Author's Note: Thank all of you guys for all the wonderful feedback. I really appreciate it and it keeps me motiviated to keep writing. I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. If I had written it the way I originally conceptualized it, it would have been like 40 pages long. This is sort of a condensed version of it. I'm not satisfied with it exactly but it's getting me where I want to go.
Chapter 11 - "Mutual Protection and Attraction"
Johnny sat in his car with his head leaned back against the seat. The pile of pictures in his father's desk flashed through his head. Maxie shopping. Maxie getting out of her car. Maxie eating dinner with Robin. Maxie on the phone. Picture after picture. Day after day. It scared Johnny and he thought he was passed the point of begin afraid of anything. Whatever his father had planned for her, he'd been planning it a long time and it was definitely an obsession with her. When the old man said he wanted Maxie, it wasn't subterfuge. It was a crazy man's delusion that he definitely thought he could obtain.
Johnny leaned forward to look up to see a light on in the window of the apartment and then around the parking lot. Lulu's car wasn't there but Maxie's was so Maxie was up there alone. That was good because the only plan he had, she wasn't going to like but he had to discuss it with her anyway. Maybe he could make her see reason. Who was he kidding? This was Maxie. She thought she could steam roll her way through any situation. It's one of the things he admired about her.
He let out a breath and shoved open the door to the car and exited. He slid wearily up the steps. His mind was totally preoccupied with everything that had happened since that morning his father came to visit. Approaching the door to the apartment he saw Milo standing across the hall staring at the door. He turned when he heard Johnny's footsteps approaching.
"Hey," Milo nervously greeted.
"Hey, Milo. Everything okay in there?" Johnny asked.
"Maxie's by herself. She should be fine but there's something I have to tell you," Milo said.
Johnny furrowed his brow in concern, "What is it?"
Milo shuffled his feet and lowered his head before returning Johnny's gaze, "I talked to Jason and he said that I should tell you what happened today and that you would know how to handle it. He said that if you needed his help with anything to let him know."
Johnny's alert system kicked into high gear, "Help with what? What happened today?"
"Well, Maxie talked to your dad," Milo said.
"What? How? Did he call her?" Johnny had a million questions racing through his mind all at once. His first instinct was to push open the door and see if she was okay but he wanted more information.
Milo's cheeks turned an embarrassing shade of red, "No, she saw him in the Metro Court lobby and apparently went to talk to him."
Johnny wanted to punch a wall. Adrenaline seared through him. His reaction could be more intense because of the pictures he just saw and the fact that those pictures confirmed that Anthony was a threat to Maxie herself.
"Why didn't you stop her?" Johnny had a hard time controlling the anger in his voice.
Milo put up a hand almost as if to fend off Johnny's reaction, "I'm sorry. I made a bad call. She must have seen him when she got off the elevators and then she sort of…well, she tricked me into going to get her dinner while she told me she was going upstairs to work."
Johnny cursed under his breath, "The only thing you have to do on this assignment is to keep my father away from Maxie."
"I know. I messed up but it won't happen again," Milo apologized with sincerity.
"What did he say?" Johnny demanded.
Milo shrugged, "I don't have any details. She won't tell me. Anthony said she approached him but the part I thought you should know is that she told him to let her know and she'd be there. That was the last part before I pulled her away."
Johnny's eyes narrowed, "She'd be where?"
Milo raised his brows and shook his head, "I don't know. I asked but she wouldn't tell me."
Johnny frowned and nodded. Before pushing open the door he turned back to Milo with a warning, "Don't lose her again."
Milo shook his head indicating he understood as Johnny pushed open the door. He'd barely taken half a dozen steps before Maxie appeared from the back of the apartment fastening long silver earrings to her ears.
"Maxie, what the hell do you think you are doing?" he demanded.
Maxie closed her mouth and regarded him coolly, "I'm going to the Catacombs Club. There's a new DJ out there tonight and we might want to book him for some local promos…"
Johnny took two steps and loomed over her so that she had to look up to look in his eyes. "That's not what I'm talking about and you know it. I'm talking about the little meeting you had with my father."
Maxie jutted her chin and looked him unflinchingly, "I don't want to talk about that."
"But you are going to," he insisted.
