Page 69 of Last Shot

‘I know it’s not the same thing,’ Alexandra went on. ‘I’m just saying ... not all of us think you did the wrong thing. I couldn’t say this to you while you were inside, obviously, but I just wanted to let you know – not everyone in the system’s your enemy. Not everyone who’s in prison deserves to be there.’

Max had never taken Alexandra for the unsolicited Ted Talk type. ‘I appreciate it, Alexandra, but you don’t know anything about what I did. No one does except Evan and Jackie Terrace. And they gave their statements in court.’

‘I don’t think everyone believes they told the whole truth.’

Max laughed. ‘The truth? You’ve been part of the system long enough to know there’s notruth. There’s just two sides – it’s a football game. Doesn’t matter who you think deserves to win, it comes down to who has the best argument or the best lawyer. Who plays the best game. Evan won. I lost.’

‘You were protecting someone.’

Max’s lawyer had tried that defence. Unfortunately, that relied heavily on Jackie’s evidence that she’d needed protecting. Evidence Max refused to let her lawyer use.

‘It’s done now,’ Max said, trying as she always did not to think of Jackie.

‘And your life is ruined.’

Not if I stop these murders. Not if I save the most famous Western Australian family. That’s if Greyson even lets me back on the property.

Who was she kidding? She’d be lucky if he let her back in the car. It was the only time, Max realised, that she’d wanted to be back in a car since she was sixteen. She smiled, like she had in court when the jury came back with their verdict.

Guilty.

She remembered the foreman’s face as he watched her grimly. She’d felt sorry for him. She could see how it affected him – to be the one to say it – and she’d smiled so he knew it was all okay. No hard feelings.

It was the same look Grey had on his face when Libby had dropped the grenade about what she’d asked Max to do to Skinner.

Guilty.

‘I’ll stay at a motel,’ Max said, the wind carrying her voice like a runaway ghost. She didn’t want to be stuck in a car with him, silent, seething, for another four hours.

Grey didn’t look at her. ‘I’m not driving back tonight.’

‘I’d gotten the impression you were like the ghoul that haunts the Barbarani property and would turn into a puddle if you’re not back before midnight.’

It was a solid joke and she felt a strange, toxic agony rip through her when he didn’t react. When had she become so addicted to making him smile?

‘I’m meeting Poppy Raven’s family in the morning. Alone. It’s too late to call on them now.’ Night had closed in while they were in the prison, the shadows across his face now sharper.

‘Poppy Raven’sfamily are going to talk to Greyson Hawke, the man who works for the family whose wine allegedly killed their daughter?’

‘Of course not,’ he snapped, unlocking the car. ‘They’re meeting with Greyson Kelleher, private investigator, to see if they want to engage my services.’

‘That’s low, even for you.’

‘Even forme?’ Halfway in the car, he stood up again and slammed the door shut. His enormous frame eclipsed the night sky above her.

Max wasn’t sure what this feeling was – wanting to run but simultaneously desperate to step inside his skin just so she could feel what it was like to be him. Even just for a minute.

‘You have thenerveto accuse me of being like Skinner, of being the Barbaranis’ hit man. And now look where we are. I guess it’s like how cheaters are always paranoid their partner’s being unfaithful. Here you stand before me, the hit woman hired to take out Kaine Skinner.’

‘Hiredinsinuates I’m getting paid to do it.’

He threw his head back and let out a laugh, exposing the stubble shadowing his jaw. ‘That’s all you’ve got to say?’ It was a werewolf moment, that laugh. The last human moment before it morphs into a beast.

‘Well, Icouldtell you the truth. But you won’t believe me, will you?’ She put her hands on her hips, feeling like a forest creature trying to puff up its frill in the presence of a predator.

‘What would give you that impression?’ His sarcasm was like the kick at the bottom of a glass of gin. She wanted to scream. She wanted to ... ‘Get in the car,’ he said.

‘No. I’ll find my own way to a motel. You may not have heard of Ubers but they’re this newfandanglething ...’

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