When I woke up the next day, Max wasn't in bed with me.

Considering how much I'd slept yesterday and last night, only waking up for an hour or two to eat and do bodily functions, I didn't expect him to be there. It was almost two in the afternoon and while I felt drowsy from all the meds, the pain from my injuries had subsided to an ever-lingering dull ache.

I took a short shower and changed into another slip-on cotton dress, not bothering with any make up.

I found Matthews in the kitchen, making himself a sandwich.

"Would you like a sandwich, Ms. Bradley?" he asked as I slowly lifted myself into one of the bar stools by the kitchen island. I winced a little when the seat bit into my injured thigh but I managed to pull myself up with dignity.

"Yes, please," I said, looking over the assortment of ingredients he had out. They all looked good. "I'll have whatever you're having. Thank you."

He got a new plate out and started assembling a second sandwich. "How are you feeling, by the way?"

"Like a black eye but all over," I said.

Matthews raised a brow. "How would you know how a black eye feels? Have you ever had one?"

"Yup. Got it when I was younger," I said and immediately regretted my words when his relaxed face suddenly hardened into concern. "No. It's not what you think. One of my younger brothers caught me on my left eye with his elbow when we were having a tickle fight."

Matthews eased up. "Yeah. My brothers and I have traded a few black eyes growing up."

"Boys can make for a very rowdy household," I said with a smile. "Speaking of boys, where's Max's SWAT team? Blending in with the furniture?"

"They're around," Matthews said. "Don't let them intimidate you. They're here to protect you."

"I'm not intimidated," I said, shrugging. "I just didn't realize he had so much security. I barely saw him with any before other than you."

"I know," Matthews grumbled, handing me my plate. "He doesn't make it very easy to protect him. He always insists on taking care of himself."

I furrowed my brows. "He's good but I don't know that he can just fist-fight his way through an organized kidnapping."

Matthews raised a brow at me. "He hasn't told you anything, has he?"

I took a bite of my sandwich. "He promised to but no, he hasn't yet. I haven't exactly been conscious the last twenty-four hours."

"Take your sandwich and come with me," he said before grabbing his own food. "I'll show you something."

Even with a slight limp, I followed the man out to the lower level and to a long hallway behind a closed door on the other end of the house that I haven't really explored. If my mental compass was accurate, this would be the part of the house that was burrowed deep into the side of the cliff. I had no idea of how much of a maze it really was, and how much of it still remained a secret.

He held a finger to his lips before pushing the door open and stepping aside.

The first thing I heard was yelling and grunting.

Then I saw the cluster of men going at it on the large mat in the center of the room, flinging punches and kicks while a man fended them off with calculated efficiency.

My eyes widened when I saw the golden hair coming out of its loose bun as Max swerved and ducked and redirected attacks while delivering some of his own. He was shirtless and barefoot, just wearing track pants. And he was fighting four men at the same time in bare-handed combat. He looked magnificent but somewhat out of this world—my world, at least.

He bounced a kick to the shin and just as he turned to move out of the way again, he glanced up and saw me. He froze, his eyes flashing.

"Watch out!" I yelled just an arm hooked around his neck, the guy behind him trying to slam him down on his back to the floor. But Max jammed his elbow back, grabbed the man somewhere around the shoulder and the neck and threw him forward with a loud thud on the pad.

My heart raced, my head shaking with disbelief.

"What the hell is she doing here?" Max yelled as he stalked off the pad and strode toward us in a towering fury.

But Mathews just shrugged, looking completely unworried that he'd set off his boss. "Just giving her a full tour of the house since you skipped some pretty important parts."

Max glared at the head of his security. "I didn't ask you to intervene."

"I didn't ask you to save my life but you did," Matthews spat out, coming up nearly nose to nose with Max. "I'm just trying to do the same for you."

Whoa. A lot going on in here that I have absolutely no idea about.

Unable to think of anything else to break the tension, I stupidly held out my hand to Max and blurted out, "Sandwich?"

He sighed out loud and finally swung his gaze over to me, the fury in them already leeching out. "Baby, why are you out of bed?"

"Because I've been in it for longer than what's sane," I said. "And why are you fighting four men?"

I looked past him and saw that the four men were more like picking themselves up off the floor and grabbing towels. They were not small and measly by any means but they looked like they got their butts kicked.

