Page 31 of Maximus (Gold Team #4)

Retreat and regroup.

It sounded better than run and hide, which was essentially what I was doing. That was part of why I was making myself absent during breakfast. I wasn’t being a complete coward, I figured she’d enjoy some time alone with Eli and Liam, not to mention, I needed to check in with Zane.

But mostly I needed to clear my head. When Eva asked me if I trusted her, I was unprepared.

I knew my answer wasn’t the one she wanted but she’d still smiled and went about her business, like my lame, “I’m learning to” was enough.

Maybe it was. The truth was, I didn’t distrust her.

Wasn’t that the same thing as trusting her?

And holy hell, the woman was cute when she was pissed on my behalf.

When had that ever happened? Add in the jealousy she didn’t admit to but was written clear as day on her pretty face and my gut had clenched with some unknown feeling.

All I knew was, I didn’t want her to feel any sort of wariness about the many nameless women in my past. It was not the first time I’d seen jealousy aimed my way, but it was the first time I cared.

The first time I felt something akin to shame that I’d made good use of what was being offered.

Frog Hogs were a dime a dozen. They were unavoidable if you went to a bar in San Diego or Virginia Beach. They could sniff out a SEAL a mile away. And when those women caught the scent—they pounced.

They only wanted you because you have a trident pinned to your chest. And those bitches were crafty, they know who they’re looking for.

They know the difference between a color and a number and have no issue asking straight out if you’re part of the regular teams or DEVGRU.

But not Eva. She couldn’t care less about my trident, or that I’d been part of Team Six.

When she looked at me, she saw only one thing—me.

Eva didn’t even know that the teams were designated by a number, or what the Development Group known as SEAL Team Six was.

She had no clue those teams are separated into colors.

DEVGRU was where I’d met Zane Lewis, my boss.

He was a team leader for the Red Team, the best of the best of Team Six—the tip of the spear.

The squad every SEAL wanted to be a part of, so it was only apt that Zane coded his teams as colors when he started Z Corps: Red, Gold, and Blue.

With talks of adding a fourth team if demand continued to be high.

And unfortunately in the world we lived in—full of scumbags and criminals—business was always good, when your business was dispatching the fuckers to hell.

I sat on my bed debating how I was going to approach my boss about taking over the lease agreement on the safehouse when my phone rang.

The devil himself—like just thinking about him could summon him.

“Yo,” I greeted. “I was getting ready to call you.”

“Bet you were.” Zane chuckled. “Let me guess, you were calling to tell me you’re in love. ”

What the fuck ?

“Have you bumped your fuckin’ head? Who do you think I am, Brooks?”

“Yeah, he turned into a surly bastard when Tatiana caught him in her web.”

In her web ?

“Now you’re talking crazy. Please tell me you’re not growing soft in your old age.”

“If you’re not calling to tell me you’re in love,” he said, ignoring my jab, “then you won’t mind I was talking to Tex last night. And even though he disagrees, I think Eva Dawson should reach out to the prosecutor’s office.”

“Hell to the fucking no,” I growled.

“Christ. It’s true.”

“What’s true?”

“When Dec told me you were in love, I didn’t believe it. No fuckin’ way, that’s what I told him when he called to tell me to batten down the hatches. I was just bustin’ your balls earlier about—”

“Wait. Declan did what?”

“Don’t act shocked, brother. You were there when Brooks brought Tatiana home—hell, you tried to shoot the woman.” Why in the actual fuck was everyone still bringing that up ?

“Tatiana and I are fine,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, now you are. But you weren’t back then.”

“What does this have to do with Dec callin’ you and gossiping like a fuckin’ old woman?”

“My point is, you’re not new. You know Dec wasn’t calling to gossip. He was callin’ to warn me.”

Fucking hypocrite . Dec was sneaking around behind everyone’s back but he called my boss to “warn” him.

“Right. Because Dec’s in a position to warn you,” I snapped.

“Is there something I need to know about Declan? ”

“Nope. Just sayin’ he shouldn’t’ve called you because he’s wrong.”

“So you’re not fucking Eva Dawson?”

Damn, his question was like a knife to the gut. I was fucking Eva, but also wasn’t fucking-fucking her. I was also doing other stuff with her, that I wasn’t ready to discuss with Zane or anyone else for that matter. Not that I even could when I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.

After a few moments, Zane continued, “I’ll take your silence as a yes.”

