Rialto (Unbreakable Bonds 8)

Their shoes clicked and scraped on the pavement as they headed to the next group. It was four men standing together. They were all short and slight in frame, giving Ian a glimmer of hope, but also a sick twisting of his stomach. Even if none of them were Max, were any of them former Jagger victims? Would he even recognize them if they were?

One of them turned so that light from a nearby streetlamp splashed across his face. His blond hair hung over one eye and he wore a threadbare T-shirt and was shivering in the cold. But Ian knew without a doubt that it was Max.

Ian hurried forward before the guy could take off, walking right up to him and getting in his personal space. “Max?”

Something flashed in his bloodshot brown eyes—surprise, recognition, and even rage—but it was all gone as quickly as it appeared. “You got the wrong guy, buddy,” he muttered.

Up close, he looked worse than he had in the photographs. Dark circles rimmed his eyes, and his lips were pinched into a tight line. Cheap cologne wafted up from him, but it wasn’t strong enough to mask the stomach-churning body odor and hints of sex. Fuck, he’d been so pretty, so sweet a dozen years ago. Was this the effect of life on the streets or Jagger or both?

Hollis gripped the sleeve of Ian’s jacket and tried to pull him back a couple of steps, but Ian shrugged out of his grasp. He didn’t want to back off. They’d found Max. They could help him. “I don’t think so. You’re Max Hodgkins. I’ve been trying to find you.”

“Don’t know no Max.”

Ian clenched his teeth for a second, hating the words that were about to tumble from his lips. “I know you remember me. I remember you. Jagger’s Max.” His voice softened on those last two words as he struggled to get them up his throat and past his teeth. They were too big and too ugly, but he had to get through to Max.

The guy’s lip curled and the rage returned to his eyes. “So what? Yeah, I know who you are. Jagger’s treasured little prince. What the hell do you want?”

“So you do remember me.”

“Jagger’s favorite. The Untouchable One. Hard to forget something like that.”

Ian swallowed his own swell of rage at Max’s words. He was trying to get under Ian’s skin, make him angry, hurt him with his words. Max knew Ian had suffered while trapped in Jagger’s compound. He’d taken his turn with Jagger’s men when he’d fallen from favor. He’d suffered at the hands of Dwight Gratton. He had nothing to prove to Max.

“Looks like you got all fancy now,” Max continued in Ian’s silence. “Wanna experience things from the other side now? Want me to suck your dick? Twenty bucks.” He managed to both sneer and wink at Ian at the same time. “Sorry. No freebies for old times’ sake. Some of us gotta work for a living.”

“That’s not why I’m here,” Ian snapped, barely pushing down his revulsion.

“Then get the fuck out of here. I’m working.”

Ian grabbed Max’s too-thin shoulder as he started to turn his back on Ian and forced him to remain facing toward Ian. “Are you the one who hit me? Who’s trying to hurt my restaurant?”

Max’s eyes narrowed, but something in the twist of his smirk made Ian’s gut clench. He jerked his shoulder, pulling free of Ian’s touch. “You’re nothing to me. Why would I do that?”

Ian couldn’t tell if he was telling the truth or not. The rage and hatred pouring off him was suffocating, but that didn’t necessarily mean that he’d done anything to attack Ian in the past. It could just be an old hatred bubbling to the surface.

Hollis gently laid his hand on Ian’s shoulder and pulled him back a couple of steps. This time, Ian let him as he became more aware of his surroundings. Waited quietly, watching. So were a few of the people around Max. One guy in red skinny jeans popped his gum, gaze locked on them. Another of the guys pulled out a pocketknife and started rubbing it with the edge of his T-shirt. Hollis’s hand tightened on Ian’s shoulder as if he were preparing to pull Ian behind his larger bulk to protect him.

True alarm crept through Ian, and he realized just how dangerous this whole situation was. He turned his attention to Max, his heart ramping up at the hostility blazing in Max’s eyes. “I know you hate me—”

“I don’t think nothing of you, you arrogant shit! You haven’t changed at all. Still think you’re the most important person around.”

“I don’t.” Ian reached into his pocket and the guy flinched. “It’s okay, I’m just getting my card.” He pulled it out and held it up to Max as a car slowed down, then took off behind him. “Take it.”