Page 40 of Run, Little Rabbit (Blood & Bonds #1)

Chapter Thirty-Five

Maxim

W ell, this is an interesting turn of events. “I thought you said you’d come alone?”

Echo pulls her eyes away from her bodyguard and little hacker, and I can see the surprise in the green depths.

She wasn’t expecting them, and a little glimmer of respect shines for the pair of intruders.

It takes a certain amount of loyalty and love to just stroll into enemy territory to rescue someone, and this pair had done it twice.

Echo jumps up from Niki’s lap. He grabs her waist to pull her back down, but she turns and hits him with a vicious glare; I’m surprised it doesn’t slice his skin.

“ Sorry ,” he immediately says and throws his hands up placatingly, but the smirk at the corner of his mouth ruins the sincerity of the gesture.

“What the hell is this?” The redheaded god asks Echo, his voice tinged with annoyance. The guy looks like he could literally snap you in two. Probably why Niki is practically salivating over the guy.

Angel chuckles as he closes Niki’s mouth with his forefinger. “Stop drooling. Echo already said you can’t keep him.”

Niki bats Angel’s hand away. “ Nothing wrong with looking.”

Angel hits him with a flat look. “There’s a difference between looking and ogling, Niki.”

The brute just shrugs and turns his attention back to the newcomers, where Echo and her bodyguard appear to be in a heated conversation if the severe looks and sharp hand gestures are anything to go by.

But Sphinx, the clever little hacker, is watching me like a hawk.

He might go by a different name, but I remember the abrasive, skinny teen from ten years ago.

He’s changed a lot, filled out into a man and dyed his hair that ridiculous platinum-white colour.

He used to have such lovely sandy blonde waves that would catch the sun and shimmer.

I may have had a tiny crush on him when he worked for my father, but he’d been young, and I was older, and my father was a traditional man.

I had wanted him from a distance, and when I discovered the massacre at his family’s home, I thought I’d lost him.

When I’d tried to help, he’d run. I’d only wanted to protect him and give him somewhere safe to be, but he’d rejected that and just run.

The last time I saw him, he was in the throes of grief.

Now he looks like he has a chip on his shoulder bigger than the iceberg that sank the Titanic.

Sphinx throws a quick glance at Echo, but she’s too wrapped up in arguing with her bodyguard to notice him. He seems to come to some sort of decision because he marches directly towards me, his eyebrows drawn down in a sharp slant and his pouty mouth twisted in a grimace.

“Hello, Maxim.” His voice is lower, darker and raspier than I remember.

“Sphinx.”

His brows twitch lower, almost as if he were expecting me to say something else. I haven’t forgotten his name. I’m just not sure if he wants me to say it.

The confusion in his face clears as he looks me up and down, and I can feel Angel and Niki both watching with interest.

“Can I have a word?” Sphinx asks through gritted teeth. He casts a quick glance at the others, a spark of annoyance flashing in his silver eyes. “In private?”

I chuckle at the disappointment that passes over Niki's and Angel’s expressions and cock my head to the side as I get up from the sofa. “This way.”

I catch Echo throwing me a curious glance, but she doesn’t have to worry. I’m not going to kill her friend. I’ve a feeling I know what this is about, and I’ve been waiting a decade for Sphinx to resurface. This particular ghost has haunted me for too long.

Sphinx follows me, his head down, shoulders hunched, and bottom lip firmly tucked between his teeth. Oh, boy. This is going to be… difficult.

I step into the room across from my office and let Sphinx walk past me.

I’ve barely closed the door before he’s on me.

He slams his hands into my chest, propelling me backwards into the door.

My body judders with the impact, and I don’t get a chance to take a breath before he punches me hard in the gut.

Jesus Christ, this kid packs a mean punch.

I thrust the heel of my palm into his sternum, managing to make some space between us so I can block his next attack. I knew he was angry, but this… fuck . It feels like he wants to kill me.

“Sphinx!” I yell as I bring my forearm up to protect my face. I definitely don’t want another broken nose. “I didn’t kill your family.”

He sneaks another punch in on my right side, and my breath leaves my lungs with a wheeze.

Sphinx takes a step back, and he’s furious . His eyeliner is smudged by tears, his top lip pulled back in a snarl, and I can feel the ten years of built-up hate and anger and pain breaking through the cracks in his armour.

“You didn’t protect them either,” he says, his voice raw and cracking.

“I didn’t get a chance, and I’m sorry,” I confess, and as I say those heavy words, I feel the weight of them lift from my soul.

Sphinx crumbles, and I reach out to catch him before he falls to the ground.

I pull him into me, and he fists his hands into my shirt, holding onto me like a life raft in a storm.

I get a glimpse of the boy I used to know as he sobs into my shoulder, those years of grief breaking free, and I hold his broken pieces in my arms and wait until he’s ready to have the conversation that I know needs to happen.

He wants answers, and I’m going to disappoint him because I know that I don’t have them all.

After a few minutes, Sphinx stills in my arms and takes a few deep breaths before slowly unclenching his hands and stepping out of my embrace.

“Sorry,” he says with a sniffle, his eyes focused on the ground.

“Not necessary, Sphinx.” I watch him for a minute as he worries his bottom lip.

