Today
Kenny shot Max furtive glances, as she ran the brush through her hair. It should have worked out differently last night, he thought, why did I go and tell her I loved her?
Max felt Kenny's gaze on her, and she tried to have some sort of control over the overwhelming emotions churning inside of her. Kenny loves me, she thought, it has to be some sort of reaction to the last few days. It has to be. What if it isn't? Oh, God. I love him too.
"Kenny?" Max asked hesitantly, not wanting to fight before the trip to the bank, "Um, about last night."
"Hey, forget about it. I shouldn't have . . . We have a lot to do today."
Max crossed the room to him, and Kenny felt his heart leap into his throat when he looked at her clad in a knee length gray skirt and red shirt. I want her, he thought, more then anything else. If we didn't have to save ourselves from the mob . . . she doesn't want me though. Not like that. She made that perfectly clear.
"I don't want to forget it," Max said quietly, as she looked up at him, "Did you mean it?"
"Max."
"Tell me," she said softly, "We've been through so much in the past few days, it's not . . . do you?"
"Why?"
"I'm not good at this," Max said quietly, "When you told me to stop dating assholes, well you hit that nail on the head. I don't want to make the same mistakes. I suck at dating."
"We're way beyond dating."
Max regarded him carefully, before wrapping her arms around his neck, "I know. And I love you too."
--
"Michael Millani has an office here," Sargent Henderson said, "And the Millani family cleaned out Tom Millani's apartment, after they heard about his first death."
"So you have nothing on this man?" Jimmy asked.
"He didn't die in our jurisdiction. Or yours."
--
"Max," Kenny said, after a long moment, as he gazed down at the woman in his arms, "You and me . . . Yes. I'm so in love with that I can't see straight sometimes. It's why I couldn't believe that you were dead."
Max smiled, as she stood up on his toes and kissed him, "Oh, Kenny. Are we really doing this? On top of everything else?"
"One day at a time. Right?"
"Right," Max sighed, wanting nothing more than to fall back on the bed with him, "We better get going. The bank opens in half an hour."
--
"Let's go see Michael Millani," Jimmy said, feeling frustrated.
"He's the Don, Jimmy," Skeeter said, "I doubt he has time for us. They destroyed anything that would incriminate them."
"We don't know that," Jimmy argued, "Where would Tom store something, that no one else could get to? A safe deposit box? He would have to have it paid for, so it the information inside wouldn't be released after he died."
"There are hundreds of banks in this city," Skeeter countered, wanting a reprieve from this investigating to go report to Franco and Giorgio, "We need to go home, Jimmy. In case Kenny and Max make contact."
--
"Good luck," Kenny said, "If anything goes wrong."
"You get the hell out of here," Max cut him off, "One of us has to."
"Same to you," Kenny said, as he squeezed her hand in his, "Max?"
"Kenny."
He kissed her quickly, "Hurry back."
Max smiled, and merely nodded as she pushed the door open. Not looking back, she made her way inside the Swiss National Bank, and prayed that she could find out what they needed to know. Taking a deep breath, she approached the teller.
"Good morning," Max said, as she held up her safe deposit box key, "I need to get into my box, please."
"Of course. What number please?"
"Four-seven-six-three," Max said, as she tried to control her racing heart, as the teller removed the key from behind the desk.
"This way," the teller replied, leading Max toward the back of the bank, "You just need to sign in here, Mam."
Max made her hand stay steady, as she signed in illegibly, "Thank you."
"Your key please?" the teller asked, as she removed the box from the wall and inserted them both, "There you are. Let me know if I can be of anymore help."
"I will," Max said quietly, as she lifted the lid. Thumbing through the stack of papers in front of her, she skimmed the top page quickly, "Oh, wow."
Picking up the envelope, she sucked in an involuntary breath at the images staring back at her. Sliding everything in her oversized purse, Max shut the box, and walked nonchalantly back into the lobby.
--
"Shit, Max. Where are you?" Kenny said aloud, as he slumped down in the car, "Come on."
Watching as Franco Millani and two other men emerged from the car across the lot, he turned his gaze to the front door of the bank. Don't come out yet, Max, hide. Hell, I'm not leaving her here, forget what we said. She doesn't even look like herself with that blond wig and glasses. They can't recognize her. They just can't. Releasing the brakes in preparation, he trained his gaze back on the three men.
--
Max stepped out onto the front steps of the back, just as shots erupted in the air around her. Spinning on her heel, she threw herself to the ground on instinct.
