‘Oh, shut up,’ I said. I nearly yelled it. What the hell was I doing? All heads turned in my direction. ‘This is stupid. My brother is trying to give you a small fortune and you don’t even want to talk? What is wrong with you people? What is wrong with you?’

There was silence.

‘How could I trade that thing, that wristwatch?’ said Xena after a while.

‘My dad would buy it,’ said Aiden. ‘I’ll give you his details. Offer to sell it to him for eighty thousand and he’ll think it’s a bargain.’

‘You stole it from him?’ said Xena.

‘Yes.’

‘And you reckon he’d buy back his own stolen property?’

‘In a heartbeat. He probably wouldn’t even realise it was his.’

‘I hate to say this,’ said Xena, ‘but I like you, kid. You have … style. Okay. You have twenty minutes. Not just for that stuff …’ She nodded towards Aiden’s hand, ‘… but because I like you. So. Shoot.’

‘I want to talk to you in private.’ He glanced over at me. ‘Just the two of us.’

‘Sure.’

‘Wait a moment,’ I said. I grabbed Aiden’s arm and turned him towards me. ‘What’s this?’ I whispered. ‘All that feminist, hey you’re right, I’m being horrible garbage and then you’re cutting me out?’

‘Can we talk about this later?’

‘No.’

Aiden put both his hands on my face, cupped my cheeks.

‘Please, Ash?’ he said. ‘Trust me on this. I have to do this one thing by myself. It’s not because I don’t trust you or I think you’re inferior to me or …’ He twisted his mouth. ‘Anything,’ he finished. ‘But I’m … protecting you. I’ve always protected you, right? Let me do that one more time.’

I brought up my arms between his and swept his hands away from my face.

‘You saved my life, Aiden,’ I said. ‘So let’s be honest here. I owe you a favour.’

‘And this is how I want you to repay it.’

‘… But I hate this, you hear? I hate it.’

I walked straight up to Xena. She looked at me with what I thought was a certain amount of amusement.

‘Here’s what I want to ask,’ I said. ‘Why did you let us go? That last time. You could’ve held us to ransom, but you didn’t, and I don’t think that’s because you’re a kindhearted person. No offence. So why?’

She looked up at me with those amazing eyes and it’s probably my imagination but it was like she was seeing me properly for the very first time. And I could detect a battle going on in that face. Why should she tell me? It was none of my business, after all.