Past

I walked around my townhouse, pacing the room as I waited for Max to call me back. I woke up this morning to a desperate voice mail where she asked me to call her the second that I could, that she needed to talk to someone but didn't want to go to Esmond straight away, just in case she was being paranoid.

I'd called her but it rang out, and now to say that I was in a panic would be a goddamn understatement. She never called to talk about something as serious as what this sounded. That would involve asking for help, and that was something Max avoided at all costs. For as long as we had known each other, she barely asked for help. Only when she was truly desperate did she do so.

I felt my phone vibrating in my hand and I immediately answered without even looking at the ID. It was her; I knew it was. No one else really called me, because I preferred people to text me. Talking on the phone was reserved for emergencies like this.

"Jesus Christ, Max, what the fuck is going on?" I asked as soon as I put my phone to my ear and I could hear her hyperventilating from the other end of the line.

"She knows. Fuck, Jake, she knows. She has to know." Max managed to say, but I could hear her breathing getting harder.

"What do you mean, she knows? Max, what are you talking about?"

"My team... they..." Fuck. She was panicking. She was too far gone to even get a sentence out.

"Hey. Listen to my voice. Breathe. I need you to breathe in for me." I told her and I heard her take a deep breath. "Good, hold it for just three seconds and let it out. Count the seconds in your head." She once again did as I said. I heard the silence and then the slow exhale. "Go again, but hold your breath for four seconds this time." She did so. "And again, but five seconds."

It took a few more minutes to get her calmed down, to get her breathing back to normal and her panic to be set aside for the moment, at least.

"Okay, what the fuck is going on?" I asked, this time keeping my voice calm since I knew if I asked with too much panic that she would no doubt go into a panic again.

"Queen... I think she knows about me working with Esmond." Max said, and immediately I felt my stomach drop. I shook my head. There was no way that Queen could know.

"No, there's no way. Everything is classified. I know I haven't told anyone, I doubt you have and neither would Esmond."

"But what if she had someone tail me last time I was in London? What if she has someone on the inside that's told her about Esmond's work? I mean, anyone could work in MI6 and could be corrupt and give Queen information and-"

"This hasn't come out of nowhere. Why do you think she knows?" I asked her, and there was silence for a few moments.

"My team's noticed that Queen is giving us less. Fewer jobs, less money for the ones that we get. It's a worry because what if it means that she knows and she's cutting us out?" She asked, and I had to keep myself from swearing. If she was right, then we were all fucked and there was nothing we could actually do about it. If Queen already knew, then there was no going back.

"Okay, just... has there been an attempt on your life yet?" I asked. I may not be a part of Queen's Court, but I knew how she and most other crime lords worked. They didn't cut people out by being petty, especially for something as possibly disastrous as the person being an informant to something as big as MI6.

"No?"

"Is there any other reason you feel unsafe?"

"No." She said with finality.

"Do you think Queen would let you keep breathing if she knew you were an informant?" I asked, and that was when I heard Max sigh.

"No, she wouldn't even if she just suspected."

"Then you need to stop panicking." I told her, which probably didn't help anything because I was panicking. If Queen was giving Max less work and less money for them, it mean that something was wrong. Maybe not necessarily that she suspected Max of being an informant, but something else.

"Okay, but... my team pointed out that Queen has never actually made sure I can defend myself. That's a normal part of induction into the Court if you don't know it." Max said, I let out a slow breath to give myself a moment to think. If it wasn't being an informant, then there was something just as equally bad. Why wouldn't Queen make sure her best driver couldn't defend herself? This wasn't something you just let slip through the cracks, not in an enterprise as big as Queen's. Everything that woman did was for a reason.

"She wants you defenceless. That's not good." I said, still trying to process all of it, but I felt like I was missing some information. "Has anything happened recently that would make her rethink trusting you?"

"No, the only thing that really happened was that my team rushed to my side in an argument we had. It made her angry that they all seemed to be willing to deal with her anger than let me cop the brunt of-"

"Fuck, Max. That's why you're getting cut out. That's why you're getting less."

"Because my team like me more?"

"No, because you are an actual leader of your team. They look at you for instruction instead of looking to Queen. If she gave them an order you hadn't approved, would they do it?"

"Not without coming to me and telling me about it first." She said. "Oh... oh shit."

"She sees you as a threat, Max. Not because you're talking to Esmond and are informing MI6 about shit. She probably doesn't even know about that. She's scared because your team's more loyal to you. If you can gain loyalty from one small team, loyalty stronger than their loyalty to her, who's to say you're going to stop there? From what you've told me about your team, they are hard people to get the trust of, and you have it. If you can get it from them..."

"She thinks I'm a threat to her position as Queen of her Court. Like I would go for control or something." She said, realising everything at the same time I was.

"If you can't defend yourself, it makes you easier to take out if you gain too much loyalty from her people. She probably saw that leadership in you when you started and kept you under control and defenceless, so you never tried."

"Which failed, because I did it without trying."

"You need to tread carefully, Max. Don't gain loyalty outside of your team, if you do she will know and she'll kill you. Just keep pledging loyalty to her, focus on making sure she knows you are only loyal to her."

"Lie, you mean."

"Yes, you will need to lie. Which is what you're already doing."

"Okay." She said, taking a breath. "Thanks for calling me back. If I had gone to Esmond with this first, he would pull me out of the Court without a second thought."

"He would, but probably for good reason. You need to learn self-defence, Max. Get Esmond to train you when you're in London, and if your team is loyal to you and you trust them completely, get the ex-marine to train you as well. You're going to need to protect yourself." I said.

"Yeah. I'm in London tomorrow, so I'll talk to Esmond about it then. But I'll talk to Lex today. I trust them all with my life so..."

"Good. Be safe, okay?"

"You too."

"I love you, Max. Don't get killed on me."

"I love you too, Jake. Don't you get killed either." She said before ending the call. I kept pacing my apartment, running a hand over my hair. I had to take a slow breath. This wasn't my fight anymore. This wasn't my fault. Max made a choice.

She would make it out of the Court in one piece.

She had to.