Page 1 of The Ruthless and the Strong

Prologue

Max

I watched from the shadows, my heart calm as I stalked my prey.

I didn’t think I would feel like this. So detached, so indifferent about my decision.

But I was that, and there wasn’t any room for regret to follow.

I didn’t feel it; just the determination to carry out my decision, the rightness of it, even if there wasn’t anything right about it.

He had hurt the person I loved most in this world. And all I could think of, as I watched him throw back a beer and make a crude gesture to the waitress, was the distress in Olivia’s brown eyes when I found her on the floor of our living room many years ago, as he held her down.

All I could see was how broken she was, how she’d struggled to pick herself back up for months—hell, even for years after—and I couldn’t do anything about it.

But I had loved Olivia since the very first moment she was born and I had held her in my arms. I had come to think of her as my own, and I had vowed to protect her from every bad thing, every little hurt, and every heartbreak.

I had failed in that regard. But I wouldn’t fail this.

I had to watch as she withered away in silence for years over all the pain she had to go through.

And as someone who knew her well, Olivia's heartbreak was loud to my ears, like glass breaking in the silent room—irreparable even by God’s hands.

I truly thought she was gone from me, but then Mason came along and, no, he didn’t repair her heart. He didn’t fix anything. He gave her a new heart instead. He gave her his own.

For that, I was grateful.

Grateful that despite her painful past, she was able to rise up and live a fulfilling and happy life. It was the only thing I had ever wanted for her.

That was why I didn’t tell anyone I had kept track of Lorenzo over the years, since his release from prison three years ago.

That was why I didn’t tell anyone where I’d gone.

Not Olivia, and certainly not Mason. Though my little brother had been through his own hell, had known the touch of the most sinister darkness in this world, I didn’t want him to have to carry any more burdens because of my actions.

He was there when I killed Terrance Hughes that night. When the breath left the motherfucker’s body for the last time, and when I found Mason let out one long exhale, as if he hadn’t been able to breathe right since the day Hughes violated him, when he had been twelve and defenseless against the brutal man.

Despite having gone through that, my little brother didn’t live in the darkness like me.

He didn’t live like a man who had killed before. That was something no one could ever come back from.

The only person who knew where I was, who would provide an alibi for me should I need one, was Nicolas Rockwell, a long-known friend, my lawyer, and the owner of Rockwell Security. It was his firm I used to keep track of Lorenzo’s goings-on. It was how I knew he moved to Wyoming after his release a couple of years back, how I knew he made an unplanned visit to Chicago a couple of weeks ago, and how I knew where he lived.

My fist clenched at my side when I thought back to what I’d found in the fucker’s apartment.

We were all trying to protect Olivia.

Mason did his part when he pummeled Lorenzo into an unrecognizable heap after we had come home and found him on top of her, violating her.

He did his part when he made sure Lorenzo would never get a decent job anywhere, would never go to college and make something of his life.

Made sure the label of a sex offender would follow him around for the rest of his life, and that no matter how much money his family had, they couldn’t bury that soiled reputation of his.

But it wasn’t enough.

He had threatened someone I love—he was still threatening her—but I could put a stop to it now, before things escalated.

I would stop it now.

Was I being too arrogant? Too comfortable playing God? I wondered when I’d lost my empathy for humanity. Because at this point, I couldn’t even lie to myself and say I cared about anyone else, save for my family. I would sacrifice all else for my family’s safety. I didn’t feel an ounce of guilt over that.

I was going to make another man disappear.

I watched as the fucker threw some bills on the table and stood up, stumbling his way through the door.

No one followed behind him. It was well past three in the morning. The time when angels slept and monsters came out to play.

And I was an even bigger monster than Lorenzo Vitelli.

Tonight, he was going to die.

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