Page 24 of Last Breath (Blood Wine Dynasty #2)

‘It’s no problem.’ Nella’s ears were ringing, her cheeks burning.

She fended off the bartender’s offers of dry-cleaning and eternal flagellant servitude and attempted to salvage the top with one of the napkins but it disintegrated after one press against her wet boobs.

‘Hold this.’ She passed her shoulder bag to Daisy, whose mouth was frozen open like one of those swivel head carnival clowns, then peeled the beer-soaked top over her head, bundled it in a ball and shoved it into the depths of the Saint Laurent bag Daisy held open.

‘On the house,’ the bartender said as she passed two bright yellow pina coladas over the dripping bar.

‘Nella.’ Daisy’s nails dug into Nella’s bicep. ‘There’s something I need to tell you.’

‘I know everyone can see my nipples, Dais,’ Nella said, ‘and I don’t care.’ Thank whatever demon was looking up at her she’d worn a nice bra.

‘It’s not that. I actually think you’re the coolest person in the galaxy for doing that, but ... do you remember that night—’

The night Clarkson died? Why was everyone so afraid to say it? They’d just spent half the day at an event entirely focused on the fact that he was dead.

‘—when you called me. I tried to tell you something about Clarkson, but then Ian—’

‘What is it, Daisy?’

Daisy looked sideways at Eliza.

‘Gotta pee,’ Eliza said, taking the hint. She slipped off her stool and left them alone at the bar.

Daisy swallowed. ‘I followed Clarkson, the day before you got back to Bindi Bindi. I followed his car after he finished for the day.’

Nella almost choked. ‘What? Daisy, are you insane? Why would you—’

‘You told us never to trust anyone!’

‘I meant clients !’

‘How was I meant to know he was your friend? And you weren’t there – I thought maybe he was working against your family.

He came round to the office to see if you were there – I don’t know if he’d already been to see your brother or not.

But when he got in his car, I dunno ... I just had this feeling—’

‘You could have called me.’

‘I did.’

A memory swam – her phone, dead, somewhere in the penthouse apartment, covered in microwave sweet chilli sauce. ‘Daisy, if the cops get footage of you trailing his car, this could be bad—’

‘I didn’t know he was going to die!’ she almost shouted.

Nella shot her a look to shut up. ‘But you know following people is wrong, yes?’

Daisy nodded, like a child being scolded for eating glue at kindergarten. ‘Can I tell you where he went?’

Nella felt a lashing of shame. Daisy had put herself in potential danger, unknowingly implicated herself in Clarkson’s death and was still now trying to protect Nella, giving her plausible deniability like she’d been trained.

‘I assume it wasn’t to the Bindi Bindi Farmer’s Market?’

Daisy shook her head slowly. ‘He drove to the La Marca Estate.’

The cocktails reared up Nella’s throat like the groping hand of a drunk. ‘That doesn’t mean anything, Daisy.’

Daisy searched her face like she could hear Nella’s battling thoughts. It means something. Why would Clarkson go to the La Marca property when he knew they were suing us?

Did he find something?

‘I’m sorry,’ Daisy said, head low.

‘You didn’t do anything wrong,’ Nella said. ‘I just don’t want you caught up in this any more than you already are. It’s not fair that you’re involved just because you work for me.’

‘If that was a problem, I would have found another job.’

Nella closed her eyes for a second. ‘You should.’

Daisy looked taken aback but quickly fixed her features as Eliza returned. ‘I gotta run,’ Daisy said, her face still searching Nella’s for something. ‘Got a date.’

‘Good for you,’ Nella managed, trying to push the revelation about Clarkson’s visit to the La Marcas into the depths of her mind.

‘Everyone’s on a date tonight. You! Jett!

’ She laughed like a supervillain, and Eliza poured more water into the glass, almost knocking Nella’s tooth out as she forced it up to her lips.

Daisy’s smile was tight; she and Pearl were the last ones from work still at the pub but it wasn’t even 8 p.m. The funeral had clearly sucked everyone dry. Ian had lasted five minutes after the shirt removal before he’d called it quits.

‘We should head off soon too,’ Eliza said as Pearl gripped Nella in a fierce hug, then pushed through the crowd after Daisy. The band was on their second set and the line for drinks was a sweaty, three-deep human sandwich.

Nella shook her head. ‘I don’t want people to think I’m leaving because I’m embarrassed to be sitting here in my bra.’

‘No one will think that,’ Eliza soothed, pouring more water into Nella’s glass. ‘Most people here are just annoyed it’s still on.’

Nella looked down at her chest. The bra was deep magenta, with soft lace and full cups that pushed up her boobs in a pin-up style that hadn’t looked inappropriate under the high-necked funeral shirt but now definitely needed at least a Mature Audiences recommended rating.

‘I don’t have a ride,’ she admitted, stabbing the lime from her empty mojito with a pineapple skewer from Eliza’s pina colada.

Eliza rolled her eyes. ‘You always have a ride.’