He takes another deep breath, wipes his eyes, and then gives me a look that cuts right through my chest. His eyes are full of everything .

Whatever mask he was wearing before has been completely stripped away, and there’s so much of the boy I used to know that a pang of grief squeezes my heart.

It had hurt when Sphinx had left. I know my father had wanted to keep him longer because Sphinx had some serious skill with computers that my father was using for his own gain, but we’d shared a connection.

I was at a point in my life where I was stepping up to take over the family business, and I wasn’t sure it was what I wanted.

I’d found something of a kindred spirit in Sphinx, and I’d enjoyed spending time with him.

It helped that he wasn’t a Volkov and hadn’t grown up in this world.

I’d liked that he had seemed so pure, but I don’t see any of that now.

I just see a young man who’s suffered and had to survive on his own.

“What can I help you with, Sphinx?”

His hands clench by his side, and I can see him trying to figure out where to start. “Maxim, do you know who murdered my family?”

I shake my head. “No, I don’t.”

“Do you know who it might have been?”

I hate the hint of hope in his voice because I don’t want to crush it. “No.”

“My dad worked for your family, and he’s murdered, and you don’t know who it could be? Bullshit!”

“Hey,” I snap. “I get that you’re frustrated and angry and in pain, but I don’t have the answers you want. My own father had secrets, and to this day, I still don’t know what he had you working on. So, tell me, Sphinx, what did he have you doing?”

He runs his hands through his shaggy white hair, making it stand up in all different directions.

“He made me develop a programme that could infiltrate ledgers and accounts. I don’t know what he used it on, but that was the main thing he wanted.

I also spent time hacking into other systems to expose weaknesses and vulnerabilities, but that was mainly other crime families. ”

A thought crosses my mind, and I can’t seem to shake it. “Did you ever come across something you shouldn’t have?”

He flinches at my words but follows it up with a scowl and a scoff. “Does a bear shit in the woods? I saw all sorts of shady shit at your dad’s request, Maxim. I hacked whoever he asked me to, and I stole data, images, ledgers, whatever he asked of me because I didn’t have a fucking choice.”

“Your father lost money in the wrong casino, Sphinx. Don’t stand there preaching to me like that when you ended up under my father’s thumb because of your own father’s actions. I didn’t offer you up as payment.”

“Fuck you,” he throws at me, his anger getting the better of him. I know he’s not really angry at me, but I’m here and his father isn’t.

I drag my hand down my face, the effort of dragging up the past taking its toll.

“Sphinx, I don’t know who murdered your family.

I don’t know if it was tied to something my family did or something you discovered when my father had you working for him, but what I do know is that I will help you figure it out. ”

He looks stunned at that. I know I’m not usually one for offering help, but Sphinx is an old friend, and I owe it to him to help. Especially if it’s my father’s fault that Sphinx’s entire family was killed.

Sphinx nods and lets out a shaky exhale, some of the anger and frustration leaving his shoulders.

I hold my hand out. “We help Echo take down her father, and then I promise, I will help you with whatever you need to find out who killed your family. Deal?”

He eyes my hand warily, that bottom lip stuck between his goddamn teeth again. Eventually, he wraps his hand around mine and gives it a firm shake. “Deal.”

“Alright. And for what it’s worth, I was sorry when I found your family, Sphinx.”

“Thanks,” he mutters before a frown settles above his grey eyes. “What were you doing there anyway?”

“Oh,” I chuckle. “I was going to see if you wanted to get a drink with me.”

“Like on a date?” There’s a hint of surprise in his tone, and it’s quite endearing.

I nod, a fond smile curling my lips as I think about the memory.

I’d been so nervous. I wasn’t out at the time, and I didn’t really know if Sphinx was into me, but I had worked up the courage to go and ask him out anyway.

Then I got to the house, and all thoughts of clandestine kisses vanished when I clocked the open door and smelt the copper tang of blood in the air.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but back then, I may have had a little crush on you. ”

Sphinx snorts. “I bet your father would have loved that.”

“Hmm,” I agree. My father expected me to marry a woman, but at the time, I was caught somewhere between duty and the desire to explore my sexuality.

“And now?”

“Now we are two different people, and that was a long time ago.”

Sphinx nods in agreement, knowing just as well as I do that the men we were ten years ago aren't the men we are today. Our worlds changed and diverged, transforming us into two very different people.

“Come on,” I say, pulling the door open. “Let’s go and make sure no one has lost a limb.”

He snorts. “That’s entirely possible. Veon shot the big guy, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to want revenge.”

So the redheaded beast of a man was called Veon. “What’s his deal?”

“What do you mean?”

“The man looks like he’s chewing glass all the time.”

“Ah,” Sphinx says as he strolls out of the room. “Veon let duty get in the way, and now he’s missed his chance with Echo because she’s obsessed with you three, and he doesn’t share.”

“Fucking idiot,” I mutter, but it’s his loss. If Echo ever decided she wanted him to join us, I wouldn’t mind, but it sounds like he has some things to figure out first.

Huh. Never thought I would be so… patient.

“Tell me about it,” Sphinx agrees with a laugh but then frowns suddenly. “Veon and Echo haven’t been speaking much since she threw him out, so maybe the big guy isn’t the one we should be worried about.”