by SE Chardou
Max laughed, the sound harsh though not completely unpleasant. “It’s the red pill that made Neo wake up in the Matrix, not the blue one.”
“Whatever. The movie came out when I was ten years old—excuse me for not remembering the exact plot.” I snatched the framed photo from his grasp and continued to pack in silence.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize it was still a sore subject for you.”
“Which part? Watching my parents murdered before my very eyes before two bikers abducted me and held me in forced captivity? Becoming a sex slave for Brad and Nel, only to have them drop kick my ass to the curb once I’m the ripe old age of twenty-five and apparently, no longer considered desirable and young?”
“Ouch. Obviously, I’ve hit a nerve and for that, I’m very sorry.”
I glanced at him only long enough to see the look of contrition as it settled on his face. I didn’t want him to feel pity for me and that one emotion from him shattered a part of the remnants left from my tattered soul.
Broken.
It was such a fucking cliché.
I wasn’t anyone’s charity case or someone to feel sorry for. I hadn’t been broken any more than I’d been damaged. The little girl in the photo didn’t even feel like me any longer. I’d metamorphosed into a colder, angrier human being who didn’t wear my heart on my sleeve and was quite comfortable with living in my head rather than talking to people or trying to make friends.
“I’ll wait for you outside.” Max turned away and strode toward the door.
I quickly zipped my bag closed and hefted the duffel bag over my shoulder. “No need. I’m done here.”
His blue-green eyes softened as he stared at me again, this time with a little more compassion and a lot less sympathy. “Well then, we should get going.”
I followed him outside to his vehicle. He drove a late model black Range Rover—the fact that it was the same SUV my mom owned was not lost upon me. After he grabbed my bag and hoisted it into the cargo space, I walked to the passenger door, my handbag firmly on my shoulders as I opened the door and climbed inside.
Max opened the driver’s side door and hopped in. As soon as he turned on the vehicle, my mind went blank. We drove out of the garage and as the SUV hit the pavement outside of Decker Repair and Auto, I closed the chapter on that part of my life.
Transitions had always been easy for me and this one was no different. I was no longer the frightened girl who’d grown into a woman under conditions most sane human beings would call duress. Completely emancipated and on my own, I was determined to live the rest of my life for no one other than myself.
The very thought both thrilled and frightened me more than I could comprehend let alone express but I was ready. It was now or never and I chose to live in the now.
Chapter Two
Maxwell
Magnolia was a complete and utter mystery to Max.
From the moment they met, his own tortured past faded and all he could see was a wisp of a young woman who desperately needed discipline to balance out the single-minded focus she held on to like a drowning swimmer with a life preserver.
Max had absolutely no doubt she was as tough as she looked but despite her efforts to hide it, there was a great deal of pain and loss. He couldn’t acknowledge it for fear she might lash out. She was definitely the type who didn’t want to be reminded about a life her young mind could no longer grasp and he was more than relieved to acquiesce to her decision. However, would she be so willing to accept the deal he offered her?
He had absolutely no reservations it would be an easy feat to talk her into something she wouldn’t want to do because above all, he was a master manipulator. Only moments after meeting her, he knew exactly what her weaknesses were and how to use them to his advantage.
Max was a superior player in the game and had a feeling he’d met his match. Still unsure about how pliable Magnolia truly was, he would play cautious with her. Women were very good at coming off as defenseless, helpless creatures that needed a man’s guidance but underneath it all, they were ice. Calculating and manipulative, the term “weaker sex” truly should have been reserved for men. He knew this all too well.
They drove in silence for more than a few hours. Magnolia never attempted to start a conversation and neither did he. Not that this surprised him. She was a contract killer after all, and if she was anything like him, she spent more time in her head than trying to get to know people.
The kind of life they lived did not bode well for unnecessary emotional attachments. Life was fleeting and to actually do what they did and live with themselves, most of the time it was best if they had as few people as possible to care about.
Shortly after six in the evening, he pulled into some no-named town in the middle of Bumfuck, Nevada. It was large enough to have a decent looking diner where they could sit down and enjoy a meal.
Max parked the Range Rover and killed the engine. They both stepped out of the SUV, and as soon as they closed the doors, he activated the alarm with the key fob and slid it into his pocket.
“You ever been here?” he inquired, his deep voice filling the comfortable silence.
“No, but I’m sure you have.” She smirked as they walked into the diner.
The hostess/waitress grabbed two menus and led them to a booth toward the back of the restaurant.
After they sat across from one another, the waitress said unenthusiastically, “Tonight’s specials are Mike’s magic meatloaf with mashed potatoes and canned peas or chicken-fried steak with French fries. I’ll bring you two a couple of waters until you’re ready to order.”
Max watched the waitress walk away before he turned his full attention toward Magnolia.
Regardless how cold she acted, he couldn’t deny her remarkable beauty. She was truly a diamond in the rough and how she’d managed to maintain her stunning looks without growing hard or rough looking was beyond him.
