Devil's Prey(25)

There was no mistaking the family resemblance but that didn't make this  news any less harder to digest. Not to mention if we were truly running  out of time, how much did we have left before the jig was up and Dimitri  sent his hooligans to kill us all?

"Fine." I turned toward Rasmus, ignoring Max completely. "How much fucking time do we have left?"

"Not much. Maybe a couple of days. I was gonna tell loverboy here that  bit of news before he decided to go up stairs and leisurely fuck you all  evening."

I smirked, an expression that didn't cross my face very often. "Jealous,  are we? May I remind you that you got the hot beef injection long  before I did so what difference does it make? Looks like I'm just a  third motherfuckin' wheel on you two hot guys' highway to love."

"Fuck you, Magnolia," Rasmus seethed as his icy blue eyes bore into  mine. "Max and I are not a fucking couple. We just get off with each  other but he's always wanted someone like you. This isn't one of your  erotic, ménage fantasies where you get to have two guys plugging you all  the time. You're his-not mine-and there's fuck all I can do about it. I  might have known Max a lot longer than you but when all's said and  done, you two are gonna go all Bonnie and Clyde together. Hell, I don't  even have a voice when it comes to his situation with you."

His sudden revelation was like ice water dumped into my blood stream,  working its way toward my heart where I'd started going numb. "I don't  understand. You don't love me, Max-you don't even like me. Why all the  cloak and dagger shit to get to Edward? I let him go and he's no longer  an issue. Hell, you fuckin' purchased me-drugs for my life-from the  White Knights. I am yours, in every way a woman can belong to a man. You  didn't do all of that just to get back at Edward, did you?"

Max strode to me and stopped mere inches away. "No, I didn't. I did it  because I could and I wanted to own someone he thought he had. Miranda's  not even an issue at this point because she would have never cheated on  him but you . . . why wouldn't I want you to be mine? You were just a  nice little bonus, a reward for a job well done when I finished blowing  both their brains out."

I shook my head adamantly. "I can't let you do that. I'll go to the  Saints myself and tell them what you have planned. You won't touch  Edward or Sean because they are all Chantal has. Edward has sons for  Christ's sake. This petty revenge of yours might mean something to you  but it means absolutely nothing to me."

"Relax, chickadee," Rasmus cut in casually. "Max doesn't have the time  to take out two well protected bikers. He's gotta get the fuck outta  dodge and take you with him unless he wants Dimitri to carve you up like  a fuckin' chicken."

Max backed away from me slowly, the distance between us instantly felt. "We can't do shit without money, Raz."

"Well, you know what that means, right?"

"What?"

"Yeah, what?" I questioned Rasmus, like a goddamned parrot.

He smirked. "Time for Plan B."





Chapter Twelve





Maxwell



"What the fuck is Plan B?"

Max glared at Rasmus, and would have gladly choked the life out of him  if he had the energy or the effort. He was physically exhausted and run  down. Fucking two people in the same day and dealing with the emotional  fallout had not exactly been the way he'd planned this evening.

Why couldn't they all be chilling in his California King bed, smoking  some primo bud and talking about nonsensical bullshit? Instead, Raz had  gotten a hair up his ass and decided to blow the whole operation wide  open.

He would have told Mags exactly what was going on in his own time but  now that plan was shot to shit and so was the one with taking out the  casino. If Dimitri knew what he was doing then they didn't have the  manpower or the time to make that happen.         

     



 

Max didn't believe in a sure thing. He always made alternative plans  just in case the prime one fell through but his Plan B was desperate and  grasping at straws. It involved a woman who had absolutely no need to  be on the inside and it could get her murdered.

Scratch that-two women were involved-and although both were  professionals, one had gotten soft and lax in her time. She didn't need  to be alert or ultra protective because Dimitri's army of soldiers did  that for her. However, knowing his mentor, he couldn't be certain she  wouldn't see her death soon after they executed the plans he had in  play. And that was a dangerous situation for any woman to be in period.

