But sometimes. Well, sometimes he ended up back in that place where he resented how much she took on for other people.
He pushed it away. To accept Maybe was to accept her dedication and loyalty to those she loved. And since she’d extended both to him as well, he had no real complaints.
And protecting her, while being his key goal, wasn’t on her list of things he should do at all times. Not when it came to getting up in her grille, as she so colorfully pointed out.
“Vic, your mother was out front just now when I got in. She said she has some boxes for Alexsei and you should carry them so your father won’t try it.”
Vic groaned as he headed to the door. Alexsei went with him.
It turned out to be a bunch of his books and music. She, or he supposed they, had the shelf space for them so he and Vic said their hellos and goodbyes before heading back next door.
“She doesn’t care about the smoking because she knows it’s a weird thing I do every month or so. Today’s my day. Also I’m out here on her porch, not in our bedroom,” he told Vic once they’d moved the boxes and the two of them had escaped to the porch. Vic with a beer and Alexsei sneaking a cigarette that everyone knew about.
“Our bedroom. Look at you,” Vic said. “I think you and she fit.”
Alexsei nodded. “I like this house. It’s a good space. There are two extra bedrooms plus the basement for me to spread out. Funny that after living on my own as an adult, I end up back here, right next door to where I got started.”
“Mom loves it. She thinks the Dolan sisters are all right.”
Alexsei had to admit he didn’t mind living next door to his aunt and uncle either. It enabled him to keep an eye on them and be sure he could help when necessary. Vic did his share of that, as did Evie, but it was nice that he could do so too.
And, now that Irena and Pasha were solidly in support of Maybe and his relationship, it was the stamp of approval from the family. Rada would hopefully continue to stay backed off, but everyone now would consider Maybe family. If they didn’t already, which was a possibility as she’d wormed her way into more than one of his family members’ hearts.
And the way she’d barked at Rada at Seth’s birthday party meant she made a public claim on Alexsei, which pleased everyone in the family. Maybe had proven to them she’d fight for him and as far as they were concerned, that was that.
The sun had gone down and the streetlights now buzzed and cast yellow light over the sidewalk and yards. It was cold enough that Alexsei saw his breath as he stood there, but not uncomfortably so. He’d have his little break and go back inside to the noise and chaos of the house. Of his house. And he’d be okay. He’d most likely love it because for some reason, if Maybe was part of anything, it tended to be really fun.
“You get off that porch with your marijuana right this moment!”
Alexsei, smoking tobacco, simply ignored the guy yelling from the sidewalk until Vic cursed under his breath and stood up from where he’d been leaning against the porch railing.
The guy was moving up the sidewalk at a high rate of speed and stomped up the porch steps.
“Hey, whoa. Get out of here, man,” Alexsei said, putting his body between the guy and the door. Vic bracketed his side to underline no one was getting in the house.
“I know it’s legal here in Washington, but you will not smoke drugs out here in the open. I suppose you’re one of Maybe’s friends.” He sneered and Alexsei knew exactly who the guy was right at that moment.
“You could say that. And you must be Rachel’s father.” Alexsei was proud he hadn’t sneered. Yet.
“Get out of my way. I’ve had entirely enough and I will call the police.”
He probably could have been nicer. Tried harder to de-escalate the situation with Maybe’s dad, but the guy had already been insulting in five ways and Alexsei knew too much. Had seen the results of this guy’s bullshit and bullying in the woman he loved and he couldn’t.
Alexsei didn’t move at all. “And tell them what?”
“My daughter is an FBI agent. She’s got to obey federal law. Your being out here endangers her career.”
The door opened at their back and Alexsei glared at the other man, continuing to block his way. It was long past time this asshole was stood up to. “You’ll keep yourself under control when you deal with your daughters while you’re in this house or I’ll throw you out.”
“By what right?” he yelled. “You’re just some garbage Maybe is having sex with. Probably in exchange for drugs.”
“Offsides!” Vic said sharply.
“I’ll be happy to show you what right. So go on and keep it up, old man,” Alexsei snarled.
“Jesus. Dad, what is going on out here?” Rachel asked as she came out on the porch.
The only reason Alexsei moved was because he knew she’d feel as if he pitied her or thought she couldn’t protect herself.
But he didn’t leave the porch or even step away. He remained at her side as Maybe skidded through the door and upon seeing the whole scene, appeared as if she was sick.
Her father looked to Rachel, pointing at Alexsei and Vic. “This user your sister has clearly hooked up with is doing drugs on your property. You could lose your security clearance. This is just another reason you can’t live here any longer. You have to cut Maybe from your life like the poison she is.”
Rachel appeared stricken and then firmed up her features. “Come inside, I’m not having this conversation out here in public. And I want you to hear everything I say,” Rachel told her father before turning her back, hooking an arm around Maybe’s waist and hauling them both inside.
When Alexsei and Vic came in as well, closing the door behind them, Maybe’s dad flipped out again. Flapping his hand and demanding they leave.
“Stop!” Maybe called out. “First things first. Cora, we’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
Cora paused in front of her. “You sure you want me to go? This guy isn’t worth the hurt.”
