Maximus

They’d made it out of the mop closet, down the stairs, and into the parking lot without being stopped, much to their surprise. Once there they’d finally doffed the stupid costumes. He’d wanted to rip his off, but Haley had admonished him, reminding him that someone else would have to pay for that to be fixed.

Feeling chagrined at the reminder that he’d already ruined her life, and didn’t need to do so for anyone else, he carefully removed the costume and piled it neatly in the cleanest part of the garage he could find. He hoped that nobody else would get in trouble, except perhaps for wondering why it had been moved down there in the first place.

Then she’d ordered him into her car, and they’d left. He’d breathed a sigh of relief at that until he’d had to sit quietly in the vehicle as Haley tried to kill him. At least, he was positive that was her ultimate goal, even if she professed to just be “driving, and to leave her alone, she knows how to drive in the city.” He sincerely doubted that, and resolved to have Mila give her a lesson or two on vehicle-handling. And braking. And…just about everything.

Only feeling five to ten years older than his actual thirty-eight years, he practically flung himself out of the vehicle the instant she’d pronounced that they were there. Wherever that was. He hadn’t been paying any attention to their destination, just bracing himself on one near-miss accident after another.

“Oh get up,” she snapped at him, her body language making it clear she thought he was overreacting.

“Sorry. It’s just the ground is shaking.”

“It is?” she asked, hands on her hips, face tight. “Why can’t I feel it then?”

“Umm, I think it was really quite localized.”

“So, the ground is shaking so intensely under you that you can’t stand up, but it’s not shaking ten feet away, where I am?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

Haley snorted and came to stand where he was currently getting back to his feet.

“Hmm, weird. I can’t feel it,” she said, deadpan.

Maximus looked around at the ground. “Hmm, interesting. It must have stopped.”

“How convenient,” came the droll reply.

“Indeed.” He got to his feet. “See, not shaking anymore.”

“Right. I think you’re just a wuss when it comes to being in a car.” Her grin turned wicked. “You’re just a big chicken about it.”

He opened his mouth to protest, but she spoke first.

“Bawk bawk, Maximus.”

Before he could recover she turned and started to walk away, heading for the residential buildings in front of him.

Had he just been called a chicken?

“Was that a reference to—”

“Yep,” she called over her shoulder.

“When am I going to live that one down?” he asked, striding forward to catch up with her.

“What, using a giant neon-orange chicken suit to escape the police? Oh, I don’t know,” she said mischievously. “I might let it slide in a few weeks’ time. But everyone else?”

“What do you mean…everyone else?” he asked dangerously.

“You don’t think the police won’t reveal how we escaped?” she asked, pushing her way through a little black wrought-iron fence, the gate on it swinging crazily from the sole remaining hinge.

He frowned at the unrepaired fence, his attention moving from that, to the windows of the building ahead, all of them covered with bars. He saw a playground to his right, but all the swings were missing, and part of it was covered in black marks, like it had been the victim of a fire that didn’t burn it down.

“Where are we?” he asked suspiciously, staying protectively close to her side as he looked around, realizing that everything was in disrepair. The paint was peeling off of the building, and the lawn was all overgrown on either side of the cracked walkway as they approached the entrance of their apparent destination.

“Uh, this is where I live,” Haley said awkwardly.

“You live here?” he repeated. His eyes were already scanning the area, taking in any potential threats, and finding themselves overloaded. A group of youths in wild-colored clothing were lounging idly in one corner, trying to pretend like they weren’t looking at Haley. His vision took on a shade of red as he imagined the way they normally must have eyed the gorgeous brunette as she walked to and from this dump every morning and evening. He wanted to stride over there now and wipe the not-so-well-hidden smirks off their faces. But he couldn’t leave her alone. There were others around as well. Two older men on a first floor balcony, smoking something illicit and drinking constantly were a threat. So was the young adult and his crew lounging against an old silver low-slung car in the nearby parking lot, heavy bass emerging from the obviously modified vehicle’s audio system.

Maximus bared his teeth in silent challenge to all of them, his arms flexing subconsciously as his fingers curled into fists. He dared any of them to come near her again, or to make any sort of remark. If the two men on the balcony thought they were out of reach of his wrath, they would find themselves rather astonished at the jumping capabilities of a shifter.

“What are you doing?” Haley asked, holding open the doorway as she stared back at him.

“Having a discussion,” he replied, rolling his neck and walking forward into the building, content that everyone around had gotten the message. It was pretty clear after all: Stay away from Haley.

Or else.

“A discussion with whom?” she asked, eyeing him sidelong as if evaluating his sanity.

“Everyone,” he said dismissively, letting his body language indicate that she should drop it, that whatever it was, it was past.

“Whatever you say,” she told him with a shrug, gesturing to the right at the elevators.

He didn’t care if she understood him. She didn’t have to.

It was a male thing.

A pained chime grated out from the elevator speaker, announcing with a lame sound that their ride was here. Maximus stared at the wood-paneled interior. The light-brown colored box was cracked, peeling, missing entire chunks. The tile on the floor was browned and faded, stained with a million things. At least one of the darker spots he was positive was blood.

“How long have you lived here?” he asked, trying not to sound overprotective or worried.

“Nearly three years,” she admitted as she punched in the button that had once been marked 4. It didn’t work. She hit it again, holding it down until the elevator finally started moving. At no point did the button light up.

He was about to say something when he noticed that there was another button, this one missing entirely. Instead there were two wires sticking out, though they didn’t touch.

