“And I appreciate the clean shave,” I say, touching my face.
He laughs again, more softly this time. “You were pretty close to dead when I brought you in here. Imagine my surprise to find you nearly naked, severely dehydrated, half-starved, vitamin-deficient. You had three broken ribs. Your father’s blood all over your hands.”
“Three broken ribs? I thought it was two.”
“Three broken ribs,” Max says, and nods. “And still, you managed to sever Paris’s carotid artery. Nicely done.”
I meet his eyes. Max thinks this is funny.
And then I understand.
“He’s still alive, isn’t he?” I say.
Max smiles wider. “Quite alive, yes. Despite your best efforts to murder him.”
“That seems impossible.”
“You sound irritated,” Max says.
“I am irritated. That he survived is an insult to my skill set.”
Max fights back another laugh. “I don’t remember you being so funny.”
“I’m not trying to be funny.”
But Max can’t wipe the smile off his face.
“So you’re not going to tell me how he survived?” I say. “You’re just going to bait me?”
“I’m waiting for my wife,” he says.
“I understand. Does she help you sound out the big words?”
Max’s eyebrows jump up his forehead. “Watch yourself, Aaron.”
“Apologies. Please step out of my way.”
“As I said, I’m waiting for my wife. She has something she wants to say to you.”
I study him, looking closely at his face in a way I can’t remember ever having done. He has dark brown hair, light brown skin, and bright blue-green eyes. He’s aged well. On a different day, I might’ve even described his face as warm, friendly. But knowing now that he’s Ella’s father—I almost can’t believe I didn’t notice sooner. She has his eyes.
I hear a second set of footsteps drawing nearer to the door. I expect to see Evie, Supreme Sommers, and instead—
“Max, how long do you think it’ll take bef—”
My father. His voice.
I can hardly believe it.
He stops, just inside the doorway, when he sees my face.He’s holding a bloodied towel to his throat. “Youidiot,” he says to me.
I don’t have a chance to respond.
A sharp alarm sounds, and Max goes suddenly rigid. He glances at a monitor on the wall before looking back at my father.
“Go,” Anderson says. “I can handle him.”
Max glances at me just once before he disappears.