"I'm rusty. I needed the training," he said before grabbing a towel himself from a nearby bench. That was when I got a proper visual sweep of the room and found all kinds of training set pieces in place, including an enclosed two-person shooting range.

"Oh, yeah?" I said. "What are you training for? Black ops?"

I didn't miss the dark look that Max gave Matthews who just held his hands up. "I didn't say anything. I just showed her this place."

"Sure, that's all you did," Max said acidly before putting a sweaty arm around me and slowly steering me toward the door. "We'll chat later, old man, and Band-Aid those boys, will you? They're about to cry home to their mothers."

I waved goodbye at Matthews before elbowing Max lightly on his side as we walked back out to the hallway. Once we were past the door that separated the training room from the rest of the house, the hallway was lined with glass windows that looked out to the view of the sea.

"Don't yell at Matthews. He kept me company and made me a pretty decent sandwich. And he clearly thought I should know what you've been up to."

"I'm not up to anything," he insisted, rubbing the towel on his face. "I'm just getting back into shape."

"Since when were you never in shape, Max?" I asked.

"Since I decided that for once, I could live like a normal man—just going to work every day, sitting back and enjoying life for real, making plans for the future, spending time with the woman I love—"

I stumbled on a step and almost fell flat on my face if Max hadn't caught me.

"Are you okay?" he asked in concern.

"Are you insane?" I asked, my temper rising. "You just casually threw that confession in there like it was the most obvious thing?"

"It is the most obvious thing," he said, looking mildly confused. "Of course, I love you."

"You couldn't have told me that?" I snapped. "Oh, you know? Maybe around that same time I told you I love you?"

"I wasn't exactly trying to give you more reason to stay at that time, Aiko," he said in exasperation. "But I thought it had been obvious to you by then."

"It was except some confirmation would've been nice considering your romantic history isn't exactly endorsing that possibility with you," I shot back. "I guess I just thought that maybe when you finally tell me, I wouldn't be limping along a hallway, smelling of your sweat, holding a half-eaten sandwich and getting mad at what should've been a deliriously happy moment."

Oh, I hated how petty I sounded but seriously!

Max's expression softened and he pulled me gently against him, his hands cupping each side of my face.

"I don't think anything about us had been ideal to start out with," he said, touching his forehead against mine. "But we got so far for two people who'd set out wanting so little in the beginning. I'm sorry I have no grand gestures. I'm sorry I have lousy timing. I'm sorry that I don't have sweeter words to tell you how I feel. It's bare and basic but it's the most honest truth I can give you and you wanted honesty from me."

He squeezed his eyes briefly and gently kissed the tip of my nose. "I love you, Aiko Bradley. I love you so much."

I laughed and choked up at the same time as I lifted myself up on one foot to kiss Max. "If this is basic for you, then I like basic just fine."

He grinned. "What? You're not going to say it back to me? Is it payback?"

"You deserve it a little but I think I've had enough of us not saying it when we should've," I said with a smile. "I love you, Maximilian Croft. I love you so much."

We kissed long and hard before a loud splat interrupted us.

Max and I stepped back and saw the insides of my sandwich on the hardwood floor.

Max sighed. "Why don't we clean this up and jump into the pool? I feel filthy and I want to get dirty with you."

The pool was a brilliant idea because half an hour later, I felt weightless caged between the tile wall and Max's arms as he moved in behind me. The water made movement easier without the weight even though there wasn't much for me to do other than slightly tip my hips back against Max so he could surge into me with swift strokes.

"I want you to promise me something," Max said, nipping at my shoulder as his thrusts sped up. His arms were around my waist, one of his hand dipped between my legs and rubbing at the bundle of electrified nerves there to give me what was about to me by third orgasm.

"I promise I'll always go swimming with you," I said on a long moan when I felt him go deeper inside me.

A husky laugh escaped him. "Sure but that's not what I'm asking."

"What then?"

"That you'll never give up on us," he said. "That you'll never give up on me."

"I'm a lot more selfish than you give me credit for," I said, tears pricking my eyes because while this might sound like a casual, simple request, I heard Max's plea in it.

He had many secrets.

Secrets that forced him to keep a distance.

Secrets that ultimately left him alone.

Secrets that would continue to test us.

