Page 42 of Luca

We watched the video intently, taking note of the comings and goings from the basement car park. Then I saw what I was looking for.

“There,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. Marko quickly froze the image.

“That’s Joey McDougall. One of the MP’s bodyguards. A right arsehole,” I said, anger simmering beneath the surface as Marko snapped a screenshot of the man’s face.

We spent the next couple of hours combing through the rest of the footage. By the end of it, we had identified our killer. The bastard had been in the car park of my flat not long before I returned home. He’d shown up carrying a large holdall, one big enough to contain a body—or more likely, a restrained person. Julie. Within twenty minutes, he’d exited again, and this time the bag didn’t look quite so heavy.

Now we’d identified the likely culprit, we needed to link him to Julie and find more evidence because the images alone wouldn’t be enough.

It didn’t take long for Marko long to hack into his mobile and unearth numerous texts between him and Julie.

They’d been dating, having met after she got out of rehab. From what I gathered, she’d been at the MP’s garden party on the day of the heist while I was undercover. I hadn’t seen her, but she must have spotted me, recognised me despite my disguise, or perhaps noticed something about Leon Peters, my alter ego, that reminded her of me. Maybe she hadn’t given it much thought at the time, but after the MP was arrested and I went off the grid, she might have mentioned it. They could have easily connected the dots.

Something had clearly gone wrong between her and McDougall, as several texts revealed him calling her a cheating slut. That was the motive.

So, Joey McDougall was the rapist and murdering bastard directly responsible for Julie’s death, and he was going to pay.

“Let’s tell Miki what we found. We need to find this guy,” Marko said.

Marko and I strode into Miki’s office, the air thick with urgency. Miki was hunched over a stack of documents, his brow furrowed in concentration. He looked up as we entered, sensing the gravity of the moment.

“What’s going on?” he asked, setting aside his work.

I took a breath, ready to lay it all out. “We found our suspect in Julie’s murder. Joey McDougall, one of the MP’s bodyguards. He was in the car park of my flat just before I got home. He had a large holdall with him, and it didn’t look so heavy when he left.”

“Got any proof?”

“Absolutely,” Marko confirmed, stepping forward and opening his laptop to pull up the images we’d gathered.

“Good work. Miki said, smiling in approval as he scanned the footage.

“Can we tie him to Julie?”

“Yeah. I hacked his mobile, there are a lot of conversations between the pair,” Marko stated.

“McDougall and Julie had been dating, having met after she got out of rehab. She was at the MP’s garden party on the day of the heist. We suspect she might have seen something, and he could have found out about our past,” I told Miki.

Miki leaned back in his chair, the weight of the situation settling in. “Motive?”

I nodded. “We’re working on it. The initial messages to Julie were passionate before things went dark. His jealousy and anger are evident in those texts. They paint a clear picture of a volatile relationship.”

Miki’s eye narrowed in thought and he steepled his hands. “If he’s our guy, we need to move fast. I don’t want him slipping through our fingers. We need him alive. He’s your way out of this, Luca. But we can also use him to hammer yet another nail into that fucking MP’s coffin.

I felt the adrenaline surge through me, a familiar rush of determination. “Let’s make it happen.”

Marko exchanged a glance with Miki, and I could see the gears turning in their minds. “Alright,” Miki said, leaning forward. “Let’s find out where McDougall is hold up, and Simpson; we’ll use both of these arseholes to get the MP to break his bail conditions. He won’t be able to fuck us up so easily while he’s stuck in a prison cell. We need him remanded and dealt with once and for all.”

As we discussed the plan, my thoughts drifted back to Julie. The rage I felt simmered just beneath the surface. She didn’t deserve this—none of it. And I would ensure that those responsible paid.

CHAPTER 25

CLAIRE

THE SAME DAY – NAVIGATING THE SHADES OF GREY

The last week with Luca had been nothing short of extraordinary, the best of my life. It felt like a dream I didn’t want to wake up from, each day filled with an intoxicating mix of laughter, desire, and a happiness I hadn’t felt in years. Mornings were softer, the world a little brighter, and I found myself smiling for no reason other than the thought of him. We spent our time wrapped in each other, sharing moments that felt stolen from reality.

The thrill of being with him hadn’t faded; it had only grown stronger, making every goodbye feel like an unwelcome intrusion. Luca had a way of making me feel seen and cherished, as though every part of me—the good, the guarded, the messy—was exactly what he wanted. I’d never known a connection like this, one that burned with both passion and comfort, pushing me to let go in ways I hadn’t thought possible.