My father didn’t expand on his threat because Max huffed a laugh. His smug grin clenched Landon’s hands into fists at his sides. Despite wanting to give Max the benefit of the doubt, his worry over Quinn the last few hours had undone much of the progress he’d made.
I held tight to my faith, but even I had to admit I struggled to understand Max’s motivations.
“From where I was sitting and the cop’s perspective, everything that happened today was on her. So, I did what no one else in this place could do. Despite all the weak attempts you’ve made,Igot rid of Quinn Everly.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re welcome, by the way.”
Max flicked his gaze to my father’s hands, clenched on his collar. “I’m not the guy you have a problem with now, am I?”
Releasing him, Drake straightened. “Where is he?”
Everything played out in slow motion from there.
Max lifted his arm, pointing toward the entrance of the parlor where we stood.
My father turned, head swinging in our direction before his body followed. But when it did, his eyes locked on Landon beside me. And he moved like a snake striking its prey. Barreling toward us. Charging straight for him.
It wasn’t a thought—what came next.
I did the only thing there was to do.
I stepped between them.
And when my father reached us, I didn’t flinch.
I would not yield.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
After taking a moment to say goodbye to each of them separately, I climbed in the back of Mr. V’s car, and he took us to our apartment. We said goodbye, and Gia and I got ready for bed before ending up in the living room.
She was already sitting on the couch with her feet tucked under her butt and her arm out to welcome me into the space beside her when I walked in.
I crawled up next to her and let her hug me into her side. Then I noticed the ice cream and wine on the coffee table.
“Just in case.” She shrugged and started combing her fingers through my hair. “I also have a guy who can get us what we’d need to set him—I mean, his car—on fire.”
Despite the heaviness in my chest, I huffed a laugh, but when tears pricked my eyes again, I grabbed one of the oversized throw pillows from beside her and put it on her lap. Burying my face in it, I screamed as loud as I could.
Gia waited until I’d let it all out, and when I sat upright and scooted back, she turned to face me. With our legs crossed in the center of the couch, she took my hands and met my gaze.
“Rage or repair?”
I cocked my head. “What?”
“For solutions. Do you want ones focused on rage or focused on repairing? I don’t know. It’s something the new guy says when I’m in a mood.”
Smiling at the annoyed way she scoffed and rolled her eyes, I caught the blush on her cheeks. She liked him—this new guy—and he’d figured her out a bit, too.
“Repair,” I grumbled. “As much as I’d like to rage, the last thing I need to do is add an arson charge to my rap sheet on top of the others.”
She grabbed the ice cream from the coffee table, handed me a spoon, and popped the lid off the top. After she dug her spoon in for a scoop, she put her game face on. “Okay, fill me in on what’s happened. Everything since we last talked.”
I walked her through everything, keeping my focus on Max before I got to the rest. My failed attempts at seducing Max with my lingerie, his full-on flight-risk behavior the third day, the strip poker debacle, and then what happened with Ben in the Round Tableau room.
Her eyes flew wide, and she got up and paced the room while I shared Max’s concerned check-in when I woke up and everything that happened from there.
“I can’tbelievehe did that after what happened with your dad. And on top of the golf cart incident! What the hell was he thinking? I can’t—” She jerked to a stop, whirling to face me and pointing a finger right at me. “We’re not done talking about that, by the way, but right now—” She resumed pacing, her curls flying as she grew angrier by the minute. “I could kill him. Murder him. Dead. Does he think I make empty threats? No. And he’ll be too dead to realize it, that—Ugh! That asshole!”
Weirdly, Gia’s outrage quelled my fury over it. It didn’t answer it, just tempered it enough to play devil’s advocate. “To be fair, I don’t know if he knew about the golf cart…”
