Page 123 of Last Shot

‘Oh, don’t be sodramatic, Hawke. You’re always like this. You made such a big deal about me touching Maxella’s arm back there in the winery. And look, I get it now, okay? I see it with my own eyes – but I’m insulted that you think so little of me ...’

‘Grey?’ Nella’s voice croaked through the dark corridor Raphael had returned from.

In shock, Max lowered the gun as Grey charged past her to get to his family.

41

Max

‘You didn’t kill them.’

Max had to see it with her own eyes. Her fingers traced the deep fissures Raphael’s bullets had made as he’d shot at the ground five times, about a metre away from where the Barbaranis had been – believing they were seconds away from their deaths.

‘Of course not.’ Raphael picked a bit of dirt from his nail. ‘I was never going to.’ They were alone in the corridor. Greyson had ripped the ties off all the Barbaranis and along with Jett and Skinner, they’d managed to walk out to meet the blue and red lights of the police and ambulance vehicles surrounding the mansion. Max hadn’t seen them since.

The police had carried out Frankie and Ariana and arrested Quinton and the others trying to flee. One of the Bindi Bindi cops, a large, red-bearded grizzly bear, had told Max to stay there and he’d come ask her questions soon.

She turned back to Raphael. ‘Why not? It would have been beneficial for the La Marcas if you killed all the Barbaranis. I’m assuming that’s why Frankie conscripted you in the start?’

‘I think you’ve learnt your lesson about assumptions, Maxella,’ he said softly. ‘Doesn’t look like Kaine Skinner was the mastermind you thought he was.’

‘You knew Skinner was imprisoned here, didn’t you?’

He’d literally said it.Skinner’s a bit tied up right now.

‘Of course I did. Don’t you remember? I told Greyson that if I saw Skinner, I’d bring him straight to you. And I did. Francesca’s been smuggling food to him since the night Luca decided to invite all of Perth’s strippers to his father’s winery for a pole-dancing competition. Terrible acoustics, but an excellent distraction while one hauls an ex-hit man into one’s enemy’s lair.’

He stepped closer, his heeled boots clicking loudly against the cold stone. She should leave – go find the grizzly red-headed cop and let the ambos give her one of those crinkly blankets that look like aluminium foil. But she couldn’t. She didn’t have all the pieces yet.

‘You knew all along what she was planning.’

‘You give me too much credit,’ Raphael said. ‘I am no killer, Maxella. That, you and I have in common.’

‘You expect me to believe—’

‘I never expect anything from anyone,’ Raphael said. ‘I find it leads to disappointment.’

Max was still trying to convince herself that everything that had happened in this strange hidden bedroom was true. That Frankie Barbarani had meticulously planned the murders of her entire family, faking her own attempted murder, to come into their fortune to save the planet. She’d truly believed her cause justified her actions. Was that what Max had done with Evan? Had she been so steeped in self-righteousness and holier-than-thou-morality that she’d forgotten boundaries existed for good reasons? Frankie’s intentions were honourable, but the way she’d gone about it was horrific. Max didn’t know if what she’d done was the same.

‘Francesca was able to plot and orchestrate the murders of her entire family, right under the nose of Greyson Hawke,’ Raphael continued. ‘You know Maxella, if Greyson didn’t know what was going on, what chance did I have?’

‘You knew enough for Frankie to trust you to kill her family! Why were you even down here, if you weren’t planning to help her finish the job?’

‘Francesca was meant to be passed out to take the suspicion off her,’ Raphael said. ‘I was going to set the Barbaranis free, and let Skinner take the fall for their capture and attempted murder. At no point did I know Giovanni ...’ He made a face. ‘I did not know until that gun fired – I believed this was all to scare the family into donating a large sum of money to the Earth’s True Redeemers, like a ransom demand. I did not know she was planning to kill anyone. I was naïve, I suppose, blinded by my own desires.’

Max raised her eyebrows. ‘Your desires? So this was about Skinner, for you?’

‘This was about the La Marcas for me.’

Just like Grey with the Barbaranis.

No. She could not. She would not.

‘You wanted Skinner gone because he posed a threat to them?’

‘Skinner put his own wife in jail to save his neck. He’s been trying for years to get the La Marcas to invest in his ... other business pursuits.’

‘Meth?’ Max asked.

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