Mafiosa (Blood for Blood #3)(11)

‘You’re late.’ I tapped at an imaginary watch. ‘I said 7 a.m. sharp.’

‘I’m not a morning person,’ he said, his grin turning sheepish.

‘Is that why your smile is starting to twitch?’

‘I just downed two double espressos,’ he confided. ‘I think my face is vibrating.’

‘Well, you could never tell.’ I smiled at him. ‘Thanks for coming.’

He shrugged, but my smile had brought on his own, and I made a mental note to be very careful about how this meeting progressed. It was business, not pleasure.

Nic cracked his knuckles and rolled his neck around, warming up. ‘So, why do we have to be so secretive about this again? Valentino will be happy.’ He had asked me the same thing last night when I ambushed him in the middle of brushing his teeth.

‘I told you I don’t want anyone to know until I know what I’m doing.’

Translation: I don’t want Luca to know.

Even if Luca intended to risk everything to break the promise I made to his twin, I certainly didn’t.

‘You sure that’s it?’ Nic edged a little closer, his grin turning wolfish. ‘Or is there something else going on here that I don’t know about? Because you don’t have to make up excuses to spend time with me, you know. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be …’

‘Nic …’ I pressed my palm against his chest and pushed him back gently. ‘We talked about this.’

‘So, let’s talk about it again, now that things have changed.’

‘Nothing’s changed,’ I said gently. ‘We’re not good for each other.’

A frown rippled along his forehead. ‘For the record, I disagree,’ he said. ‘I think we are good for each other.’

My smile turned awkward, but I kept my tone light. ‘To be in a relationship with someone, both parties kind of need to agree that they’re good for each other, Nic … it can’t just be you. It’s not enough.’

Nic shrugged. ‘Take as much time as you need, Sophie. I’ll change your mind eventually.’ His determination puffed him up, made him seem taller.

‘You’re always so sure of everything,’ I said, half-chastising him.

‘That’s because I always get what I want,’ he said, confidently.

Not this. Not me.

I decided to flip the subject before the intensity of where this was going steered us off course. ‘Do you have the gun?’ I whispered.

Nic’s laugh shattered the morning silence. He backed up and made a show of looking all around him. ‘You really don’t have to whisper about guns in this house – you get that, right? This doesn’t have to be a secret.’

‘I don’t want anyone to find out that I’m learning,’ I said quickly.

‘Of course you’re learning. How are you going to drop a Marino if you don’t know how to shoot a gun?’ He regarded me quizzically. Then he laughed again. ‘You are so funny, Sophie.’

Nic pulled a gun from his waistband and my heart did a miniature somersault. I really had to get a grip. ‘Can you hold this for a minute?’ He handed it to me and I took it on reflex, surprised at the weight. It was sleek and silver, with a black bar of colour running along the top. I was extra, extra careful not to brush the trigger as I studied it at arm’s length.

Nic zipped up his coat until it reached just below his chin. Damn, he looked so warm. I was trying not to shiver. I was also trying to look totally nonchalant with a gun dangling by my side.

He gestured at the gun. ‘The safety’s on, you can relax.’

‘I’m totally relaxed,’ I said, forcing a laugh that sounded like a dying hyena. ‘I’ve never been more relaxed.’

I passed the gun back to him, the barrel end pointing away from us, laying it flat on the palm of his hand, like it was an ancient artefact.

He laughed again. ‘You are so cute.’

‘Stop making fun of me!’

‘OK, sorry,’ he said, smoothing his features into a terrible attempt at seriousness. ‘I’ll do my best.’ He beckoned me around the front of the barn.

I fell into step with him. ‘Why are you going in there?’

He unlocked the door and pushed it open, pausing on the threshold to answer me. ‘Where did you think we were going to have the target practice?’

‘Um …’

‘Here?’ he said, gesturing at the open grounds – at the beehives dotting the back garden, at the clusters of trees in the distance, at the back of the house and all those breakable windows. ‘Just out in the open like this?’

‘Um, no …’ I said, looking at my shoes. ‘That would be bad?’

Nic snorted. ‘Bad is one word for it.’

The barn was a huge open space with concrete floors and a continuous line of windows so high up I couldn’t see out of them. Morning sunlight streamed through them, brightening the room. At the opposite end, there were twelve targets lined up in front of the wall – twelve thick wooden bases with black human cut-outs jutting out from them, just like in the movies.

‘Oh,’ I said, realizing exactly what this barn was here for. ‘I get it now.’

Nic was leaning against a long wooden table behind us. ‘You didn’t think he harvested crops here, did you?’