Page 10 of Maxim (The Syndicates #12)

D aryna giggles as I chase after her. The sun is beating down on us, and the air is sticky, but it’s beautiful. As soon as I looked out the window earlier, I knew I needed to get the kids outside to enjoy the weather while it lasts.

“You can’t catch me!” she screeches.

I reach out and wrap my arms around her. I twist as I take us both to the ground so she lands on top of me.

“I got you,” I tease.

She cups my cheeks and pushes them together. “You look silly.”

Before I can respond, Alek chimes in. “You know you two shouldn’t be doing that. If Father finds out, he will be angry.”

We look over at Alek. He sits on a plaid blanket I brought with us. It’s a beautiful day, but you wouldn’t know that by the way he frowns.

I don’t know what he does when he’s with Father, but it’s starting to eat at him. I can tell by the way he refuses to interact with us.

“Don’t worry, Alek. Sissy will protect us,” Daryna says.

“Always. I’ll always protect you two,” I tell them.

The dream from that day starts to fade, and I roll onto my back. The sleep starts to fade away, and as soon as I come to, I feel it.

I’m not alone.

Run. I need to run.

I shoot up in bed, gasping. Maxim sits in the corner of the room, in a chair that wasn’t there before, looking out the window.

Panting, I rest my hand over my racing heart. I know it’s silly because I don’t really know the man, but I find him far less scary than my father and his men.

“Why?” he rasps.

I lick my lips and try to find the words to explain myself, but nothing comes out.

“Why did you go back to your father’s? You told me you weren’t welcome there when I offered to take you before we came here.”

Biting my tongue, I keep my mouth shut.

“Was it for the children? Are they yours?” he asks, making me flinch.

I was sold as a virgin, so the fact that he is asking means he doesn’t trust my father.

“Siblings, but they might as well be mine. I’ve raised them,” I whisper, not meeting his eye.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I watch him nod as if he knew the answer before asking. Maybe he trusts my father more than he lets on.

I can’t figure this man out.

“So you went for them?” he asks.

“Yes. I needed to see them.”

“What was your plan? How were you going to get them out?” He leans forward in the chair, resting his elbows on his knees.

“I didn’t have one,” I admit.

He said he would punish me. I can’t even imagine what he will do, but it doesn’t matter. Not anymore.

He could kill me for all I care. Tonight proved one thing. I am not enough to save my siblings. Alek is too far gone. Father has changed who he is. Daryna is doomed. I would do anything to save her, but I can’t. I’m not strong enough, nor am I smart enough.

I am weak.

“Do you think your father would hurt them?” he asks, drawing me out of my dark thoughts.

Finally, I look up at him. “I don’t know. When I was little, he never hurt me. He’s always ignored my sister, but my brother…”

“Was that the boy in the room with us?”

“Yes.”

“Has he always paid more attention to him?”

I shrug and wring the blanket on my lap in my hands. “It’s more of a recent development. It seems to have gotten worse since I came here.” I squeeze my eyes shut. “He didn’t even look like my brother anymore. His eyes were cold and…”

Maxim sighs as he rubs a hand over his jaw. “I hate this, Olena.”

Me too.

I look down at the blanket and nod. “I understand. You have to do what you have to do.”

When he shifts in his chair, I can’t help but flinch.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Olena.”

“But you said…”

“I know what I said, but I’m not going to physically hurt you. I hate that I have to treat you this way, but I do. Too much is at stake for you to go rogue now and fuck it all up.”

“What does that even mean?”

“You can’t leave here without me. I’ve made sure of it.”

I shift my legs and feel something heavy attached to my ankle. Frowning, I flip the covers back. I can’t help but gasp when I see a cuff placed around my ankle, attached to a chain.

“How? When?” I gasp.

How in the hell did I not notice that I was chained up until now?

“You were out for a long time.” He shrugs.

“Take it off. I’ll be good. I promise,” I plead as my eyes fill with tears.

Maxim shakes his head as he stands. “I can’t do that, Olena. Too much is at stake. Don’t worry, though, as soon as this is all over, I’ll take it off of you.”

“Please!”

He pauses by the door and looks over his shoulder. “Tell me one thing, Olena. Was it worth it? Was seeing the kids worth having the shit beat out of you?”

“Yes,” I say without hesitation.

While it wasn’t the reunion I wanted, it was better than nothing. They might not be safe, but at least I know they are alive, and that’s all that matters.

Maxim nods. Tears roll down my face as he walks out of the room. When the front door clicks shut, I fall back and sob.

Why is this happening to me? What did I do to deserve all of this?

I don’t know how long I cry, spiraling down the drain of despair, but when my tears dry up, I realize I have to go to the bathroom. I get up and drag myself out of bed. I look down at the chain and frown.

Surely he would give me enough to go to the bathroom, right? He wouldn’t leave me confined to the bed.

I guess there’s only one way to find out.

The sound of the chain dragging across the wooden floor makes me cringe, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Relief fills me when I reach the toilet easily. After doing my business and washing my hands, I head toward the kitchen.

When I reach the fridge, I sigh. Okay, this is good. I can at least feed myself. I take a couple of steps toward the door and feel the chain pull tight.