Maxie stepped past him to go sit on the couch and strap on the silver heels that were sitting on the floor in front of it. "No, I'm not."
"We can do this all night if you want but eventually you will talk to me about this," Johnny said patiently and then placed his hands on his hips as if indicating he was, in fact, prepared to stand there all night waiting. Maxie's gaze moved down to the dark silk shirt sitting across his broad shoulders. She could see well defined pecs under the fabric pulled taut because of his arms. She followed it down to the fitted black jeans lying low on his narrow hips. It was all she could do not to lick her lips.
She forced her eyes back to his face and said evenly, "If you are going to wait all night for me to talk, then you'll have to do it at the Catacombs Club with me."
Johnny watched her stand up much closer to his eye level now with those ridiculous heels on her feet. Her legs were long and tan in the short micro shift black dress that stopped just shy of decent and high on her thigh. The smooth material hugged her curves dangerously, too dangerously in his case. He swallowed hard.
"If that's what I have to do," he said.
Maxie barely tilted her head in acknowledgement before telling him, "Get your coat." She grabbed her small silver clutch and walked to the door, "You're driving."
Johnny stopped trying to get information out of her about halfway through the drive and they completed the rest of the trip in silence which was fine with Maxie. She knew Johnny was only biding his time and she would eventually tell him what he wanted to know anyway. She just didn't want to spoil her night by arguing with him which was exactly what would come next. She knew he wasn't going to like her going on a date, and just the thought of it as a date made her skin crawl, with Anthony in order to get him off the hook but if it really could help him, why not? Small investment, great reward.
Johnny pulled into a parking space outside the darkened club. The sound of bass reverberated out the front door each time it opened or closed. Maxie checked her face in the mirror and turned to Johnny, "How do I look?"
"Does it matter? You're not picking anyone up tonight." Johnny said with conviction.
Maxie eyed him reproachfully and he caved, "You look beautiful."
His words sent heat down to her toes. Why did she make him tell her she looked good? Why was she making this more complicated? He was her friend. "Can we just forget everything else for a couple of hours? I need to decompress a little bit."
Johnny tilted his head to the side to study her face. He could see the corners of her mouthed were pursed and he could see something in her eyes that said she was serious. His voice when it came was deep and soothing, "I don't mean to make your life any harder, Maxie."
She smiled at him, "That's the thing, you know? People say they don't mean to make life harder, except me usually. If I make someone's life harder, it's usually on purpose and they usually deserve it."
"I'm serious, Maxie, I just don't know why you make it so hard for me to look out for you," he explained.
She turned to him quickly and sucked in a breath, "Why do you try to hard to do that? To look after me, I mean?"
The only answer Johnny had been the honest one, "Because I care about you."
Maxie heard the words and heard the meaning behind them. She searched his eyes for answers to the million questions his words evoked within her. "You know, my sister Georgie would hate this."
Johnny didn't quite catch the change of subject, if it was a change of subject, "Hate what?"
"She would hate the fact that I'm attracted to you," she said bluntly and Johnny winced at her words, not because he didn't want to hear them but because he did, "and that you are Lulu's boyfriend."
Johnny didn't say anything. What could he say to that? Right now he was Lulu's boyfriend but things were complicated. He hadn't been completely honest with Lulu about a lot of things not the least of which was where they stood. He didn't want to hurt her and that's where he felt like they were headed. He hadn't told her about Michael and his part in the whole tragic situation and he wasn't sure how she would take that news. He hadn't told her that he had been feeling a shift in their relationship for quite a while and it felt like they were two people hanging on out of habit instead of any real vision of living their future together. He definitely hadn't told her that the face that he had been seeing in his future lately was the one next to him right now. How could he say all of that to Lulu when he wasn't even sure what to think about it himself? How could he explain any of it to Maxie? The strangest thing was that he thought Maxie would be the one to understand instinctually.
"So do me a favor," she said breaking him out of his thoughts.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Let's just pretend nothing else exists for the next few hours. It's just you and me," she explained. "After we leave the club tonight, I'll tell you everything you want to know about my meeting with Anthony."
Johnny raised his eyebrows, "How about you tell me about your meeting first and then we'll go in the club?"
"Because I don't want to fight with you first and then go in. I tend to lose my rhythm if I'm upset," she pouted.