“Does whoever lives on the”—he paused for a moment to look at the nearby buttons to see which floor it was—“seventh floor, really have to cross those wires to get it to go there?”

Haley nodded.

Maximus didn’t say anything else. He didn’t have to. It was obvious that he didn’t approve of Haley living in such conditions. He wanted to tell her to move out, that she would come stay with him, that she wasn’t allowed to live like that while with him.

But she wasn’t with him. Heck, he wasn’t with her. Was he? A wave of confusion swept over him as he tried to decide just what was going on between the two of them. Now that things were calm, the fast-paced adrenaline of the morning was wearing off and he was able to think a little more clearly. Which of course, muddied the whole picture. Earlier he’d been absolutely certain that she was his mate. That that was the way it was, and there was no doubt about it. Now that he had a moment to think without police jumping at him, his doubts began to rise up.

Why would someone as amazing in so many ways as Haley be fated to be his mate? People like him just didn’t get so lucky. He’d done…things, in his past life. Or present life, but before everything had gotten muddied by the war, his and his brothers’ arrest by their own kind, then being broken out by the Institute, only to then be rescued from the Institute. Then the little private war they’d waged against them. It was confusing, and truth be told, he didn’t really know what to make of it all.

Then he’d gone and gotten snatched up by the Institute again, beaten and tortured until a cunning plan by his younger brother Kassian had freed him from their clutches. It had been a whirlwind few months, that was for sure.

The elevator shuddered to a stop, and the door squealed the entire way as it opened. Haley saw the look he gave it, and just sighed. “Honestly, I don’t even notice it anymore,” she said.

Once again, he had no response, still stunned by the squalor in which she lived, and caught up in the thoughts going on in his head. He followed her down the hallway, waiting until she opened the door and went inside. He paused, looking to the left and right, but there was nobody there, no one lurking in the shadows, hiding until he was gone. It was all clear. Maximus walked inside, closing the door behind him. His eyes quickly surveyed her apartment for any threats, and then, detecting nothing, he turned to do the deadbolt and any other locks she had installed. He scanned the door, searching for them.

“You don’t have any other locks on the door?” he asked in astonishment.

“What? Oh, um, no?” she replied sheepishly. “I keep meaning to do so, but…well, I just don’t.”

Maximus inhaled sharply, opening his mouth to say something, to tell her how stupid she was, that she should know better. That living somewhere like this was not good for a woman as gorgeous as she was. A warning flash on her face told him that would be a bad idea though.

“You already know what I’m going to say,” he said instead, deflating slowly.

“I’ve been here for closing in on three years, and I’ve not had any problems,” she said defiantly.

He looked at her sternly.

“Okay, so someone tried to break in. Once,” she said with emphasis, as if that made it any better.

It didn’t.

“Someone tried to break in, and you didn’t think to get a deadbolt, or any other locks or…anything?” he asked, trying to contain his anger.

“No, I didn’t.”

“If I’d have been here, nobody would have broken in,” he rumbled.

“Uh-huh,” Haley replied. He suspected she had to refrain from rolling her eyes at him. “I’m fine,” she reiterated. “It’s a dump, but it’s my dump, okay?”

It wasn’t okay. Not by a long shot. It was so un-okay it was…well, not okay! He was so angry even his mental words were failing him at that point. Haley needed to move out of here, and to a place with him. A nice house with a big yard, near a forest. A place he could build onto over the years as their family grew from just them, to the cubs they would hopefully raise together after—

Stop it. You’re daydreaming again.

“Well, make yourself at home,” she said, gesturing around the apartment.

It wasn’t big. A central room opened up in front of them. There were three doors along the right-hand wall. The middle one he could see tiles; probably the bathroom. The kitchen was nearest, which left the bedroom for the farthest. It smelled funky.

“Uh, yeah. Sure,” he said.

“Hey, we’re on the run now together,” she said. “May as well make the most of it.”

“Right. On the run.” His mind was trying to tell him something about that. Something important. “Why do I get the feeling we’re missing something about that?”

“Something about…what?”

“The fact that we’re on the run.”

“Besides the fact that it’s the police we’re trying to avoid? You know, the ones who serve and protect and all that. The law,” she emphasized.

He snorted softly as she crossed her arms, still standing in the middle of the entryway. She knew that the police weren’t as they seemed. That Longhorne’s PD seemed to have found its way into the Institutes pocket. Considering the huge organization seemed to be headquartered in the small town—though to his shifter senses it was huge—it only made sense they’d bought off the local authorities. But just because she knew it intellectually, didn’t mean she’d accepted it emotionally.

“Yes, besides that,” he replied.

“Ummm,” she said, thinking.

What was he missing? They were doing something wrong. Or they had forgotten something. Maybe it was something they needed to do right away? Maximus knew he needed to find a way to send word to his brothers, to tell them that they were okay, before they made their way out to the farm where they had been temporarily staying. Until then, they would stay at Haley’s place and wait for the search for them to be over.

He jerked. That was it!

“I got it!” Haley said almost at the same time.

His eyes met the green-gray irises of hers and he saw the same realization dawning within her.

“They’re going to come here,” she said softly.

“Exactly. We need to go. Now.”

He cursed his own stupidity at thinking coming to her place was a good idea. Of course the police would come there searching for her! They knew who she was, and could find their information.

“Come on,” he said, gesturing to the door. “Let’s get out of here.”

Before they could do anything else, the door thundered beneath a fist hammering on it rapidly. His eyes met hers once more.

They were too late.