by Jolie Day
“Put your hands up, CJ,” Max ordered and the younger man turned toward him with a smirk. “Oh, it’s you. Yeah, I probably should have expected something like this the second I heard your sorry ass came back to town. Who was it that tipped you off to the raid, Stormwell? Was it Hector? I always knew I couldn’t trust that little bitch.” He turned to Hector, who already had his gun out and pointed toward the opposing side, but his eyes were wide with fear as he turned back to CJ.
“What?” he said. “N-no! I didn’t, I swear. I wouldn’t do you that way, boss.”
“I’m not so sure,” CJ hummed. “You’ve always been kind of a pussy.” He tugged his gun out of his holster and pointed it at Hector. “What’s one less pussy in the world, anyhow?”
“No! Please!” Hector pleaded, backing away from him.
“Put the gun down, Alvarez,” Max barked. “Hector wasn’t the one that tipped me off.”
“Oh no?” CJ took off the safety, his gun still pointed at Hector. “Then who was it? Marcus?” He swung the gun to a stocky guy with a shaved head, who immediately put his hands up.
“No!” Marcus exclaimed. “It wasn’t me, boss. I swear!”
“Then perhaps Percy?” Again, he swung his gun around, this time landing on a tiny guy with long black hair and an even longer braid.
“No way!” Percy exclaimed, pointing his gun right back at him. “I ain’t no rat.”
“Then who the fuck was it, eh?” CJ shouted. “Which one of you fuckers was the informant?” He swung the gun around to each member of his own group, before turning his gun on Max. “Who was it?” he demanded.
“Your father,” Max replied.
“What? No! You’re lying!” CJ growled, pulling the trigger. His shot missed by a hair, but it set off a chain of events.
Suddenly, everybody had their guns out and pointed at opposite sides of the room, each of them choosing somebody to lock eyes with. Max had his eyes locked with CJ and his finger itched to pull the trigger, but he held back, remembering his promise to Caesar.
“You’re outnumbered, CJ,” he said. “You might as well surrender.”
“To you?” CJ spit at him. “In your dreams! I ain’t never surrendering to the ass wipe that got my dad locked up for all those years. I lost so much time with my father for years because of you!”
“That wasn’t my fault and you know it,” Max said. “Your father did horrible things, CJ, and he was willing to own up to them. Besides, he’s back now, ain’t he? You have him.”
“It’s not the same!” CJ practically screeched. “He’s sick now! He got sick in prison! If he’d just been home, with us, he might be healthy.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Max replied, “but that’s just me.” He took a deep breath. “Your father forgave, though, CJ. He’s the one that tipped me off to your little fake raid. He’s the one that asked me to take you down.”
“Why would my father want me dead?” CJ asked. “That’s…that’s insane!”
“He doesn’t,” Max admitted. “He just doesn’t want to see you lose everything you have. He doesn’t want you to end up like him. He doesn’t want you to end up alone. So come on; surrender. Surrender and everybody goes home tonight.”
CJ was silent for a long moment, looking real thoughtful, even as he continued to hold his gun up in the air. Finally, he took a deep breath and lowered the weapon, looking down at his feet as his entire body went slack. Max and the rest of the gang mimicked him, lowering their own weapons.
Suddenly, CJ looked back up at him, with a crazed expression and a wide grin. “Nope!” he said, raising his weapon and shooting Hector, one of his own men, who immediately fell to the ground, dead. Max’s eyes widened as he jumped behind the pool table for cover and heard the deafening roar of firearms. He said a silent prayer and apology for Caesar, because he knew exactly what had to happen now. He just prayed that the old man would forgive him for what he was about to do.
Taking a deep breath, Max readied his weapon and focused his thoughts. He saw a glimmer of Regina Carlisle’s beautiful, sky blue eyes behind his eyelids and he allowed himself that single moment of happiness before he turned, rose above the pool table and aimed his gun straight at CJ Alvarez’s head.
He never missed a shot.