"I promise not to fight with you," Johnny said.
Maxie smiled, "Don't make any promises you can't keep."
"Try me."
Maxie huffed and then barreled through her words, "I told Anthony I would go out with him one night and in return he promised not to push you back to the family until you came to him. At first you know I was just going to tell him off about sending me the creepy flowers and stuff but then one thing led to another and he gave me an opening to get him to back off of you so I thought, what the hell and I took it."
Johnny let emotions go through him rapid fire. Anger was first. Fear. Protectiveness. Disbelief. Everything was so jumbled he couldn't even name them all. One thing was for certain, there was no way he was going to let her do it. No way.
"Why aren't you saying anything?" she asked.
"I told you I wouldn't fight with you," he said slowly.
"But?" She prompted.
"Why would you do something dangerous like spending time with my father to do something like that for me?" he queried.
"Why do you want to do something like take on your father to protect me?" she challenged.
"Touché," he answered and looked out of the front window of his car. "Okay, so you laid everything out on the table and now so will I."
She furrowed her brows, "What do you mean?"
"I snuck into the house tonight and I found pictures of you. Lots and lots of pictures of you so I think my father is obsessed. I don't know why or what he plans to do other than the obvious."
"Obvious?" she stopped him.
"Seduce you, Maxie," Johnny sounded like he was explaining to a small child.
Maxie's hand went reflexively to her stomach, "That makes me kind of sick."
Johnny rolled his eyes, "Join the club." He then said soberly, "The only way I know that I can protect you is for you and me clear out of town for a while."
Maxie blinked as is she weren't sure what she just heard, "You mean, run away together?"
Johnny nodded, "It's the only way I know to keep you out of his reach."
Maxie shook her head, "No way, Johnny. No way. I worked too hard to get where I am at Crimson to just throw it all away like that. I'm not running scared."
Johnny knew that was exactly what she would say, "So now who's starting the argument?"
Maxie clucked her tongue, "That's not fair. I didn't know you were planning on this whole road trip when I said that. I mean, I really want this career Johnny. Crimson is not just a job for me. It's something that I'm good at and one day I'll make my own name in this industry. If I run now, I risk all of that and that means Anthony wins anyway. Uh-uh...I just can't…"
Maxie's constant flow of words was interrupted by Johnny's hand on the back of her head. She turned to look at his face just as his mouth was coming down on hers. When their lips met electricity seemed to fuse them together. Her mouth opened beneath his and she felt the warmth of his tongue tangling with the warmth of her own. Breathing didn't seem necessary. Only feeling, tasting, touching. Nothing existed but each other. Neither knew how long their kiss lasted but when they finally pulled apart neither seemed interested in breaking the spell of sensation that cocooned them.
Johnny wasn't sure why he kissed her. Maybe because for some reason, hearing Maxie react exactly how he knew she would made him feel even closer to her. Maybe it was just because he'd spent so many nights lying awake wondering how it would feel to really kiss her. Sure she'd kissed him in the Crimson office and he'd certainly kissed her back but not like this. This was a mutual act of attraction and maybe he just couldn't wait any longer to feel it. Or maybe it was his feeling of responsibility for her that made their closeness seem more intimate than it really was. He didn't know and right now, he really didn't want to question it either.
"We agreed. For the next few hours, it's just you and me. Nothing else," Johnny said and hopped out of his car. He came around to her side and opened the door. Maxie watched him without saying a word as he held out his hand to help her out of the car.
Johnny followed behind her as they approached the club. His mind raced through everything that had happened so far tonight. Things were rapidly getting more complicated and out of control. His mind switched back to the evening ahead as he saw that Milo had already secured clearance for them to enter the club.
Johnny paused just outside the door. He directed Maxie to go inside where he would join her. Turning to Milo he said, "She's going to try and lose you again."
Milo looked up at him in surprise.
Johnny looked confident, "She's going to set up a time to meet my father. Let her think she's gotten away with it."
"Why?" Milo asked.
"Because when she makes her arrangements with my father, you are going to tell me when and where and I'm going to be there," Johnny informed him.
Johnny knew what he had to do. He wouldn't argue with Maxie about it. Maxie wouldn't even know about it until it's too late.
