Page 32 of Vigilante
I find him slumped over his knees, hands cradling his head. His gaze snaps to mine instantly, and he jumps to his feet.
“Bella—”
“Did you know?” I’m practically vibrating.
“Kn-know what?” His arms are raised in surrender, but I step closer, waving the paper in front of his face.
“That her name was on this list?”
His eyes dart around my face, searching for what I don’t know.
“Who’s name?”
“My mother’s!” The words are practically dripping with venom.
I see the moment it lands, hitting him like a swift punch to the gut. His eyebrows raise, and dark eyes widen as his mouth falls. “I had no idea, I swear.”
His hands grip my arms, thumbs rubbing along the backs. I can feel myself sway forward, craving his touch. The soothing feel of his skin on mine, chasing away the ghosts that threaten to break me.
“He helped kill her.” I manage to say, my words coming out shaken, the anger ebbing into something more devastating, something that sounds too close to the grief that I’ve carried with me since her passing.
Max pulls me towards him, and I give in, letting him cradle me. Forehead to forehead, his dark eyes bore into mine. “And now he can never hurt anyone ever again.”
A sob wrenches free from my throat, and my knees give, crumpling us both to the ground in a heap of tangled limbs and broken hearts. Both of us left scarred by the actions of this man, made under the guise of saving money when, in reality, it was meant to fatten his already thick pockets.
“I—miss—her,” I say, gasping between sobs.
His hands run down the back of my head, pulling me into his strong chest. I grip onto him as tears fall freely.
“I know.” He says, and I stare up at him, tears tracking my face, my lashes heavy with the weight of them.
Max is a murderer, but so was that CEO. One drew blood with a gun, and the other with a news release and a smile on his face, being praised by the cameras.
So why is one more acceptable than the other?
Max and his cousins are being hunted by the authorities. I’ve seen the videos begging for people with any information to come forward. The reward money is being flashed about before our eyes like a lure. The disgust the media is trying to elicit from an uncaring public. Surprise, people stop caring when you keep screwing them over. How can you expect us to care when they clearly don’t care about us?
I reach up and touch Max’s face, where a tear of his own has escaped and trailed down his prominent cheek bone.
“She would have liked you.”
He chuckles at that. “I would have loved to have met the woman who raised the woman who’s captured my heart.”
This thing between us should have me packing up and running in the other direction.
Why, then, do I find myself reaching for him, bringing his lips down to mine? Our mouths brushing together gently, tasting like salty tears and an unspoken promise.
CHAPTER 18
Maximo
It’s gentle,with more meaning behind it than any kiss I’ve had before. When she asked me if I knew her mother’s name was on that list, I swore up and down that I didn’t, and it was the truth. I know that under the question was also ‘did you target me?’ Again, no. Julia was a surprise I never saw coming—a light in the past year of aching devastation and rage.
The way she’s kissing me now is as though she has loved me for centuries, an emotion so deep within the kiss I can’t bring myself to pull back, but I have to. She’s an emotional wreck right now, and as much as I am too, I need to be the one stopping her from making any rash decisions before she’s thought about what she wants to do regarding me, us, and whatever this is.
“Bella,” I murmur the second she crawls forward a few inches to straddle me. My shirt is still on her gorgeous fucking body, and my brainreaaallyneeds to match up with my dick because right now, I’m hard as a fucking rock.
“Hmm?” The vibration of the hum flutters across my lips, her tongue sliding along the seam, arms clasped behind my neck, with a hand tightly gripping my hair.