Dammit. I knew the chain wouldn’t reach the door, but I had to try. I sink to the floor, and the tears start to flow once again. I’m trapped. Well and truly trapped, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

I put the car in park and shut it off. My frustration finally takes hold, and I slam my palm against the steering wheel, making the horn blare.

“Goddammit!” I yell.

What a fucking clusterfuck.

The last thing I wanted to do to Olena was chain her up like a fucking dog, but she left me no choice. I feel like I’m starting to make progress, and I refuse to start all over because some woman with sad eyes ruined everything.

This is bigger than she knows. Could I tell her what her father’s into? Yes. I could hound her for information, but I know she knows nothing. Sure, I could have explained things and prayed that she would do as she was told, but I don’t trust her.

I can’t risk her fucking everything up. If the other families found out that the mission was compromised because of a woman, it would change things. It wouldn’t just be my ass on the line but my family’s reputation. Nikolai has been too good to me to risk it all for her.

I just need to stick to the plan. Take down her father and end the sex trafficking ring. By doing that, not only will I be saving innocent lives, but I’ll also save the lives of her siblings.

Those fucking kids.

Her sister was fucking adorable. So full of life because she hasn’t seen the ugly yet. Her brother, though. That poor kid is much too young to have shadows in his eyes. His father is making him grow up much too soon, and it’s going to blow up in his face.

I don’t know Olena well, trying to get to know the woman is like pulling teeth, but it’s clear that she loves them and would do anything for them.

They would be better off with her and struggling than forced to witness the shit their father is involved in.

If he’s willing to sell one daughter, then he will probably sell the other. It’s only a matter of time.

Sick fuck.

Sighing, I get out of the car and shut the door.

I move to the front and lean against the hood of the car.

There’s a slight breeze in the air that makes the heat feel less stifling, and the birds are chirping.

If I were a different man, I would take a walk down the trail, but I’m not the outdoorsy type.

I just needed someplace to go away from prying eyes.

My mind goes back to the girl that’s chained up in my home. I fucking hate what I’ve turned into. That I’m forced to be this person. I knew this job was going to be hard, I just underestimated how difficult it would truly be.

For fuck’s sake, I choked her out in front of the kids.

Then it took her forever to wake up.

It should have only taken her minutes to come around, but it was longer.

I’ll never admit how many times I checked her pulse to make sure she was still alive.

Hell, I couldn’t even pull myself out of her room after I brought her home.

I couldn’t leave her. I had to make sure she was okay.

For a split second, I wondered if the injuries she sustained while with her father were worse than I thought.

I had given her another hour, and if she hadn’t woken up, I was going to call Alexei and ask for a doctor. But then she sat up, and I could finally relax.

Shame washes through me. I watched her like a fucking creep while she slept. I watched her chest rise and fall over and over again. It didn’t escape my notice that for the first time she looked at peace. Like the world wasn’t out to get her.

Jesus Christ, she’s fucking with my head.

Shutting my eyes, I tip my head back and try to remind myself why I’m doing this.

For the innocent women, men, and children.

Memories of pulling people out of containers and train cars come to mind. The way they were filthy and malnourished will haunt me.

A memory of my grandmother comes forward.

Grandma is leaning over the garden, pulling some ripe tomatoes from the vine while I play with my toy car in the dirt next to her.

Her skirt shifts against her calves, and something catches my attention.

I can’t help but frown as I study the white crisscross marks that cover the backs of her calves.

“Grandma, where did those marks come from?” I ask, pointing to them.

Grandma’s whole body goes tense as she reaches back and covers her legs once more.

“That’s nothing for you to worry about, Maxim,” she says.

I don’t know why, but I feel as if I said something I shouldn’t have.

I look down and start rolling my car once more. “I’m sorry.”

Grandma sighs as she sits next to me. She takes my hand in hers and pats the back of it. “You have nothing to be sorry for. You asked a question that was harmless.”

I look up at her through my lashes and see that she’s staring off into space.

“When I was younger, someone gave me those scars,” she says slowly.

“Like a bad man?” I ask quietly.

Grandma nods. “He was a bad man. An evil man. There are two types of people out there, my boy, good ones and bad ones. Good people will make you feel safe and you know they will never hurt you, but the bad ones…” She sighs. “They will do everything they can to break you.”

“Did the person break you?” I ask, cutting her off.

She smiles softly as she shakes her head. “They didn’t.”

“I don’t ever want to be a bad man.”

She cups my cheek and makes me look her in the eye.

“You, my boy, won’t be a bad man.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. You’re the best part of me so there’s no way you can be bad,” she says as she tickles me, making me laugh.

Once I stop laughing, she meets my eye once again.

“There is one thing you need to know, though, Maxim. Just because you’ve done something bad doesn’t mean you aren’t good.

As long as you never lay your hands on a woman in violence and you go out of your way to help the underdog, you’ll be fine. ”

“What’s an underdog?”

Grandma laughs. “Someone who doesn’t stand to win at what they are doing. That’s the person you should always root for.”

“Okay, Grandma. I’ll always root for the underdog.”

The memory fades, and I can’t help but smile. Grandma wasn’t wrong when she said to always go for the underdog, and right now, that’s me.