Fuck.

“I don’t care how you take it and I’ll be having words with Dec later.”

“Remember when Kyle brought Anaya home?”

How could I forget? I was a total asshole to her the first time I met her. Though it must be noted, she didn’t let me get away with it, and rightly handed me my ass in front of both my team and the members of Red Team. Since then, I’ve grown to trust and respect the woman.

“Yep,” I answered, not sure I wanted to know where Zane was going with his line of questioning but I was sure I wasn’t going to like where it led.

“This works out perfectly,” he muttered.

“I told you fuckers, the next one of you brings a woman home with the intention of keeping her, I was sending you away. And I cannot believe I’m saying this, since I never thought I’d see the mighty Maximus Brown with all his trust issues in the middle of a hostile takeover, no doubt trying to formulate a battle plan to fortify his Fortress of Suspicion. My plan is perfect.”

If I heard Zane say that to anyone else, I would’ve laughed my ass off, but since he was saying it to me, I wasn’t happy. But I ignored his snarky commentary and honed in on the part I really didn’t like and that was his plan .

“What plan?”

“The plan where you take Eva to Alaska.”

“No fucking way—”

“I know,” Zane sighed. “This is the part where you forget you’re on my payroll and tell me if I don’t change my mind, you’ll take Eva and run.

But if you step back, stow your dick, and check your heart for a second and think, you’ll see I’m right.

Eva going to Alaska solves everything, and it’s done on our terms in a timely fashion. ”

I wasn’t sure that, even if I were thinking clearly where Eva was concerned—which I freely could admit to myself I wasn’t—that I would agree with Zane. His plan sounded easy, but it wasn’t.

“You’re overlooking a few things. Even if I agreed to take Eva to Alaska, you’re forgetting about Liam and Elijah. The other thing is, I’m pretty sure, even though Bubba and Zoey didn’t want to press charges, the Alaskan State Troopers might feel differently.”

“That’s where Tex and Bubba come in,” Zane told me and I groaned.

Eva was going to have a shit hemorrhage if she found out Zane had reached out to Bubba again. She was adamant she didn’t want to involve him. And despite what I told her yesterday, even though we needed his help, I completely understood why she didn’t want to burden him.

“Brother, Eva’s gonna have a conniption about Bubba being asked to help.”

“Don’t see—”

“You don’t?” I cut him off. “Do you think she’s forgotten what she did to him and Zoey?

You don’t think she’s so fuckin’ ashamed of what she had to do that she won’t carry that for the rest of her life?

Now, do you really think she wants to call on the man she tried to kill and ask him for help?

Fuck no, she doesn’t. The last thing Eva wants is to hurt Bubba and Zoey anymore than she has, and that includes mentally by making Bubba think about what happened in Alaska and what happened that made him get in the plane with her to begin with—that being his father was murdered by his asshole brother.

And if that shit’s not whacked enough, Bubba then had to witness his brother, his twin, commit suicide.

So no, she doesn’t want anyone to call Bubba.

And from here on out, we’re all going to respect that and leave Bubba out of our investigation. ”

“That’s gonna be an issue.”

“The hell it will. All you have to do is call him, thank him for all his help, but he can stand down.”

“That’s the part that’s not gonna happen. Forgot to tell you, Bubba was the one to call Tex back late last night after he’d talked to Eva and one of her boys. He told Tex he was all in, whatever Eva needed, he’d do what he could.”

Fuck me . Mark “Bubba” Wright throwing down for Eva.

Christ. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that Bubba had tossed his hat in the ring for sainthood.

“Why would he do that?” I mumbled.

“Believe it or not, Max, there’s this thing, it’s called forgiveness. It happens when someone who fucked up shows genuine sorrow and remorse for the wrongs they’ve done.”

“Seriously? You’re gonna be a smartass?”

“I’m not being a smartass.”

“Then why the hell are you talking to me about forgiveness? I’m just surprised Bubba’s being so generous.”

“First, Mark Wright’s character is such he’d never allow a single mother to suffer, no matter what she did to him.

He might hold a grudge about Zoey being there, but, that’s neither here nor there.

” I could almost picture Zane waving his hand in front of him in a nonchalant gesture.

“My point is, people forgive. They don’t build walls and towers— ”

“Says the man who literally lives in a penthouse high above everyone else. If that’s not a tower, I don’t know what is.”

