Chapter 19
19
Max
Max tried to focus all her attention on Quinton to avoid thinking about whatever it was that had just passed between her and Grey. She still didn’t know who Sophie was or what she’d done, but she’d hit the nail on the head and likely bent it too when she’d guessed Sophie was who had made Grey’s voice go quiet. But every time she felt his eyes on her, all she could see was the note Vittoria showed her.
Quinton.
He had green hair, like grass in need of mowing, sprouting from an otherwise handsome head. His eyes were blue and they kept flickering towards Frankie in a way that Max would find sweet if the situation wasn’t so dire. Quinton’s eyes definitely needed to be on Arnold Schwarzenegger.
‘I’m going to check on Vittoria and Giovanni,’ Grey said. ‘There might not be a bomb in Arnold, but this still might have been a distraction.’
Max didn’t like the fact that her first instinct wasn’t to snort in derision at the Fixer’s paranoia. Was he right? Had someone done this to Arnold deliberately?
‘For a silent protest,’ Quinton was explaining to Luca, running a tentative hand through his hair as Nella marched him towards Arnold, currently cradled in Jett’s arms. ‘Gonna shave it off if it doesn’t start growing out quick enough.’
Quinton knelt beside Jett and Arnold, rolling out a purple mat and instructing Jett to lay Arnold on top. As the vet checked the cat, Jett stood and said something gruffly to Nella, which made her smile through her tears. She leant into him but Jett stayed straight-backed, arm still on her but not moving closer. What was up with those two?
Quinton started to pull bottles and vials from his satchel. Max prayed Frankie’s faith in this green-haired vet’s skills was not obscured by the size of his biceps and the depth of his dimples.
Grey returned, jogging down the grass embankment, narrowly dodging a tiny amber coloured vial that rolled away from the others.
‘Careful!’ Quinton launched at the vial. ‘That’s etorphine!’
‘Is that like morphine?’ Luca drawled. ‘If so ...’ He stuck his tongue out.
‘Hell no, man.’ Quinton carefully put the etorphine back in his satchel. ‘This shit’s for buffalos. There’s enough in this vial to kill you three hundred times. A scratch of it on your skin’s enough to do it. You wouldn’t believe the paperwork I had to do when I dropped one and broke it.’ He shook his head and put a syringe into another vial.
Max felt as though his words had kicked her square in the stomach.
A fucking scratch. All it would have taken was a drop of etorphine in Evan’s morning long black. A dash on his toothbrush. A damp kiss on his cheek. It didn’t have to be a gun. She might not have lost her job, lost her life, herself.
She looked up to find Grey watching her. Warm embarrassment spiralled through her and she cursed herself. She was thinking about Evan because of the impending trip to Semperdom. There was no room for her to lose her shit here; she could not give the Fixer any more reasons to change his mind about working with her – especially as, after what he’d said about having trouble trusting people, it felt like he’d maybe started to trust her.
‘So what are you giving Arnold?’ Nella demanded as Quinton tapped the edge of the syringe.
Max wondered if Quinton’s tolerance for this Spanish Inquisition was because this was the Barbarani family or because of one Barbarani in particular.
‘Atipamezole,’ he said. ‘Can’t tell you for sure what happened, but it looks like he’s eaten something he shouldn’t have – see his gums?’ He bared Arnold’s teeth for them.
Max didn’t know what she was supposed to be looking at.
‘They’re white,’ Nella said.
‘He’s been vomiting too.’ Quinton pointed at the patches of sludge where Nella had found Arnold.
‘Did someone do this to him?’ Tom asked.
Frankie looked stricken, like the thought that someone would deliberately hurt an animal was ten times worse than the fact that someone had just tried to blow her and her family into the sky.
‘Don’t know.’ Quinton scratched his jaw. ‘I can’t say exactly what it was he ingested. Been out of the small animal medicine game for a while, so I’m a bit rusty on all things feline, but I’ll talk to some colleagues and get their take on it if you like. I’ll take some of the vomit back with me and see if I can get it tested.’
‘Thank you,’ Grey said. ‘Here’s my number. Call me first.’
‘Competition, Frank,’ Luca whispered, but thankfully it didn’t seem like anyone heard – or cared – because Arnold Schwarzenegger’s eyes had started to open.
‘He’ll be fine,’ Quinton said as Nella wrapped her arms around the vet’s neck.
The tension released through the air like a helium balloon slowly leaking as Quinton was clapped on the back, futilely protesting an invitation to the gala that Nella made clear was more like a court summons.
But Max was still on edge. She might have lost her badge and her gun, but her bosses couldn’t take away her cop senses from her. Something wasn’t adding up.