Chapter Ten
Nearly half a meal and half anhour later, Travis and Gage finally showed up.
Brantley’s frustration level was rising significantly, but he’d done a decent job of keeping it under wraps while he listened to Simon ask Max an endless list of questions.Surprisingly, Max had been relatively straightforward with his responses.Of course, Brantley had no idea how much truth there was to any of it, but he also didn’t care.The last thing he was worried about was Max’s business dealings.And definitely not those that didn’t pertain to the case at hand.
However, when Travis walked in, the tension in the air seemed to rise.He found that interesting since Max greeted Travis with a quiet, private conversation, the two men shaking hands, the gesture longer than was usually appropriate.
Not that there was anything romantic about it, but there was certainly an intimacy between them.Shared history, perhaps.
Brantley watched his cousin as Travis took the seat across the table, Gage taking the one beside him.Neither revealed how they were feeling about this little get-together.Not by their countenance anyway.
“Have we broached the subject we came here for?”Travis asked, eyes zeroed in on Brantley.
Brantley met those hard, steel-blue eyes.“Did you think we were twiddlin’ our thumbs, waitin’ for you?”
Travis’s gaze skimmed his face, but his expression didn’t falter.It was clear he wasn’t impressed with Brantley’s sarcasm, but again, Brantley really didn’t give a fuck.The last place he wanted to be on a Saturday night was having dinner with the man who had left Reese to bleed out on the floor of a restaurant in order to get his sister to safety.While Brantley wasn’t known to hold grudges, he would never forgive Max for that.Not if he lived to be two hundred.
“Did you get the answers you were lookin’ for?”
Brantley pointed at Simon.“You’ll have to ask him.”
Travis looked at Simon, raising his eyebrows in question.
“I’d like to continue the conversation.”Simon looked at Max.“Perhaps privately when we’re finished.”
“I like that idea.”
“Well, I’ve got a question for you,” Travis said to Max.
“What’s that?”
“When you were nineteen, did you kill a man?”
Max’s eyebrows slowly rose, but he didn’t answer.
“It’s come to our attention that my wife’s mother witnessed you kill a man.The FBI intended for her to testify against you, but she went MIA before that could happen.”
Holding his fork over his plate, Max stared back at Travis, the silence in the space surprisingly loud.Brantley was mesmerized by the tension that seemed to stretch between the two men.
“We know she didn’t witness it,” Reese supplied, clearly concerned about the metaphorical rubber band that was being pulled to its limits, threatening to snap at any second.
Max’s gaze slowly slid to Reese, but again, he didn’t say anything.
“But we also know the FBI was lookin’ to take you down by blackmailing her into testifying,” Brantley said, wanting to get this conversation moving in the right direction.
Max nodded his head slightly.“Doesn’t surprise me.”
How did Brantley know the mob boss was going to say that?
If words were knives, those coming outof Brantley’s mouth would’ve slashed him to pieces.
Imagining that made Max smile.
On the inside, of course.
He knew Brantley was still pissed at him.Likely always would be.
Though Max was genuinely sorry about what happened to Reese that night, he wouldn’t apologize for taking care of his family.He hadn’t known Reese was in the restaurant when he sent Rock to get Madison.If he had … well, he wanted to think he would’ve done it differently, but he couldn’t say that with any level of certainty.
