I cursed internally, having hoped he wouldn’t order Aaron to do it, yet knowing he would. I could only hope Aaron wouldn’t strip me of the knives I had, too.

Aaron made quick work, patting me down efficiently, making a big show of pulling the gun out of my waistband, but not going for either of the knives I had on me.

“You know, I have to say I’m surprised by you,” Max said. “We figured someone was helping our little Evie, someone within the ranks. And with you disappearing over the last few days, all clues pointed straight to you. And yet even with all that, I gotta tell ya, Kid … I was sure it wasn’t you. Honestly didn’t think you had the stones for something like this. Going up against the head of the whole fucking crew? Your brother’s gotten stupid since he walked away if he sent you on this suicide mission.”

“Not going to be a suicide mission at all.”

“Oh, yeah? What makes you say that?”

“Because it would only be a suicide mission if you want all the evidence of you embezzling twelve point seven million to get sent to every major news outlet and the fucking cops. But you know what? It’d almost be worth it just to see you go down like that.”

He laughed then, a cold, chilling sound, and reached down to open his drawer. I tensed, ready to go for my bigger knife if forced to.

What he held up, though, wasn’t a gun. But it was something equally chilling.

“This evidence, you mean?” Between his thumb and forefinger, he twisted a tiny black tube back and forth. One I wouldn’t have taken a second glance at merely a week ago. But now, today, seeing it had my face draining of color, my heart thudding against my chest, my skin burning up. Because Evie had shown me that same little black object a couple days ago. The one she’d managed to hide for five years. The one that had been tucked safely away in her purse when I’d left her with Gage.

Every possibility went through my mind as to how he’d have that here, each worse than the last. I wanted to glance at Aaron, see if I could read anything in his expression, but I didn’t dare. “Where’d you get that?”

Max hummed and flipped the object between his fingers, back and forth, back and forth. “It wasn’t easy, I can tell you that. Your Evie is a tricky one. And, of course, with her working with two guys who were once in the crew, well … Made shit difficult for me. Speaking of, do I have you to thank for sending Frankie back to me looking like a goddamn MMA fighter?”

When we’d left Frankie at Evie’s house all those days ago, I hadn’t bothered to pay any attention at all to what kind of damage I’d done, too focused on getting Evie out of there. Couldn’t say I was devastated to hear he’d taken a beating, especially when it was delivered by my hands. “He’s lucky I didn’t send him back looking like a fucking corpse.”

Max let a smile creep over his face. “See, that’s what I liked about you, Kid. You always did enjoy the physical aspect of the job, didn’t you? And you were damn good at it. But you never had the heart for it. Not like Frankie. He’s a complete fuckup, can’t get his head out of his ass, could never stand against guys like you or Ghost, but he’s a sick son of a bitch who loves doing the kind of fucked-up shit I have no problem sending his way.”

“I don’t need a history lesson on Frankie. I know the asshole.”

“Do you?” he asked with a chilling smile on his face. “Do you know what he’s been up to the last twenty-four hours, then? Seems he redeemed himself a little for that botch on the boat five years ago. And not managing to get her at her house.” Max’s hands clenched on the desk, the only sign that he was well and truly pissed off about those hiccups. “Even with two guys helping her, she was bound to slip up sooner or later. I just didn’t think she’d practically fall right into our laps.” He tipped his chin toward Aaron as he leaned forward, his forearms braced on the desk. I wanted to turn and lock eyes with Aaron as he walked by, wanted to get a read on what the hell was going on, but I didn’t dare look away from Max. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, what he was going on about. And what it meant that he had something of Evie’s here with him.

There was a scuffle then, the sound of muffled grunts, and my heart stopped at what I saw coming through that doorway when I turned. Aaron followed behind as Frankie dragged Evie in, one fist wrapped tightly around her hair, the other on the hands bound behind her back. Her mouth was duct-taped, her hair was matted with a dark red stain on her hairline, and there was a bruise blooming on her cheek.

“She wouldn’t give any information, so I had to rough her up a bit. She’s a mouthy little bitch, isn’t she?” Frankie said with a smile.

I didn’t even need my knife. I was going to kill him with my bare hands.

I took half a step toward them before Max cut in, saying, “Uh-uh,” at the same time Frankie’s hand tightened on her hair, yanking her head back. She tried not to make any noise, tried not to show how it was affecting her, but I heard a muffled grunt with each tug of Frankie’s fist against her hair.

Darting my eyes to every inch of her body, I took stock of everything else, noticing the wide rip in the neckline of her sweatshirt, part of the top of her bra showing. She had bruises on her neck in the shape of fingers, and my nostrils flared, my hands clenching into fists at my sides. It took everything in me to stay where I was, not to move forward, not to help her … get her to safety.

“Notice those bruises on her neck, did you?” Max asked. “Seems Frankie’s got a little pent-up aggression in him. Especially after your little bitch head-butted him. That got him a bit more worked up than he already was.”

Frankie’s nose was darkening at the top, the skin below his left eye a deep purple, and it nearly brought a smile to my face because that was my girl.

“Now that I’ve showed my hand, Kid, I think you can see why I said this was a suicide mission for you. You’re both here and we have the evidence. You don’t have a lot of leverage.”

It was my turn to laugh then, not taking my eyes off Evie. There was no fucking way I was turning my back on Frankie. Even with Aaron there. I wasn’t sure I could trust him. Not now. Not after seeing he’d let Frankie alone with Evie. Part of me wondered if something had happened. If something had changed along the way. If maybe Max had promised him a cut of that twelve million he’d stolen in exchange for getting information from us. I’d known Aaron for a long time—he was the only guy in the entire crew besides me who Gage trusted, but money made people do a lot of fucked-up shit. And when that money was in the millions …

Still watching Evie, I said to Max, “If you think that’s the only copy, you’re a fucking idiot.”

“Of course I know that’s not the only copy.” He must have made a gesture because suddenly Aaron stepped over to grab a chair from the wall and placed it next to where Evie and Frankie were.

“Go stand guard at the front,” Aaron said to Frankie as he reached for Evie.

Frankie’s mouth drew back in a snarl, and his hand tightened in her hair, drawing her head back until her neck was taut and her eyes were wide. “What? No fucking way. I was promised I’d get to kill this cunt.”

“You also told Max that you’d already killed her. That she was dead and he didn’t have anything to worry about. And now look at the mess you’ve got us in. I said to go to the fucking front unless you want to join her on your knees in front of me with a gun pointed at your head.” Aaron’s voice was steady and calm, with no inflection, but he radiated authority. I didn’t think anyone in the room doubted just how serious he was, and I almost wished Frankie was stupid enough to spout off more. I’d love nothing more than to see him bleeding out at my feet. The only regretful part would be me not having a hand in it.