Devil's Prey(19)

He paused and stared into her wide green eyes. They were paler than ever  and although she tried to hide her feelings behind false bravado, he  knew it was a genuine worry.

"Perhaps but he won't touch you now. I've assured him you can be quite useful on future missions."

And that you will belong completely to me.

Max would never reveal that truth to her.

She drank more sangria and stabbed a prawn with her fork. "How can you  be so sure he won't turn on you? Surely he's made promises in the past  he had no intention of keeping. I have to be able to trust you."

"Dimitri is his own person, sweetheart. I cannot tell you what the man is thinking-"

"No, you're not understanding me at all. I. Need. To. Be. Able. To.  Trust. You. Only you, Max, and nobody else." Mags' pale green eyes never  left his face as he assessed her words.

Of course he knew what she was implying loud and clear. She would never  trust Dimitri but as long as he gave his word and promised to keep her  safe than she would cooperate and everything would work out just as  they'd planned.

In theory.

Truth be told, neither one of them could promise anything because they  didn't know Angelo Abandonato well enough to say what he would or  wouldn't do.

He finally nodded his head in agreement. "You can trust me. I won't let  anything happen-not before shit goes down or afterwards either. Angelo  will never know about your involvement. If everything happens to fall  apart then the blame will be solely on my shoulders. You have my word."

"I'm glad you could at least grant me that promise." She dug into her serving of orzo again with relish.         

     



 

"Why? I mean, I understand you wouldn't want to be looked upon as a traitor to your own family but why is it so important?"

Mags set down her fork and stared at him for a long time before she  finally spoke. "What we've got goin' on . . . me being involved with the  Koslakov Mafia, it's not a situation a woman like me ever wants to be  in because I'm screwed no matter what happens. If we're successful and  take out Angelo, his crew will be gunning for me-blood ties or not-and  if we aren't, I'm still on the losing end."

"I'm not exactly sure I catch your drift." He ground his teeth together, flexing his jaw.

Of course he knew exactly what she meant but he needed her to express  herself fully so there was no signs of miscommunication or  misunderstandings. Again, this was something she would have to want to  do. He couldn't convince her to participate in a situation that could  easily end up with her dead without her knowing the full implications.

Max knew Mags was far from stupid but at the same time, if they had to  work together, he had to be able to trust her and the only way that  would happen is if she was completely honest with him up front.  Otherwise, they were both wasting each other's time. He'd been  responsible for plenty of people being murdered but she wouldn't be one  of them.

Not now.

Not this time.

Fuck me for thinking this but not ever, he contemplated with resounding resignation.

"I mean I'm screwed all the way around." She brushed strands of her hair  away from her face. "The Koslakov Mafia will want me dead because I  didn't complete my assignment and everything with the Abandonato family  will be fucked up beyond all recognition. I'll have nowhere to go and  absolutely no one to catch my fall except you. I can't knowingly  participate in this without some reassurance that if everything goes to  hell in a hand basket, you won't leave me hangin'."

He wiped his mouth and kept his brilliant aquamarine eyes unreadable. "I  will be there for you. There will be an out if that happens and I  promise you I will personally let you go. I will set you up with a new  identity, passport, and cash-everything you need to get the fuck out of  dodge and away from here. Is that reassurance enough?"

Mags nodded though she didn't look him in the eyes. "Max, how many people do you really trust?"

"Unfortunately, no one, sweetheart. I'm on my own. This is my last  mission and I won't have the family to protect me-not after everything  goes down."

"If this whole situation didn't work out the way you planned it, Dimitri  will murder you?" she inquired in a voice that sounded more like a  statement than a question.

"I don't work like that, sweetheart." Max smiled and for the first time,  it was actually genuine. "My brain is like a computer and I think about  the probability factor and percentages. There is a better chance that  Dimitri would kill me than keep me alive. If I'm no longer working for  him then what function can I serve by being alive?"

Mags sipped from her sangria before she shook her head and stood. "For  someone who likes math-who views life as odds and probabilities, you're  not seeing the forest for the trees. What about the X factor?"

She approached him as quietly as a snake scoping out its prey. "I  believe you've lost me. There isn't an X factor to take into  consideration."

"That's not true and we both know it." She knelt between his splayed  thighs in an almost obscene way but there was nothing about her behavior  remotely sexual. "Dimitri would only kill you if you were no longer any  use to him. However, if he believes you can be a bargaining chip to get  someone else to finish what we started, he would. I'm not saying he  wouldn't torture you and make your life a living hell but he would keep  you intact . . . barely."

"I think you're opinion of Koslakov is a bit too generous, my dear. The man doesn't care about anything other than money-"

"Exactly. If you meant something to someone then he wouldn't murder you.  He'd blackmail that person into completing whatever we began and he  would make him . . . or her finish what we started. The bargaining chip  would be you. Your freedom, release or whatever you want to call it for  the job being completed. You should really kiss me now before I lose my  nerve, climb in that Mini Cooper and get the hell out of this town and  on to somewhere I could be safe."

Max didn't know when it had happened but he was closer to her than he  realized. While she massaged his thighs in a rhythmic motion, making his  cock harder by the second, he'd cupped her face and held her close  enough to smell her breath. The scent of orzo, salmon and sangria  invaded his nostrils and he breathed deeply.         

     



 

"What do you want from me?" he whispered, her lips drawing closer and closer to his.

"It's not what I want, baby. What the fuck do you want? Do you wanna live or do you wanna die?"

He laughed; her gorgeous mouth a hair's breadth from his own. "What a stupid fucking question. What the hell do you think?"

"I believe you want to live," Mags began in a seductive whisper. "And  Dimitri will keep you alive just to allow one person to complete the  job. The one person you saved without knowing it. The one person who  owes you everything in this world because without a few tender words  from you . . . her life, body, spirit and soul would be no more. He  wouldn't murder you because he knows what kind of person you saved and  how she's loyal to everyone who gives her self-preservation above  everything else. It is human nature after all-for us to think otherwise  is sheer stupidity."

Max could feel the softness of her lips brush against his own and for  one moment, she was the only person who existed, who even fucking  mattered. She'd not only bore into his skin but she'd become a part of  him without even realizing it. The fucked up part about this whole  situation was he didn't love her-he couldn't because he didn't know her  well enough-but he would if he didn't stop himself from falling . . .  now.

"And this person who would be willing to risk everything to save a piece  of shit like me if one ever walked the earth . . ." His vocabulary  failed him as her lips pressed softly against his before pulling away.

"She would be me." Before he could stop her, their lips pressed together  in a hungry, enticing kiss that blurred the edges and scorched  everything in its path into a blazing inferno, them included.

Max surrendered, not because he wanted to but because he couldn't stop  himself from not wanting to possess this beautiful creature that'd  started a fire neither one of them would ever be able to extinguish.

Not without destroying themselves in the process.





Chapter Nine





Magolia





I knew exactly what I was doing but even if I could have stopped myself,  I didn't think I would have been strong enough to resist the heat  within Max.

It didn't make any sense. We barely knew one another and although what  we felt wasn't love, it went beyond mere lust and desire. It was a base  emotion, a need we had to fulfill in one another or die in the process.

Nothing about our emotions made sense but I allowed the feeling of being free and near a hot-blooded man to carry me away.

Part of my abandonment of my cold-hearted and closed off ways stemmed  from my earlier visit with Edward. If we could have gotten away with it,  I would have readily allowed him to lay me down on his bed and fuck me  seven ways to Sunday-protection or no fucking protection. I craved him  that much, the consequences of our actions would have left my moral  compass and I wouldn't have cared about the aftermath.