I strode back to Brooke’s side.

“Nearest hospital,” I said to the driver, brushing Brooke’s hair off her face.

She stirred and shook her head. “I’m not hurt—not enough for the hospital. Please, Max, I just want to go somewhere else. Somewhere safe.”

“You’re never going to be in danger again,” I said. “I want to make sure you’re okay.”

She found my hand and gripped it. “I don’t want to be around strangers. Just you, please.” It looked like she wanted to say more, but I told her to rest, promising we’d head home instead of the hospital. She nodded weakly. “Yes, home,” she murmured, closing her eyes and resting her head on my shoulder.

I decided to take her to my house in LA to spare her a longer drive, and we were back in no time. She barely stirred as I carried her upstairs, and she only woke up with a start as I laid her in our bed.

“Remember this place?” I asked with a smile. This was where we’d spent our tumultuous honeymoon.

She tried to return my smile, but her eyes were still haunted. I brought her a bathrobe from the closet and helped her out of her clothes to wrap her up in the thick fabric. Even under the covers and with a hot cup of herbal tea in her hand, the fear remained.

Sitting beside her, I set aside her cup and held her icy-cold hands between mine. “You’re never going to have to face Luca again,” I said. “I swear that to you.”

“Are you going to kill him?” she asked.

My sweet, law-abiding wife almost looked like she wanted me to, and relief flooded me that her fire was slowly returning. The bastard hadn’t managed to put it out, and I was going to rekindle it or die trying.

“I don’t know yet,” I said truthfully. “But you can believe he’s going to suffer.”

“Good,” she hissed, turning to me. “Those videos. There were so many. I wasn’t anywhere close to the first, but I was probably the only one who made it out without…” she trailed off, desperately upset about those other women in Luca’s video collection.

“I’m going to try to make it right. I swear it, Brooke.”

With a smile that was a lot stronger, and eyes that no longer looked like she was seeing demons everywhere, she nestled into the pillows, her hand still clasped in mine. Soon, she drifted off to sleep, her lashes resting on her pale cheeks, the sight of her bruises filling me with sorrow.

I had so many regrets, but not one of them involved meeting Brooke. From the moment I laid eyes on her at my brother’s Christmas gathering, she burrowed under my skin. I couldn’t shake her from my thoughts, no matter how hard I tried. It was only a matter of time until I gave in and found a way to meet up with her again in San Francisco, but fate had intervened, and I’d been given the task—that I now saw as a gift—of keeping her from witnessing a family scene that might involve punches being thrown.

Was it on that very first night that I’d spilled almost everything about my life? That I’d thrown one of the world’s most famous movie stars off my dance floor for daring to get too close to her? If it weren’t for that piece of human excrement, would Brooke and I even be married?

The answer in my mind, was a resounding yes. If I hadn’t jumped at that opportunity, I would have found another one. Hell, I might have even done something no one in my family could seem to manage. Actual dating, until she was as in love with me as much as I was with her.

Because I was so damn in love with her. She wasn’t just under my skin; she was in my blood, the very thing that kept my heart beating.

Unable to help myself, I reached out and gently drew my finger down her soft cheek, watching the gentle rise and fall of her chest, just to reassure myself she was really here with me, and okay. I hadn’t failed her. She was okay.

Except, she wasn’t. Not really. As much as I loved her and would do anything to keep her by my side, we couldn’t continue on this way. I had believed with all my soul that keeping her isolated and close to me was for her own safety, but it had ultimately pushed her away.

Brooke was stubborn, set in her ways, and fiercely independent. All traits I adored and would instead have swallowed one of Dima’s homemade bombs than stifle them. The danger was over, and I had no more excuses. As soon as she was awake and feeling better, I resolved to tell her that she now had complete freedom.

She could choose to do anything she wanted, even if it meant losing her, because I was damn well sure Luca wouldn’t be capable of continuing with his sick fixation on her.

Did that mean I was giving up on us? Hell no, far from it. If she did go, I was going to pursue her, show her the best days and nights of her life, give her anything her heart desired. Our intense chemistry was something she couldn’t deny for long, and I was convinced I had a pretty good shot of winning her back. Even if I had to give up everything, because, without Brooke, I had nothing anyway.

My phone buzzed next to me, and I grabbed it to silence it before it disturbed her. Unfortunately, I had to keep it on at all because while we were driving back to LA and Dima was taking our captive to one of our safe houses, he’d heard that the Italians down in San Diego had been acting up and that things might be going to shit sooner than later.

With a sigh, I hurried to the bathroom and shut myself in, answering with a snarl even though I knew no one would be calling unless it was urgent. I was shocked to see it wasn’t Dima at all, but the manager of my diner.

“We’re on fire,” he shouted over a rush of muddled noise in the background. “Some kind of explosion.”

“Who’s on fire?” Why the hell was the manager of my diner calling about something getting blown up in San Diego?