*****
Regina
When the phone rang, she jumped, her heart skyrocketing into her throat as she reached for the receiver and placed it up against her ear. Regina took a deep breath before speaking.
“Hello?”
Ray’s eyes studied her face as her expressions changed from anxious, to surprise, to shock and he just barely caught her as her knees buckled and she fell to the floor.
“Regina?” he asked, shaking her a little as she stayed silent, the receiver still held tightly against her ear. “Regina! Are you alright? What happened?”
“H-hospital,” Regina murmured. “We n-need to get to the h-hospital. Now!”
“Hospital? He was shot? Is he alright?! Regina, talk to me!”
She shook her head, her eyes wide and tear-filled. “H-hospital,” she said, simply. “We need to go to the hospital.” She took a deep breath. “You should call his s-sister. She’ll want to know.”
She extracted herself from his embrace and handed him the receiver, which had long since started playing the dial tone, and walked away, looking as if she was in some kind of a daze. Ray watched her with concerned eyes as he dialed Carol’s number.
*****
They wouldn’t let her in.
Her...her…Max was injured and they wouldn’t let her in to see him. They wouldn’t even give her any information about his condition. Ray, either, despite the fact that he told them that he had played a big part in raising Max.
“But you’re not actually his family,” the nurse had said, with a raised eyebrow, “not legally, so I’m sorry, sir, I cannot let you in.”
“This is bullshit,” Ray grumbled, sitting next to an anxious Regina, who was biting her nails and trying not to cry. “They could at least tell us if he needs surgery.” Regina nodded in agreement and tried to breathe through her anxiety.
“Did you call Carol?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Ray replied. “She’s catching a plane out here. Should touch down soon; only takes about an hour or so to get here.” He shook his head. “I really hope the kid’s alright. Carol would be…she’s lost everybody, you know? Her father, her mother…Max is the only person she’s got left. I can’t even imagine…” He lowered his head into his hands and Regina reached out, rubbing his shoulder, comfortingly.
A few hours later, she was startled awake by a shout and she nearly fell off her chair as Ray rose suddenly.
“Ray!” a 30-something year old woman was yelling, throwing her arms around his neck and holding on as tightly as possible. He held her tight for a long moment, practically lifting her off of her feet as he pressed his lips to her cheek.
“Carol,” he sighed. “Look at you. So grown up and beautiful. You look just like your mother, you know.”
Carol gave a watery chuckle. “So I’ve heard,” she said, swallowing thickly. “Where’s Max? Is he okay? Is he alive?”
“We…” he turned to look at Regina, whose eyes had started to flood with tears again. “We have no idea. They won’t let us see him because we’re not ‘family’.” He huffed, rolling his eyes. “As if they know what makes a family.” Suddenly his eyes widened and he turned, again, to Regina, holding out his hand and motioning forward. “Before I forget,” he said. “Carol, this is Regina Carlisle. Regina, this is Max’s big sister, Carol.”
Carol gave her a kind smile and offered her hand. “It’s so nice to meet you,” she said, warmly. “How do you know my brother?”
“We’re, um…” She looked to Ray for help, but he just grinned and she swallowed thickly. “I really don’t have an answer to that at the moment. Could I get back to you?”
Carol chuckled. “Sure,” she said. “Now, let’s go see if we can
get any information.”
Ray and Regina nodded, following Carol to the information desk.
They found out that Max had just gotten out of surgery to remove a bullet from his hip. He was otherwise unharmed and was still sleeping, but welcome to receive visitors.
“Only two at a time, please,” the nurse said when she’d led him to the hospital room. All three looked at each other and Ray smiled down at the two women.
“You go on,” he said. “I’ll wait. I’m sure you’re both dying to see him, eh?”
Carol shoved his arm and pulled Regina along after her, the both of them entering the room slowly, their breath catching in their lungs at the sight of Max lying prone in his hospital bed, hooked up to machines and looking paler than either of them had ever seen him.
