Risking Trust (29 page)

A
whoosh
came from behind her and she turned to see Michael ramming his shoulder into Max’s midsection. The two men went down. Max, with his martial arts expertise, kicked Michael off and bounced up.

Michael, back on his feet and anticipating the roundhouse kick Max leveled on him, jumped clear.

Roxann couldn’t stand it anymore. Too much. The chaos had to stop. She needed to end this insanity. She picked up one of the marble bookends on Mrs. Mackey’s desk—an excellent weapon—but the glint of metal caught her attention.

Gun.

Max had pulled his service revolver from somewhere.
No
. Roxann dove for it. A loud bang sounded from somewhere and a searing heat flooded her shoulder.

How odd.

And the pain. Oh, how it ripped through her. Her legs buckled and she went down.

“Rox,” Michael yelled.

But she saw Max staring at her, the shock of his actions paralyzing him. He was no one she knew. “Did you shoot me?” she asked, too stunned to actually believe it.

Michael knocked the weapon from Max’s hand and began pounding on him. Punching, punching, punching. She turned away. He too, in this violent tirade, had become unrecognizable to her.

Max’s face became a bloody mess and when he fell to the ground Michael began kicking him. Roxann, still on the floor with her hand on her bleeding shoulder said, “Stop. Please.”

Two security guards barreled through the door and pulled Michael from Max. Exhausted, she curled into a ball and her body shook, every bone coming unhinged from its joint.

Within seconds Michael was on his knees in front of her examining the wound.

He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed. “You’ll be okay. An ambulance will be here soon.”

Michael turned into triplets and she blinked a couple of times. “Is it over?”

Her fingertips tingled and her eyes drooped.
Heaven.
“I’m going to heaven. To see my dad. Not ready though.”

Michael made a snorting noise that Roxann found quite irritating. “Actually, you’re passing out.”

“Oh.”

“I really thought I was dying.” Roxann laughed at herself and flopped her head back on her hospital bed.

The surgery had left her groggy, but at least she no longer had a bullet lodged inside her. Her hands and feet had swelled from the anesthesia and, although she didn’t have a mirror, she could feel the puffiness in her cheeks. She felt like a five-foot-ten version of Shirley Temple.

Michael sat in one of those awful metal arm chairs next to her bed and scooted closer to hold her hand.

“I knew you weren’t dying. I fixed a few of those injuries in my army days.”

Her eyes began to droop. So tired. “Hmmm, lucky you were available.”

“Yeah, well, it scared the crap out of me. We’re reassigning your lobby guards and that’s the end of it. My guys would never have let Max through.”

He’d been after her to replace the security guards and now she understood why. At least he didn’t say she had to fire them. She’d find a spot for them somewhere.

The door to her room opened and a nurse stepped in. “Ms. Thorgesson, there’s an officer outside. He has a man with him who says he’s your uncle and he’s asking to see you.”

Michael stepped toward the door. “No way.”

“I’ll see him.”

He spun on her, his eyes hard and so clearly out of patience. “
What
?”

The nurse’s gaze ping-ponged between them and Roxann held up a hand. “Would you please give us a moment?” The nurse darted out and Roxann turned back to Michael. “I need to hear from him and then I’ll be done. I may not achieve any sort of understanding, but at least I’ll have heard his side.”

“Not that you owe him that.”

“I owe it to myself. And…”
How to say this?
“You need to leave me alone with him. He won’t talk to me in front of you.”

Michael set his hands on his hips and stared up at the ceiling. She half expected him to pop off at her, but he remained quiet and thoughtful. Maybe he could find it in himself to understand.

“I’ll leave, but the cop comes in. You can’t be alone with him. He
shot
you.”

No arguing that point. “The officer can stay.” She smiled. “But you have to go.”

Two minutes later, with Michael in the hall, Max stepped through the door in handcuffs, his right eye battered and stitched. Michael had done some damage. Another man entered behind him. Not the police officer, but Max’s lawyer. Max had refused to speak to her with the officer in the room and Roxann agreed to let his lawyer stand in. The officer remained outside the door. She never imagined she would need protecting from her uncle, but she’d also never imagined him capable of murder.

Max stood next to the bed and she motioned to the chair. “I’ll give you time, but I don’t want excuses. I’ve been through hell, apparently at your hands, and I deserve the truth.”

He dropped his head, shook it a few times and when he looked up at her, his eyes glistened. Max crying? Had she ever seen that? Now she knew her life would never be the same. Either way, she couldn’t be sure if he was crying because he got caught or because he was sorry.

“You were sleeping with Alicia Taylor?”

He nodded. “It was a few months.”

“Did you care for her?” Why on earth would she even want to know?

“I don’t know. You wouldn’t understand, but she had a way about her. Exciting. Wild.”

What was it with these men wanting excitement? At least Michael had grown out of it. “I don’t need the details. You’re a single man and entitled to companionship.”

“I made mistakes. Got sloppy. I was infatuated and shared some things I shouldn’t have.”

“Oh, Max.”

