Ace nodded. “I know. I miss him, too. When everything is calm again, I’ll come spend all the time in the world with him. I promise.”
Rico ruffled his hair, then dropped into the chair beside me. Shaw leaned forward. “Before we start, I want to make it clear that any animosity between the two of you,” he said, pointing his finger between Anatoly and Rico, “will not be tolerated in my clubhouse and around my wife.”
Anatoly nodded once, and Rico grunted. Rurik leaned forward, bracing his forearms on the table. “We’re here because someone has targeted Maksim, and it doesn’t make sense to do so unless they’re trying to make some kind of statement with him. We may all have an issue on our hands.”
“The fuck would anyone want with us?” Cameron asked. “Maksim doesn’t have shit to do with the club.”
“No, but your president is married to my daughter,” Anatoly coolly reminded him. “If they’ve targeted a mere soldier—” I bristled— “I don’t put it past them to go after Amaliya.”
“Watch your fucking mouth,” Alfonzo snapped at Anatoly. “Maksim is not just somemeresoldier.”
Anatoly cocked his head to the side for a moment, then dipped his chin. “My apologies, Maksim. I only meant that you are low-ranking. Not that you are not… worthy.”
I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know what to say. Silence just seemed the best way to go.
“Okay, hear me out,” Ace spoke up, leaning forward now. “What if someone is targeting Maksim because of his attachment to Alfonzo? We all know Mr. I’m-A-Ghost is fucking untouchable. But if they found his weakness, which is now Maksim—clearly—they may be exploiting that.”
Alfonzo laughed quietly at Ace’s name for him, and Ace smirked. Anatoly looked at me. “Did anyone happen to see the two of you when you were intimate?” he asked.
My cheeks darkened. “I don’t know,” I admitted. I wasn’t aware of anything but Alfonzo touching me and fucking me when we’d been in those woods. Someone could’ve recorded the whole thing while right next to us, and I wouldn’t have been aware.
“If they knew to look for us there, then someone was tracking one of us. And since I’m damn good at knowing if someone’s tracking me, then they had to have figured out Maksim was given the job of taking me out, which means they tracked him,” Alfonzo said. “And no one but me, Rico, and Niran knew about my task to take Maksim out, which leaves it as an inside job onyourend. Someone in your family isn’t afraid of taking out another family member for the sake of their own agenda. That’s dangerous.”
Anatoly stood. “Then we’ll begin prying information out of all our soldiers, starting with the ones who lived in the same house as Maksim.”
Rico stood as well. “And we’ll keep digging on our end. At some point, this person has to get sloppy. If I find something out, I’ll have Alfonzo reach out to Rurik.”
Anatoly nodded. “We will be in touch.” He looked at me. “Stay safe, Maksim. I don’t agree with what you did, but I would never kill you over falling in love.” With that, he left the room.
Rurik pointed a finger at me. “Don’t get shot again, clear?”
I nodded once. “Clear,” I murmured.
Once I was in Alfonzo’s car and we were headed down the highway, I looked at him. “Anatoly didn’t put a hit on me,” I said quietly. “But if he didn’t… then why did Rurik feel the need to get me out of the country? And why was Anatoly set on taking you out?”
Alfonso shrugged and reached over to hold my thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I don’t know, mouse. But I intend to find out. And when I do, you’ll be the first person I inform,” he promised.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Alfonzo
Maksim was quiet—too quiet. If I asked him a question, he just gave little noises, not even bothering to open his mouth to speak. Even Anurak had tried to engage him in conversation, but Maksim just seemed lost in his head. And when he wasn’t drowning in his mind, he was sleeping, and not even just because of the pain pills. It was like he was too stressed and just wanted to escape the clusterfuck we’d found ourselves involved in.
“Maksim,” I drawled as we entered our room. We’d had dinner, and instead of forcing him into the living room, where I’d been hoping he’d interact withsomeoneall day, I brought him upstairs. My man needed me, and fuck if I was gonna let him keep suffering. I couldn’t fucking stand this depressed mood he seemed to be stuck in.
He wasn’tmymouse. I wanted my needy man back. The one who gave me those pleading looks, even when he tried to hide how desperately he wanted my touch. The one who wanted tobe so close to me, he may as well be buried beneath my skin. Instead, he was just… existing. He wasn’t seeking me out.
I didn’t fucking like it.
Maksim slowly lifted his gaze to meet mine. His eyes were hollow and empty. With a growl, I gripped the side of his neck and tugged him forward. He stumbled, his hand coming up to plaster to my chest so he could catch his balance. But those pretty eyes of his widened, and his pupils dilated.There he was. My perfect little mouse.
“You’ve been too quiet today, mouse,” I rumbled. He swallowed thickly, and I couldn’t help but stroke my thumb over his protruding Adam’s apple. “I don’t like it when you pull away from me.”
“Sorry,” he whispered. “I just…” He swallowed again and licked his lips, like he was trying to figure out how to put what he was feeling into words. “I don’t like not understanding what’s happening around me. It makes me feel like I did when I was homeless and barely surviving. Like I did before Rurik found me.”
I slowly walked him backward toward the bed. His breathing quickened just the tiniest bit, but I picked up on it. When it came to Maksim, I noticedeverything. My brain was fine-tuned to pick up onallhis frequencies. I hadn’t been kidding when I said he was perfect for me. I’d even go as far to say he was createdsolelyfor me. Because there was no fucking other explanation as to why I was so drawn to him, so fucking connected to him.
The back of his knees hit the mattress, and his eyes snapped up to mine once more. “What—” He sucked in a sharp breath when I gently pushed him to sit down. That damn tongue of his lickedover his lips once more, and I gritted my teeth. If he didn’t stop doing that, this was going to turn from me giving him orgasms to me shoving my cock down his throat and making him choke on it.
