He picked up one of the stools, going behind the counter to use it to beat Lizard.
“You’ll kill him… Max, back off.” Ice ran behind Max, putting an arm around his neck and trying to pull him back.
Jackal tried to reach over the counter and take the stool away, but he had to dodge it when Max swung it at him. Ice and Max fell backward into the wall, leaving a massive hole in the plaster.
“I’m going to kill the motherfucker then piss on him!” Max roared in fury.
“You should have told us you changed your mind about sharing her.” Snake staggered to his feet, holding his broken nose. He froze when Max broke away from Ice.
“Run!” Jackal and Ice both yelled as Max charged forward.
Stump turned, running for his life.
“Shit!” Jackal ran to Ice’s office when Max caught Stump by his long braid, jerking him off his feet. Max felt the skin on his knuckles split when he bashed his fist against Stump’s mouth.
A shock of electricity coursed through his body, knocking him to the floor.
“That’s enough, Jackal!” Ice ordered. “Fade, knock him out as soon as Jackal stops!”
“Fuck, no! I’m not going near that crazy fucker.”
Ice took the gun Fade tossed him, going to Max who was trying to get up. He slammed the gun down on the back of his neck, and Max fell back to the floor, unconscious.
“Hurry. Tie him up and toss him on his bed before he comes to,” Ice ordered, wiping the blood away from the corner of his mouth.
“Do we have to? I don’t want to be near him if he comes to before we can tie his hands.” Fade cautiously moved closer with a couple of brothers sliding behind him as backup.
“Jackal, bring the SUV to the front. We have to get some of them to the ER.”
They ended up taking two vehicles. Once there, they blamed their injuries on bike crashes.
“They all wrecked their bikes?” the nurse quizzed Ice as she noted their injuries.
“Yeah, they were hit by a semi.”
Chapter 23
Max banged on Casey’s door. He was fed up with her ignoring his calls and not answering when he came by her apartment. It had been three days, and they needed to talk to get things settled between them.
“Can I help you?” Max dropped his fist from the door, turning to see the dark-skinned woman he recognized from the bank Casey worked at.
“I’m trying to get Casey to open her door.” He knew she wasn’t at work, since the bank had a large sign outside stating it was closed for repairs and directing the customers to another branch.
“She’s not there.” The attractive woman stepped forward. “I’m Gianna, a friend of Casey’s. You’re her stepbrother, Max, aren’t you?”
He gave an abrupt nod.
She held up the key in her hand, inserting it into the lock and opening the door.
Max went inside the eerily quiet apartment. He went through the rooms, checking to make sure she wasn’t there, before returning to the living room where Gianna was standing with a somber expression on her face.
“Where is she?”
Gianna placed her purse on the kitchen counter, tilting her head to the side. “You don’t know?”
Max shook his head.
“Casey’s moved away. She came by my house two days ago and gave me the key to her apartment.” Sadly, she stared around the apartment. “She asked me if I would clean out her apartment and sell everything then give the money to her mother.”
Max had expected to find Casey and have a massive fight before making up, not to find her gone. He looked around the living room before going back into her bedroom. Opening her drawers, he found her clothes still inside. She had even left her cell phone on the nightstand. Picking it up, he slid it into his pocket before going back into the other room.
“Do you know where she was going?”
She shook her head. “She wouldn’t tell me…” Her voice broke off. “She just said she was leaving town after she gave her statement to the police.”
She had left town without taking one item with her as far as he could tell. The only things gone were the pictures of her and Cole that had hung on her wall.
“Thank you. If you hear from her, will you give me a call?” Max went into Casey’s kitchen where she kept a pad of paper and a pen. Scrawling his number down, he handed the slip of paper to Gianna.
“I’m going to miss her,” Gianna said, slipping the paper into her purse. “She talked to the head branch so I could be trained as the president when the bank reopens. She could have given that job to anyone, but she made sure it was locked in place for me.”
Max’s hands clenched by his side.
“If she contacts you, call me,” he reminded her.