“That does sound suspicious,” Max said. “What are you thinking is happening?”
“It’s not that I think there’s some secret mob deal going down or anything.” Selena sighed. “I think that they’ve decided to screw with us by using pointless bureaucracy. I don’t know why. Maybe they don’t like the look of my face or something, but I figure if I head out there and take some pictures, I can confirm there’s nothing remotely dangerous, and I can force the issue. They might be annoying people trying to mess with me, but they probably don’t want a scandal over something pointless and petty, either.”
Max chuckled. “I’m not so sure, but at least it might help you with your boss if you proved you put in the effort.”
Selena was about to say something more when she stopped herself. Max had been at the office and left before she was done with her business. The permit denial might not be a simple question of overeager benefits. She didn’t doubt she could turn some heads, but the likelihood of a hot mountain of muscle like that suddenly taking interest in her was low, especially in her more casual outfit.
He claimed to be private security, and while he had the size for it, she had no proof of anything Max said. She didn’t even know if his name was actually Max, and then there was his eyes seeming wrong. For all she knew, he was wearing a disguise, including contacts, and his eyes were a different color. That would explain what she was feeling.
Max wasn’t busy. He’d had time to wait outside for her and invite her to coffee. That meant he had time to wait in the office, and despite his denials, she couldn’t see him not waiting a couple of minutes to talk to the permit office.
All of this pointed to one conclusion. He waited specifically for her outside.
Selena wanted to be flattered. Wanted to believe that the unbelievably attractive specimen of man sitting at her table was interested in her, but she’d never been that lucky with men, and she doubted her fortunes suddenly changed because she was in Hawaii. None of her other luck had changed.
He might be private security, or he might be something else entirely, like a mob enforcer. She wasn’t sure Hawaii even had something like the Mafia, but where there were people, there were crime groups, and those groups needed large, dangerous men to take out threats who might be poking around and looking where they shouldn’t..
Selena nibbled her lip, not wanting to believe her wild speculation. Just because her luck was poor with getting hot men didn’t mean the opposite was true, and she’d suddenly run into some gorgeous assassin. Murdering her over a permit didn’t make sense. That would draw more suspicion, not less.
“You left in such a hurry earlier,” Selena said, sitting back with her best confident indirect interrogation smile. “From the office. I know you said you weren’t in a hurry, but you were already there.”
“The truth is, after hearing you, I figured I wasn’t going to get far,” Max said. “And I didn’t want to do anything that might cause trouble before I had more time to look into things.”
“Were you there to get a permit, too?”
“Sort of.” Max smiled. “It’s why I’m not in danger on this particular job. I’m just scoping out some things for a client. He’s got different people working different angles, but I’m security, so that’s my angle.”
“What do permits have to do with security?” Selena asked, confused.
“He’s a typical rich asshole,” Max said with a chuckle. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but he’s interested in building himself a new home away from home in Hawaii, and he’s interested in some land on Maui. To ensure his security, he needs a certain amount of land as a buffer, and this island isn’t huge. You think getting a permit to shoot a commercial is annoying, try buying up land close to protected forest.”
“Wow.” Selena whistled. “He must be ridiculously rich if he can afford to buy up that much land on Maui.”
“You could say that. Diverse business interests and all that. Like I said, rich asshole.”
Acting. That’s what it felt like. Max was acting. He was doing pretty well, but there were subtle clues here and there that he was more than he appeared and might be lying.
The advantage of working with actor jerks on and off throughout the years was that it helped Selena develop her ability to fake a smile. Her natural stubbornness would always eventually win out, but she wasn’t going to be working with Max for days and days. She faked a smile, now more convinced than ever he was a mob enforcer.
What did it all mean? Was he a hot mobster, after all?
She tried to figure out why he would even care. The office had already rejected the permit.
Crap. She’d told him she planned to go check out the site. Maybe it wasn’t old bombs hidden in the forest but a drug lab. The Mob could have bribed the permit office or threatened their families.
“Is something wrong?” Max asked, his smile diminished but lingering.
“No, I…” Selena took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She couldn’t fake a smile anymore. “This has been nice.”
“Yes, it has been.”
That wasn’t a lie. Even if Max was a lying hot mobster, she couldn’t help but be relaxed around him. Every suspicion that popped out threatened to flee before her attraction and innate desire to trust him.
Still, her instincts screamed at her that Max wasn’t just some security contractor doing an investigation. If he were some sort of criminal, it wouldn’t hurt to have dinner with him. It wasn’t like he was going to gun her down over dessert. She couldn’t go to the police or her boss without more evidence.
“Maybe we can see each other again when we have more time,” Selena said, heart pounding. “And eat like actual food and not just coffee.”
She realized he hadn’t ordered any coffee, which made her more suspicious.
Selena rattled off her number. “Just contact me and let me know. Or is that me assuming too much…?”
Max pinned her with his gaze. His nostrils flared. He either wanted to sleep with her or was hyping himself up to kill her.
“I’m sure I can find the time,” he finally said. “I’ll text you.”
