Page 167 of Unorthodox
I grab my shirt from the floor, my pants, too. And when I’m dressed, I run my hand through my hair, turning to face him. The alcohol has me feeling a little off-balance, but Max is actually drunk.
I know he is, because he stands to his feet, and even though his gun is on the table that was right beside him, for once, he doesn’t reach for it.
“You lied to me, baby girl.” He says those words as if he didn’t just expose himself to me. As if he didn’t just reveal that he had a heart.
As if what just happened was nothing.
He’s compartmentalized it. Put it all aside.
He steps toward me, a smile on his face, his eyes red and the tears long gone. I move closer to the coffee table, careful not to look at the gun.
“What are you talking about, Max?” My words are clear, even as my hands tremble at my sides. I ball them into fists and Max keeps his eyes on me.
“Have you spoken to anyone since you’ve been here? Anyone that doesn’t live in this house?” He asks the questions like a man that already knows the answers.
My stomach flips. I think about his phone call. His eyes, so intent on me. The way his hand tightened on my hip.
He knew.
He fucking knew.
But the truth is, Ihaven’tspoken to anyone outside of this house. That was Mamie. Always.
“What?” I ask him, shaking my head. He steps closer, and I change my direction, angling toward the coffee table as I step backward. “No, I—”
“No?”
“No, Max, what are you—”
“You know that if you’re lying to me, I’ll fuck you up.”
Before I can move closer to the table, he lunges for me, gripping my wrist in his hand, yanking me toward him and grabbing my other arm. I try to yank free, but his grip only tightens.
I can smell the alcohol on his breath, see the promise of brutality in his eyes. It’s the same look he had when he led me and Dante to the woods. The same look he had before he killed the man that shot him. Before he slit Colton’s throat.
Before he hurt me.
I lean back, away from him and those dark, dangerous eyes. But my pelvis tilts upward, my torso shifting closer as I lean away, and I can feel his cock against my stomach.
I ignore it, focusing on his eyes instead of how much fucking with me turns him on. “I’m not lying,” I say, even as my core tightens, my knees trembling.
“I’ve heard some very disturbing things about your family, baby girl.”
Confusion washes over me. I have no idea what he’s talking about. I don’t have to fake this surprise. For some reason, it doesn’t make me feel better.
“I’ve heard that your brother is an informant to the DEA. That he’s planning to get the money to buy you back, and at the same time, have me arrested.”
What?“No,” I tell him, meaning it as I shake my head, my mind spinning. “Danik isn’t…he doesn’t want anything to do with this world—”
“That’s exactly why those allegations make sense though, isn’t it?”
I glance past him, thinking as I stare at the wall of windows, the curtains pulled closed, streams of morning light peeking through the cracks.
Danik wouldn’t do that.
Danik would want nothing to do with this, and he wouldn’t put our father in jail. Not because they ever got along, but he wouldn’t go through the trouble of working with the feds unless…
Unless it was for me.
