“We got them both,” one of the men with guns said to Christian. “Luco and Adrian. Perry says they’ll be lucky to get out of jail before they die with everything they have. Adrian’s lips were pretty loose but Luco got into a shootout with our guys when we cornered him. Guess he thought we had more than we did. But either way, he’s fucked now.”
Max rushed up to Christian’s side and hug tackled him. He looked surprised, then hugged her back. “You came back for us,” she said through tears.
“Actually, I just took the elevator up. You’re the ones who flew here.”
“Shut up. Don’t ruin this, Stones,” Max said against his suit. She sniffled. “I’m really glad you two are back together again. I didn’t know what I was going to do if you guys actually broke things off.” She wiped at her eyes, smiling. “But I did just save both your asses. I should probably go make sure those guys with guns have all the details of my heroic rescue, right?”
“Uh, yeah,” Christian said. “You should go clear that up.”
I felt an awkward lump in my throat. Max thought we had made up? I felt like we were lightyears from making things up. Christian hadn’t just pushed me out of his life, he’d shoved me out of a window and locked it behind me.
Christian waited until Max was gone, then looked back at me. “Listen to me very carefully,” he said. “I’m not telling you this because I expect you to forgive me. I just think it’s safe enough for you to know the truth now.”
I rolled my head back, frustration welling over. My heart was still thumping and my blood was still full of adrenaline from having a gun pointed at me. “Truth?” I asked. “What truth? That I was an idiot for thinking there could be something real between us?”
“Lola,” he said, taking my shoulders and staring me down. “I wanted to make sure you were safe. Adrian Bellamo’s father wanted me to launder money for him. I went to the feds when he told me what he wanted, and I found out he’d been monitoring me with listening devices. I wasn’t going to play his game, but that meant he’d use everything I cared about to hurt me. The only way I thought I could protect you was by making him think we were over. Completely over. I broke things off with you as soon as I found out because I wanted him to hear it was over. Same with telling you to take Max. I wanted both of you off his radar as much as possible.”
I blinked. “W-what? That doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t you just come find me later in a public place and tell me the truth? I would have agreed to pretend. Max, too.”
“I couldn’t take that risk. And I knew we could never last anyway. I figured this was for the best. We could cut things off for real and I wouldn’t have to worry I was putting you in danger.”
I gave his big, dumb chest a hard shove. “Who says that’s your call, asshole?” Christian just stood there looking stupidly gorgeous and unapologetic. I shoved him again. “That wasn’t a rhetorical question.”
“If I had to choose between making you hate me and keeping you safe, I’d choose keeping you safe a thousand times. No matter the cost.”
I glared, bunching my fingers into fists. “Damn it,” I said, finally deflating a little. “You’re lucky that’s actually kind of sweet. But that doesn’t mean I forgive you.”
“Fair enough. I’m prepared to spend as long as it takes making it up to you. But what was that about wanting to tell me how much I meant to you?”
“You lost the privilege of hearing all those sweet words when people started pointing guns at me.”
Christian came closer, taking my hands and meeting my eyes. “There’s something I need to say to you.”
“Okay?”
“As long as I’m the CEO of Stone Financial, there will always be some new threat. Maybe it won’t be men with guns but it could be people wanting to smear my reputation to take what I have. So long as I am who I am, you would never be safe with me. That’s why I had to break things off.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he lifted a finger to my lips, silencing me.
“Which is why I’m going to step down. I couldn’t figure it out. I wanted to have you, but I didn’t see how it would ever work if I was the CEO here. The answer was staring me in the face the whole time. I don’t need both to work. I just needed to decide which was more important to me. And it’s you. It has always been you.”