Max dared to look over his shoulder and glimpsed Ed’s narrowed gaze. It felt like Ed might have suspected there was way more to his trick, but he didn’t ask. They worked their way across the rooftops, giving updates to West and the rest of the team.
As they descended the fire escape to the street, Charlie gave West the signal to pack up and return to the house. Charlie was going to circle to West’s hiding spot and cover the sniper. It was Ed’s job to get Max safely to their sanctuary.
They strolled along the block at a steady pace, trying not to appear as if they were in a hurry, but it wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Max’s heart raced. Even with Ed at his side, it felt like they were sitting ducks. The journal pages were out in the open and could be plucked from their corpses with barely any effort.
A mere two blocks passed under their feet when Ed grabbed his arm and pulled him down a side alley. They wound this way and that until the path became a blur of brick and broken concrete. Ed’s pace was so brisk Max had to jog to keep up. He wanted to demand to know what was going on, but he swallowed the words. If Ed had seen someone following them, he didn’t want to distract the man.
He didn’t know how far they’d gone before Ed shoved him into the deepening shadows and pressed him against the wall. Large hands were braced on either side of his head and Ed leaned forward so that Max couldn’t escape the piercing stare of those light eyes.
“What—” Max started, but Ed cut him off.
“Wait.” Ed reached up and pulled out the earpiece that connected him to the rest of the team. He held it up for a second and made a show of placing it in the center of his palm and closing his hand around it.
Max got it. Right now, what was said was just between the two of them. The rest of the team wasn’t going to know…yet.
“The pieces of the puzzle you’ve given us aren’t fitting right. The picture we’ve been given of an Egyptologist protecting his dig seems…off,” Ed said carefully.
Max swallowed hard, hating that Ed saw it. Fuck, he probably also heard it along with his racing heart.
“I am an Egyptologist. You can ask Dr. Jones. Kairo said that she’s already vouched for me. You can call my university. I have published papers,” Max fired back one thing after another, trying to project an aura of outrage and indignation when all he was feeling was panic.
“I’m not saying you aren’t. Kairo checked all that stuff out while we were searching for you for over a week.” Ed’s voice remained calm in the face of Max’s mounting fear, helping to settle Max when all his instincts were shouting for him to run. “But there is also nothing on you for the first twenty years of your life. And I doubt there’s any archeologist in the world who knows your tricks when it comes to hiding things or having a mapped-out escape route. Didn’t you say that you’d stayed in Cairo for less than a week before leaving for your dig?”
“I-I-I—” Max stammered, but there was nothing coming out. He didn’t know what to say. He had stupidly exposed himself. All his focus had been on getting to the apartment and reclaiming his notes.
Okay, maybe he was being a little cocky. Showing off in front of Ed because he wanted to impress the man. He hadn’t given a single thought to how it would appear to an outsider.
Or worse, to someone who had experience working outside the law.
“Look, you don’t have to tell me a damn thing. I’m just some guy you hired to protect you, right?” One corner of Ed’s mouth kicked up in an easy half grin that did crazy things to Max’s heart while his head argued that Ed was not “some guy.”
“But I would ask that you think about what’s going on. If there is something from your past that would help us deal with this Mironov shit or keep you safe, I would appreciate the heads-up. It would make our job easier, plus it would help to keep my crazy family safe.”
Yeah, that made sense. It wasn’t just Ed’s or Max’s life on the line right now. All the men he’d met in the past couple of days were in danger thanks to him. If he continued to keep things from them, it could increase the risk to them. That wasn’t fair.
Of course, there was a ton of nasty shit from his past that he didn’t want to breathe to another soul if he could help it.
Max nodded, blowing out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “I get it. I don’t want to see any of those guys get hurt, either. I’ll think about what you said. But if you’re not feeling comfortable working with me, you know we can go our separate ways now. I’ve got my notes and the scarab. I can take care of myself. Mironov and his goons have no reason to come after you and your friends.”