I pulled away from him so I could turn within his arms. Despite the discomfort, I wrapped my legs around his hips and pulled him back inside of me, clenching him so tight as if I could hold on to him forever.

"I promise you I won't give up, Max," I said, kissing him softly as we found our rhythm again. "I'm with you all the way."

"God, Aiko," he groaned harshly, his arms yanking me close against him as he plunged into me over and over again. "Oh, God."

I held him close after his climax rocked through him, my fingers gently playing with his hair.

There was so much in his eyes when he lifted his head but I didn't require words from him this time.

I just smiled at him and pressed a kiss against his pounding heart.

***

"So tell me. What did Matthews mean exactly when he said you saved his life?"

Max groaned and dragged a hand down his face.

It was an hour later and we were down in the cabin, mostly dressed but curled up in bed.

"Matthews seems to have suddenly gotten very talkative with you," he complained.

I rolled my eyes. "Well, someone's gotta start talking and he figured it probably wasn't going to be you."

"I don't know where to start," he admitted, folding his arm behind his head.

"How about you start with answering that question?"

Max sighed in resignation. "Fine. Matthews and I got caught in a sticky situation on the field. He was sighted and being shot at. He had a hole in his side. I abandoned my cover, took out his shooters as discreetly as I could and we stole a car out of that party. We fucked up that mission but at least we got out alive."

I blinked a few times as I tried to digest that information and then abruptly rolled over to my stomach and raised my head to look at him. "Okay. I'm going to need a hell of a lot more context than that."

"I'm just going to start from the beginning," Max said, shaking his head. "I was seventeen when I found out that my family had been knowingly taking and managing the money of several high-level criminals. They laundered and invested it, stashed it away in secret. And my family had been doing it for several generations that getting out wasn't possible without serious consequences."

Max told me without sparing a detail about how he was abducted and beaten at seventeen as an example to his father who'd tried to turn away a very unsavory client. He described every gory image of the night unflinchingly, from the unnatural angle of his broken bones to the blood on the tattooed arm of his captor.

"I couldn't change my father's mind but I didn't want to be filling his shoes either so I left. Cut off my family," he continued. "I drifted for a while. Went to Boston and attended college for a semester before I decided to join the navy but I was declined. Instead, I was secretly recruited into a different kind of program."

I waited for him to go on but he paused and looked at me with serious eyes. "Aiko, I'm not supposed to tell you some things but I'm going to so you can hopefully understand my position. But you can never repeat a word of it to anyone who isn't cleared."

I swallowed hard. "Alright. I promise. I didn't realize how complicated your position was."

Max dropped his head back on the pillows and sighed. "It's more complicated because I exist in the gray area all the time. I've got a foot on each side and it's a dangerous dance, tiptoeing back and forth, doing your best to keep a safe balance."

"What's the program, Max?"

"It's nothing new but the government has a very small, secret task force called Olympus. It's off the books because no one likes to admit we do this sort of thing but it's a necessary evil. The idea is that to be able to walk among the gods, you have to be one of them."

"The program uses civilians with unique connections for intelligence gathering in different fields. The wealthy and powerful elite like to keep to themselves. They expect exclusivity. It would take an unknown field agent years to get in deep enough and we often don't have that kind of time. So my real identity was my cover at the same time. I fit the required profile—from a wealthy and prominent family with a huge financial empire suspected to be aiding highly-wanted criminals. I've got the advantage of my birthright and the disadvantage of my family's illegal dealings. So I carried on as the privileged playboy Max Croft. I finished college, continued to appear to be living off my trustfund, and retained my devil-may-care reputation and carefree lifestyle—all while working leads and providing new ones."

"What kind of criminals are we talking about here?"

"More than your average tax-evaders and embezzlers although there were a lot of that. We were involved with potential terrorist financial backers, human traffickers, arms dealers—"

"—the mob?"

"Mobs tend to set up their own financial corporations but we did cater to a lot of individuals with ties to organized crime."

"Holy shit, Max."

"Yeah. My job meant more than just handing over a bunch of bank statements. It meant meeting many different people to get as close as you can to the mark. Going places and participating in activities that were sometimes highly questionable and risky. But I was the perfect candidate for it. I was rich. Brash. Notorious for my penchant for breaking the rules and pushing boundaries. No one thought twice to find me hanging out with certain people at certain places. Everyone assumed I was up for anything."

