Chapter 255: Truth That Burns
It was as clear as day, so obvious, in fact, that even someone like Joe could’ve figured it out. Dud wasn’t just taunting Max. He was all but admitting it now. He was the one behind the hit-and-run incident.
The same hit-and-run that had been meant to take Max’s life.
The same hit-and-run that had ended up taking Jay’s instead.
Instantly, a flood of emotions surged through Max, starting deep down in the pit of his stomach, then rushing up like a roaring wave that crashed against the inside of his skull.
Fury. A rage that burned through every nerve ending in his body. It built from the tips of his toes, rising like a firestorm through his legs, his chest, his arms, right to his clenched jaw and narrowed eyes.
’He’s the one... the one who targeted Jay. The one who was supposed to take him out... This guy, this guy I’m standing across from, he’s the reason Jay died. A person I fought beside. A person I once believed was a brother-in-arms?’
Max’s teeth gritted tightly.
"Why?" he finally managed to ask, forcing the word through clenched teeth like it hurt just to say it.
He knew it was a risky move. Dangerous even. Asking that question could play right into Dud’s hands. Max had read enough, lived enough, to know what this was. It could all be part of the plan, to provoke him, to bait him into fighting with blind fury.
Because fighting with anger... it wasn’t like what they showed on TV. There was no magic strength hidden in rage, no second wind unlocked just by shouting louder. In real life, anger made you reckless. It made you easy to read.
And Dud, he already knew about Jay. He knew about the hit-and-run. That alone made Max question the entire situation. Was all of this just a game to him? A way to pull Max’s strings?
But then Dud answered.