Page 6 of Last Shot

‘Father never specifiedwherethe hour of my time was to occur.’

‘Luca, he didn’t mean bring them back to the estate.’

‘You wouldn’t deny me this one would you, Grey?’ he asked, a wicked grin transforming his face into an entirely new dimension of handsome.

‘Deny youwhat?’ Grey hissed. ‘Pissing off your dad or takingherto bed?’

Max tried to ignore his tone, which made it sound as though she was a ravenous three-headed hell-hound that survived exclusively on Italian penises.

‘What’s the saying?’ Luca pressed his forefinger and thumb into his forehead with an exaggerated squint. ‘Two birds, one ... bone? Stone?’

Grey pinched the bridge of his nose. Max wished there was a way onto the estate that did not involve either of these men.

‘Here,’ Luca said. He held a black matte box in front of Grey.

‘I don’t need a gift,’ Grey said, his eyes flickering briefly to the box like it was a severed hand.

‘Is this or is this not your night off?’ Luca raised an eyebrow.

‘This isn’t a nine-to-five office job I clock in and out of every day,’ Grey replied.

‘Unless’—Luca twisted his ring round his finger—‘we all die.’ His gaze flickered to Max.

‘Exactly,’ Grey said, taking the box, hopefully missing the exchange between her and Luca. ‘Then, I’ll take a vacation.’

Max tracked his expression as he lifted the lid suspiciously on the box, like it was a scab he wasn’t sure had healed properly. Nothing – she couldn’t read him.

‘It’s a watch,’ Luca said.

‘I have a watch.’ Grey closed the lid like it had tried to bite him.

‘But this is a watch that doesn’t make you look like a grumpy, middle-aged Ben-10,’ Luca said, ‘and you’ll always remember tonight whenever you look at it.’ To indicate what he meant by ‘tonight’, Luca pulled Max into a one-armed hug.

Grey’s face changed right back to its factory setting of homicidal.

Unfortunately, the auctioneer chose that moment to call Luca over, and Max was left under the sweltering lights of the stage and the equally boiling anger of the Barbarani ‘Fixer’.

‘What thefuckare you doing?’ he hissed, his body blocking her from the phone cameras of the crowd, desperate to get half their forehead in a selfie with Luca.

‘Do you want me to forward you a YouTube video on basic economics for kids?’ Max asked.

‘What did you say to Luca, back there in the hall?’

Max had never understood the expressionif looks could killuntil now. A weight dropped through her abdomen at the protectiveness he clearly felt for the baby Barbarani. It reminded Max of that snake handler who slept next to his python every night until it ate him.

‘I told him that I hope he knows a good carpenter,’ she whispered, ‘because I’m going to break his fucking bed tonight.’

For some reason she wanted to see that cold, stone face crack.

A muscle twitched in the Fixer’s jaw, his eyes darkening. ‘I don’t believe you,’ he said.

‘Is that a challenge?’ She tipped her chin up.

‘I’ll make a note that you’ve admitted to premeditated destruction of property,’ he hissed, ‘but I don’t believe that’s what you said to Luca.’

She winked at him.Winked!Her face was glitching, her hardware spiralling into terminal malfunction. When had she ended up so close to him? Thankfully she was saved from the humiliation of existing when a large, warm hand claimed her waist.

‘Come,bella,’ Luca Barbarani drawled. ‘Time to show you the family jewels.’

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