Acres of smooth olive-toned flesh combined with the most intriguing pale green eyes, high cheekbones, a straight yet feminine nose and kissable lips. Her long dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail, exposing her swan neck and lithe figure, which accompanied her petite frame. She was a little too thin for his taste but her breasts were round and firm and she had an ass that would make Kim Kardashian green with envy. Heart-shaped and suited to her figure, it enhanced her curves in a seductive instead of grotesquely inadequate way.
Her short, French-manicured fingers drummed the cheap Formica tabletop as if she were miles away. It took him a minute to realize she was too busy humming along to “Before He Cheats.” He didn’t exactly take her as a lover of country music but then again, he didn’t know a damn thing about her that wasn’t connected to her skills as a contract killer.
Max cleared his throat and placed his hands on the table, clasping his fingers together. “I take it you don’t mind this place?”
“It’s fine,” she replied, her gaze direct and strangely disconcerting for a man who didn’t disarm easily. “I suppose any greasy spoon is just peachy for you to explain this proposition of yours.”
“Funny you should say that because it is, indeed, a proposition but one you must make a decision as to whether you want in on it. There’s a lot of money at stake and believe me, my employers will compensate us very well.”
Magnolia waited until the waitress dropped off their waters before she inquired, “How much money are we talking about?”
“Well, let’s just say I have been doing this for a lot longer than you, little girl. I’m tired and I want to retire. I may look young but I’m older than my years. I want to be through with the bullshit. This will be the last contract I will do for anyone. After that, I’m gone,” Max explained coolly.
“Oh, really?” She arched perfect eyebrows before sipping from her ice water, grimacing at the taste and pushing it to the side. “If we’re talking about ‘retirement money’ for you then this isn’t going to be an easy mission. We don’t get paid that kind of money to get rid
of an easily accessible target. So . . . who’s the unlucky mark?”
Max smiled, using the moment to elicit a pregnant pause. “Angelo Abandonato.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Magnolia’s pale green eyes narrowed as her face scrunched up in barely concealed distaste. “Angelo and my mother were cousins. He’s my family for Christ’s sake, and you think I would help you with assassinating him? Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“Actually, no, I’m not.” He leaned toward her though the table between them hardly allowed him to get as close he would have liked. “Why do you owe them any allegiance, Magnolia? When your parents died, why didn’t your relatives make an effort to find you?”
“I’m not for certain they didn’t,” she snapped back in a cold voice. “I was being held against my will by the WKs. Do you really think they would have handed me over to my family? Nel and Brad would have faced consequences they didn’t even want to think about. Besides, if no one was looking for me then why was I held a virtual prisoner for over five years?”
Max’s blue-green eyes glanced her way dismissively. “What exactly do you mean? You’ve been in their care for twelve years.”
“True but I wasn’t allowed to leave the compound until I was almost eighteen years old. I didn’t travel anywhere or see anything for five years of my life. I was held like a prisoner. I could roam the compound but that was only when Brad instructed me I was safe to do so. Other than that, I stayed inside.” Mags shook her head slowly. “That, to me, certainly doesn’t sound like my disappearance off the face of the earth went unnoticed.”
He shrugged his shoulders apathetically. “Your parents’ murder did make national news and there was an AMBER Alert issued for you. Perhaps your abductors were just playing it safe. They knew by the time you reached eighteen, the media attention would have died down. Now that you are twenty-five, no one really cares anymore. All this time has passed . . . why didn’t you ever reach out to Angelo?”
She sipped from the water, grimaced and pushed it to the side again. “To be honest, I don’t know. I was scared for a very long time and then . . . after that, I felt nothing. Brad and Serra became my family and the Knights felt more like my club than anything else. It was infinitely easier to stick with what I knew rather than taking a chance on the unknown.”
“Even after they made you a contract killer? Cleaning up their messes they couldn’t be directly involved with for fear it might bring down the force of God? Every time you left on a mission, you could have been killed—”
“That’s a given, regardless what your profession is, Max.” Her green eyes hardened as they stared directly into his. “My father owned a pawn shop and my mother was a housewife. Brad and Nel claimed my father stole two million from them yet they had no definitive proof, at least none they showed to me. For all I know, my parents died because they were pissed about my old man leaving the MC.”
Max cocked his head to the side and realized Magnolia didn’t know nearly as much as he thought she did. How could she be so dense? It couldn’t truly be only due to losing her parents as a teen. Or maybe it was but for some reason, he’d thought her deceased family had been more honest with her about how they made a living.
Of course he was also viewing her situation through his own deranged prism of a childhood. He’d always known he was the son of a stripper-whore mother and an outlaw father. Whether his father knew of his existence was of little importance to him but he was the main reason why he’d lost his mother at an early age.
It was true, Max planned to retire but his retirement years wouldn’t be spent living idle. They would used to extract his own brand of revenge against a family who’d rather believed he never existed. That included his father and brother who never acknowledged him at all. They would both pay and their families would too.
The waitress suddenly appeared at their table. “You two ready to order?”
“I’ll have the cheeseburger with fries and a diet Coke,” Magnolia responded without glancing at the menu and handing it back to her.
