Page 21 of Hard Lessons

And wow, she’d lied so quickly at the raid. Not skipped a beat in letting him take the heat.

And an escort! Couldn’t she have thought of something else? Those police officers had looked at her like she was a whore they wouldn’t mind hiring for themselves. He’d wanted to knock all of their teeth out.

Oh, he knew Giovanni would have seen to it that she’d gotten off. There was no way he wanted her behind bars any more than Luca did. A bit of pressure on David Watson and a mention that the photographs were still floating about saw to that. They’d had to act quickly, but they were professionals, that hadn’t been a problem.

And thank goodness the crooked MP had behaved. Because if Serena had been locked up, that would really screw with Luca’s psyche. But that escort lie, she did it so fast, threw him to the wolves without hesitation and wriggling her damn hips and sticking out her tits while she’d done it. Right there and then, while he had cuffs on his wrists and a gun at his head.

A trickle of sweat ran from his brow and down his nose. It balanced on the end. He stared at it, going cross-eyed. Soon he’d be out. He’d see the sky, morning mist, fields, hills... Scotland.

Scotland had never been on his radar for a visit. Hell, he knew nothing about it. But Paulo had lived in the UK for over twelve years so Luca had no choice but to trust that it would serve his needs.

And they were very specific needs. Unique in fact.

But then again, Serena Ricci was a very unique woman, and letting her know just how pissed he was with her was going to take an exceptional place and an unknown length of time.

“Hey, Morretti, you got lucky.”

“What?” He continued to hold his pose and stared at the guard’s polished boots that had appeared in his eye-line.

“Get up and I’ll tell you.”

“I’ve got another three minutes. Give me a break, boss.”

“You might want to spend it packing.”

“What?” In one light spring, Luca was on his feet, his chest rising as he sucked in air.

“We’re full, which means you’ve got an early pass.”

“Early pass?” Luca hardly dared hope what he thought that might mean.

“Yeah, no room at the inn, so you’re out tomorrow. You can thank the damn Tories for funding cuts.” He tutted. “Get packed, enjoy your last night, you’ll be a free man at midday.”

“Really?” He ran his hand through his hair, hardly believing his ears. All this time thinking about release, counting the time until he stepped out from these goddamn walls, and now it was coming in a rush.

“Unless you don’t want to.” The guard raised his eyebrows.

“Si, I want to.” Luca grinned and stared at the sky through his high window. “I want to so fucking much it’s given me a damn hard-on.”

The guard chuckled and clasped his shoulder. “Well, just think, tomorrow night you might be lucky enough to find a pussy to sink your cock into.”

Luca grinned and balled his hands into fists. “Too damn right I will.”

“You can make another phone call to organize someone to pick you up.”

“Thanks.” He hoped Paulo would soon be finished with whatever he was doing with Giovanni.

“And we’ll give you the address of the halfway house, in case you need somewhere to stay.”

“I won’t need that. Mycompagnohas me all sorted.” He grinned. “I’m going on fucking holiday.”

“Somewhere nice?”

A sudden loud yell rang out followed by the clatter of metal on metal, something running along the bars.

“Somewhere quiet.” Luca laughed and reached for a pile of books on a shelf. “So I can read, might even do some writing.”

“Yeah, yeah, dedicate your first novel to me, will you.”

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