Page 58 of The Carver

I didn’t know Luca very well, but I recognized his voice.

Bastien let me go and rose to his feet.

Luca was accompanied by other men, all dressed in black. He looked around at the scene as he walked up to his friend. The police hadn’t shown up yet. “How’d they know you were here?”

I stayed on the floor because I wanted to disappear into the corner.

“They must have been tailing me. The only people who knew about my dinner plans were Fleur and my driver.”

“And you trust your driver?” Luca asked.

“Yes.”

Luca didn’t ask if he trusted me. His eyes found mine across the room. Even though he spoke loud enough for me to hear, he talked about me like I was deaf. “She okay?”

“Shaken up, but she’ll bounce back.”

“Or she’ll bounce out…”

Bastien ignored what he said and nodded toward the man he’d killed with just his boot. “Wouldn’t talk. Said his employer would kill his family.”

“Think it was Godric?”

Bastien didn’t hesitate before he answered. “No.”

“Why are you so sure?”

“Because if he wanted me dead, he’d want me to know.”

Luca nodded to one of his men. “Load ’em up.” He turned back to Bastien. “Called off the police. Tried to keep it from the press, but I was too late. Martin will be pissed about the backlash.”

“I can’t control the people who want to kill me.”

“It’s literally your job, Bastien.”

Bastien watched the men remove the bodies and clean up the mess left behind. “No one has put a hit on me in a long time. So, they are either very stupid—or very desperate.”

“Maybe they’re angry with how we handled Regis.”

“We handled Regis how we handle everyone else.”

“Oscar?”

Bastien shook his head. “He has other interests right now.”

Luca stood there with his arms across his chest. “When you’re at the top, all eyes are on you. Perhaps someone else wants to be seen.”

“I’d be more concerned if this weren’t the most amateur attack I’ve ever seen.”

“Maybe that was why they did it,” Luca said. “Because you wouldn’t have suspected it…”

Bastien dropped me off at home.

He had business that required his attention, had to shake down his contacts to figure out who wanted him dead, so he didn’t have time for me. I got a quick kiss and a pat on the ass as a goodbye.

I didn’t want him to leave, but I didn’t want to ask him to stay—so I let him go. Despite the fact that I was unnerved by what happened, I wasn’t his priority right now. He had an entire city to run.

I went to work the next day and the next, the office exactly the same as usual, like whatever had happened the other night hadn’t affected this sector of his business. The attack at the restaurant was on the news, but reporters were calling it a failed robbery attempt.

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