Stolen from the Hitman: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance(50)

“Wait, if he was one of them then why did you reach out to him?” I ask suddenly, holding up my hand to slow him down. This isn’t making any sense. And my heart is sinking to hear that Max was, in fact, one of the bad guys. I begin to feel antsy, unnerved by the fact that I just spent the night with a hardened criminal.

But god, he’s also my savior, isn’t he?

“I had found his name in some police databanks, that he gave up that life before he started working at the university. I knew I could use that against him if he refused to help me,” Felix reasons.

“So you were going to just blackmail an ex-mobster to get his help against… other mobsters?” I clarify. Felix nods.

“Desperate times, desperate measures. Isn’t that the phrase?” he says simply.

“Well, what did Max do?”

“He was pissed as all hell, first of all. Since I hacked into his private life and all, and brought up his past. He wanted to start fresh, and didn’t want anyone to ever find out about any of that. But when I told him who was targeting me, he got all serious. Took care of it right away.”

“How? And why did he ever leave that old life behind in the first place?” I ask, leaning forward anxiously. I feel like everything hinges on the answer to that question.

“Turns out he was only running with them at first because he got roped into it. He came from some shitty ice cube of a town back in Siberia and a life of crime was his ticket out. But once he found out about the human trafficking thing, he broke all ties with them, headed for the straight and narrow,” Felix says.

I feel a little better, instantly. At least I know now that Max isn’t one of them. He was telling me the truth.

“So what he did… he took me to this safe house where I could hide out while he covered my tracks. Paid back all my debts, somehow. I had no idea he had that kind of money.”

“And when he paid them off, they just let you off the hook? That easy?” I question, confused. Nothing about what limited knowledge I have of the mafia indicates to me that they would so easily give up a grudge. Especially against someone so insignificant as Felix. He had to have been just a blip on their radar. They could have easily disposed of him, or at least punished him. Couldn’t they?

“Easy?” Felix repeats, raising his eyebrows. “Pas moyen! I had to stay in that safe house for months while Max took care of things. I couldn’t go to class or work, couldn’t even use the Internet for fear those thugs would track me that way. I had to virtually disappear. I had to drop out of university. Never did go back for my degree,” he finishes bitterly.

“But you survived,” I tell him. He nods slowly.

“That’s true. And I got a lifelong friend out of it!” he says, beaming. I get the sense that Max doesn’t quite see him the same way, but I won’t be the one to tell him that.

“So he really did leave all that behind, right? He’s not working for those guys anymore?” I press him. I want so badly for him to ease all my worries, for him to tell me that Max really is safe, and that my feelings for him aren’t terrible. I wonder if Felix even knows, though. Max is a secretive guy with a dark, mysterious past. He doesn’t seem like the kind who would easily trust others with his secrets — and especially not someone like Felix.

“Oh yeah. Absolument. I think he was already way over all that by the time he even met me, and after what he had to do to get me out of trouble with them… well, let’s just say I don’t think they were planning on inviting him to the reunion   anymore,” Felix explains. “Burned a lot of bridges back then, used up what little was left of his credit with them. But if you ask me, nobody ever really gets a clean break from an operation like that. You can’t just retire and say goodbye to your old life without some… complications.”

“Like what?” I ask, my stomach churning.

“Well, I’m not the best authority on the inner workings of the mafia, but I have a feeling they’re still watching him. Just waiting for the right time to take their revenge.”

My eyes go wide with fear. Felix notices this and winces a little, realizing that he’s probably said far too much. “I’m sure they would’ve done something by now if they were really going to, though.”

“How many are there out there?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper. I can feel the air leaving my lungs as it dawns on me just how big this whole ordeal really is. I wasn’t just swept up in some small-time operation; I was a fly caught in the complex web of a very large and venomous spider.

“Mobsters?” Felix asks, cocking his head to one side thoughtfully. “Well, it’s probably like trying to play that arcade game — Whack-a-Mole, I believe it’s called? The second you crush one, another pops up. But to his credit, Max really took out a lot of them himself. The Russians didn’t see him coming. After all, I think they still saw him as one of them, you know? But once he found out what all they were doing with the sex trade and whatnot, he really eliminated a lot of them. I mean, they’re still out there, of course. But not here. He really cleaned up the Paris scene a lot more than anyone knows,” he says proudly, as though he had any hand in the process.