Max

by April Kelley

  Max nodded and moved off Sydney. He picked up his pants and pulled them on.

  “Twiggy.”

  “They found out I didn’t turn on you,” Twiggy whispered.

  Sydney watched as Max went over to a closet and disappeared inside. “Where are you?”

  “Harvey is gonna find me.”

  “Where the fuck are you?” Sydney raised his voice. Anything to get the guy to answer his damn question.

  “Ronnie’s apartment building.”

  Shit. Sydney sat up, grabbing his pants, which Max left on the bed. “Why the fuck did you go there? That building’s security is a fucking joke, Twig.” Sydney put the phone on the bed as he pulled his pants on.

  “I-I I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”

  Sydney sighed. “Listen to me carefully.” Max handed him a shirt and Sydney pulled it over his head. “Are you listening?” Sydney asked again.

  “Yes.”

  “You’re going to go to the store on the corner. You know the one I mean?”

  “The one that sells crack.”

  “Yeah. Tell Harry I sent you. And then make him give you one of his phones. He’ll know what you mean. He’s gonna bust your balls, Twig, so bring a gun. You’ll need to threaten him.”

  “I... Sydney, I can’t-I can’t do that.”

  “If Guthrie gets a hold of you, they’ll torture information out of you before they kill you. You want to go out like that?”

  “No.”

  “Then do what I say.”

  Max handed Sydney a pistol. Sydney nodded to him and checked to see that the safety was on before he put it in the waistband of his pants. Max pointed to the door, and Sydney picked up the phone, taking it off speaker and putting it up to his ear as they walked out the door.

  Sydney followed Max down the hall even as he talked to Twiggy. “When you get the phone, throw away the one you’re using now. And call me back on the new one.”

  “What do I do after that?”

  “I’ll tell you when you call me back.”

  Twiggy whimpered again. “You’re coming to get me, right?”

  “Yeah. I owe you for having my back,” Sydney explained. He always paid his debts.

  “You’d kill me if I turned on you.” Twiggy’s voice was shaky and it sounded like he was moving fast because he breathed heavily.

  “Yeah, I would. And since you didn’t, you’ll be under my protection. Now, do what I told you. You have a gun?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good.”

  “You’re coming to get me?”

  “I’m on my way.” Sydney hung up the phone, putting it in his pocket. Sydney looked at Max. “We need to get to him before Guthrie does.”

  Max took Sydney’s hand, lacing their fingers together.

  “He’s not leading you into a trap?”

  “I’d say that’s a possibility. He knows me pretty well, though. He has my back, and I’ll protect him. Twiggy might be a drug addict, but he isn’t stupid enough to think Harvey wouldn’t kill him when his usefulness wore off.” Sydney paused, thinking for a minute. “The only problem is Twiggy is ruled by his addiction. He might do anything for the right amount of drugs.”

  Max nodded.

  They walked into the dark living room and Max let his hand go as he walked over to Germ. Max whispered in his ear at the same time he tapped another man on the shoulder. Justin, who was an observant fucker, stood and walked over to Sydney. “What’s going on?”

  “I got it covered,” Sydney said, stubbornly.

  “Just fucking tell me.”

  Sydney sighed. “Harvey Guthrie is after my informant. Twiggy knows all kinds of shit about every damn criminal in the city, including me. I have to go get him. Max is coming with me.”

  “This guy knows about Mize?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Where does he get his information?”

  “Hell if I know. He retains everything he hears. Some sort of genius or something I guess. Problem is, he’s a drug addict, so he could be fucking with me right now. He’s got enough dirt on me that I can’t let Harvey get him.”

  Justin nodded. “We should take Harvey Guthrie out, use the informant as the bait somehow.”

  Sydney looked at him. Was Justin strategizing with him? “Yeah.”

  “So, you know the city better than anyone here. You got any ideas on how to do that?”

  “Yeah. I can tell Twiggy to go to the south side. That’s my neighborhood. We can trap Harvey in one of the local bars. Owner owes me a favor.”

