Page 7 of Maximus (Gold Team #4)

Halfway through lunch, my phone vibrated with a text from Brooks giving me the name and address of the hotel he’d booked for us and our room numbers.

Eva and I hadn’t discussed how we were going to play this, but I hoped like hell she’d follow along.

“Are you guys staying in the area tonight?” I asked Eva and waited for her to look away from helping Elijah with his burger.

Her gaze met mine and I raised a brow in hopes she’d follow along.

“Yeah. What about you?”

Good girl .

“Yep, at the Tifton Suites.”

“Really? That’s where we’re staying.”

Perfect .

“We are? We’re staying?” Liam asked hopefully.

I didn’t miss the pain that crossed Eva’s features.

“I told you we were going on vacation. An adventure, remember?” she gently reminded her son.

The soft tone Eva used when she spoke to her boys was like a kick in the gut.

Every time I heard it, it was sweet agony.

It was a tenor my mother had never used while speaking to me, nor had my aunt when I went to live with her and my uncle.

As a matter of fact, no woman in my life had ever spoken to me with so much care and concern.

Not even Pam, and she’d said she loved me.

“We’ve never had a vacation,” Liam continued, and deep lines appeared on Eva’s forehead.

“I know, honey. From now on, we’ll try to have one cool adventure a year.”

Fucking hell . The sadness in her voice was unmistakable, but so was the determination. Eva wanted to give her boys a better life. And for some unknown, crazy reason, I wished I could help her do that.

“Eli, honey, would you like another drink?” Eva asked, drawing my attention to the younger boy.

He was painfully shy and barely spoke. If he wanted or needed something, he tapped Eva and gestured. The times he did speak were quiet and meek.

The kid just turned four so I had no idea if that was normal or not. But I didn’t think it was. I’d seen plenty of little kids in passing that were loud and boisterous.

The boy shook his head in the negative and I racked my brain for something to talk to him about.

“Did you like the trains, Elijah?”

He just stared at me with apprehension and fear. It was the fear that gutted me.

“Eli, Max asked you a question,” Eva prompted.

“Yeah,” Elijah muttered.

Damn. What now ?

“What was your favorite part?” Eva smoothly interjected and I shot her a grateful smile.

She didn’t return the gesture, but her lips did curve up ever so slightly .

I bet she’s prettier when the worry isn’t weighing her down.

“I liked the room with the toy trains the best. The one with the bridges,” Elijah quietly responded.

“Yeah? I liked that one, too,” I told him. “Do you remember how many cars were on the track?”

Elijah shook his head and Liam blurted out the answer, “There were five.”

“There’s another museum right up the road. Would you like to go look around?” I asked.

“Are you going there?” Liam inquired.

“Yep.”

“Mommy, can we go, too?”

Eva glanced at me, her head tilted to the side, probably trying to figure out what I was up to.

Good luck with that, sweetheart . I didn’t even understand what I was doing. Though in my mind, I did make the excuse that it was just past lunch and there was plenty of time before we went back to the hotel for her boys to get comfortable around me.

“Sure, honey, if you want to.” Then Eva looked to Elijah. “Would that be okay with you?”

Elijah nodded, then cuddled into his mother’s side. Eva’s arm automatically went around the boy and she kissed the top of his head.

“I’m just gonna take the boys to the bathroom to clean up, then we’ll be ready to leave.”

Eva and the kids stood and made their way across the restaurant. Thankfully, the bathrooms were within eyesight because I wasn’t sure how I’d explain to Liam if he saw me waiting outside the door. And the kid would notice. He watched everything, his eyes always busy, taking in his surroundings.

I pulled out my phone, sent a quick text back to Brooks, then tapped one out to Tex .

I shouldn’t have been surprised when my phone vibrated with an incoming call.

“I only have a minute,” I told Tex.

“We have a problem.”

Of course we do.

“What kind of problem?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the door Eva and the boys had disappeared behind.

“The kind that goes boom .”

“Come again?”

“My team got to Eva’s place. Shit, they didn’t even have to do a sweep—they smelled the gas as soon as they entered. The place was rigged. If she’d gone in…”

Tex didn’t need to finish his explanation, I knew what would’ve happened if Eva had gone into her house and tripped the detonator.

“Where’s Chris Peters?”

“In the air, on a flight to Florida.”

“Shit. What’s your take on this? Two people hired to take her out, or did Peters contract out the work?”

“My gut says two. But I cannot find a second hit.”

Instinct was screaming at me to snatch the trio and head to Maryland immediately. But I knew Eva would fight me, and now that the boys were present, it would be even more difficult to talk to her.

“Your gut’s never wrong so we’ll assume there’s more than one person in play. I was going to take Eva and the kids to another museum but now I don’t want them out in the open.”

“You need to check her car.”

“I’ve been watching her for five days. Last night, I spent the night in front of her house. No one’s been near her car.”

“Right, in the last five days. That doesn’t mean jack shit. I’ve been tracking this for over a month.”

“A month?” I grunted. “Why the hell— ”

“You don’t think I would’ve sent a team down earlier if I could’ve connected the dots?

