Page 71 of Red Hunt

At least she hadn’t demanded I wear heels. My knee and ankle were a lot better, but I didn’t think I could’ve done heels.

The plan was simple.

Our group had found more chatter about that ominous auction that was allegedly taking place this evening. We just didn’t know the exact location. Those guys were good, but johnQ and Oracle Who and the other guys on our team had at least been able to narrow it down to three locations. All around Whitebrook. And lo and behold, Belinda had volunteered us again. And even though I really didn’t want to, I couldn’t let her go alone.

I had my trackers. I squeezed the necklace with the pendant and then my bracelet—a simple fitness tracker and a GPS tracker which we had synced up so all the guys in our group could track us.

Should something go wrong.Please, let nothing go wrong.

“Why don’t you tell Richard and the Sheriff’s Department about all this and let them check it out?”

She gave me that look, and I knew she wouldn’t do that. At least not before she knew exactly where to send them. I still couldn’t understand why Belinda was willing to risk so much. What did she have to prove? Or maybe our definition of risk was worlds apart.

We made our way out of the apartment. The click of the door sounded final. I should’ve told someone. Should’ve told Peter, or Blake, or Max what we were about to do. But I couldn’t. Wouldn’t. Max’s silence, his abandoning me meant he didn’t care or want me.

Was it the video? The things he’d seen done to me? Was that it? I mean, he’d never told me he loved me, didn’t even want to sleep with me in the beginning. So maybe it was something else. Like…maybe…he was just not that into me, and I’d built it all up in my mind. Or maybe he was otherwise engaged.

I stumbled. That thought came out of nowhere. How did we never even talk about any of that? I knew nothing of him. And yet I trusted him. Enough to sleep with him. Enough to tell him my deepest, darkest secrets.

Enough for sex, but no more? Maybe him pulling back like he did meant exactly that—sex—nothing more. Not the fairy-tale sweep-me-off-my-feet I had made myself believe in.

Just sex.

43

MAX

Goofy’s elbow brought me out of my stupor and back to the war room. “What the hell’s wrong with you? We need your head in the game. Right now,” he whispered.

And wasn’t this the same question that had been running through my mind these last four days?

Four. Fucking. Days.

Four days since I’d freaked myself right out of Milli’s apartment. Four days, I’d been lying to myself, trying to outrun the truth. Instead of getting the hell over myself.

Four days too long.

What a fucking coward I was.

I should’ve gone back immediately. Hell, I shouldn’t have run in the first place. But then why did I?

Because those mumbled words, my words, had changed my entire outlook in life. Changed everything I thought I wanted for the rest of my life.

I freaked out over a change of plans instead of adapting.

But I was done running. Done thinking this was some kind of heat-of-the-moment thing. Those feelings, my feelings, were real. Milli was real. And I loved her. Yep, the big, bad L-word. And nothing would change that. Especially not staying away from her.

“Okay, guys, let’s go over the plan once more. George?” Richard said and again dragged me out of my own private inner hell, a hell of my own making. A hell I would undo tomorrow. Tomorrow. Another cowardly thing to think.

Tomorrow, I would have to ask her for forgiveness. But I wasn’t above groveling. Whatever it took for Milli to let me back into her life I’d so abruptly left four days ago.

Stupid me.

“Thanks, Richard. Okay, boys, there’s a meeting with some business associates aka real scumbags, at the V-club downtown. The plan is to introduce Lucas as a new potential player while checking out the auction. We’ll stay as close to the truth as possible.”

“Meaning?” Richard interjected.

George looked at Jeremy who nodded once.

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