My brows raised. "So you were putting your life in danger on two different fronts—actually killing yourself thrill-seeking and getting killed for your secret agenda."

Max shrugged. "I did my best to be careful. We were strictly limited to information gathering but some of the intel I needed were a little harder to get sometimes. I needed to be able to get in and out of trickier situations. I needed to be able to do it on my own because I couldn't really show up at some of these things with a small entourage of fed agents. I couldn't risk being affiliated with them or my entire cover is blown. I'm safe as long as no one thinks I work for the government."

"I know you didn't want to just sit and follow in your father's footsteps but you were taking on more than you were asked, Max." I didn't want him to think I was ungrateful for the risks he took for the name of all that was good and noble but the man tempted fate too much.

"After seeing my Dad cower, I honestly just wanted to do the right thing. I figured one of us would have to," he said, his eyes narrowing as he stared into the distance. "And I wanted to protect my family. I pledged five years of service in exchange for mine and my family's immunity. But I officially stayed on for ten and continued to assist in the last eight years since I retired to take over my family's company."

"Just can't quit, can you? The world will never be completely rid of bad people, Max. There will be many more to come long after we die."

"I know that but it felt like my sole purpose for the longest time. It was the only difference I felt I could make," he said, his tone somber. "And it did allow me to continue looking for the man who'd taken me all those years ago to ensure that my father understood the price of breaking free."

"It's the same man who went after your father and brother in the hit and run, isn't it?"

Max's face hardened like granite, his eyes steely. "Yes. When I took over the company after my father's death, I restructured and took full control of the business. I had very specific plans on how to weed out our most dangerous clients without tipping them off. I needed absolute independence and discretion to do that. I also had to secretly pursue my own investigation into the hit and run case that was left cold at a deadend. Pushing with it publicly would only attract scrutiny and proving that criminal ties led to it would only be detrimental to the company."

"So even retired, you were still leading a double life."

Max smiled faintly at me. "Before you, I don't think I knew the alternative."

My own smile was sad. "Even if can wish it otherwise for you, I can understand why you didn't just close your eyes and forget about all of it. Your family was hurt despite everything you did to protect them. It's not your fault but I know you blamed yourself for it somehow."

"I always think I didn't get back soon enough. That I was too late. And maybe I was for my father. But I will never be again for everyone else I've still got," Max said in a tight voice. "That's why Matthews and the guys are there to protect all of you. They're not here for me. They're for everyone I love and I did my best to keep that list very short."

No wonder Max chose to be alone. The cost of caring could be someone's life.

I took his hand in mine. "You can tell them that all you like but they're there to keep an eye on you and save your sexy ass if necessary. Matthews especially."

The intensity in Max's gaze eased. "Matthews was my main field handler then, you know? He retired after he got badly shot on that mission I told you about earlier. But I brought him in when I took over, made him head of my security. We cleaned out the entire team and replaced it with people we knew and trusted. We run a very tight crew. It's the only way to survive this game we play."

"A game that never seems to be over." I said with a wince as I braced myself. "Who is he, Max? Who's this man that's been haunting for you almost twenty years?"

"Raul Vitto," Max said in the coldest voice I've ever heard from him. "A highly wanted human trafficker. Doesn't care who he takes from the street—men, women, children. He's practically a ghost with a reputation for personally delivering payback. He wants his enemies to know that with or without his men, he's extremely dangerous. He went after you the same way he came after Dad and Lincoln because he knew it would remind me of how I'd lost someone important before."

"Was it just the parallelism or did he know that you've made the connection?"

"He didn't know. Just as he didn't know that within three months since I started looking into the hit and run, we found footage of him from a security cam in one of the buildings near the crime scene. Oh, someone in the investigation team had seen the fucking footage and recognized him all too well that they got rid of the initial evidence. We were lucky that the security company for that building backed up a year's worth of footage in the cloud."

My nose scrunched up in confusion. "If he'd displayed the tattoo, he must've intended for someone to know it was him. He must've known there was a camera there but that your father wouldn't press charges knowing that to do so would incriminate him as well. Why try to warn someone you're about to kill anyway?"