"Stay down!" the bank guard yelled, as he fired back at Franco, "Mam!"
Max dared to glance up, as the guard fell to ground. Crawling onto her knees, she grabbed the guard's gun, as she heard an engine gun and car shoot forward.
"Get in!" Kenny yelled through the window, as Franco tried to dive out of the way of the speeding car. Max watched in horror, as he rolled off of the hood, "Max!"
Max sprung to her feet, and dove in the car, "What the hell is going on!"
Kenny slammed his foot onto the accelerator, as they sped out of the parking lot, "Put your seatbelt on."
Max dared to look behind her, as she strapped herself in, "They're following us!"
"Not shit!" Kenny yelled back, as their back windshield shattered, "Keep your head down!"
Max stifled a scream, as another bullet whizzed through the car. Taking a deep breath, she leveled the guard's gun in her shaky hand.
"What the hell are you doing?" Kenny asked, feeling incredibly protective of her, "Max! Stay down!"
"Shut up!" she snapped, as she aimed for the other vehicle's tire, "Drive!"
"You're insane!"
"I know that!"
Max steadied herself once more, and fired.
--
Jimmy let out a long and frustrated sigh, "You're right. We're not going to find anything here. I thought Kenny and Max would be here. It was the only place on that list that Tom had property in. They never came through U.S. immigration."
Skeeter gritted his teeth, "They're not criminals, Jimmy. When they're ready, they'll come back. Hopefully with what they are looking for."
"Yeah," Jimmy agreed, "I'd like to go over some of the stuff we pulled from Tom's apartment, got back to Varitek, and see who the hell was blown up at Max's place."
--
"Jesus Christ!" Kenny yelled, as the car exploded behind them, "I thought you were aiming for the tire!"
"I was!"
Kenny eased off of the accelerator a bit, and shot her a quick glance, "Are you okay?"
"Peachy."
"You're a terrible liar, Max."
She nodded, and hugged the purse to her chest, "Yeah. We need to get this stuff to the right people. Whoever they might be."
"How bad is it?"
"Very. The plus side is it clears both of us, but for everybody else involved . . .We're not walking away from this."
"Meaning?"
She just shook her head, "We have to get somewhere safe first, and maybe get rid of this bullet riddled car. When I saw Franco out there . . . how did they know?"
"The same way Jimmy and Skeeter knew we were in Chili," Max trailed off.
"You're not saying that Jimmy is part of this?"
"He's not."
--
Skeeter looked at the sleeping sheriff, with a grim smile on his face. Sorry, Jimmy, he thought, I can't let you find them before I do. I need to know where Tom hid the Varitek development. That dumb prick. He just had to run, and fall for Max. He wouldn't have run if it wasn't for her. The twit fell in love with her, and couldn't deal with it anymore.
He smiled despite the chaos. If they're in Zurich, they won't be alive much longer.
--
Kenny pulled the wrecked car into the parking lot in downtown Zurich, "Talk to me."
Max pushed the door open, and grabbed her purse on the way, "Kenny."
He grabbed the two backpacks, and crossed over to her, "Hey, Max. What is it? If it clears us . . ."
Max pulled out the thin file from Varitek, "This is what Tom stole from them. It's a formula on how to make fake diamonds."
"That's it?"
"No! Apparently they're so finely made that nothing can distinguish them from regular ones, and once they're sold on the market it'll reek havoc on the market. Tom and his partner were going to sell the formula to terrorists, so they could afford weapons of mass destruction."
Kenny skimmed over the file, "How do you know that?"
Max shook her head, "Read this."
"To be opened in case of my death," Kenny read aloud, as he read Tom's last will and testament, "Max . . . Wow."
"He couldn't do it because of me," she whispered, "He wanted the world to be safer for me."
"And his partner didn't like that."
"No. He wanted to get away from his family, and this would have given him enough money to disappear for good."
"It wasn't your fault. If anything, you saved millions of lives by letting him love you."
"His family must have found out," Max said, "Or his partner told them everything, and they're looking for this."
"Morell is dead."
"Morell isn't his partner," Max said, as she pulled out the photographs, "Look familiar?"
Kenny sucked in his breath, "No. Max, this can't be right. They have to be doctored."
"It's Skeeter, and those men look like terrorists to me."
"He had to have known about Tom's accounts here, but couldn't find the key or the box number."
"Tom must have left the disk behind, why? If all the information about this disappeared, it would look suspicious. This way Skeeter could get to it if need be, and everyone would think we were dead."