‘Not tonight.’ The lime was too brittle; it broke in half and its green fleshy parts floated away in dregs of melted ice. ‘Jett actually is on a date. I wasn’t lying.’ What would Jett say about Clarkson going to the La Marcas? Would he just tell her she was being paranoid – again?

Eliza slurped the unblended remains of her pina colada. ‘That’s surprising,’ she eventually said in her signature deadpan tone. Eliza once took a psychopath test online and had refused to divulge the result to Nella – but most likely because she was disappointed it said she didn’t fit the criteria.

‘It’s not,’ Nella said. ‘Jett’s single, he’s young, he’s not exactly ... well, he’s ...’

‘Sex on legs?’

Nella spat out her drink.

‘You can’t deny he’s good-looking,’ Eliza said.

‘I didn’t deny it. Why would I deny it?’

‘You’ve never really brought it up before.’

‘Your nurse is hot – should I be interrogating you about why you haven’t brought that up before?’

‘Which nurse?’

‘Kristy.’

‘Kristy breeds axolotls.’

‘Hot and resourceful, although I don’t actually know what an axolotl is ...’

‘Jett being on a date doesn’t mean you don’t have a ride. He has never refused to pick you up, not once.’

‘Things are different now.’ Nella didn’t keep secrets from Eliza, but for some reason she’d never been able to tell her what she’d said to Jett after the funeral. And she hadn’t told her about his resignation.

‘Bullshit.’ Eliza popped a dripping ice cube into her mouth. ‘Call him. He’ll come. He’ll ditch her.’

‘He won’t. And I wouldn’t want him to. He deserves ...’

A life? Did Jett feel like he hadn’t been able to have a life, living with and working for her family? He must resent them all – especially her.

‘If you ask him, he’ll come. You’ve got him wrapped around your finger.’

‘I don’t!’ Nella slammed down her glass. The bartender looked up. So did some drunken bikers whose gazes lingered on her bra, but she was too angry, plus a little flattered, to bite their heads off. ‘I don’t use Jett.’

‘I didn’t say you use him.’ Eliza passed the ice from one cheek to the other. ‘I’m just saying, maybe you’re a little bit blind to some things where your family’s employees are concerned.’

Employees. The word was a wet hand slap to the face. Jett was more than that, wasn’t he? They weren’t friends exactly, but they were more than employer and employee. Some grey, murky area in between, where the water was never quite the right temperature.

And she was sick of everyone telling her she controlled people, like some kind of Marvel villain. Avery had said it in the police station, Jett had accused her of it when she’d told him about Sirena’s crush. And now Eliza was saying she did that to Jett?

Fuck them.

She pulled out her phone, waved the screen at Eliza so she knew she wasn’t bluffing, and pressed the ‘Call Now’ button next to Jett’s name. It rang for three seconds before she pressed the red ‘End Call’.

She couldn’t do it.

‘Watch this,’ Eliza said.

Nella assumed she was going to do some sort of disgusting ice-spitting trick but instead, she pulled out her phone, dressed in a yellow Pikachu case, and put it to her ear.

‘What are you ...’

Eliza stuck a cold finger against Nella’s lips, and her face broke into an animated smile.

‘Oh, hello, Mr Randall. This is Eliza Gulbrandsen. Yeah ... uh huh, that’s right, the vet, the best friend, the one and only.

Yeah, look, Mr Randall ... Okay, Jett .

.. Was that because you were born on an aeroplane?

Never mind. Nella’s phone died ... Yeah, yep, she called you .

.. Uh huh ... Yeah, it died then and there, no warning signs or anything, we didn’t even know it was sick.

She told me she didn’t want to bother you, but look, some stuff went down, we’re down one top and .

.. Okay, thanks, Mr ... thanks, Jett . .. We’ll see you soon.’

Eliza hung up and stacked her empty glass on top of Nella’s. Her smile cut all the way to her earlobes.

‘What the fuck, Lize?’

‘He’s on his way.’ Eliza popped the last ice cube in her mouth. ‘Didn’t even need to beg.’

‘And what exactly have you proven?’

‘A theory.’ Eliza paid for the drinks they’d ordered on a tab like they were stars in an American sitcom. Normally Nella put up a stronger fight but Challenge 4 was The law of whale and plankton: Take turns paying the bill, no matter if there’s a difference in wealth.

And also, she’d completely betrayed her, so Eliza was not her friend anymore.

As Nella pushed in front of her out the door, the cool evening breeze blew gritty, salty sea air into their faces, and her chest, still smelling like beer, prickled with cold.

‘ What theory?’ she was about to ask, but shouts and yells erupted ahead of them.

‘Call an ambulance!’ someone yelled. Someone she knew. That was Avery’s voice.

‘What’s happened?’ Eliza asked an elderly man who was filming the whole thing on his phone.

‘Someone’s been hit.’

Nella and Eliza pushed through the crowd to the side of the footpath where Avery knelt, his upper body pumping in CPR position over the small, crumpled figure.

‘Oh my god.’ Eliza forgot to hide her neurotypical emotional reaction as she and Nella both made the same connection.

It was the blonde woman from the bar.