"After I had a longer look at things after taking over, I realized my father had started what he hadn't been able to do before. Vitto didn't like that and that's why he tried to scare him into backing off. Only he killed him. Because I made no other discernible moves against him in the last several years even after the finding the video footage and connecting him to my abduction, Vitto didn't think I would pick up where my father left off."

"But you're going to," I said, knowing without a doubt it was the truth.

Max turned those blue-gray eyes to me. "I already have."

I scrambled to a sitting position, uncaring that all I had on was underwear and a tank top. I was too caught up. "What did you do, Max?"

"Even after I found out about Vitto's involvement in the hit and run, I didn't dump him right away because I needed him close until I could find an opportunity with him. So he'd left me alone for a while until recently. Even though I'd technically retired, Olympus needed my help when Vitto opened his newest venture right here in Cobalt Bay. He went upmarket and opened Moon Lady which seemed like a bar on the surface but in truth, it was an auction house for very young men and women he'd handpicked and primed to be sold to very discerning and deeply-pocketed customers with very singular tastes. They were taken as young as eight, groomed and trained for pleasure until they're finally ready for sale to the highest bidder, as archaic as that sounds."

I swallowed the bitter lump in my throat. "That is fucking sick."

Max's fists curled tightly. "It is. And no one could easily say where the bar's exact location was. Customers devoid of any device would come in by special invite and often be picked up and delivered by Vitto's men in vehicles with no view to the road."

"The night we met, I was getting information from the bar owner's wife who's a distant cousin of Vitto's and had opened the bar with some money from him years ago," Max continued, placing a hand on my bare thigh. "I know it wasn't a good first impression but I was technically working that night, babe."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "Yeah, you were working her alright."

Max laughed. "You can say my methods aren't always appropriate but the woman became very chatty when she got drunk and horny. I'd been flirting with her that whole week each time I went to the bar."

"So she told you where Moon Lady was?" I asked, sounding just a tad bit exasperated.

"Not exactly," Max replied. "I got the name of a guy who could make someone at the Moon Lady know that my friend and I were interested."

My brows shot up. "Which friend?"

"The only other unmarried one," Max said with a smile. "Stellan wasn't thrilled about tagging along but he knew I was onto something important. He doesn't know all the details of my work but he's helped me before on a few different missions. It's handy to not appear like you're a solo renegade."

I winced. "But wouldn't that be putting Stellan at risk?"

Max nodded. "A little bit, yes. But Stellan can take care of himself. That's the only reason I haven't completely detached myself from my friends. Men in our position have enemies. We've got target signs on our back. We've learned to be careful and to use everything we have at our disposal to protect ourselves and the people we love."

Max took my hand and brought it to his lips. "That's what I'm doing right now, Aiko. I'm protecting you."

"I know," I answered, leaning down to softly kiss him on the lips. "Now don't get sidetracked. Tell me the rest of it. You can't leave me hanging here."

He just rolled his eyes and shook his head. "This is the problem with writers. They just have to finish the rest of the story."

I grinned. "You bet we do."

Max smiled and grabbed me around the waist so he could haul me up until I was practically on top of him. I didn't mind.

"Stellan and I got an invite almost right away. Vitto didn't know at this point that I was onto him. All his funds were intact, everything looked good. To him, I was just another client at that time with a notorious reputation and plenty of money to spend. In the two weeks that followed after I left you that morning at the townhouse, Stellan and I got into Moon Lady a couple of times for a supposed look at the goods, mapped out the location from the untraceable tracker and microphone Stellan had built and embedded under the skin just behind our ear, collected enough evidence to turn over to my handlers and convinced Vitto's half-sister to testify against him in exchange for protection and immunity. The place was raided a week later. They were able to rescue a lot of the victims being sold and got Vitto's sister out and into witness protection."

"But he got away."

Max's expression grew grim. "Yes. And I hated that he'd slipped through our fingers. I was about to go and chase him down again when I decided I wouldn't. Not anymore."

My brows furrowed. "Why not?"

Max looked at me, his hand reaching out to cup the side of my face. "Because that night I picked you up for dinner, I've already decided that I can't spend another ten, twenty years of my life trying to make amends for what my family has done. I did what I could to help but it couldn't be my entire life anymore. That short time we were together, I experienced the alternative. I met a woman I couldn't let go. And so my life became something else that night I took you back home for the second time. I took you home for good."

