“You know why you’re here,” Max began, his voice calm but laced with a lethal edge that made the room feel smaller.
“I—I—” Enzo stammered, his squeaky voice trembling.“It—it’s not what you think, boss!”
Max’s eyes narrowed, the subtle movement sending a visible shiver through Enzo.“What I think, Santorini,” Max continued, “is that you made a grave mistake.”
Enzo’s breath hitched, and he raised his hands in desperate defense.“It’s not—it’s not like that!I swear!The videos, they’re nothing—”
Max stepped closer, looming over him with the controlled menace of a predator.“The videos,” he correctly softly, “are everything.Where are they?”
Enzo whimpered, eyeing the cell door as if it might offer an escape.It didn’t.“On my phone,” he squeaked.“They’re only on my phone!I swear!”
Max’s jaw tightened.His calm made the moment more terrifying than any shouting or violence could.“And the backups?”he asked smoothly.“The ones on your computer?In the cloud?Where are they?”
Enzo shook his head violently, his greasy hair sticking to his sweat-slicked forehead.“N-no backups!None!I didn’t upload them, boss.I swear to God!Just the phone.That’s it!”
Max’s expression didn’t change.“You expect me to believe,” he said slowly, “that you didn’t transfer so much as a single file?Not to a computer.Not to the internet.Not to a hard drive.”
“I didn’t!I didn’t!”Enzo cried, his voice cracking.“I swear!They’re only on my phone.No one else has them, I promise!”
Max bent slightly, sinking to Enzo’s level without breaking eye contact.The movement was slow, deliberate, and as precise as the edge of a blade.“Enzo,” he said softly, the calm in his voice more terrifying than any shout could ever be, “if you’re lying to me—ifanyoneever sees those videos—you will beg for mercy.And you won’t receive it.Do you understand?”
Enzo nodded furiously.“I—I understand!I swear, boss, no one else has them!Just the phone!Please, you gotta believe me!”
Max straightened, his gaze never leaving Enzo’s pitiful, trembling form.He reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone, holding it up between two fingers.Enzo’s eyes widened in recognition and terror.
“This phone,” Max said, his voice dark and measured.
Enzo nodded frantically, his voice barely a whisper.“Y-yeah, that’s the one!That’s it!I swear!”
Max stared down at him for a long moment, the silence stretching unbearably.Then, without a word, he turned and walked to the cell door, knocking once.The heavy lock clicked, and the door swung open.
Max waited until the door closed, then turned to Ramone.“Find out if the videos are anywhere else.”
“Got it,” Ramone replied, stepping inside with an expression that made Enzo’s breath hitch in fear.
Max didn’t look back as he ascended the stone steps even as a wail echoed off the walls.
Chapter 15
Maxstaredatthephone sitting in the middle of his desk.The weight of its presence felt oppressive, as if it carried the power to shatter every carefully constructed wall he had built around himself.He needed to know what was on it, needed to confirm what Enzo had done.But the thought of watching Lexie—hisLexie—entwined with another man made his stomach turn.
From the moment he’d first seen her, entering that boring party with her curls dancing around her shoulders even as she’d looked bored and unimpressed by the opulence, she had captivated him in a way no one ever had.There had been no games, no strategy, no plan to pull her into his world.She hadn’t been a piece on the chessboard of his life—she had been something else entirely.And that terrified him as much as it thrilled him.
What Lexie didn’t know—and could never know—was how much control she had over him.Max Diatras ruled the Pacific Northwest region with unyielding precision.The businesses he didn’t own outright, he controlled.The politicians he didn’t own, he influenced.The only exceptions were the insignificant members of the school board, and even they rarely moved without considering how their decisions might intersect with his interests.His was a world of absolute power, wielded with purpose and precision.
But Lexie had been different.From the very beginning, he hadn’t wanted to control her.He hadn’t wanted to force her hand or bend her to his will as he did with everyone else.With Lexie, he’d wanted her to come to him freely, to choose him not because of what he could give her or protect her from, but because she wantedhim.
And for two glorious months, she had.
For those brief, incandescent weeks, she had been his.They’d dined together, laughed together, talked late into the night about any and everything.She’d challenged him, teased him, and surprised him at every turn.And every night, when he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, it was like the rest of the world faded away.She was fire and sweetness, a combination that left him aching with a need he hadn’t known he was capable of.
And then she’d ended it.
Her words still echoed in his mind, idiotic and infuriating as they’d been.She’d stood in front of him, her brown eyes resolute, and told him she couldn’t be with someone like him.That his power—hisinfluence—was too much.That no one person should hold so much sway over so many lives.
Max had been furious.Not because of what she’d said, but because of what it meant.Lexie didn’t understand his world, didn’t understand what it took to maintain the balance of power.She was too naïve, too idealistic, thinking the world could function without someone like him to keep it in line.
He’d wanted to yell at her, to tell her how wrong she was.But he hadn’t.Instead, he’d let her go, even as every instinct within him screamed at him to hold on.He’d told himself it was for the best.That she would never truly accept the life he lived, the man he was.