“We are! The Hustle,” he said, advising me to get my ass down there in as polite a way as possible under the circumstances.

A flood of text messages followed as soon as I hung up. Two of my younger brothers, Ivan and Nikolai, were already on their way, and it seemed like the fire department was as well. That damn diner was like a child to me, and I’d learned every facet of running it from the ground up. It was the one thing I’d accomplished on my own, even getting teased relentlessly for not just investing and sitting back and raking in the profits. Somehow, Luca’s people had found out my other weakness, and when they lost their grip on Brooke, they’d attacked there.

Were my employees safe? It was late, but since the Hustle was also a bar and nightclub, they were there until past three in the morning most of the time. It was just past midnight, the height of the action. Hell, were any of the patrons harmed? I needed to be there.

But how could I leave Brooke? More messages crowded my phone’s screen, begging for me to answer questions. The manager of the place was cracking under the pressure. I stroked Brooke’s cheek again. Ultimately, she was safe here, and fast asleep. My house was crawling with security on a typical day, and I had that number doubled right now. She was out like a light, and probably wouldn’t stir for hours. I could nip down there and assess the situation, give a few orders, and hurry back before she woke up and knew I was gone.

As I hurried out the door, I called Olivia, apologizing for waking her up.

“I’m already on my way to the diner,” she said.

I didn’t bother to ask how she already knew, and was just grateful to have such a great assistant. “No, come here,” I told her. “I want Brooke to see a friendly face if she happens to wake up while I’m still gone.”

At the diner, it was a bigger mess than I expected. The building took up almost an entire city block, and nearly every inch of it was ablaze. The neon sign was in blackened pieces on the sidewalk as firefighters tried to douse the flames that licked toward the smoggy night sky, making everything a sickly orange color. It was probably going to be a total loss.

That fact tightened my chest, but not nearly as much as the news from Ivan when I finally found him in the crowd of onlookers and harried first responders. He was on the other side of a barrier, cursing into his phone. When my younger brother spotted me, he ended his call and hurried over to my side, getting into a screaming match with one of the cops who was trying to keep everyone back.

I dragged him halfway down the block to get away from the roar of the fire and the loud chatter of all the excited rubberneckers watching my beloved business turn to ashes.

“Everything’s fucked,” he told me.

“Yeah, that’s clear,” I answered. I still had to find the manager and see if anyone was hurt. “What do you know?”

“Nik managed to catch up to one of the guys from the Italian crew as soon as we got here. Damn firebug was just standing around watching his masterpiece and didn’t notice us until I knocked him over the head.”

“Nik has him now?” I asked, my stomach sinking.

My youngest brother tended to get a bit overzealous and we’d lost out on getting information in the past due to… losing the subject of the interrogation. Not that Ivan was much better, but he definitely had more finesse.

“Don’t worry about him,” Ivan said. “I think he got everything there was out of the guy, anyway. The most important part was this guy was gloating about worse stuff coming our way if we didn’t release Luca. You know what that’s about?”

I had completely forgotten not everyone knew about the months long private war I’d been waging with Hollywood’s heartthrob. Or about my marriage to Brooke.

“Yeah, I know about it,” I said. There wasn’t enough time to explain, and while Ivan was a hothead, he could listen and follow orders. And like all my brothers, I trusted him with my life. “And I’m not releasing him.”

Ivan grinned. “I guess we’re going hunting?”

Wiping my hand over my face, I nodded. We needed to find whoever was in charge of this convoluted rescue mission and make them see they’d chosen the wrong side. I had no problem letting them slink back to Italy and pretend they weren’t related to the little snake they’d stupidly aligned themselves with, but I had to find them first.

“Let’s go relieve Nik,” I said. “If that guy knows where his boss is hiding, I’ll have a better chance of getting it out of him.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty hard to talk when your neck’s been snapped,” Ivan said, almost gleeful.

I glared at him. There was no time to explain just how serious this all was, and my look had to be enough for now. The smirk slid off his face as he led me to where his car was parked outside of the traffic jam the huge fire that was consuming my once great diner had caused.

I let him drive so I could keep in touch with my security detail, then checked in with Olivia. Brooke was still asleep, and I let Olivia know she could answer any questions she had when she did wake up.

“She deserves that much,” I said.

“Sure thing, boss,” my ever-faithful assistant said. “Anything else?”

I swallowed hard. “I’ll be back before she wakes up,” I told her. “But if she does wake up and asks—” This was the right thing to do. I wasn’t giving up. I wasn’t even letting go. Just letting Brooke decide. “If she wants to go, she can go when everything’s settled.”

There was a long silence, but Olivia didn’t ask any more questions, finally agreeing before I ended the call.

“What’s that all about?” Ivan asked. “Who’s not going to wake up before you get back? Do you have a prisoner at your place, too?”

I gave him another glare that shut him right up. Not anymore, I didn’t. Just my wife, if she chose to stay.