Especially when the woman involved was the only one who'd ever given a  shit about him, clothed and fed him; and taken care of him the only way  she knew how.

Mila Koslakova-formerly known as Mila Zawadzka Boyle-hadn't been  involved in the business for years and there was no reason to bring her  into his clusterfuck now. Yes, she was Dimitri's wife and his mother.  She was also Edward's mother but more importantly, she was Karina Maria  Koslakova's mother. His fifteen-year-old half-sister and the only  progeny Dimitri had left he actually claimed.

Most of Dimitri's business associates didn't know he was married and  that was with good reason. His mother jet-setted between Boca Raton,  Manhattan and Paris, ate at the finest restaurants and shopped at the  most expensive and outlandish boutiques on earth. Karina attended an  elite Swiss boarding school, Rennes, which guarded its students  efficiently and intensively. All of the young women there were from  wealthy families but quite a few of them were from notorious, criminal  empires who paid through the nose to have their children protected at  all costs.

Dimitri Koslakov was one of them.

Sadly, when Max had decided to make going after his mother Plan B, he  never thought he would actually have to go through with it. And now, he  had no choice.

The thought disturbed him right to his very core and stirred a conscience he wasn't aware he still possessed.

"What the hell is Plan B, Max?"

He glared at Mags with empty, blue-green eyes. "One I should have never  come up with and wouldn't have if I'd been thinking straight."

"Problem is you were thinkin' straight-now you're just freezin' up like a  little bitch," Raz sneered with heartless anger coloring his tone.  "What the fuck happened to you, man? You fuck this bitch and all the  sudden you turn into a motherfuckin' pussy? The Max I know wouldn't give  a shit about going after that fuckin' whore. What the fuck has she done  for you anyway?"

"She raised me, you fuckin' momo! Put clothes on my back and made sure I  had a roof over my head. What? Do you think it would be easy to kill  your own fucking mother?" he roared back.

"Yeah, but what has she done for you, lately?" Rasmus crossed his arms  and glared at him with desolate eyes. "You tell your sweetie over here  how your mom sold your ass down the river too? At least Magnolia's  parents loved her-can you say the same for that heartless bitch who  handed you over to Dimitri when you were fourteen and told him she  didn't give a damn what he did to you?

"The same monster who raped you repeatedly on the night of your  fifteenth birthday and afterward? Tortured you within an inch of your  life to teach you how to deal with pain? Turned you into an assassin at  sixteen when he made you murder my mother and brother because he wanted  to be with your mother and not part with an extra dime if he had to?

"Yet lo and behold, you defend that whore as if anything she's ever did  in your life has been noble and just while you despise the very people  who would probably take you in and accept you as you are-fucked up and  all-no questions asked? Yeah, Max, I gotta hand it to you-your sense of  loyalty, identity and humanity is seriously jacked up beyond all  recognition."

He looked away from Raz and turned toward Mags who stared at him as if he was a science project gone wrong. "Is it true?"

"Is what true?" Max turned away from both of them and headed to the bar  where he grabbed a clean tumbler and poured a healthy dose of Macallan  25.

"What Rasmus just said about your mother and . . . what she did to you?"

"Yeah, that part is true but Raz has such a way with words, doesn't he?"  He smirked and finished off his scotch. "Fine, we go with Plan B."

He reached for the bottle of Macallan 25 but Mags was faster and  snatched it quickly. "No! You can't drink tonight away. If we have a  limited amount of time then we need to start packing and get the fuck  outta here, Max. You need a clear head and furthermore, we seem to be  working on a matter of hours-minutes maybe-before the same henchmen  you've worked with your whole adult life storm in here and cause some  serious fucking trouble. What the hell is wrong with you?"         

     



 

"My problem is despite what my mother did to me, I can't fucking kill  her!" he exclaimed. "Surely you can understand that. Could you kill your  parents?"