  “Good. Max will want Creed to go. The reason is Creed takes protection seriously, not that the rest of the team doesn’t, but Creed’s wired for it. If anything goes wrong, he’ll take care of the informant as if he’s family. You and Max can focus on taking the target out.”

  Sydney took a deep breath in. The way Demon Elite did things, as if they were one cohesive unit, wasn’t the way Sydney did things. Sydney preferred to work alone and was making an exception with Max. Max turned to him just as the man Max had tapped on the shoulder stood. Germ stood, kissed Reggie on the cheek, before walking over to Sydney. “I need the informant’s phone number. I can track him.”

  Sydney looked at Max and when Max nodded, he dug his phone out of his pocket and handed it to Germ. Germ took it immediately and pressed a few buttons. Germ whispered Twiggy’s number and then handed the phone back to him. He handed an ear piece thing to Sydney a second later.

  “I’ll be able to feed you information through the communication device. And if you need back up, I’ll facilitate that,” Germ said matter-of-factly.

  Sydney stared at him for long seconds and Germ met his gaze, unwavering. Finally, Sydney took the device and said, “I’m taking this thing because Max trusts you. I still think you’re an asshole.”

  “I suppose that’s fair.”

  Sydney sighed in relief when Max stood next to him, an arm around his waist. Something about the man’s presence eased some of the tension. Max leaned down and whispered, “You ready?”

  “Yeah. I just... this is all too much.”

  “You trust me?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Look at me, Sydney.” The demand Max made had his head snapping up until their gazes met. “I trust you, too. My team trusts you.”

  Sydney didn’t know what to say to that. He knew he was trustworthy. He wasn’t going to hurt anyone in the house. He wasn’t sure he’d protect most of them, but still. He could feel Creed, the man Justin had mentioned, behind them. He was big, and if Sydney were any other kind of person he’d be scared of him. As it was, Sydney wanted to challenge him somehow, push his buttons just to see what they were. He’d probably start trusting Creed then, and he needed to trust him if he expected the man to have his back tonight.

  They all walked out together.

  Sydney vibrated with tension. He got into the passenger’s seat of the truck. He turned in the seat when Creed got in the backseat and looked at him for long minutes.

  The man looked as if he could rip Sydney’s head off with one simple pull of his neck. He looked at Sydney with a blank expression on his face and didn’t say a word. The longer he looked at Creed, the less nervous he felt.

  Sydney waited until Max got in the driver’s seat and then started talking. “So Justin told me you’d be good at protecting Twiggy.”

  Creed nodded. “Unless you need me to kill him.”

  “Naw, Twiggy’s whole life is ruled by his drug addiction. If he can get right with that, then he’s worth saving.”

  Creed nodded again. “I’ll take him to a safe house. Get him clean, if that’s what you want.”

  “Just like that?”

  Creed’s eyebrows creased. “What?”

  “You’re just gonna do what I want you too.”

  “This is your show, right?”

  Sydney shrugged. “I guess so.”

  Max chose that moment to speak
up. “If we take out Guthrie, then Mize won’t have any loyal employees.”

  Sydney thought about that for a second and then about what Justin had said.

  “Okay, so I’m gonna tell Twiggy to go to Jackie’s bar. Jackie is this guy that owes me a big favor. He makes hooch and grows pot in the basement of the bar. He can also get fake identification and make just about anyone disappear if he wants. He’s hired me more than once, so keep that in mind when you meet him for the first time.” Sydney looked at Creed and said, “I just need you to get Twiggy out of there as soon as possible.”

  “Is that to save your ass or his?” Creed asked.

  “Mostly mine.” Sydney’s phone rang then. Considering he didn’t recognize the phone number, he figured it was Twiggy. He answered it quickly and waited for Twiggy to start talking.