“I was stupid. Then she started to pressure me about moving the relationship forward. As if I’d get married at this point in my life. She wanted the status that came with my job. By that time, I realized I may have wanted her body, but I had career aspirations that wouldn’t tolerate a slut on my arm.”

Max had always said he wanted a federal job. Something in D.C. Alicia must have known it too.

“So, you tried to end it?”

“Yeah. She went nuts. That’s when she approached the mayor and threatened to go to the press. When I couldn’t talk her out of it, the mayor told Carl to deal with her. That’s why he was visiting her. He wasn’t screwing her, he was trying to convince her to stop threatening Richmond. The night of the PBA function, Carl came to me because Alicia wouldn’t budge. He told me I needed to fix my mess before she blew us all to hell. I went to her house to talk. We argued for a long time. It got out of control.”

“And killing her was the answer?”

Max eyeballed her. Could he be offended? Really?

“I had worked years to establish my career. I couldn’t let her destroy it all. It wasn’t just me, Rox. The mayor, Carl. We were all at stake.”

“You can’t believe I’d feel sorry for any of you. Not after all this. Whatever her mistakes were, she didn’t deserve to die.”

None of them counted on Alicia Taylor destroying their careers and then they had the gall to blame her for their erroneous ways. They were all criminals, but Max had been stupid enough to tell his lover too many secrets. Max and Carl would go to prison and the mayor was dead. Stupid, stupid men.

The now familiar ache of emotional warfare sparked inside Roxann. Her body had been pummeled by life. How would she ever get over this? She’d adored Max and now had to live with the devastation he’d inflicted upon her.

“I’m sorry, Rox. For all of it.”

She stared into his eyes, wondering if the sadness she saw could be meant for her. Probably not. “Well, it’s over now,” she said. “You’ll have to live with it.”

The officer from the hallway stuck his head in. “Time is up.”

Michael pushed through behind the officer, spared Max a scowl and jerked a thumb toward the hall. “Get out.”

When Max stood, he leaned toward her—could he actually mean to kiss her cheek? She held up her good hand. “Don’t.”

“Out,” Michael said again in a voice thick with simmering anger.

Who could blame him after what Max had done?

Max left without a glance at her and she shook her head. “I can’t believe this.” She knew it was true. Max had told her himself. “What prison could they possibly send him to? He’ll spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement because a police superintendent doesn’t have a very good life expectancy when he’s locked up with murderers.”

Michael raised his eyebrows.

“Don’t say it.
He’s
a murderer. I know it. I just can’t get my heart to accept it.”

Michael sat on the edge of the bed, wrapped his hand around hers and squeezed. “Your heart may never accept it. Maybe it’s good enough if only your head does. You’ll probably always love him.”

“It’s not reality. I’d be fooling myself.”

“Yeah, but reality sucks.”

That shut her up, but she still grinned. Michael was here. With her. Really with her. She’d waited years for this and although she was happy, she couldn’t be overjoyed. There’d been too much loss in getting him back.

“In six weeks, I’ve lost two men that I loved—”

He nodded. “I’m sor—”

“But I also got one back.”

His shoulders dropped and he leaned forward to press a kiss on her lips before pulling back. “I owe you so much. You put everything on the line for me, and I could say thank you for the rest of my life, but it wouldn’t be enough. I was in jail and you still fought for me.”

“We did this together. It wasn’t just me.”

“Yeah, but you had the spine to go for it. I’m not sure anyone else would have. You didn’t totally trust me, but you had faith. You’ve
always
had faith in me, Roxi. Even when I didn’t have it in myself. And if there’s a woman who should have punted, it’s you.” He looked up at the ceiling, bit his bottom lip and brought his gaze back to her. “I screwed up by leaving you, I screwed up by not trying harder and I screwed up by not being the man I should have been for you. The thing I want you to know is that, from now on, I’ll always be here for you. Nobody will ever love you the way I do. Ever.”

A rush of tears submerged her. Such emotional upheaval today. No more. She needed to enjoy this bit of happiness. She eased out a teasing, heavy sigh. “Well, I’m glad
that’s
cleared up. There aren’t many men who enjoy sparring with me.” She tightened her grip on his hand. “We’re competitors, Michael. We play to win. I think we just won big.”

He fired off a lightening quick smile that she hadn’t seen in twelve years. The old Michael was definitely back. And she’d keep him.

Forever.

You can guard your heart, but there’s no protection from true love…

Don’t miss the first two titles in Adrienne Giordano’s
Private Protectors
series, available now:

Man Law

Security Consultant Vic Andrews has always lived by his Man Laws:
1) Never mess with your best friend’s sister; 2) Never get caught; 3) Never get attached. But the closer he gets to Gina Delgado, the more he realizes that some laws were meant to be broken.

A Just Deception

Former Navy SEAL Peter Jessup enjoys his role with Taylor Security. He likes being the hero—in charge and in control. When he begins to fall for his latest client, sexy lawyer Isabella DeRosa, he’s finally prepared to let down his guard…but is she?

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