“Touché. Yet, I invite people up to my tower. You’ve decided to hate the world and not trust anyone.”

“I trust you,” I pointed out. “And anyway, we’re way the fuck off-topic. Bubba forgiving Eva doesn’t matter—”

“I bet it matters to Eva.”

Well, he was damn right, it did matter to Eva, and if I was being honest, it mattered to me, too.

Her reasons were pure and mine were purely selfish.

Bubba and Zoey forgiving Eva gave me the green light to pursue whatever the hell was going on between us guilt-free.

I can’t say that I would’ve given her up if Bubba hadn’t pardoned her, but it would’ve been a problem I’d have to figure out how to overcome.

And I wasn’t sure I liked what that said about me. I was loyal to my friends and the mere fact I would’ve picked Eva over Bubba gave me pause. It was also something I wasn’t going to dwell on. Not when there was enough shit blocking our path.

“You’re right, it does. But right now, we need to talk about how Eva is not going to Alaska.”

“Why would you think I was going to Alaska?”

Fucking hell . Without turning around to face Eva, who obviously overheard my conversation, I dropped my head forward and I wrapped my free hand around the back of my neck and squeezed, trying to relieve some of the building tension.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“Didn’t lock the door, did you? I see fallin’ in love has made you soft.”

Prick.

“Max?” Eva’s voice sounded so unsure .

“I’ll let you go. Run the plan past Eva. I’ll be over in a few hours.”

Before I could argue, the bastard hung up. Pure Zane Lewis, he always got the last word.

But not with this, he didn’t. Just because he’d rang off before I could argue didn’t mean he’d gotten his way.

No fucking way was Eva going to Alaska.

I tossed my phone on the bed and turned to find Eva standing in the doorway.

Brow furrowed, nose scrunched, but this time she didn’t look cute, she looked dejected.

Fucking hell .

“Babe—”

“Who were you talking to and why were you talking about Alaska?”

“Where’re Liam and Eli?”

“At the table eating. Now tell me.”

“I was talking to my boss. He was discussing the possibility of you going to Alaska and talking to the prosecutor.” I was so engrossed in the color seeping from her face until she was left so pale and washed out, that I missed her legs start to wobble, until she grabbed the doorframe for purchase.

“I told him you weren’t going,” I said as I rushed over to her and pulled her into my arms—which she willingly allowed. And when she burrowed her face into my chest, I knew there was not a chance in hell Zane was getting his way.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“Why does he want me to go?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

We stood there, me holding Eva tightly for a long while—long enough for her to stop shaking. Long enough for her to tense in my arms and try to pull away.

“No, Eva. Just relax,” I told her and held on. “How about after Zane comes over, we put on a movie, chill with the boys for a while, then we’ll have that get-to-know one another talk you wanna have?”

My question did not one thing to diminish Eva’s unease like I hoped. She grew stiffer in my arms. And her hands trapped between us tightened into two tiny fists. Which she used to push against my chest.

“Your boss is coming here?” she croaked out.

“You have nothing to be afraid of, honey.”

“Will he…”

After a beat of silence, I prompted, “Will he what?”

“Never mind.”

I lifted my head and pulled back a fraction so I could see her face and when I did, the urge to take Eva and the boys on the run hit me so damn hard it was a miracle my knees didn’t buckle.

Christ, I’d turned into my brothers—the men that I’d made fun of when they’d found the women who’d turned their lives upside down.

The men who vowed to protect the women they loved at all costs.

But I didn’t love Eva. I couldn’t. I didn’t believe in love and forever and all that bullshit.

I lived in the here and now—moments of pleasure and mutual satisfaction.

Yet, I’d asked—no, begged—Eva to give us a shot at more. Was that love?

The longer we stood locked in an embrace I wouldn’t release her from, the more pissed I was at Zane for mentioning that goddamn word.

“Will he what, honey?” I repeated.

“Will he take me and the boys? Make us leave?”

“Fuck no!” The declaration was out of my mouth before I had a chance to calm the fury her inquiry sparked. “No one is taking you or the boys anywhere.”

The thought of her leaving made me absolutely felonious.

Eva Dawson was mine and so were her boys .

I didn’t know jack shit about love, but I was one hell of a good SEAL. I thrived in the chaos of combat. Surely I could conquer a tiny slip of a woman and two little boys.

Couldn’t I?

Fucking Zane Lewis and his big mouth.