  When he heard Harvey’s voice, Sydney’s blood froze in his body. He pulled the phone away from his ear and put it on speaker as quietly as he could. He put a finger to his lips, telling Max and Creed to be quiet. “You’ll come to Jackie’s bar alone. You have two hours to get here, or I start making your informant squeal.”

  After that, the phone went dead.

  Chapter Nine

  “So what the fuck do we do, Max?”

  Max wanted to smile at the fact that Sydney deferred to him. Obviously, Sydney was a little out of his element, but being at a disadvantage was sort of Max’s thing.

  “We’re gonna sit here for a little while and see if Guthrie is working with anyone,” Max said. The alley they had parked in was dark, but they had a perfect view of the front of the bar. They were across the road from it and would be visible to anyone looking for them. Max knew they’d have to go around.

  If Guthrie knew they were there, then they were sitting ducks in the alley too, but Max was banking on him not knowing Sydney was working with anyone. “My guess is he has someone on the roof of the building and then a few inside.”

  “I’ll get the one on the roof,” Creed said.

  Max nodded. “Yeah, he may have someone in the back too.” Max kept his focus on the edge of the roof, looking for anyone up there who might be watching them. He raised his hand when he didn’t see anyone right away, silently telling Creed to go. They were taking a chance that no one was watching them. His shoulders felt like he had a boulder on top of them the second Creed left the car. The overhead light had been taken out a long time ago, so the only visibility Creed might show were shadows in the dark, but the truck door made a clicking sound that made Max cringe. It clicked shut, and Creed stood just outside the vehicle for a full two minutes before he took off and Max couldn’t see him anymore. Creed would go down the alley behind them and behind the back of the buildings, making a big circle around the block before he made his way up to the roof of the bar.

  “So now what?”

  “We wait for Creed to give us a signal,” Max said.

  Max started to relax when it became apparent that Creed hadn’t been spotted. Max reached out and held the nape of Sydney’s neck. He needed the contact and to know that the next few minutes wouldn’t end in tragedy.

  Never before in his life had he worried about someone else, and he’d been in more dangerous situations than not. Being on the Demon Elite team bought him a lot of bullets aimed at his head.

  The longer they sat in silence, the more he wanted to tell Sydney to stay in the truck. He wouldn’t do that, mostly because Sydney would hand him his balls for even suggesting it. Instead, he said, “When you go in there, please be careful. Don’t take any unnecessary chances.”

  Sydney rolled his eyes. “I know what I’m doing.”

  “I don’t doubt that for a second.”

  Sydney looked at him and their gazes met. “You be careful too.”

  “I know.”

  Sydney grinned. “Well, I’m glad you know to be careful. But do you know why?”

  Max smiled and leaned in. “Because you want to see how my dick looks in your mouth after this is over?”

  “Because I want to sleep next to you every night, and if you get hurt, it’ll make it more difficult. And I already know that’s what you were gonna say to me, too.” Sydney kissed him. It was quick and they each turned back to the bar when it was over.

  “That’s very close to what I was going to say. My reason included love in at least one sentence, though.” Max never looked away from the roof of the building. He could still feel Sydney’s gaze on him.

  “Seriously. You fucking say that to me now.”

  Max shrugged. “This is a typical situation for me, Syd. I go out on missions all the time.”

  “Do you drop the L word every time you go out?”

  Max looked at Sydney again. He should be watching the roof, watching for Creed. Looking away from Sydney would take some of the meaning out of his words. They might evaporate into thin air, and Sydney might not take him seriously. He needed Sydney to understand that he meant what he said. “You know I’ve never said that to anyone before.”

  Sydney touched his thigh, then pointed to the roof. “There he is.”

  The streetlights illuminated the area just enough for him to see Creed. Creed signed something to him. All the Demon Elite members knew sign language because of Tanner, another teammate who was mute, not having spoken a word in several years. Tanner had been tortured severely, leaving him psychologically damaged in that particular way. One good thing that came out of Tanner’s situation was everyone on the team learned how to sign so they could communicate with him. It also came in handy on missions on occasion.