His chest was rising evenly, however, so they took a little solace in that. Carol took a seat on one side of his bed and Regina sat down on the other, both of them reaching out to touch his hands, which were lying on either side of his body. He was warm.
“Hey, little brother,” Carol whispered, startling Regina after a long moment of silence. The older woman sniffled and reached out, pushing Max’s hair back from his forehead. “I told you not to come back here,” she said. “I…you could have died.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “But you didn’t. Luckily. God, you are such a lucky bastard, you know that? You only get so many lives, Max. You can only give me so many heart attacks before I don’t show up anymore.” She bit her lip and shook her head. “I hope it’s all over now, though. I hope you can finally come home and stop being such an ass.”
“Not…likely…”
Both women jumped at the sound of his voice and Carol pressed her hand to her heart and laughed. “Oh my god, you jerk!” she exclaimed, tapping him lightly on his hand. “How long have you been awake?”
“Long enough,” Max said between breaths. “It just hurts to open my eyes. Or breathe. Or exist in general.” He took another long breath. “Ouch.”
“Dummy,” Carol said, but Regina could see her eyes flooding and she reached out, placing a hand on hers. “Oh,” she said. “I almost forgot. Your girlfriend is here.”
“Girlfriend?”
“Regina,” Carol clarified. “She’s on your other side, holding your other hand.”
“Oh,” Max sighed. “I was wondering what that was.” He turned his head, eyes still closed, smile wide. “Hey, Reggie.”
“That’s not my name and you know it,” Regina huffed, but she squeezed his hand and leaned in, pressing her lips to his cheek. Max smiled and nuzzled her before she had a chance to pull away.
“You two are so cute,” Carol said, grinning. “How did y’all meet?”
Regina blushed and shrugged her shoulders, but did not loosen her grip on Max’s hand. “I own the pub he was staying at,” she explained. “I have a couple of rooms that I rent out and he showed up at three AM one night, asking for one.”
“And gave me a hard time about it.”
“Check-in is at midnight,” Regina retorted. “You were three hours late.”
“There was traffic on the highway. Besides, I don’t believe for a second that you would have let me sleep outside. You were too attracted to me by then.” Regina scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Don’t roll your eyes at me.”
“How did you even…?”
“Just because my eyes are closed, doesn’t mean I don’t know you well enough, Carlisle. You just did it again.” She did. “See? I know.” Regina huffed and started to pull her hand away, only to be held still by Max’s grip. “Don’t leave,” he said.
“I wasn’t going to,” Regina assured him, softly, “but your hand is, like, really sweaty.”
Max chuckled, then groaned and Carol reached out, stroking his cheek. “So,” she said. “What happened, exactly?”
“I got him, Car,” he assured her. “I took the bastard down.” He grimaced. “But not before he got in one good shot. It’s only my hip, though, and the doc says I’ll walk again after some grueling physical therapy. That’s gonna be fun, huh?”
“CJ’s dead?” Regina asked. “For real?”
Max nodded. “Heard them declare him as I was being loaded onto the stretcher. By the way, if the cops ask, you left me to take care of the bar while you ran an errand and we were the ones ambushed by him. Got it?”
“Fine,” Regina sighed. “But you’ll have to do whatever I say for the next few weeks.”
“Doc says I can’t have sex until my hip is better.”
“Max, I’m still in the room!” Carol exclaimed. “Ugh!”
“What, you thought I was a virgin?” he laughed. “Sorry to disappoint you, big sis, but that ship has sailed.”
“Ugh, can we talk about something else, please?” Carol sighed. “Like, maybe, you moving back home?”
The room was silent for a long moment and Regina found herself unable to stop staring at where her hands were wrapped around Max’s. She had to bite her lip to keep the tears at bay and she focused on the way his thumb stroked the back of her hand. She squeezed and he gave a weaker squeeze back as he took a deep breath.
“I’m not coming back home, Carol,” he said, finally. “I think…I think I’m gonna stay here. With Regina.”
