𝐌𝐚𝐱

When I get to my bedroom, I exhale loudly, leaning back into the door. My heart hasn't stopped racing, and my fingers tremble a little.

I keep thinking about Lia and Luc. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that the girl I wanted was dating the fastest driver in the world. Never. But I understood now why Lia never looked at me with any interest. I mean Luc was better than me in every way.

I was taller, but he had the body of an athlete because he was one. He stood out—like a man who understood himself and others. One who knew how to navigate the world and come out with what he wanted without necessarily or deliberately hurting the vulnerable. Unlike me. He commanded respect, even Lia's brothers respected him, Dino and his friends too. But the three of them called out the curiosity in us. How do you get the kind of confidence Nicolo had at that age? Who are their mothers? What kind of life do they lead?

I pulled out my small travelling bag from the top of the wardrobe and placed it on the bed. I packed one pair of blue jeans, two white T-shirts, a white shirt and a black suit, a jacket, underwear, sneakers and a tracksuit.

I was zipping it up when I heard a knock on the door. "Yes," I answered, waiting to see one of them, but I sighed with relief when I saw Dino.

"Do you mind if we come with you?"

Mind? I would love it. I was scared of being with those guys alone. They terrified me.

"I would love that. But I don't think I'm in any position to ask them." I told him in a low voice, finishing zipping it up.

"It was Zion's idea." My eyes shot up, wide looking at Dino. "It's true," he adds when I continued to stare at him, unconvinced and surprised.

"Do you need to borrow any of my stuff?" I never would have offered it in the past. I couldn't have thought of it. This was a new me, it felt, albeit scary, as if my whole being had shifted. I was quieter now, withdrawn into a shell that did not have an exit.

"No. Italy is home, remember. "

I nodded, "didn't you want to put a billion miles away from their family?" I asked, sitting up on the bed. I knew how afraid Dino was of them. He said he had avoided them all his life, this seemed like he was throwing himself in the lion's den instead of running in the opposite direction.

He shrugged. "Perhaps I can be of help to them someday." he mumbled, and that answer had me looking puzzled, " like business?" he shrugged again. "I don't know, but I would like to find out what kind of partnership they have with Carrie"

"Your cousin?"

He nodded.

"She has never mentioned anything about it to me. Not like we are close or anything, but still. A partnership of any kind with this family is huge, especially in our world."

I'm not sure I want to know what that means, so I didn't ask.

"So you have clothes in Italy?" I asked, bringing back the conversation to packing.

"Yap!"

When Dino left, I changed into black jeans, a black short-sleeved shirt tucked into the pants, and black shoes, and then carried a black hoodie in one hand while the other held the bag.

They got up when I returned, "you don't mind if I take another beer from your fridge, do you?"

I shook my head looking over at Zion. "You know, I've seen you once before when I visited Lia during your promo shoot." I never saw him, perhaps I had been busy at the time, I don't know.

"Oh," I muttered, and he gave me a sardonic smile.

I walked between Dino and one of his friends to the three parked cars each had a man leaning against it.

Strangely, none was Matteo. Luca slid onto the driver's seat of the first car, while the other two sat on the back, another man, assuming one of their bodyguards sat on the passenger's seat.

Dino and I were directed into the second car while
Eli went to the third car. Although I was uncertain and afraid of the unknown, my outward, professed confidence that I put on while acting.

Our car drove the last, Luc's was in the middle. I wondered if he felt held back by the speed limit for a man used to the track. It must have been.

*****************

Nothing would have prepared me for what awaited me. Lia's family. Three beautiful girls were seated in one aisle of the jet. They stared at me when we entered, their gazes filled with resentment and fury.

I sat at the corner, opposite of them, Dino sliding after me and I wanted to breathe a soft thank you at him, but I think he understood.

Just when I thought I could breathe, Nicolo sat directly opposite me, his stare the same as when we met. With fury, unforgiving.

"Hi, Max," I heard Lia's voice. I had not seen her since that fateful day. She looked well, gorgeous, in a black dress, blue denim jacket, and black ankle boots with her hair in a ponytail.

"Hi," I breathed out, looking at her, but nervous about what she would do with me.

"I'm sorry about the change in the arrangement, I couldn't invite you for charisma."

"I heard," I told her with an anxious smile, wishing this conversation would end. I was getting too nervous to keep eye contact.

"It was declined," Nicolo said, his eyes still on mine.

"Get up, Nic." I heard Lia snap.

"Why?" he responded and Lia narrowed her eyes at him until he got up.

"You cannot mess with him again."

"I didn't say shit." he defended, looking back at Lia.

