Page 18

O n the way into Deckman Defense & Security, the SUV’s dashboard lit up Sunday morning with an incoming call.

Max held a finger against his own mouth, indicating to William to be quiet.

“What’s up?” Max said, pressing the button on the steering wheel as he took the exit that would take him to his facility.

“Hey, Boss.” Levi’s voice floated through the speakers. “Steve just called me, he lost the client.”

Max’s mind raced. “Lost as in… dead?”

“No! As in Johnson ditched him. Steve has been driving around in circles trying to find the guy.”

“Christ,” Maxwell muttered. “Tell Steve to pick up his pay and get gone.”

“Really?” Levi sounded surprised and Max knew why.

He wouldn’t have normally fired someone for their first offense, but Steve had lost a fucking client and that was huge. It affected the company’s good name and it affected his reputation.

“We need the bodies, Max,” Levi said, regaining his attention. “Let me put Steve on something else and I’ll put Lydia on Johnson.”

“Where will you put him,” Max murmured.

“I’ll bring him with me to that music event tonight. I could use his help along with the three newbies I’m taking.”

Damn it. Levi had a point.

They had a huge concert and Deckman Defense and Security was in charge of keeping the drummer of the band safe.

“All right, but tell Steve he’s on notice.” Max squeezed the wheel, ended the call, and whipped into the parking lot of Decker Security.

Parking, Max killed the engine and turned to William, who sat in the passenger seat. “You sure about working for me?”

“Hell yes,” William returned and got out of the jeep before he could say another word.

According to William, he and Michelle had talked through the night. Max hadn’t seen Michelle when he rolled out of bed this morning, but William said that was only because Sunday was the one day out of the week that she visited her mother.

William had been overjoyed that he was off the hook today.

Last night, Michelle and William had left him and Lily alone and for that he was grateful. Sara had gone home and Max hadn’t even noticed.

His attention had been solely focused on Lily.

He couldn’t even remember all that they talked about, but he told her about his time in South Korea and Fort Carson, and after he retired how he’d built his bodyguard business with Levi.

“You’d like Levi,” he said.

She smiled. “He sounds like a good friend.”

“He’s one of the best.”

“Do you ever keep in touch with Lacy and Jason?” Lily asked.

“Lacy and Jason,” Max said with a laugh. “No, I haven’t talked to them in years. Not since we broke up.”

“I think they were more your friends than mine,” Lily said.

“No way. Remember that time Lacy wanted to party all night but couldn’t because Jason threw up—”

“From too much vodka,” they said at the same time and shared a laugh at the memories.

The silence settled between them only broken by the crackling of the fire. After several minutes, Lily spoke.

“Do you ever wish you could go back and have a do-over?” she whispered softly, her eyes on the flames flickering in the fireplace instead of him.

“Yes…” he said, sounding like a frog. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Lily…”

“It’s okay,” she interrupted him before he could finish even formulating a thought.

From then on, she shied away from anything that touched on their breakup.

He followed her lead. The last thing he wanted to do was crowd her.

She had left William and Michelle’s not long after that and Max had stood on the porch watching the Lyft Lily had ordered carry her away.

“Let’s go, it’s frigging cold,” William said, pulling his attention back to the parking lot.

A drizzle had started and the weather was predicted to storm again.

Max sighed and hurried across the parking lot to the building. Warmth engulfed them as they stepped inside.

Levi was in the training room on the mat working with three new people. One woman and two men were sparring and a few regular employees were lifting sets in the weight area.

Leo shot to his feet and raced across the mat like a bullet.

“Whoa…” William held up his hands and stayed still.

Max smirked and introduced William to Leo.

“Damn, he’s awesome,” his friend said.

“He’s a working dog. If you want something to pet, try Bella.” Max pointed to the puppy chewing on a rope.

“She’s cute,” William chuckled and then eyed Leo. “He’s…intimidating.”

“Leo,” Max said, snapped his fingers, and pointed to a dog bed in the training room. Leo trotted over and laid down, his paws forward, ears up, his eyes locked on him.

Max headed toward his office and William followed.

“How many employees do you have?” William asked.

Max hung his coat on a rack by his office door and tossed his keys to his desk. “At the moment, I have seventeen, well, eighteen if you join.”

William slung his coat over the same rack by the door and settled into one of the two black leather chairs that sat in front of Max’s desk.

“What I need the most from you is leadership,” Max told William. “You were a SEAL. I need you to help teach my crew how to work as a team.”

“I can do that. What about your man Levi?”

“I know you can. Levi is my business partner and he comes from a different background, but what we need most is someone to take over a new position…it would be the equivalent of a team leader…a lieutenant.”

William nodded and waited. It was one of the things Max liked about his friend. William didn’t need to fill up the quiet with needless conversation.

“Levi and I have not been able to take a break in a long time. If you take this job, I’m going to talk to Levi about taking two weeks off.”

Max would take his own time off when the time was right, but that would be after he caught the person threatening Lily.

Then, he was going to get the hell out of here.

Away from her.

Watching Lily from afar for years had been way different than up close and personal. Being this near Lily was equivalent to having needles shoved beneath his fingernails. Only this piercing pain had settled deep in his chest.

Max pressed at the bridge of his nose to stave off the headache forming and rubbed at his chest to ease his growing heartburn. Yanking open a desk drawer, he pulled out a bottle of ibuprofen and also antacid meds.

“Why don’t I take over guarding Lily,” William offered with a smirk.

The pill bottle flipped out of Max’s hands and blue capsules rolled across the top of his desk.

“No.” He gave William a hard stare and scooped up the pills to put back in the bottle, keeping a few in his hand.

“You still love her.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Max murmured and swallowed down the pills. He twisted open his water bottle and chugged down half of it.

William was right. And even though Max had never said the words to Lily, there was no denying…

He was still in love with her.