  “The one on the roof was taken out and then one in the back. He’s not sure how many are inside,” Max interpreted.

  “I don’t even want to know how you know sign language.”

  Max grinned. “Tanner’s mute.”

  “Tanner?”

  “He’s the one with two boyfriends. Shade and Finn. They took care of the car you stole.”

  “Oh. Right.”

  “So give me ten minutes, then walk in the front door. I’m going around the back of the buildings, to the back door. Creed will come in the front door after you.”

  Sydney nodded but didn’t say anything. Max started to open the door to get out of the car when Sydney grabbed his arm. “I want to say the love word in at least one sentence too.”

  Max grabbed the nape of Sydney’s neck and pulled him closer, pressing their cheeks together. He pulled back just as quickly and said, “Ten minutes.”

  The second he left Sydney in the car alone, Max had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that told him something was about to change. He wasn’t even gone two minutes when he doubled back, jogging to the truck, using the same path down a back alley. The alley connected the back of the buildings on one street to the back of the buildings on the next street over. Max assumed that garbage trucks used the alley for the most part. Given the neighborhood, he also assumed that people used it for the occasional drug deal and maybe a hard, dirty fuck.

  It connected to the alley where his truck was parked. The second he saw the truck’s door open and Sydney nowhere in sight, his heart stuttered, and Max forgot to breathe for a second. “Shit.” Max stopped in the alleyway, his hand against the building as he willed his heart to stop thumping against his chest. The sound filled his head and his vision started to blur. “Oh god.”

  “Hey man—you okay?” Creed’s voice sounded like he came through a tunnel for about a second. Max felt Creed’s arm come around his back.

  Max looked up at him. “When did you get here?”

  “A second ago. I saw some guy take Sydney. I came down after I saw which direction they went in.” Creed’s brow furrowed and he patted Max on the shoulder. “Get your shit together. Now.”

  Max took a deep breath. “Yeah. Okay.”

  “Get in the truck.”

  Max nodded and got into the passenger’s side. When the truck started up, something in Max snapped back into place. He pressed
the button on his communication device. “Germ, can you track Sydney’s phone?”

  “Already on it. Sydney and the informant are together. Or at least their phones are. Probably them too. Anyway, the stupid informant didn’t get rid of the phone he called Sydney from. And of course, Sydney didn’t put in the communication device I gave him,” Germ said.

  Creed gave Max a look out of the corner of his eye even as he drove. Max couldn’t decipher it and decided not to comment. Instead, he said, “You got our location, Germ?”

  “Yeah. Just a second, let me calculate the distance.”

  “You’re only a couple roads over from Sydney. Less than a minute away. Turn right.” Germ paused for a second and Max could hear some shuffling around. Max heard Reggie mumble something. He couldn’t make out the words but Germ said, “You’re not bothering me, baby. Come here.” A second later Germ said, “Okay, you guys are practically on top of him now. You should see the car.”

  They saw a minivan in front of them and that was about it. “The minivan, Germ?”

  Germ sighed. “I don’t fucking know what the guy is driving, Max. Hang on. Let me hack the street cameras.” Max could hear some clicking of a keyboard, and then Germ said, “You know, you guys must think I’m god or something. All-knowing, all-present. I thought being god came with special privileges.”

  “Like what?” Max asked.

  “I don’t know. Like breakfast in bed and Reggie in a cute little pair of gold boy shorts fanning me with a palm leaf in the summer. Also, I’d be sipping a cocktail out of a coconut.”

  Max heard Reggie giggle, which would have made him smile any other time, but Max was too keyed up.

  The minivan swerved slightly, its tires crunching over the gravel on the side of the road for a second before someone righted the vehicle again.

  “So, it’s definitely the minivan,” Max said. Whatever was going on in that vehicle wasn’t just a normal drive. The swerving had Sydney’s name written all over it.

  The second he heard Sydney’s voice through the comm device, he smiled in relief. “How the fuck does this stupid thing work? Someone talk to me already.”