“Good.” Selena smiled, her knees weak. Good or bad, she had something spectacular coming in the future.
Chapter Seven
Maximus grunted as he sat on the edge of a bed in his motel room. The springs squeaked loudly, like a scream of defiance at the huge man. Despite the cheap price, the beds were comfortable.
A stray image of a naked Selena lying on her back beneath him on the bed sneaked into his head. He gritted his teeth. It wasn’t the time to think with his lower half.
Tiberius, Cornelius, and CJ stood scattered around the room, the younger hybrid sitting at a table and the other two men standing. They all looked at their leader expectantly. They deserved answers.
Maximus wasn’t sure how much he wanted to explain because he didn’t understand everything himself. His coffee date, along with the informant, suggested there was something worth hiding about the land, but it didn’t prove anything, and nothing about Selena suggested she was a Phoenix Corps spy. She might be nothing more than a very attractive coincidence who was good at noticing things out of the ordinary.
But if she wasn’t a spy, he had no excuse to see her again. So why did he agree to the date? He didn’t have time to be playing around with women in the middle of an investigation. If one of his men had told him they’d done something like that, he would have called them an idiot and ordered them to stop thinking with their dick.
Damn it. He was obsessed with this woman because he knew he had no future with a Vestal. That had to be the explanation, but she’d mentioned exploring near the forest. Perhaps if he went along with her, he might discover something useful and could make use of her as an excuse, but he still needed to explain to his men. Everything he did affected not just himself, but the eleven other members of the pared-down Alpha Squad.
“How are preparations going?” Maximus asked. “I have a
feeling that if we end up finding the Corps here, things will move along quickly.”
“Everything’s fine on our end,” Tiberius said. “I’m keeping everyone close to the motel, but we’ve got good coverage without tipping our hand. No one’s going to surprise us here. Did you find out anything useful?”
“Useful? Maybe. Irregularities? Definitely.” Maximus furrowed his brow. “The informant was on to something. I ran into a woman at the permit office who was having some sudden unexpected trouble. There’s someone obviously trying to keep people away from a certain part of the forest, and they’ve got enough money or power to influence the local government or bribe some low-level employees, even at the risk of drawing unwanted attention to themselves.”
CJ folded his arms over his chest. “It’s got to be the Corps. If it’s something short-term, they might not care about the attention. They probably figured they kill whoever comes sniffing around and be gone before the Feds show up… or us.”
“We don’t know that,” Cornelius said with a shake of the head. “It’s assuming way too much off not a lot of evidence. Not every weird thing is the Corps. Not even most illegal things. There are a lot of shitty humans out there. We’re not here to stop human criminals. We’re here to finish off Quinen and the Phoenix Corps.”
“That’s true,” Maximus said. “But we’ve got a lot of coincidences piling up in a place we only came to because of intel. That makes me willing to place my bets on the Corps being involved. It’s like we assumed. They’re wounded and operating with reduced personnel and resources, which means they can’t spend a lot of time infiltrating the local government.”
“We should use the drones then,” CJ said. “If you’ve got a general idea of the place they’re trying to hide, we can get decent coverage if we’ve got most of the squad piloting drones.”
Cornelius nodded. “The quicker we smoke them out, the quicker we finish them off.”
“No,” said Maximus, his brow furrowed in concentration. “If we’ve got a dozen drones flying all over the forest, and it is the Corps, they’ll notice, and we’ll have tipped our hand too soon. Same thing if we send in the entire squad on foot. Too many large armed men in one place screams hybrid invasion. They’ll either be ready for us, or they’ll burrow so deep, we miss them.”
“Then what do we do?” Tiberius asked with a shrug. “We’ve got to follow up on the lead. No way we should just sit around on our asses. I’m doubting we’ll get so lucky they’ll walk up to us and dare us to find them.”
Maximus scratched his beard. “I’ve got an idea, a way to check out the forest that won’t come off as a hybrid invasion.”
“We’re all ears, Maximus,” Cornelius said.
“The woman at the permit office,” Maximus said uneasily. “I talked to her a little bit. She mentioned she’s going to check out that area anyway because she’s convinced the office is jerking her around. She suspects something’s off, but she must not think it’s that dangerous if she’s planning to go check it out herself.”
“You planning to ask her what she saw?” Cornelius asked.
“No, I was planning to tag along when she goes.”
The other three hybrids eyed Maximus with a mix of surprise and concern.
“Why?” Cornelius asked.
Maximus stood with a frown. “Because I’m thinking this woman is trying to save her job, but her troubles probably have to do with our problem. If she goes stumbling around herself, she might get hurt, and her being there helps from my perspective.”
He wasn’t doing it just because he couldn’t get her face out of his mind. He wouldn’t lie to himself and pretend that wasn’t influencing him, but it was so much more than raw attraction. It also was the best way to handle the situation. Sometimes the universe cut a man a break.
CJ snapped his fingers. “Twelve huge guys stumbling around is going to scream hybrid, but one guy and a woman just looks like a couple trying to find a romantic spot to check off some boxes on their Exotic Places to Bang List.”
