Page 22 of Maximum Risk (The Andrades 3)
Luke, the one who normally acted as peacemaker in their family, was standing off to one side, as silent as the other two. Max had told himself his brothers would fare perfectly fine without him that evening, but Tara was right—they each looked lost in their own way.
Not knowing what to say, Max went to stand beside Luke, dragging Tara along with him. Together they silently watched as the last of the guests left.
Julia was the first to break the silence. “How about I make some coffee?”
Gio leaned down and kissed her forehead. “I’d love some.”
Rena stepped away from Nick and said, “I’ll help you.” Then she looked across to Tara. “Would you like to join us?”
Tara hesitated. She looked up at Max with a clear question in her eyes. Will you be here when I get back?
Max nodded curtly, and Tara walked off with the other two women, apparently satisfied with his answer. A long painful silence dragged on. Max had told himself he wouldn’t be drawn back into the emotional roller coaster that was his family. He’d sworn that, after trying to reconcile with his brothers at Stephan’s wedding only to come home to the fighting and accusations that had followed, he was finally done.
Still, when he looked at his brothers through Tara’s eyes, he felt that old familiar yearning. It was sad to have three brothers and not feel close to any of them. He thought back to how Gio had come to his hotel and said he loved him. Max would bet his fortune Luke had put him up to it, but he’d still said it. And why? So Max would attend his family dinner? All three of his brothers had gone to great lengths to make sure Max was here.
Max notoriously skipped family events. He hadn’t come home for Nick’s engagement party with the Andrades. Tonight he regretted not being there for Nick, but at the time he’d felt perfectly justified choosing sanity over that gathering. There wasn’t much he liked about himself when he was around his family.
What kind of son doesn’t want to rush to the sickbed of his mother? The same kind who cynically wonders if she paid off her doctor to call simply out of spite because Gio hadn’t invited her.
Patrice Stanfield always had an agenda. What was tonight about? Max asked himself how the evening might have ended if their mother hadn’t collapsed. What had Patrice hoped to prevent from happening? Max cleared his throat. Without looking at Gio, Max asked, “Gio, do you have a wedding date?”
Gio shook his head. “No.”
“As long as it’s not the same day as Nick’s, my schedule is flexible,” Max said, his voice carefully neutral.
Gio nodded slowly. His eyes misted, but he didn’t say anything.
Nick stepped over and gave Max a playful pat on the back. “I’m proud of you, little brother.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Max said, but he softened his words with a half-smile.
Luke interjected, “Does this mean you’ve all changed your mind about going to see Mother with me?”
“No,” Max, Nick, and Gio said in unison.
Between gritted teeth Gio said, “I didn’t invite her because I didn’t want her to ruin tonight. If she actually did collapse again, why wouldn’t she want us to go see her? Why have her doctor call and tell us not to come? It seems a bit staged to me.”
Nick looked across to Luke. “I have to agree with him. Did anyone tell her about this dinner?”
Luke made a face. “Maddy, probably.”
Gio rubbed one of his temples. “That’s all it would take.”
Luke clearly refused to believe his mother was capable of that level of deception. “Mother may exaggerate her illness to get sympathy, but do you really think she would sabotage tonight?”
Nick grabbed one of Luke’s arms and gave it a shake. “Luke, wake up. None of us thinks she’s really all that sick. If she were she’d let you see her medical records. Why won’t she? And why won’t her doctor tell you anything of substance? What will it take, Saint Luke, for you to see that Mother would go to any length to hurt us when she’s not getting what she wants? She tried to buy off Julia. She threatened Rena. I don’t know why she can’t be happy for any of us, but her pattern is clear. Yes, she is very capable of this level of vindictiveness.”
Gio added quietly, “Luke, it took me a long time to see Mother for who she really is, but I agree with Nick.”
Luke took a step back and shook his head. “I can’t see her that way. I’m sorry. I’m sure a lot of that was a misunderstanding we can clear up with her later, when she feels better.”
