Maverick exhaled slowly through his nose, the faint sting of gunpowder still hanging in the air.
The locker didn't budge, not even a creak.
He narrowed his eyes, shifting his weight as he crouched lower, his fingers pressing along the broken edge he had just shot apart.
The wood wasn't ordinary. It was reinforced and layered, almost like it had been designed to withstand forced entry.
Whatever was inside it could be only two things. A deliberate trap or a deliberate concealment.
"Step back," he ordered the guards flatly.
The men behind him immediately complied.
Maverick adjusted his stance, then drove his feet into the locker.
The impact echoed through the study like a dull thunderclap but there was still nothing.
He clicked his tongue once, irritation flashing briefly across his expression before vanishing again into control.
'Of course,' he muttered under his breath.
Santiano never did anything simple and the fact that this was in Lucrezia's study said it all.