Tiberius snickered. Cornelius frowned.
Maximus bit back a growl. He wasn’t annoyed. If anything, the problem was the opposite. The idea of finding a nice comfortable place in the forest where he was alone with Selena and they ripped each other’s clothes off was too appealing. CJ’s suggestion brought the image to life in Maximus’s head.
What the hell was he even thinking? There was still some small chance Rachel or someone else could reverse what had been done to Alpha Squad. His Vestal was still out there. He didn’t have time to worry about other women. Desperation was leading him to follow his dick, not his brain.
“I get that having the whole squad might be too much,” Cornelius said, “but what about a smaller group? If just the three of us shadow you at a distance, it might not look so bad. We can slap on some of the leather jackets, keep it to pistols in holsters. We can do the fake biker play, just like in Texas, and if we’re far back, they might not even notice us.”
Maximus stopped himself from barking out a no. If he wanted to help Selena, he needed to do it for his hybrid brothers, not because of some weird complex caused by worrying about Vestals. The woman presented possible recon cover. She was nothing more than that, and having the other three nearby would only reinforce that in his mind. A good leader made sacrifices.
“That sounds like a good plan,” he said, his voice straining. “It was a good plan in Texas, and it’ll be a good plan here.”
“I don’t think they really have bikers in Hawaii,” Tiberius said with a laugh.
“I’m sure there are plenty of wannabes,” Maximus replied. “It’s not like they’ll expect us to be riding through the forest on hogs. Do your best to stay out of sight, but if you are spotted, they might think you’re shadowing me to kill me.”
Cornelius motioned toward the curtained window. “But this woman’s going to have to agree to go into the forest with some huge guy she just met. You think that’s going to be easy?”
“Easier than you might think.” Maximus shot him a grin. “She already wanted to go on a date with me anyway.”
Chapter Eight
Selena flopped backward onto her hotel bed, her arms outstretched. Insane. She was totally insane. That was the only explanation.
First, she was planning to wander off into the forest alone to investigate. Even if there was no grand conspiracy other than bitch bureaucrats, that wasn’t a good idea. From what she’d read, even though Hawaii didn’t have a lot of dangerous animals on land, that wasn’t the same thing as none. There was always the possibility of running in the most dangerous animal of all, a crazy person.
She rolled onto her side with a sigh. “What do I think I’m going to do? Find a secret warehouse labeled ‘Bad Guy Cocaine Storage’? Life’s not a movie, and that doesn’t even happen in movies.”
As far as she knew, she didn’t require any special permits to walk around that part of forest, only for the filming. If she didn’t find anything suspicious, that would be to her advantage. She could show the staff at the office and force them to give her the damned permits. That would fix everything.
But traveling to some random spot in a rainforest wasn’t the only crazy thing she was thinking about. It might not even be the most dangerous.
Selena had asked some random man out. She didn’t know anything about him, and she couldn’t shake the idea that he wasn’t who he claimed. Every instinct she had told her he wasn’t.
With a groan, she sat up. If only he wasn’t so ridiculously hot. It was like he’d been dressing to tempt her with his t-shirt. It made sense given the weather, but it exposed much of his thick, muscular arms. Every part of Max she could see was huge. That made her wonder about the parts she couldn’t see. A flash of warmth spread through her, and she fanned herself with her hand.
“What if he is a hot mobster?” Selena mumbled under her breath. “He wouldn’t hurt me. I don’t know anything. Not really. Mobsters don’t kill random women without special
reason, right? They must have some sort of rules about that.”
A loud knock sounded from her door. Selena shot to her feet, trembling. Her hot mobster might have decided to take her out before she even found the cocaine factory. Criminals didn’t need any rules other than protecting their profits.
She tried to tell herself that didn’t make sense. If he wanted to kill her, it’d make more sense to do it when she went to the forest, not at a hotel with cameras everywhere. He also knew she was working closely with other people. Someone would come and check on her, or housekeeping would stumble upon her body.
They were on an island for crying out loud. If he didn’t immediately flee to the mainland, he’d be in a relatively small area with a lot of evidence pointing at him as a murderer of the greatest adorable slash sexy production assistant ever.
Crap. Selena was going to die in a hotel room. That embarrassed her for some reason, but she wasn’t sure where she preferred to die. She winced at another loud knock.
After taking a deep breath, she crept up to the door and looked through the peephole. It was time to stare Hot Death in the face. The fear drained out of her, including the stiffness in her neck. Chris stood on the other side, his arms folded.
Whatever this was, it wasn’t a Mafia assassination. Fake Butt couldn’t kill anyone. He’d order an assistant to do i and then bitch about the method. Only artisanal assassins for him.
Selena opened the door with a weary sigh, relieved but anticipating another kind of annoyance. “Did you need something, Chris?”
“We need to talk.” He nodded toward her room.
“Do we need to talk right now? I’m kind of in the middle of something.”
Maximus: #1 (Luna Lodge: Alpha Squad) Page 6