Page 57 of Last Shot

‘I will not have any criminals on this property!’ Tom said.

Grey’s gaze flickered to Max and he regretted it immediately; she was still kneeling beside Nella and Arnold, the edge of her singlet riding up to reveal the dimples he’d noticed when she’d reached for her phone in the hot spring.

‘Quinton is not a criminal!’

‘Yeah.’ Luca nodded. ‘Frankie doesn’t date interesting people.’

‘I didn’t date ... I don’tlikeQuinton ... For god’s sake, he wasn’t at the chicken farm. He joined Earth’s True Redeemers, like, last year ...’

‘How many hand jobs did it take for you to convince him—’

‘It might surprise you lot to know that some people actually care that our planet is slowly burning to the ground,’ she said, cheeks still red. ‘And it’s people like—’

‘Let me guess.’ Luca scowled. ‘People like ... me?’

Frankie sniffed. ‘Billionaires are responsible for a million more times greenhouse gases than the average person.’

‘Flattered you don’t think I’m average, Frank.’

‘Quinton knows ETR’s about real change, not just Instagram hashtags. He actually understands that climate finance is the way forward, and he knows there’s enough global capital to make the transition to a low-carbon global—’

‘Okay, weget it, Frankie, he’s got a big—’

‘Shut UP, Luca!’ Nella ripped her hand out from under Jett’s. ‘At the current moment, the only thing that’s actually dying is my cat! How far away is Quinton?’

‘Ten minutes, tops.’ Frankie was already on her phone, tapping furiously. ‘He lives in Bindi Bindi,’ she added in response to all the silent stares.

‘And how is he going to fix Arnold Schwarzenegger?’ Luca raised an eyebrow. ‘His electric touch?’

‘He has all his equipment in his ute,’ Frankie said, to her credit, without slapping her brother.

Grey turned away before anyone could interject with an ‘equipment’ pun, but wished he’d gone with one himself when he came face to face with Max.

‘I ...’ he started, but the words wouldn’t come.

‘It’s on the tip of your tongue,’ she said, lip curling. ‘It’sI’m a giant dickhead.’

He swallowed. ‘I’m a giant dickhead.’

She raised her eyebrows; clearly even that concession wasn’t enough.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I didn’t actually think you’d done something to Nella.’

‘So why—’

‘It’s my problem,’ he said, straightening up, ‘not yours.’

‘You know, a guy I arrested once coughed infected blood into my eyes and then, as he tried to say sorry, it came out as a torrential rain of vomit.Thatapology was better than this.’

‘I don’t do this well,’ he said.

She tilted her head. ‘Human interaction?’

‘I don’t normally have to justify myself.’

‘Must be nice.’

For fuck’s sake. ‘I thought I was too late again, that I’d missed something, just like with the backpack.’

---