Sex and the Billionaire Crime Boss - Season 4

Ch. 6: Love Isn't Everything

"Sure," I tell Max, "I'll let you know if Dylan gives me any trouble."

There's silence on the other end of the phone. Maybe my glib assurance was too glib, because apparently Max isn't buying it.

"What aren't you telling me, Hadley?"

"Nothing. I'm sure it wasn't even him." Even after what's happened, I can't lie to Max.

"What wasn't even him?" Max asks, and I can tell he's making an effort not to sound exasperated.

I sigh. "Look, I don't think it was anything. It's just, I worked later than I intended to tonight, and when I came out of my office all the lights in the hallways were off, and I just got a little spooked. I thought there was someone in the office, following me, but then I walked right into Steve, the guy from IT, and we went through the whole office. No one was there." I let out another shaky breath.

"So I think it was just nerves. My imagination running away from me." I'm hoping he doesn't press for more, because I really don't want to tell him about Dylan trying to pull me into the elevator after the luncheon meeting. I'm afraid of what his reaction would be, and what he might do. Max threatening Dylan could just play right into Dylan's hands.

And Max doing worse than threaten is something I don't want to think about.

"Hadley," Max says, "if you ever feel like you're in danger, I want you to do two things. Call me. And run."

"In what order?" I ask, trying to make a joke of it.

"That would depend on the situation. I want you to trust your instincts. If you think there's something off, then there probably is." His voice is serious.

"Now you're scaring me."

"That's not a bad thing."

"You really think Dylan could be violent? Just because I messed up his little plan to embarrass my grandfather?"

"I don't know what his agenda is, or his motives," Max says. "But I intend to find out."

"I'd rather you just left it alone. Max, don't you understand that just talking on the phone with you hurts me?"

His voice is softer now. "It was never my intention to hurt you, Hadley."

"But that's not stopping you. You're going along with Gino's plan and you're hurting not just me but Angelica. You have to know she doesn't want to marry you. She doesn't love you. She'll never love you." Not like I do.

There's a brief pause before he answers.

"This artist, Benedicto, is as unsuitable for Angelica as I am unsuitable for you."

"Max-"

"Let me finish. I'm very fond of Angelica. Of course I'm not in love with her, but I care about her. I've known her for most of my life, and all of hers. Believe me, the alternative to her marrying me isn't spending her life with Benedicto. It's marrying a man who would make her life a living hell." He pauses. "And when he laid a hand on her - and he would - Vincenzo or I would kill him."

When Max says that, I believe him. I think I've known all along that Max is a man who is capable of killing. That he's probably killed in the past. A chill runs through me as I remember Max telling me how Vincenzo, when he was only 19, brutally killed the people who murdered Angelica's parents. An arranged marriage that apparently had worked out okay for Gino's sister, until a mob vendetta cost her and her husband their lives.

But this whole situation with Angelica is just insane.

"It doesn't make any sense, Max. You have to marry her so that she isn't handed over to some other mafia family? This isn't the early 1900's. Women aren't property that can be bartered in a business deal."