My heart twisted and I leaned close to hold him. "Oh, Max. I had no idea what kind of choices you were faced with at that time. I always thought you were fighting something but I never knew how tightly your hands were bound."

Max ran his fingers down my hair and curled them around my back soothingly. "I didn't want you to get hurt but I couldn't walk away. It was selfish but I would do it all over again."

I lifted my head to smile at him. "I would, too."

"I'm afraid it's not over yet, Aiko," Max said, softly curling a lock of my hair around his fingers. "After the raid, I'd turned over what I had on Vitto. His funds had been seized but I knew he still had international holdings secured for him by Yolan Bossard. That's what we came to Zurich for."

"Oh, fuck," I groaned, knowing where this was headed.

"Yolan and I have always had an uneasy alliance," Max explained. "I didn't want to be publicly linked to the case but I forced Yolan's hand, making him fully aware of the fallout on his part if he helped Vitto. Things are different now in our world. Governments have deeper reach, even across countries. The industry itself wants to keep the riffraff out. The less unflattering attention we get, the better for business. Yolan disdained me for being a sell-out but he was cooperative at first—until I nearly beat him to death for assaulting you."

I grimaced. "Yeah, that probably didn't motivate him to keep cooperating.

"In what I can only assume was a fit of rage, he not only gave Vitto access to money, he also tipped him off about me," Max ground out, his jaw clenched in anger. "It doesn't completely compromise me as Yolan only thinks I just handed Vitto's money over to the feds when they came looking but it definitely means he thinks I'm working with them on this case."

"And that's why he came after me," I supplied, rubbing my fingers through my suddenly throbbing temple because God knows how fucked-up this whole thing was.

"Yes and he called me on my bluff when he tried to run you over," Max said in a quiet but savage tone. "So I'm done playing. I've released a mountain of evidence against Yolan both about his personal and professional conduct to the investigators. In his tantrum, he forgot just how much I knew. His board members were made aware that if they didn't help, they'd be fined and prosecuted. They practically dumped Yolan on our lap and he's now starting to talk about his most recent interactions with Vitto so we can hopefully track him down and take him in."

I stayed still for an endless moment, weighing all the facts in my head, realizing the risks and the options that came with them.

Ultimately, I saw no real other way if we were to live as normal a life together as we possibly could after this. Because there was no alternative ending here. We would be together, normal or not.

I looked at him. "And how long before the chase ends, Max?"

Max wrapped his arms around my waist and pressed me close against him, a heavy sigh escaping him.

There were a lot of reasons to be afraid but I found that I wasn't.

"Not long, love. Not long, I hope."

***

So, what do you guys think? 

It's a bit outlandish, I know, but I wanted Max to have a side to him that people had never seen and will never see. 

The first part of the chapter has an unintentional parallel scene with TMMM. Just noticed that when I was editing.

This chapter has the heaviest exposition. I've rewritten it several times to try to maybe not put them all in here but because so much of the situation has evolved since Aiko came into the picture, I couldn't really piece out the explanation over several chapters.

And speaking of chapters, we have four left. It's kind of crazy to be so close to the end. I've had their story half-plotted out for years so it hadn't been too hard to write. Stellan's though might not be posted for a while because I'm still figuring out the plot. 

Anyway, thanks so much for reading. Makes sure to vote and comment!

PS. The song doesn't really have much to do with the chapter but it's new and I love it and it's very timely for the things happening in the world right now.

XOXO,

Ninya

♪♪♪ Chapter Soundtrack: What About Us by Pink ♪♪♪

We are searchlights, we can see in the dark
We are rockets, pointed up at the stars
We are billions of beautiful hearts
And you sold us down the river too far

What about us?
What about all the times you said you had the answers?
What about us?
What about all the broken happy ever afters
What about us?
What about all the plans that ended in disaster?
What about love? What about trust?
What about us?

We are problems that want to be solved
We are children that need to be loved
We were willing, we came when you called
But man you fooled us, enough is enough

What about us?
What about all the times you said you had the answers?
What about us?
What about all the broken happy ever afters?
What about us?
What about all the plans that ended in disaster?
What about love? What about trust?
What about us?

What about us?
What about all the plans that ended in disaster?
What about love? What about trust?
What about us?