Nick looked skyward and raised his hands as if requesting help from above. “She’s never going to feel better because she’s not really sick.”
Luke held firm to his opinion. “I can neither agree with you nor deny what you’re saying if I can’t see her.”
Nick countered, “I doubt seeing her would help you. When it comes to Mother, Luke, you see what you want to see and nothing else.”
“This is why I hate coming home. Nothing ever changes,” Max said, then regretted being that honest. They had had similar conversations a hundred times before. He didn’t want to fight that night.
All four fell back into a long and heavy silence.
Nick let out an audible sigh. “That’s not true. Mother didn’t win tonight. We’re all still here, Max.”
With that the four of them fell back into silence and waited for the women to return.
Chapter Ten
Tara secured her seatbelt and waited for Max to start the car engine. The air inside the car was cold enough she could see her breath, but she wasn’t going to mention it. They had stayed an hour after the rest of the guests had gone, and she was still trying to figure out what that meant as far as where she and Max stood—and how their night would end.
Max hadn’t said much to her as they’d ridden down the elevator to the garage. He and his brothers had seemed to come to a sort of truce, but Tara couldn’t say Max was in a good mood.
She wasn’t feeling that jovial herself. Tara was still feeling guilty about how easily Julia and Rena had welcomed her into their group. They had both said how grateful they were to her for convincing Max to stay and seemed genuinely happy she was with Max.
Tara didn’t have the heart to tell them what she and Max had was nothing like the relationships they were both in. It wasn’t something she enjoyed reminding herself of, but she had to. It would be too easy to forget what Max had said the first time she’d met him. He didn’t do relationships. They weren’t dating. They were having what Brigitte would describe as healthy, consensual, casual sex. No expectations. No promises.
Wishing things were different didn’t change the facts. Not when it came to Maddy’s family, and not when it came to Max. None of this was ever meant to be anything more than temporary. I was supposed to get in, get info, and get paid. And, having failed at that, I was going to give in to my wild side for a night and make some memories to carry me through until I found a real relationship.
No wonder Brigitte doesn’t stick around to talk to her leftovers. Casual sex sucks when you start caring about the other person. When, no matter what you try to tell yourself, you realize just sex isn’t what you want.
I can’t sleep with Max again.
Tara sneaked a long look at Max. He was staring straight ahead at the road, shifting the gears forcefully, and looking like he was a million miles away from her in his head. It doesn’t look like I’ll have to come up with an excuse not to. I’d say that ship has sailed. He probably can’t wait to drop me off at my apartment. Oh, wait—I should tell him I can’t go back there.
It was only then that Tara noted they weren’t headed toward Murray Hill. “Where are we going, Max?”
“To the airport.”
“Of course,” Tara said automatically, then repeated his answer in her head. “Why?”
“I have something I want to show you.”
“Okay,” Tara said slowly while her mind raced with possibilities of what that might be. “I’m just going to throw this out there, but most people ask
if someone wants to fly away somewhere with them before driving off to the airport.”
He pulled to the side of the street and turned in his seat to look at her. His eyes were burning with an emotion she couldn’t label. “Do you want me to take you home?”
Tara thought about what was going on in her apartment that evening and shook her head. She could ask Max to drop her off at a hotel, but the idea of being alone after everything that had happened was depressing. She couldn’t figure out Max’s mood or if flying her somewhere meant he was still planning a wild night of lovemaking. Just the thought of being with him again had Tara’s heart thudding wildly in her chest. Didn’t I just tell myself I couldn’t do this? “What are we doing, Max?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know,” he said harshly. Then he took her face between both of his and kissed her deeply, hotly, until both of them were shaking with need for each other. “Do you want to come with me or not?”
“Yes,” Tara whispered, keeping the first response that had come to her head to herself. Oh, I want to come with you. Now. Later. As many times as we can manage to make that happen.
He turned away, shifted his car roughly, and pulled back into traffic as if nothing had happened. As if he hadn’t just set her whole world upside down with his kiss.
