Selena nibbled her lip, not wanting to believe her wild speculation. Just because her luck was poor with getting hot men didn’t mean the opposite was true, and she’d suddenly run into some gorgeous assassin. Murdering her over a permit didn’t make sense. That would draw more suspicion, not less.
“You left in such a hurry earlier,” Selena said, sitting back with her best confident indirect interrogation smile. “From the office. I know you said you weren’t in a hurry, but you were already there.”
“The truth is, after hearing you, I figured I wasn’t going to get far,” Max said. “And I didn’t want to do anything that might cause trouble before I had more time to look into things.”
“Were you there to get a permit, too?”
“Sort of.” Max smiled. “It’s why I’m not in danger on this particular job. I’m just scoping out some things for a client. He’s got different people working different angles, but I’m security, so that’s my angle.”
“What do permits have to do with security?” Selena asked, confused.
“He’s a typical rich asshole,” Max said with a chuckle. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but he’s interested in building himself a new home away from home in Hawaii, and he’s interested in some land on Maui. To ensure his security, he needs a certain amount of land as a buffer, and this island isn’t huge. You think getting a permit to shoot a commercial is annoying, try buying up land close to protected forest.”
“Wow.” Selena whistled. “He must be ridiculously rich if he can afford to buy up that much land on Maui.”
“You could say that. Diverse business interests and all that. Like I said, rich asshole.”
Acting. That’s what it felt like. Max was acting. He was doing pretty well, but there were subtle clues here and there that he was more than he appeared and might be lying.
The advantage of working with actor jerks on and off throughout the years was that it helped Selena develop her ability to fake a smile. Her natural stubbornness would always eventually win out, but she wasn’t going to be working with Max for days and days. She faked a smile, now more convinced than ever he was a mob enforcer.
What did it all mean? Was he a hot mobster, after all?
She tried to figure out why he would even care. The office had already rejected the permit.
Crap. She’d told him she planned to go check out the site. Maybe it wasn’t old bombs hidden in the forest but a drug lab. The Mob could have bribed the permit office or threatened their families.
“Is something wrong?” Max asked, his smile diminished but lingering.
“No, I…” Selena took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She couldn’t fake a smile anymore. “This has been nice.”
“Yes, it has been.”
That wasn’t a lie. Even if Max was a lying hot mobster, she couldn’t help but be relaxed around him. Every suspicion that popped out threatened to flee before her attraction and innate desire to trust him.
Still, her instincts screamed at her that Max wasn’t just some security contractor doing an investigation. If he were some sort of criminal, it wouldn’t hurt to have dinner with him. It wasn’t like he was going to gun her down over dessert. She couldn’t go to the police or her boss without more evidence.
“Maybe we can see each other again when we have more time,” Selena said, heart pounding. “And eat like actual food and not just coffee.”
She realized he hadn’t ordered any coffee, which made her more suspicious.
Selena rattled off her number. “Just contact me and let me know. Or is that me assuming too much…?”
Max pinned her with his gaze. His nostrils flared. He either wanted to sleep with her or was hyping himself up to kill her.
“I’m sure I can find the time,” he finally said. “I’ll text you.”
“Good.” Selena smiled, her knees weak. Good or bad, she had something spectacular coming in the future.
Chapter Seven
Maximus grunted as he sat on the edge of a bed in his motel room. The springs squeaked loudly, like a scream of defiance at the huge man. Despite the cheap price, the beds were comfortable.
A stray image of a naked Selena lying on her back beneath him on the bed sneaked into his head. He gritted his teeth. It wasn’t the time to think with his lower half.
Tiberius, Cornelius, and CJ stood scattered around the room, the younger hybrid sitting at a table and the other two men standing. They all looked at their leader expectantly. They deserved answers.
Maximus wasn’t sure how much he wanted to explain because he didn’t understand everything himself. His coffee date, along with the informant, suggested there was something worth hiding about the land, but it didn’t prove anything, and nothing about Selena suggested she was a Phoenix Corps spy. She might be nothing more than a very attractive coincidence who was good at noticing things out of the ordinary.
But if she wasn’t a spy, he had no excuse to see her again. So why did he agree to the date? He didn’t have time to be playing around with women in the middle of an investigation. If one of his men had told him they’d done something like that, he would have called them an idiot and ordered them to stop thinking with their dick.
Damn it. He was obsessed with this woman because he knew he had no future with a Vestal. That had to be the explanation, but she’d mentioned exploring near the forest. Perhaps if he went along with her, he might discover something useful and could make use of her as an excuse, but he still needed to explain to his men. Everything he did affected not just himself, but the eleven other members of the pared-down Alpha Squad.
“How are preparations going?” Maximus asked. “I have a feeling that if we end up finding the Corps here,
