Max's Faith & Fury [COMPLETE]

Chapter 22

Since she was already dressed, Max only had to put on shoes and socks. She tried not to notice Asahel seeing that she was wearing the pink and white shoes he'd given her. She almost commented about paying him back for them, and the other shoes too, but as she walked next to him to the Maserati, her tongue remained tied. The motion of him opening the door for her was starting to feel natural, like she was some princess of sorts, and he was well, definitely no servant. Just an incredible gentleman. She glanced up at him before settling in the passenger seat and buckling.

She inhaled the all too familiar, wonderful scent of his car. She couldn't help but close her eyes and revel in the fierce, citrusy-fresh, and woodsy scent with a warm musk undertone. She kept her eyes closed even as Asahel got in beside her. The engine purred to life, and she relaxed in the passenger seat as the thought of never sitting there again came to mind, and her eyes opened.

"Why are we going to my house?" She looked over at him. He appeared tired, but strong somehow. "How much sleep did you get last night?"

"How many stupid questions are you going to ask today?"

Max felt her brow raise, "depends on your stupid answers." She almost smirked and she thought she saw the corner of his mouth twitch as well.

"Do you remember when I said that Daryl and your dad were working together on a new case?"

Max unintentionally rolled her eyes at the mention of Daryl. "Do you remember when I said he accused me of killing my dad? I hate Daryl."

"Stop it, no you don't."

"You don't know that." She scowled at him now.

"I still think your dad had some information somewhere about it." Asahel kept the conversation moving forward.

"And you think it's somewhere at my house, or maybe even in his office." She stated before adding, "well, the last time I was there then someone had searched his office, tearing it apart from wall to wall." She saw him look at her now. "I don't know if they found what they were looking for, but I doubt we'll find it if they couldn't."

"Why didn't you tell me that before?" He sounded annoyed.

"It didn't matter before." She bit her lip slightly, "my involvement didn't matter and probably still doesn't. Just like yesterday, I'll probably wind up getting myself hurt somehow in my own house."

"You weren't completely useless yesterday." Asahel muttered.

Max scoffed, "yeah right."

"Francis said the guy you killed had a lot of information on his phone that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise." Now she turned and looked at him. "If you hadn't been there and shot him, he would've gotten away like Jordan. We got all the files and maps that was left behind, but his phone gave us names, faces, meeting places and more." He almost smiled at her, "so it was a good thing you went yesterday. You might not know or see the impact you have on people or a situation at the time, but don't ever think for one second that you're useless."

Max pursed her lips, bit the inside of her mouth, and sighed, not knowing what to think. So, she said the first thing that came to mind, "you know, I didn't really want to kill him."

"Do we ever?" Asahel said quietly, as if he was asking himself the question and not her.

She stared at him for a while, wondering what kind of man he was. She probably knew him pretty well, or at least a part of him that most people didn't know. Knowing that he'd sense her eyes on him-if he didn't already-she looked away.

"So today," she said, "what if we don't find anything? What if it's all a waste of time?" She watched the familiar scenery fly by.

"We'll at least have tried. Doing nothing would waste more time." He made a good point.