Burn Down the Night (Everything I Left Unsaid #3)- Molly O'Keefe Page 0,80
it had been days, really, since I’d filled my stomach. I checked my phone in my pocket for about the hundredth time and then glanced over at Max.
“Nothing,” he said, reading my expression. It didn’t matter how many times I asked, he never got frustrated.
It was very sweet. Probably as sweet as Max got. Though, in truth, Max was a whole lot sweeter than I ever would have thought.
We sat down at a table under an umbrella and I glanced at the sticky plastic menus just to make sure they still served the breakfast I’d loved.
Max, however, opened the menu and started reading. “What’s good?”
“The peach pancakes.”
“Do I look like a guy who eats peach pancakes?” He flipped the inside page. “What are you going to get?”
“Pulled pork eggs Benedict.”
“Yes,” he said and put the menu down. “That sounds awesome.”
“If you get the pancakes, we can share,” I said. It was what Jennifer and I always did. The peach pancakes were really the best kind of breakfast dessert after pulled pork eggs Benedict.
He shot me a caustic look as we both flipped our coffee mugs right side up.
“Hey,” he said, leaning back in his chair with the slightest grimace. “I’ve been thinking.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Hilarious. I think you should go to the authorities.”
“About Lagan?”
He nodded.
“But I told you—the pills…”
“Yeah, but after everything that happened at the club, he’ll be different now. He’ll be suspicious. Armed probably.”
I pressed my finger against the edge of the plastic menu until it hurt. “You’re probably right,” I said. “But if he’s suspicious about me, he’s probably even more suspicious about cops. Who knows the measures he has in place now?”
“Yeah, that’s why you need to stop thinking about the cops.”
“You’ll help me?” I asked, unable to hide my hope. Badass criminal like Max at my back? Yes, please.
“No. I’m not the right help. You need people with real connections. People who understand how hostage situations work. Who would do everything they could to make sure it doesn’t get to the point where the pills or the guns get used.”
A seagull landed on a nearby table, snagged a forgotten hash brown, and made off with it.
“Like FBI?”
“Your aunt told me she knew someone with military connections. Someone who would care if I hurt her,” Max said. “Do you know who she was talking about?”
Eric, I thought. The computer guy with the security company. He was exactly the right guy.
That would require me telling Fern. Admitting what I’d done. Opening myself up for all the judgment she’d heap down upon me. It would require me trusting a whole lot of people and I wasn’t sure I was equipped to do that. I felt like I was being torn in half.
“Jesus, Joan,” he breathed. “Do we have to be so alone all the time?”
It was as if his words blew me back in the chair. They knocked me right over.
“My whole life,” he said, after clearing his throat. “It was Dylan and me. From the second he was born, I kept him safe as best I could. I tried to keep him out of the life. But…we were a team. Just like you and Jennifer, right?”
I nodded, speechless.
“He went to jail for me. I don’t know if you knew that. But he took the rap when we got caught stealing cars so I wouldn’t go to jail. And then once he was inside he took retribution for some shit Dad pulled with a rival club.”
“I know some of it,” I said, feeling like I was watching Max break open his chest and show me his beating heart.
“Right, well, I knew…I knew that when he got out, things had to change. I knew that me keeping him close like that was selfish in a way. He was my brother and I loved him, but me and the stuff I was doing—we were going to drag him down. And I didn’t want that for him. So I went to this guy, Miguel. He was a race car driver that Dylan was tight with, and I begged Miguel to help me. I begged him to take Dylan in after he got out of jail and I…” Max looked away, tracking birds across a brilliant blue sky. “I begged him to give my brother a new life that had nothing to do with me.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I whispered.
“Because I couldn’t save my brother on my own,” he said. “And that was the worst feeling in the world. I needed help and