“But, Max, I—” Carol started to argue.
“Wait, let me finish,” he replied. “I don’t have much air.” He took another deep breath. “I think you should move down here.”
“What?” Carol said. “But what about Mom’s house?”
“Sell it,” Max sighed. “We’ll still have all of Mom’s things. And Dad’s things. But that house…it’s just a memory of what we’ve lost. Besides, it’s not even where we grew up, you know? I’m sure we can find someplace down here that’s just as good.”
“For both of us?” Carol asked, hopefully.
“Well,” Max said, squeezing Regina’s hand again, “I already kind of have a place and I’m not too keen on giving it up now.” He turned to Regina and smiled, allowing her to see the brown of his eyes for a couple of seconds before he closed them again. “But we’ll find you something close by, alright?” He squeezed his sister’s hand again. “I’m not leaving you again, Carol,” he promised. “It’s over.”
“It really is, isn’t it?” Carol’s eyes shined with tears as she looked up at Regina, who was smiling back. She reached across Max’s body and took Carol’s hand, squeezing it tightly.
Epilogue
Max
It took him over two months to recover and it was agony every step of the way.
His physical therapist was a sadist and his medication made it hard for him to stay awake for the first few weeks after the incident. He was drifting in and out as Carol and Regina doted on him, bringing him food and wiping his brow when he started to sweat. They hired a nurse to help him bathe and start to move around, but he was in constant pain, grunting and hissing and trying to play it off like it was nothing at all.
“It feels just like getting a tattoo,” he once explained to Regina as she lay next to him in bed, stroking his hair and pressing kisses to his forehead every now and then. “Only the pain is perpetual and never stops. Can I have another pill?”
“No,” she’d hummed. “You’ve had three already. We’re supposed to start weaning you off, soon.”
“Well, that’s gonna suck.”
It did suck.
And even after the two months had passed, he was still walking with a cane whenever it rained or when he bent the wrong way. He didn’t mind it so much, having Regina by his side. He was a legend now; word of what had happened at the bar spread and business boomed, much to Regina’s delight and frustration.
Now she ran out of alcohol nearly every night. But it was fine, because she began to receive donations—both monetary and in the form of several types of liquor. Caesar Alvarez, who had buried his son a month before his own passing, had been the first donor.
The card attached to his bottle of tequila had just said, “We’r
e square.”
Max attended his funeral, leaning heavily on his girlfriend and sister. He’d apologized to Caesar’s current wife and his other children, and many of them had refused to so much as look at him, knowing what he’d done to CJ, but a few were forgiving and thanked him.
Max was just glad to have that all behind him.
When he received the call from his doctor, green-lighting him for sex, he wasted no time in grabbing Regina from the bar, leaving it in the hands of Brandy and Carol, who just rolled their eyes at him, and dragging her back to her apartment, practically carrying her straight through to the bedroom.
He made her scream all that night, his newly repaired hips pumping furiously into her, his hands gripping her hips, his lips attached to her throat, and his teeth leaving marks against her skin. He whispered words that he’d long since given up on ever saying to any woman that wasn’t related to him and reveled in the emotions that swirled within him when she whispered them back, her nails clawing at his skin.
Regina had her legs wrapped around him like a vice, encouraging him to keep moving as she called out his name and kissed his lips, thanking god that they were both alive and well. When he went down on her, she buried her hands in his hair and tugged, as always, sighing as he brought her over that edge, again and again. When she went down on him, she was enthusiastic and focused and did her best to make him feel like the luckiest man in the world.
She didn’t need to do much, though. Max Stormwell already felt like the luckiest man in the world.
Afterwards, when they laid in each other’s embrace, Max brought his lips close to Regina’s ear and whispered something that made her heart skip a beat and expand all at once.
“I’m going to marry you one day.”
She pulled away and looked up at him, her eyes wide and half-terrified, but also half-excited, her mouth gaping. “Really?”