“What about you?”
Max didn’t bother to look at the waitress. “I would like the beer-battered fish and chips with two shots of whiskey and two beers. Whatever’s on tap is fine.”
She nodded after writing down their order and walked away.
“What’s all the booze for? Don’t you have to drive?” Magnolia asked as she pulled out her smart phone and began to study something interesting on the screen.
“Is that a burner?” he demanded in an icy voice.
“Aren’t they all?” she replied rhetorically. “This account is a under a false name I use and can’t be traced back to me. You don’t live the kind of lives we do and not have multiple identities. Enough about me and my damn Samsung Note, what the hell is all that alcohol for?”
He sat back and studied her, which was easy enough to do. No matter how much he tried to twist what ever they had in his head and pretend there was nothing more than a potential job that tied them together, he hated the invisible pull towards her.
She was a decent looking chick—scratch that, she was fucking drop dead gorgeous and he understood why Brad and Nel had kept her under lock and key for twelve long years. Her looks hadn’t even started to wane; they were enhanced with age, her beauty maturing into full bloom.
Magnolia was a woman, full stop. There wasn’t anything about her girlish and she acted much wiser than her years. Her eyes, so gorgeous and ethereal, still held a look of glee, as if happiness eluded her only along the edges of her life. She certainly didn’t seem to be the victim of a horrific crime that had stolen some of the best years of her life.
“Earth to Max.” Mags broke the silent intensity between the two of them. “Yeah, I know you find me deliciously fuckable and all but seriously, I’m not getting in the car with you half in the bag. My life’s only just begun—I don’t want to spend the rest of it as a paraplegic after you drive us into a ditch along the side the of the road because you were wasted.”
“The alcohol’s for both of us.” He cleared his throat again. “Prevents food poisoning, and in a joint like this, you can never be too careful.”
“Tell me about it,” Mags replied as she looked around the diner in disdain. “I’m shocked this place was given a liquor license.”
Max chuckled as he shook his head. “You don’t get out much, do you? I’ve been in worse places than this that served alcohol. The food’s decent . . . it’s the only reason why I returned on this trip up north.”
He paused as the waitress dropped off two shots of whiskey and two draft beers in what appeared to be clean mugs.
Mags held up her shot glass as soon as their surly waitress flounced off again. “To new beginnings, where ever they might lead us.”
Max balanced his shot glass in one hand. “To new beginnings it is then.”
They clinked their glasses and each downed their shots effortlessly. Mags didn’t even grimace as she set it down and sipped from her beer. Why he thought she would have a problem with alcohol was beyond him. She had been raised within the confines of the White Knights MC during her most poignant years. Of course she wouldn’t be a stranger to booze—hard liquor or beer.
“So, before we started talking about food poisoning and whether or not I kept a burner phone, the conversation was firmly on why I should help you kill a member of my own family. Sorry to say but you haven’t convinced me to do this ‘assignment’ with you at all,” Mags explained in a no-nonsense manner.
“I understand you must feel I should have an overwhelming sense of revenge for the wrongs inflicted on me by the Abandonato family but I don’t. They didn’t kill my parents or subject me to anything. Were they careless and perhaps a bit laissez-faire with my treatment after my parents died? Perhaps but I have absolutely no proof they weren’t worried to death about me. After I turned eighteen, everything that happened is on me. I didn’t seek them out because I was ashamed of what I’d been through . . . the horrors
I’d witnessed. I didn’t have anything to offer them.”
Max narrowed his icy blue-green eyes. “Why are you so convinced you had nothing to offer them? Why would you ever feel that way about yourself and how the hell did you come to think you had so little self worth?”
“It isn’t about how I feel about myself.” She looked down at her phone, Swype’d a reply to someone and then put it back into her Kate Spade nylon oversized handbag. “I would have been considered broken . . . used goods. I’ve never been the most outgoing or friendly person, even when my life was ‘normal.’ What could they have done for me when all the death and destruction I’ve witnessed over the years has made me what I am today? I didn’t want to inflict my emotional turmoil on them simply because it wouldn’t be fair to anyone involved.”
“I see,” he began in a voice that barely carried over the latest country song playing on the jukebox. “You honestly believe Angelo is a good man?”
Her pale green eyes didn’t flinch as she looked at him head on. “He always took good care of my mother and considered her his princess.”
“They were close?”
“Yes, very.”
Max chuckled again though this time, his voice lacked even the faintest shred of humor. “So you had no idea how upset Angelo was when your mother married a biker thug?”
“My father left the club for my mother,” Mags replied flippantly.
“Is that what you were told?”
“No, it’s what I witnessed. He never had anything to do with the Knights except in a business sense. They would often give him stuff on discount to sell at the pawnshop. Then again, he also dealt with gangs, the mafia and other nefarious types who needed to unload goods for quick cash so it wasn’t exactly a secret or anything.”
Max almost felt bad about shattering this poor young woman’s noble picture of her perfect family but it had to be done. It was the weapon he needed to use against her so she could agree with his plan.
“No, my dear, that is not how the situation worked out at all.”