"What about Morell? He came over with those men, and shot the crew of your boat?"
"He's a piece of the puzzle that doesn't fit yet. Unless he worked for Giorgio and Franco."
"So now what?" Kenny asked.
"We need to get this to Jimmy. All of it."
"We're not going back there. Whatever happened to Franco, for that alone we'd be killed. For this information . . . Max."
"I know," she said softly, feeling her heart break for the people she would never see again.
Kenny pulled her into his arms, "It's okay."
"Is it? You're really fine with never going home again? Never seeing your family? I know how close you are to your parents and sister, Kenny."
"They'll get hurt if we go back. Everyone we care about will!"
"I'm sorry, okay! I'm not perfect! I make mistakes!"
"No shit. I don't know how you get yourself into these situations all of the time."
"What the hell are you talking about? I don't recall ever being in this type of thing before."
"You know what I mean!"
"Go then. Get out of here. I can figure this out myself then."
"You're not getting rid of me that easily. Come on Sweetheart, we can do this."
"Sweetheart? Since when do you call me that?"
"Since . . . I don't know! This whole thing is insane."
"I'm scared."
"We'll be okay. We got what we needed, and we'll get out of this. I won't let anybody hurt you."
"They're coming."
He paused before taking her in his arms. Not saying anything at all, he kissed her softly on the lips.
--
Jimmy walked into the office warily, after the flight back from New York. Ignoring the prying eyes, he shut himself in. Picking up the file on the investigation of the explosion at Max's place. Rubbing his temples, he let out a long sigh, and began to scribble down what he knew.
Tom and Max. Franco, Giorgio, Carmen/Sophia, Morell, Robert, Kenny.
"Welcome back," Littleton said, knocking on the door, "How was it?"
"Not good," Jimmy said flatly, as he filled him in on the incident on the pier, and the plane reservations all over the world, "How about on your end?"
"I guess you haven't seen the news. Franco Millani was hit by a car in front of the Swiss National Bank, after he tried to shoot and unidentified woman this afternoon. The same woman just cleaned out a safe deposit box about 10 minutes before the shooting, and spend out of the parking lot with a man."
"What?" Jimmy asked, "Do we have a picture of this woman?"
Littleton nodded, "It's fuzzy Jimmy, and . . . I don't know. This woman is blond, wearing glasses, and it's only her profile. What do you think?"
Jimmy studied the grainy photograph, "It could be Max. I can't tell. Any word on the bodies in her apartment?"
"Not yet."
--
"Come on," Kenny said, as he heard the sirens and pulled away from her, "They can't see the car back here."
Max nodded, as she followed Kenny inside the train station, "Where to now?"
Kenny kissed her forehead, "Whatever is leaving now. You gonna change?"
"They're looking for the blond from the bank," Max said, taking the backpack, "Five minutes? Right here?"
Kenny nodded, hating the hurt in her eyes, "Max?"
She shook her head, "Later okay?"
Kenny watched her disappear into the ladies room, before turning to study the train schedule. Sighing, he picked the train Barcelona that left in 25 minutes, and handed over the cash.
"Thanks," he mumbled, as he looked for Max and spotted her, "Welcome back."
She nodded, "Where to?"
"Barcelona," Kenny said, "Max?"
"I was so mad at Tom."
"You didn't know."
"I didn't even love him. Not like he did."
Kenny kissed the top of her head, "You made him a better person, Sweetheart. If he loved you as much as his manifesto said he did, he would want you to get through this in one piece. He'd want you to stick it to them."
"And we will," Max said quietly, "We have to get out of here first."
They linked hands silently, as they made their way down to their train.
--
"Franco Millani is dead," Littleton said, "It just came on the news."
"Shit," Jimmy said.
"They guy was a mobster."
"Yeah? If it was Kenny and Max that hit him . . . This isn't good Jon."
--
"So what's the plan?" Kenny asked, "Do you just want to mail this stuff in?"
"We should probably keep a copy," Max said, forcing herself to focus, "Just in case."
"That'll be the first stop in Barcelona," Kenny said, as he held her close on the speeding train, "They must have a Kinkos there."
"Then?"
"Then we have to figure out this disappearing act of ours. Get some new identification because Cahli and Tobias are probably being looked for."
"I just got used to being Cahli."
Kenny smiled at her, "As much as I like Cahli, love Max . . . Whoever you want to be, I'll love you."
"I love you too," Max said quietly, "Who should we be now?"
The End.
Stay with me for the sequel
"Two Years Later"