Page 18 of Concerto of Crows and Cowards

Jade didn’t have to ask what he was referring to, though she tried not to dwell on her childhood much.

She shrugged. “It wasn’t great.” She slid the omelets onto the plates, her mouth watering. “It was the little things that made it difficult. Never having any privacy. Making friends but never getting to keep them. Nothing belonged to you—not the clothes on your back or the battered schoolbooks that had been donated. It was harder for me because I was almost ten when I went into the system, and I knew what it felt like to be wanted. And then all of a sudden I wasn’t.”

“I read your file when you were transferred to my unit,” Max said. “Atticus and I handpicked all of my agents. We knew someone was dirty on the inside and I needed a team with impeccable records.”

“I didn’t know that,” she said. Her lips twitched as he got two beers from the fridge. It was an odd combination to say the least.

“Your parents were killed just outside of New Orleans?” he asked.

“Mmm,” she murmured, pushing the food around on her plate. She’d never been comfortable talking about her past. Not even with Donovan, but Max just sat there patiently and waited her out.

She sighed. “It was just one of those stupid, senseless things. We were eating lunch at a little restaurant one Sunday afternoon, and some maniac drove his pickup straight through the plate-glass window at the front and opened fire. My dad shoved me down and behind the table so I was hidden, otherwise I probably would have been killed too.”

“And you didn’t have any other family to take you in?” he asked.

She snorted out a laugh and shook her head. “Family,” she said, knowing the word sounded bitter coming from her lips. “My mother was the only daughter of one of the wealthiest men in New Orleans. Imagine their surprise when she eloped with a poor black law student who was on full scholarship at Tulane. They cut her off without a cent and told her she was as good as dead to them. They didn’t even come to her funeral. So they sure as hell didn’t offer to save me from the system. And my daddy didn’t have any family, so I wasn’t left with a lot of choice.”

“You turned out to be good people, Jax. Your parents would be proud of what you’ve become.”

“I wonder sometimes,” she said. “I wonder if I would have ended up in the same place, doing the same things, if they’d lived.”

Max held out his hand and she placed hers on top of it, and then he pulled her to her feet and placed his hands on her hips.

“I like to think you would’ve ended up exactly where you are.” He leaned down and kissed the corner of her mouth. “That no matter where you’d gone or what you’d experienced before, that you’d still end up naked in my kitchen.”

“I’m not naked,” she whispered.

“Well—” A smile quirked at the corner of his mouth. It was a smile she’d seen frequently from the old Max—the teasing grin and laughing eyes. “My bad.”

Chapter Seven

Almost a week passed with nothing more to do than wait, talk, and make love. And Max wasn’t afraid to admit a certain amount of frustration where Jade was concerned. At one point during their lovemaking he knew he’d heard her tell him she loved him. That’s not something he’d have imagined. But she acted as if she’d never uttered the words, and any attempts to bring it up or talk about possibilities for their future were met with a change of subject or her distracting him with sex.

It was almost as if she didn’t believe him when he tried to tell her he loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. And he knew she was keeping something from him, something that made her afraid of taking the next step, but damned if he could figure out what it was.

The sun was an orange ball of flame high in the sky and temperatures had reached well over a hundred degrees that day. They’d fallen into easy companionship and regular habits through the week—going for a run just before dawn, followed by showers then breakfast. Jade had set up small targets and they’d gotten into a friendly, if very spirited, shooting competition. It stung his pride a little to know she was ahead in points.

Their afternoons had consisted of long, lazy swims and their lovemaking had gotten so creative he was considering taking out extra health insurance. She was a generous and attentive lover, and she was willing to try anything he demanded of her. As long as he didn’t try to push the emotional aspect. He almost laughed. He never would have thought he’d be in the position where he was the one who wanted more. He was living every man’s fantasy—a dream woman in his bed and no strings attached. Except it was every man’s fantasy but his.

“Any word from Atticus?” she asked, stretching lazily on the pool lounger.

“Mmm,” he said, appreciating the view as she sunned in nothing but her skin. “Atticus said he’s starting to hear rumblings from Vassin’s camp. They’ve been digging deep into both of our files, trying to find something that isn’t there. He also said Vassin is putting feelers out, trying to find out how to locate me. This property isn’t listed with my other holdings, but it’s not impossible to trace. I wanted him to have to work to find me.”

“You’ve never said how your family feels about what you do.”

He snorted out a laugh. “I was never their favorite person to begin with. I’ve always been a bit of a disappointment to them.”

Max rubbed the back of his neck, trying to relieve the sudden tension there. He didn’t like to talk about his family. His parents weren’t the warmest people in the world, and the wound was still deep from the loss of his grandfather in a plane crash. His grandfather was the only person with the Devlin name who knew how to give love and affection.

“I was Grandfather’s favorite,” he said. “Especially after I joined the Marines. It gave him a better standing with his constituents to have a grandson in active combat. He also thought it would be good for my record when I was discharged and decided to take my place in politics.”

She lifted her head and a smile quirked at the corner of her mouth. “I must have missed that phase of your life.”

“Yeah, I missed it too.” He felt the tension he carried whenever he talked about his family lighten and was able to laugh a little. “Politics has never been in my purview, but I might have leaned in that direction if Grandad hadn’t died. My father decided it was up to him to become the patriarch of the family and tell everyone what to do, so I rebelled at the thought of being forced into that life. My family is very persuasive and they can make things difficult.

“So I took up MMA training while I was overseas to scandalize them, and it became addictive. You can imagine my father’s surprise when I signed up to fight in the ring for prize money instead of answering the family summons so I could be announced as the candidate for state representative. He’d planned a big party so he could introduce me to all of his campaign contributors.”

“I’m guessing the party was missing something?”

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