I had disjointed chatter. A hit was put out to bid on a woman in Florida.

Nothing else. So I waited, then more details came to light.

Jacksonville area. Then finally a woman with two kids.

Things were becoming clearer. I called you in as soon as the woman in question was said to be a pilot.

I’m going back now to see if I missed a second request.”

“Where the fuck do you find this shit?” I huffed.

“You don’t wanna know.”

“What, do you sit around scouring the dark web all night?”

“Something like that. Just check her damn car.”

Christ, he did. Tex spent his time looking for people he could save.

“Tex—”

“Don’t try to psychoanalyze me, Max. You of all people understand the type of men and women who lurk in the shadows. They prey on the weak. Hunt and terrorize. I may not be active duty anymore, but I’m still a SEAL.”

“Damn right you are,” I agreed. “Listen, Eva’s coming back to the table with the boys. I’ve gotta go. I’ll check her car and call you back.”

“Copy that.”

Liam approached with a smile, Elijah with a blank stare, and Eva with a slight upturn of her puffy, pink lips—wait, where the hell did that come from? Puffy pink lips? Why in the actual fuck was I paying attention to her mouth?

“Hey,” she greeted. “You ready to go?”

“Let me take care of the check.” I stood and tagged the bill off the table. “I’ll be right back.”

My conversation with Tex replayed in my mind as I headed outside to check Eva’s car. Hunt and terrorize was a good way to describe what someone was doing to Eva. Only, she didn’t know the extent of it. Had she gone home this afternoon, she’d be dead, and possibly her boys, too.

Instinct told me something was wrong—I’d been too complacent, allowing Eva to control the situation.

The barb of a sharp quill I’d long ago stopped ignoring pricked my gut.

I slowed my pace and glanced around the parking lot, and out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a baseball cap before it dipped behind a car.

Fuck . Eva was in the restaurant unprotected.

Just as I turned to head back inside, a blast rocked the parking lot.

Heat kissed my back right before the concussion rippled, knocking me forward.

Pain ricocheted through me, my palms burned with road rash, the side of my face slid on the pavement.

Finally, when my body stopped skidding on the asphalt, I was up and running with the singular focus of getting to Eva and the boys.

Inside the restaurant was pandemonium. Patrons ran for the door, some hid under tables, mouths were moving but the pounding in my head made it damn near impossible to hear what they said.

Fucking shit , the booth where I left them was empty.

“Eva!” I roared, as fear ticked up to a whole new level.

If she ran outside, she’d play right into the hands of the person trying to kill her. He was out there, hiding between two cars, waiting.

Christ, where the hell is she ? More people ran past me, knocking chairs over, dishes and menus littering the floor. What was wrong with people? The worst thing you could do in a situation like this was panic.

Panic led to bad decisions.

Though the chaos would provide us the perfect cover to escape. I just needed to find Eva.

A cook rushed past me and I glanced over at the still- swinging door he’d come from and hurried to check the kitchen.

Empty.

“Eva!” I tried calling for her again.

Slowly she came into view as she opened the door to what looked like a storage closet.

“Let’s go!”

Eva was saying something but I still couldn’t hear over the ringing, and her lips were moving too fast for me to read.

No time .

“I can’t hear you. We need to go. Where are the boys?”

Eva’s head cocked to the side, a deep frown etched her face, but she stepped out of the closet, both boys clinging to her.

Thank fuck !

Without thinking, I rushed forward, scooped up Liam, and he went stiff in my arms.

“I need you to trust me. Carry Elijah and follow me.”

Eva nodded, and picked up her son.

“You stay right behind me. We’re going to my car. Do not stop for any reason. Eyes up and pay attention.”

Eva shook her head. She pointed to the back door and motioned for me to follow her.

I quickly thought about where my SUV was parked in reference to the back door. It wouldn’t matter which door we exited, the Tahoe was right in the middle between the two exits. And hopefully, the front of the restaurant was enough of a distraction to give us a clear shot.

“Liam, if I set you down for any reason, you stay behind me.”

The boy nodded, eyes wide, fresh fear rolling off of him.

“Let’s go!”

Eva darted toward the back door, Elijah in her arms, long brown hair whipping behind her. I caught her arm right before she pushed the bar to open the door.

“Behind me.” I fished the car keys out of my pocket, ready to beep the locks when we were near.

Then we were out the door, running toward the vehicle.

Blue and red lights flashed off in the distance and I was sure if my ears weren’t ringing, I’d hear emergency sirens wailing and people screaming.

But I heard nothing but a high-pitched squeal—and that was dangerous.

I couldn’t hear a fucking thing, including a threat if it approached.

The SUV came into view. I pushed the unlock button, Eva shot around the rear of the car, and the passenger side door opened as I was depositing Liam into the back seat. Eva climbed in back, pulled both her sons close. I slammed the door and jumped in behind the wheel.

We fishtailed out of the parking lot and hauled ass down the road.

Jesus Christ, that was close .

It wouldn’t be until later, when my heart stopped racing and my ears stopped buzzing, that I realized I’d asked Eva to trust me, and she did.