Maybe accepted the hug. “I’m okay. Thanks. Go home.”
“Call me later, okay? I just want to know you’re all right.” Cora ignored Maybe’s dad’s obvious impatience as she took her time assuring herself she could leave.
“She will,” Rachel said, hugging Cora as well. “Sorry to kick you out.”
Cora glared at their father before jamming her arms into her coat and leaving with one last goodbye.
“They need to go.” The father waved a hand at Alexsei and Vic.
“You don’t get to decide that,” Rachel said. “He stays because he lives here. He was smoking a cigarette. Which, while dreadful for his health and gross, isn’t illegal, nor would it affect my security clearance even if I planned to return to the FBI, which I don’t. Moreover, you were a cop in LA for twenty-five years. You know the difference between weed and a cigarette. Get yourself under control.”
“What was I supposed to think?” he sputtered.
“Before anything else, you need to apologize to Maybe for saying she was a drug whore.” Alexsei didn’t bother to hide the anger in his voice.
“He said what?” Rachel exclaimed, rounding on their father.
It broke Alexsei’s heart that Maybe didn’t look surprised at all.
* * *
MAYBE WATCHED AS it all went south. Her dad being insulting and not listening. Rachel upset, but handling it pretty well. Alexsei? Well, he was utterly pissed off. Like fire-breathing dragon angry. On her behalf.
For some reason, it soothed the hurt of her father saying such things to a total stranger. And him actually believing her capable of such behavior—when Alexsei believed in her the way he did.
“Look at her! Of course I’d assume she was in with a bad crowd.”
“Look at her?” Alexsei asked, his tone gone very quiet. “That means what? Explain it to me like I?
??m really slow.”
“And you are?”
Maybe spoke. “Richard Dolan, this is Alexsei Petrov.”
“Maybe’s boyfriend,” Alexsei added.
Her dad just stared at Alexsei for long moments, ignoring Vic totally, and then he turned his attention back to Rachel without saying a single thing to either of them.
“This sort of drama isn’t good for you. You have to know that. Just living here endangers your recovery.”
* * *
“EVERYONE SIT AT the table,” Rachel interrupted her father. “If you’re going to stay, and listen to what Maybe and I have to say, you need to sit down and get your mouth under control.”
Rachel turned to Vic. “You can run out of here as fast as your feet can take you. We’ll be okay.”
Vic said, “Nothing about this is okay. I’ll just stay for moral support. But I’ll let you handle it.” He made an X over his heart and Rachel grinned, transforming her face for a few short moments before she nodded and sat at the table. Maybe to her right and Alexsei on Maybe’s other side.
Effectively protecting Maybe’s flanks and it felt really damned nice.
Vic busied himself making tea while they settled.
“Dad, you were going to apologize to Maybe. That needs to happen before we go any further,” Rachel said as she reached out to squeeze Maybe’s hand.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I told you why I said it.”
“You apologize for it right this minute or get the hell out. I’m not joking. I’ve had enough of this,” Rachel snapped.
Maybe eyed her sister a moment and sat a little straighter.
The old Rachel had surfaced. Well now.
“Why should I apologize for saying what I know she’s capable of?” he demanded.
Something inside her broke. One last piece that had been holding her back slipped free.
Before Rachel or Alexsei could respond—and they’d both leaned forward, clearly on the verge of defending her—Maybe held her hand up to speak first.
* * *
“EXCUSE ME?” MAYBE ASKED. “Capable of? Being a prostitute for drugs is what you know I’m capable of? Are you fucking kidding me?”
“And your vulgarity surfaces. I knew it was just there. Like it always has been.”
Maybe narrowed her eyes his way. “I think you need to make your apologies, tell us why you’re here and be done. This isn’t a conversation you’re going to want to have,” she warned.
“What are you talking about?” Rachel asked her.
“She’s convinced you she’s the victim,” their father told Rachel. “Likes to make everyone think we were bad parents. Look how you turned out. It’s her, not us. Her.”
The venom in his tone had Alexsei shifting closer, his hand clasping hers.
“Who are you?” Rachel demanded of their dad. “What is wrong with you? I lived there too, remember? I won’t pretend the way you treat Maybe away. For a long time I’d been sort of willfully ignorant. She’d moved and been happy, I had a good life on the East Coast. But the way you’ve been to her since I got kidnapped. Dad, you owe her an apology. A real one for not being a good father. You can’t sit here in our house and say these things you know aren’t true.”
He sneered at Maybe before looking to Rachel again. “We were good parents. I won’t let anyone blame what she is on me and your mother. We gave up friends for her, a community where we had a life. And we did that twice. Because of her.”
Maybe’s breath seemed to explode from her, as if she’d been punched in the gut.
She loved her sister and the life they had in Seattle. Even if Rachel needed them, there was no way Maybe could ever stay silent when he was this way to her again.
“You sure you want to go there?” she asked her father again.
“I don’t care if he does or not. I want you to. What the hell is he talking about? What did they do to you?” Rachel asked.
Rachel believed her. Rachel loved her. They were sisters. Maybe swallowed hard and waited for their father to say something.
