Page 156 of South Beach Bodyguards

I knew Alejandro was probably assessing the situation but he wasn’t between me and a potential bullet. There wasn’t much he could do. I didn’t think Max would kill me, but immediately I realized that was a stupid assumption. I hadn’t ever imagined that Max was alive still, let alone that he would yank me by the arm and slam me into the kitchen cabinets.

“Yes, they’re after me. You can only hide your identity so long, you know?” He reached out and touched the ends of my hair, lifting it and studying the strands. I was almost positive now he was high on something. His movements were strange, his eyes manic. “But you’re going to help me.” He raised the gun and ran it down my arm. “Do you understand?”

I swallowed, the enormity of the situation really kicking in. I cursed myself for dropping the damn gun. He was bullying me with my own weapon. “You know I’ll help you if I can,” I murmured.

“I need you to help me steal from your celebrity friends. I want access to their houses, yachts, parties.”

“What?” I blurted out before I could stop myself. “Are you insane? I can’t do that!” One, I would never betray a trust like that. Two, he would never get away with it. “There are cameras and codes and it’s not like there is just money lying around anyone’s house.”

“I think your mind is straighter than I even remember,” he whispered. “You don’t get it.”

“I don’t.” I stared into his eyes, this man I had loved. It was like Pet Semetery by Stephen King. Where a loved one dies and you desperately want them back after they’re buried, but when they rise they’re different. Distorted. Not right.

Max wasn’t right.

A shiver rolled up my spine and settled into the roots of my hair.

“Just do what I tell you to do and everything will be fine, Mandy.” His fingers buried in my hair and he twisted the strands painfully. My eyes started to water, blurring my vision. He leaned in farther and farther, so that his forehead touched mine and I was forced to blink.

I was terrified as I contemplated action. I could knee him in the balls but I had the feeling that he would either punch me straight in the face or shoot me. I could hear my frantic breathing and smell the sweet sweat of my fear. I decided my best bet was to get him to back away from me. His back was to Alejandro. Even if Alejandro believed I was in collusion with Max, he would still use the opportunity to tackle Max. He was waiting. I could sense it.

So I had to get myself from Max. After I reassured him. “Kiss me, Max,” I whispered. “Please. I need you to love me.” The words brought bile up into my throat but I knew I sounded sincere in my pleading. I was pleading. For my life.

The corner of his mouth turned up. “I’m going to do more than kiss you.” With gun in hand, he roughly grabbed my breast.

It occurred to me I could die right here, right now, maybe even by accident. If the gun went off…

But suddenly Max was sailing back away from me, removed from my space by Alejandro grabbing the back of his shoulders and tossing him against the wall. Alejandro took his wrist and slammed it down on the table, sending the gun to the floor. For a split second I couldn’t remember if the safety was on or not, but there was no gunshot ringing out in the room so I felt the air rush out of my lungs in relief and I ran over to grab it. Max was scrambling for control, trying to get off the wall and reach for the gun, but Alejandro was pounding him with his fist.

Blood flew everywhere when Alejandro connected with Max’s nose, the crack audible. There were legs distorting my view as they both moved, Max angling for escape, but I managed to grab the gun with both of my sweaty and slippery hands. I scooted backwards on my ass and screamed, “I have the gun, Alejandro!”

It came out louder and more hysterical than I intended and it snapped me out of my fear. I had the gun. I stood up and pointed it at them. “Max,” I said, and this time my voice was even, normal volume. “I’m not keeping your secrets anymore.”

He couldn’t answer me because he was trying desperately to get a punch in on his brother, but mostly he was deflecting blows.

Alejandro’s suit jacket ripped at the shoulder.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called 911.

Five years. Five freaking years.

Then he showed up and threatened me? Now that I had the gun I was seething with anger. I felt no need to call off Alejandro.

Max could rot in prison for the rest of his natural life. I shivered as the 911 dispatcher asked what my emergency was. “My ex-boyfriend pulled a gun on me,” I said.

And just like that, everything I had ever known about the past shattered, shards of broken glass flinging through the air like the spatter from Max’s broken nose.

I realized I didn’t know anything about anything.

twelve

“Let’s go home,” I said to Miranda hours later. We were at the police station and all the paperwork had been filed and all the questions answered. I was pissed off and tired and us being inside the apartment next door had complicated matters and led to suspicions about our right to be there.

Miranda had explained that she had a permit to carry and that she hadn’t seen Max in five years. She had also explained that Max had been involved with drug dealers and that he had disappeared without telling her where he was going, but that she had known what he was doing.

I had sat there in disbelief. Sweet, innocent Miranda wasn’t so damn sweet after all. It also made me understand her stubborn and staunch support of the idea that Max was alive. It was because his living was no surprise to her. She had known all about it.

Seeing him touch her, maul her breast with his filthy asshole grip, had made a rage explode inside me that I had never experienced before. I’d been waiting for the moment when Max was distracted enough that I could take him, but I had never expected to hear her whisper, “Kiss me, Max.” Or for him to touch her like that.

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