Max’s jaw tightened, his fingers gripping the edge of the desk hard enough to make the wood creak.“And you’re just telling me this now?”
“I didn’t want to alarm you or your fiancée until I had more information,” Ramone said carefully.“I’ve got a team shadowing each of them.By tomorrow morning, we’ll know exactly what they’re up to.”
Max’s gut churned.He was about to respond when a knock came at the door.One of his guards stepped inside, his posture rigid.
“Sir,” the guard said, voice clipped, “Ms.Stacias left the house about ten minutes ago.She took her car.”He extended a small envelope.“She asked me to give this to you.”
The tension in Max’s chest spiked.“What?”He was already moving toward the hallway, the note clutched in his hand.“Where is she going?”
“She didn’t say, sir.”
Max didn’t answer.Anger and worry pushed his stride faster.When he reached the security office, he pulled up the live camera feeds on one of the monitors.His heart sank.On the screen, Lexie walked toward her car, shoulders stiff, chin lifted—but the faint shimmer of tears on her cheeks was unmistakable.
“Damn it,” he muttered, his expression grim.
Ramone stepped in behind him.“Should we follow her?”he asked quietly.
Max replayed the footage, watching her expression more closely this time.Hurt.Determined.
She thinks I don’t understand her.She thinks I’m trying to control her.
The crumpled envelope in his fist suddenly felt heavier.He tore it open and scanned the short, precise lines written in her familiar handwriting.A mix of resignation and frustration tightened his chest.Folding the note, he shoved it into his pocket.
“No,” he said finally.“Let her go.”
Ramone frowned.“Sir?”
“She needs space,” Max said, though the words scraped like broken glass in his throat.“But I want two guards posted at her house around the clock.And someone keeping eyes on her while she’s at work—discreetly.If anything unusual happens, I want to know instantly.”
“Yes, sir,” Ramone said, but his unease lingered as he left to carry out the orders.
Alone, Max dropped into his chair.His phone felt heavy in his hand as he typed a message.
Lexie, I’ll pick you up tomorrow night for dinner.We’ll talk.Take your time, mia cara.But I’m not letting you go.
He set the phone down and leaned back, staring at the ceiling.Slowing down with her was the right thing to do—he knew that.But the thought of her out there, away from him, unprotected, made his gut twist into knots.
She was everything to him, whether she realized it yet or not.
I’ll wait for you, Lexie,he thought with determination.
Chapter 35
Maxsatinthequiet of his office, staring at the papers on his desk without really seeing them, when the door swung open.
Luca Bernardi walked in first—tall, broad-shouldered, his charcoal suit cut to fit the kind of body that had been built for brawls long before boardrooms.His dark eyes held the lazy amusement of a man who knew he could break you in half and still make it look like an accident.
“I see your inner goblin has taken over,” he said with a smirk, settling into the chair across from Max as though he owned both it and the air Max breathed.
Dimitri De Luca followed, every inch the Northeastern kingpin—thickly muscled, with the heavy, deliberate movements of someone who didn’t need to rush to be dangerous.His white dress shirt stretched faintly over his shoulders as he claimed the third seat, chuckling low in his throat.
“The man’s not wrong,” Dimitri said.“Just yesterday, I heard that you were tossing around words likeweddingandforever.Now you’re brooding like you just lost your territory to a bunch of amateurs.”
Max muttered a colorful curse and slouched back, watching Dimitri head for the cabinet and pull out a bottle of scotch like he ownedthattoo.“Shut up, Luca.”
Luca smirked, accepting a glass with golden liquid while Dimitri poured two more glasses.“I’m just saying—this is textbook sulking.”
“I’m not sulking.”Max took the glass and stared at the liquid, wondering why the hell he’d called this meeting.