"Your eyes did it for you."

"I want to sit here."

"No, Nic. Go sit somewhere else."

"What about me, can I sit with him?" a girl with brown eyes said, pushing Nicolo out and sitting where he had sat. "You know I thought you were hot until you drugged Lia. What the fuck were you thinking? It's not like you can't get women willing to do your bidding unless you're into those who don't want you. In which case, you become a rapist, I'm betting you are."

"Leave him alone, Sienna." Lia said, "And you can't sit with him either."

Beside Sienna, a girl whom I knew must be Luca's sister sat, her green intense gaze landed on my face.

"You know, I would have voted to castrate you if they had put out a vote," she said in a casual tone.

"Get out of here, both of you." I was ashamed to feel frightened. They scared me as much as the men.

It was the vengeful look they gave me. I remembered Dino saying their children were as ruthless too.

"Alessa, did you remember to carry the bundt cakes?" Nicolo asked from the pathway, holding a small cup between his long fingers.

She nodded, pulling herself up to go to Nic. "I haven't taken them out of the bag yet."

My eyes followed them down to where Alessa pulled out a pink lunch box. "You get three, the rest are mine."

Everyone left me alone. I sat in silence looking out of the window and listening to their stories and laughter. I noticed one of the girls hadn't spoken to me, Serena. She was one of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen in my life, young too, either late teens or early twenties.

"What are we waiting for?" I heard Alessa ask, I turned to look at them huddled together, eating, talking, Sienna in a laptop, but she raised her face when Alessa asked the question. I wondered why we weren't in the air already too.

"Seb," Zion said, just then, a tall dark haired guy walked in. He had a trimmed beard which gave him an older look even though he looked like he was in his early twenties.

"Where the hell have you been?" Zion asked.

"Taking care of business," his voice was deep, cool.

I saw him reach his hand to take a cake from Alessa, and she huffed, angrily staring at him when he bit into it, a mischievous smile on his lips."

"One day, I swear I will kill you. Hold and squeeze a pillow on your face so you wouldn't scream, watch you struggle until life is sucked out of you. And then chop your body in twelve pieces and send them to all eleven of my enemies. Do you hear me?"

He smiled, grabbing the beer Zion was holding and gulping down the cake with it.

"Get your own damn beer, Seb." He ignored him, but he playfully stared at Alessa and said, "first, I wouldn't scream, and second, why the hell do you twist Bible stories like that? And third, what would you do with the last piece of me?"

"Bury it myself. The tombstone would read, here lies the body of Sebastian Saint Bernard Rossi for fucking with me."

A minute later, a few men poured into the jet. I recognized Dev, Lia's bodyguard and Matteo. Neither of them acknowledged me, though to be fair, they were caught up in a conversation between the two of them.

A few things I found fascinating about this family; not only did they love each other, but they also seemed to like each other.

I kept stealing glances at Lia, and Serena. Every time I did, I found them either whispering at each other or laughing.

Since our seat was a little further from the group, I leaned over to whisper a question to Dino. He scanned the group first before answering.

"She is Romano's firstborn."

No wonder her hair was a little bit curly, though not like her brother's. Nicolo had inherited the exact texture and curls from his father.

"Sienna and Nicolo are twins." I shot my eyes at Sienna, her back was leaning on Luc's left side, a laptop on her lap. She has been on that thing since we came in, I wonder what fascinated her that much.

Other than the camaraderie, these people were beautiful, stunning. All of them. And the beauty was how much they seemed to love being together.

I think I finally understood why those three men walked into my life that night. This was what they had to protect—their children. They must be special. How else do you raise such self-aware, confident children? Each of them stood out on their own. They knew who they were, and understood what was expected of them, even the youngest.

I was older than Luc, who was their firstborn, yet I didn't know who I am except from which family I come from.

I think, why I never learned who I am, is because my father kept telling me I was a Vanderbilt, as if that should be my whole personality, except I am Maxwell too.

I envied them. They had a different view of the world than I did. It was also fascinating to think that the same people probably have killed or watched someone get killed.

Lia was different here too. I saw how much she talked with her hands and the way she kept touching Serene and Nicolo who sat on her right.

She didn't like to be touched, I remembered because every time someone did, she flinched. Neither do I have a recollection of her touching anyone.

I can't believe I thought I would get away with treating her as I did with every girl of my acquaintance. But perhaps this happened so I could stop the habit.

Calling it a bad habit seemed like minimizing the effect I had left in this women's life. I destroyed them. I wonder how Trixie Goldberg was doing.

God! I messed up so fucking much

Hi.
One more Max POV and we are done with his side of the story.