“You have nothing to be embarrassed about,” Ed quickly countered, and Max huffed a soft laugh.
“I started life as a con artist and a thief,” Max replied flatly, and then met Soren’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “No offense.”
“None taken,” he immediately answered, sounding as if he truly didn’t care.
When he glanced at Ed, Max’s smile wilted. “I spent most of my life outside of the US. By the time I was ten, I could speak eight languages because we were constantly moving. My parents taught me hundreds of ways to con people out of their money. Some of it was the sad, lost-kid routine who needed a few euros for the train. Other times, it was selling fake artifacts and goods to tourists. They also liked me because I was small and scrawny, allowing me to fit into places no one else could reach.”
“They expected both you and your sister to do these things?” Ed asked.
Max grunted. “It was all we knew. We didn’t think much about whether it was right or wrong. It just was. Right up there with fire is hot and water is wet. We had to make a buck.”
“How old were you when you got out?” Ed looked as though he wanted to pull Max into his lap and hold him. He really wanted Ed to do that, but Ed didn’t have a lot of room in his seat to begin with, and Max preferred his cuddles without an audience.
“Twelve. My parents had me break into a warehouse that was supposed to have a bunch of artifacts in transit to the London Museum. They said the security system was down, but I’m guessing there was a silent alarm because the cops arrived in record time.” He paused and released a long sigh that sounded as if he’d been holding it in for more than twenty years. Time to let go of the last of that frustration. “My family did nothing to break me out or rescue me. When it was clear I was on my own, I admitted to who I was and they sent me to the US, where I entered the system.”
“Fuck. Max,” Ed whispered.
He immediately straightened and grabbed Ed’s hand in his again. “No! This is where the story gets a happy ending. I escaped my family and lucked into being fostered by a retired college history professor. He’d never married and wanted some companionship in his so-called golden years. Carl was great. His mind was sharp, and he kept active. He pushed me to use all the information that my parents had shoved into my brain, to do something productive with my life. I thought I might make up for some of the horrible things I’d done.”
Ed turned his hand under Max’s and squeezed his fingers. “Well, I’m glad you got out and found a better life.”
“Yeah, I mean, I still know a lot of shady people, and I’ll admit that sometimes I get information through some questionable means.” He paused and groaned. Ed was so nice, he felt compelled to come completely clean. “And I might have bribed a few difficult officials over the years. But I have not stolen a single thing since I got caught! And I’ve done nothing to hurt another archeologist.”
Soren chuckled. “No one in this car or even listening over the earpieces will throw stones. None of us are squeaky clean, and we don’t expect you to be.”
Max huffed a shaky laugh as a weight he hadn’t realized had been sitting on his chest suddenly lifted. “Thanks. I’ve never looked for any of my family members. I changed my last name when I graduated from high school. There was never any doubt in my mind that I was going into archeology, and I didn’t want any ties to my family. If someone were to discover that I was related to those criminals, my reputation would be ruined, even if there was never a whisper of evidence that I did anything wrong. They would talk.”
“We will not let that happen,” Ed proclaimed in such a forceful tone, Max half expected it to be accompanied by a crack of thunder. “We’re going to keep you safe, and you’re going to locate the tomb.”
“But things are definitely more complicated now. There’s that Mironov asshole and his gang,” Soren broke in.
“And now we’ve got Max’s sister in the mix,” Alexei added. “Looks like it’s time for Kairo to work his hacking magic and dig up all the dirt he can on these people. At least so we know how many people we’re up against and how well-armed they are.”
Max took a breath to apologize for all the trouble he’d dropped into their laps, but the words were stopped in his throat by Ed clapping his enormous hands and rubbing them together. His face was lit up like a kid on Christmas morning.