Page 53 of Last Breath

CLANG.

The noise came from the loft.

He barely touched the stairs on the spiral staircase as he launched himself up, only to find something that was going to haunt him for the rest of his goddamn life.

Nella, basically topless, sprawled across his bed, her dark hair and pale limbs tangled in his moss green sheets.

He folded his arms, like a disgruntled parent, but really it was just to stop his lungs ripping from his chest. Her face was buried in his pillow, her arms spread across the mattress like she was trying to hug it.

There was a dangerous, empty space beside her.

‘Are you comfortable?’ His voice was strained.

She moaned into the pillow.

This woman.

‘Come on, I’ll take you back up to the house.’

She mumbled something.

‘What?’

‘You shouldn’t have come.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because it means you proved Eliza’s point. I told her it wasn’t true.’

‘What wasn’t true, Nella?’

‘That I control you. She said I’ve got you wrapped around my finger.’

He drew a shaky breath, looking up at the ceiling. ‘You do control me.’

She twisted around, her hair covering her neck, and blinked at him. He could just leave it there. Walk back down the stairs. Open the door. Drive Bessy out. Drive and drive and drive, until this property was a speck in the distance he could brush from the rearview. Until Bessy’s tyres had worn down enough that the Bindi Bindi soil and gravel was no longer in the tread.

But he couldn’t.

He recalibrated. ‘You’re my boss, remember?’ he said. ‘You’re in charge of me, technically. Did I have to come? No. But I thought you were in danger. If I saw the mansion was on fire, I wouldn’t just go back to sleep because I’m not on the clock.’

She sat up, swaying slightly, lips swollen and her left eye smudged with mascara.

For crying out loud.He shifted his stance and conjured an image of a boat filled with saggy retirees doing the cancan in Speedos.

‘You thought I was in danger?’ she said, brow furrowed, full lips parted. Thank god she’d decided against getting lip fillers like a bunch of her crack-pot followers almost convinced her to. Nella’s lips had always been soft and rounded naturally ...

Enough. Attic. Put it all in the attic.

‘Yeah ...’

‘That’s why you came.’

‘Yes.’ If he said it enough, he would sound convincing.

Truthfully, he didn’t know why he’d dropped everything and run to her. He didn’t even question Eliza. When he thought back now, her voice hadn’t been urgent. He’d known deep down there was no actual danger. But Nella needed him, and that’s all that had mattered.

Maybe not even that. Nella had called. Full stop. It was one of the reasons why he had to leave Bindi Bindi.