Page 39 of Last Breath

Before Nella could stop them, the Barbaranis all stood and boomed as one giant hive-minded beast: ‘Antonella.’ Jett raised his mug too, but his lips didn’t move. She couldn’t look at him because of what her stupid mind had been doing after the encounter with Sirena. But at least someone knew she was enjoying this as much as a pap smear.

‘Come on, everyone,’ Luca said as the zios and zias crowded Nella like she was one of those religious statues that had started weeping. ‘Let oursaving graceget to work.’ He mouthedRunto her as he one-handedly fended off Zia Rita, Commander General of the cheek-pinching battalion.

She was almost clear but then Tomaso pulled her from her freedom just as she got to the door.

‘You’re not going anywhere alone.’

‘Again, wrong century. Try again next time.’

‘It’s not just your brother.’ Vittoria chewed the inside of her mouth as she appeared beside them. Her aura of tobacco and thick rosewater perfume engulfed the corner. ‘You are in charge of protecting this family’s fortune, our reputation, our everything. You are not going strutting off into the woods without your huntsman, Little Red Riding Hood.’

‘Yourhuntsmandoesn’t work for you anymore.’ Nella very much enjoyed reminding her mother of Grey’s resignation.

‘Not him.’ Vittoria sniffed. ‘You’ll take the chauffeur.’

Honestly, sometimes it was like Vittoria thought she was on the set ofDownton Abbey.

‘Jett,’ Tom and Nella corrected her. Vittoria sniffed again, which could either mean she was laying the groundwork for a fake illness or had been snorting cocaine from her dresser.

But Nella shook her head. ‘I don’t need Jett standing guard while I look through court documents. What are you hoping he’ll save me from – a paper cut?’

‘You just lectured me over being callous about our previous lawyer’s death,’ Tom said. ‘Your refusal to admit there’s a danger here is the same thing.’

‘You will take the wolf to protect you, Little Red.’ Vittoria gripped Nella’s upper arm with her new nails: coffin-shaped. Fitting. She planted a kiss on her forehead, which felt more like a branding. ‘Or he doesn’t get to leave,’ she hissed against Nella’s ear. Then Vittoria pulled back like nothing had happened and turned to survey the rest of the family. ‘Mama,no, we don’t need the crostoli now.’ She stalked over to Nonna Maria.

‘What does she mean – Jett has to protect me or he doesn’t get to leave?’

Tom squinted. ‘Mother’s letting Jett out of his contract if he sticks around until the end of the trial.’

‘Protectingme?’

‘Well, I added that clause,’ Tom said. ‘Now that Lieu’s ... you know.’

‘And what if I refuse?’

‘Then Jett doesn’t go.’

Goddamn it.For all her mother’s faults and apparent lack of concern for the intricacies of her children’s adult lives, she sure knew how to trap them like animals she’d been studying for years. Vittoria knew Nella cared about Jett, that he was a friend, not just an employee; she knew there was no way Nella would force him to stay against his will, no matter how angry she was at him.

It was his will that was the problem.

‘What’s your plan?’ Tom stood over her, obstructing her view of the family.

‘I’ll let you know once I know.’ Telling Tom that she was planning to search for the information in Clarkson’s notebook after she’d just turned her nose up at his offer of protection wasn’t the best idea. He would jump to the same conclusion she had – that whatever was in that notebook had got Clarkson killed. But if she could work out who Abby was ...

‘Don’t try to slip away from Randall,’ Tom said, beckoning Jett over like he was a dog. ‘You don’t want to ruin his great escape.’

Nella was already walking away. The past six months of penthouse air conditioning meant she was acclimatised to a stable atmosphere of approximately 24 degrees. The unfiltered Bindi Bindi air was already a hot, soupy breath down her neck before she’d left the mansion steps into the garden. The cobalt sky mocked her – everything here was brilliantly bright and perfect to contrast the swirling darkness inside her.

Ungrateful, the weather hissed.

Footsteps followed. Even if she hadn’t heard them, she’d know he was there.

‘They told you.’

‘Did you think they wouldn’t?’ she asked.

‘Nella, I ...’