“Anything you say is a lie.”
“I’m going to punch this garbage bag’s fucking face in if you don’t speak up now, Maybe. I’m out of patience with this abusive shithead,” Alexsei told her.
“Do you remember when Dad transferred to West Covina?”
“The year I did the semester in DC right?” Rachel asked.
Maybe nodded. “Do you remember Bill Evans?”
Her father cleared his throat but didn’t speak.
“Uh, yeah. He and his wife had kids just a few years older than me, right?” Rachel said.
“He came on to me. While we were camping. And then he did it another time.”
Rachel’s eyes widened. “Did he hurt you?”
“No. He just wouldn’t back off. He showed up at my middle school. They kept having us over that whole spring you were gone. And then he kept trying to get me in the pool. He was super into my life. Anyway. He backed me into the pantry and was telling me how pretty I was and stuff and I kept asking him to move and leave me alone. His wife came in and heard it.”
“Oh my God. You never told me any of this. I’m so mad at you, but I’m so sorry. Jesus. What happened?”
“I didn’t tell you because, well goddamn it, I was embarrassed. Even though I knew it was wrong of him and I still do.”
Rachel blinked back her tears and hugged Maybe for long moments before sitting back in her chair.
Maybe went on with the story. “He told her, Mrs. Evans, that I came on to him. Luckily for me, she was on my side. She heard it all, including my begging him to leave me alone and bringing up the times he’d been at my school and stuff.”
Her dad interrupted, “And didn’t I leave my job where I’d put in all that time? For you? Did you just for once think about whether or not you led him on? Bill was a good man and I had to end a friendship and leave my job for her. So don’t tell me we weren’t good parents.”
“Yeah, after he and Mom believed Bill at first when he told them I’d been the one to come on to him and his wife had misunderstood. Then finally after the wife chimed in and supported me, they finally cut him off. But nothing ever happened to the guy who came on to a fourteen-year-old girl. And Dad made me feel like a slut ever since.”
“You didn’t change your ways after I moved jobs. Continued on with your willful, wanton ways. You did what you wanted whenever you wanted.”
Vic slammed something on the counter hard enough to make everyone jump. He caught her eyes and sent her a look that wasn’t full of pity, but of support.
“She was fourteen years old and you’re calling her wanton? What the hell is wrong with you, Dad? How do you treat her this way and me so differently?” Rachel held Maybe’s other hand tight.
“I told you already, I gave up my job for her. And it wasn’t enough. It won’t ever be. Everyone was better off when she was out of the family. You were happy in Maryland. Excelling at your job. Your mother and I had a nice house in a neighborhood our friends—those we didn’t have to cut off because of her—lived. And now we’re here. A thousand miles away from home. Because of her. Look at her, Rachel! Piercings in her face like a criminal. No job. No future. My mess of a sister is welcome to her. But you’re not like them.”
“Why do you hate me so much?” Maybe shook her head. “What did I ever do to you?”
Alexsei nearly vibrated with the need to hurt Richie Dolan very much. The only thing stopping him was that Maybe needed to get this all out. She needed to say it and let it go.
And then, if he had the chance—and he hoped he did—he’d punch that bloated motherfucker in the nose.
In all his life he’d never been so angry. He ached for her that she’d been made to feel so badly over the whole of her life by this man. Wanted to be the one who made
him feel weak and vulnerable.
He and Vic locked gazes a moment and he knew his cousin was angry as well.
Richie said of Rachel, “She listened and obeyed. She did well in school. She is everything you’re not. Everything about her life is something your mother and I can be proud of. You never obeyed. Never listened. You always had weird friends and got into trouble. You take and take and take. Like you’re doing with Rachel over the last several years.”
“So you hate me because I was a rebellious kid? Because of that and because one of your buddies is a creep I’m the whore? I’m the user who’s out to harm Rachel?”
He made a sour face and Alexsei didn’t bother to hide his sneer. “I don’t hate you. You’re a disappointment. I’ve grown to accept that you’ll never be successful like your sister.”
“Get out.” Rachel stood, her chair falling over with the energy of her movement.
“No. Wait,” Maybe said. “I want to know. So after years of relative peace between us you’re now at the storm-into-my-house-and-rage-at-me stage. Why? Why now after all this time? Why not just continue to have that polite distance between us for the good of everyone?”
Alexsei reined it in because he knew that in order for her to truly let this go, she needed to understand. She had to know the why of it before he kicked Richie out. And it would be him because this asshole wasn’t going to get anywhere near Maybe again. He would serve as the shield and sword for her.
“From the moment you sidled into Rachel’s hospital room and infected her life we’ve tried to deal with your presence. At least to get her away from your influence. This refusal of hers to go back to the FBI is the last straw. You’re the root of this rot. You’re the reason she’s throwing away her entire future. We thought we could talk her around but you’re always there. In the background making sure she doesn’t do anything you don’t approve of.”
“What fucking fantasy world do you inhabit?” she asked and Alexsei snorted. There she was. His hummingbird was going to kick some ass.
“You’ll watch your mouth with me,” he warned, getting a little mean.