Inferno(47)

I shook my head. ‘Of course not—’

‘Were you laughing about how your father slaughtered my husband?’

‘What? No, I went there to see my uncle—’

‘And what exactly has your uncle bargained with my sister for her protection?’

‘I–I don’t know,’ I stuttered.

‘Really, we don’t,’ Millie added.

‘Drugs? Money?’ she continued, watching us closely for any signs of betrayal on our faces. ‘What does that man have in his diner that would open the gates of my sister’s dynasty?’

My exasperation peaked, and too exhausted to reign in my annoyance, I half-shouted, ‘I don’t know! I don’t know anything about it!’

I blinked and her face was an inch from mine. ‘I think you’re lying.’ Closer still, until Millie was axed from my periphery. ‘I think there are lies in those eyes.’

I blinked hard – to hide the lies? Perhaps that’s what she thought, but the truth was that I was experiencing an overwhelming flurry of rage and I was this close to slapping her right in her face to get her away from me.

‘Secrets,’ she hissed, pulling back from me at last. ‘We all have them. And, girl, I will find yours and when I do, my sons will see you into the next life. If you’re a spy, I will find out.’

‘She’s not,’ interrupted Millie. Elena double-blinked, reminded that there were two of us.

Millie’s words came flooding out. ‘Neither of us are spies, actually. We’re not good at subtlety, to tell you the truth, so if we were you’d have found us out by now. We just want to go home and watch movies and go back to school in a couple of weeks. Please don’t kill us or ask someone to kill us or hurt us. We don’t care about your sister, I didn’t even talk to her at the club, which was really overpriced and kind of creepy, and even though I saw her in the crowds I thought she looked kind of haggard and definitely not as glamorous as you but then again I’m sure she’s like twenty years older than you and you got all the good looks in your family.’

Elena opened her mouth to interrupt, but Millie ploughed on, oblivious, silencing whatever she was about to say.

‘Sophie didn’t even really talk to her either, you see it was Jack she went to see because he gave her a card, but you probably know that because your son stole it which is fine because he was looking for Jack so that’s totally his prerogative, but Sophie only showed up because she thought her uncle was going to apologize and try to make everything right but obviously he didn’t, he made it way worse, which means he’s just totally evil, and we know that now and we’ll never make the mistake of trusting him again, I promise you Mrs Genovese, erm, Falcone, Your Eminence, ma’am. We’re sorry. We’re not spies.’

Millie’s panting filled the silence. Elena’s mouth stretched in a joker-like grin, all teeth and no lips, and something that sounded like a snort of amusement rustled the air between us.

She raised her finger and pointed it at Millie’s forehead, and just when I thought she was about to poke her eye out, she said, ‘You, I like much more than her. You, I believe.’

I watched in silent shock as Elena disappeared into the sitting room, her dress cascading behind her.

‘Holy crap,’ breathed Millie. ‘Holy crap, she’s scary.’

‘Yeah,’ I said, incredulity mixing with fierce gratitude for my best friend. ‘And you managed to disarm her.’

Inside, the Falcones spoke in tones that rose higher and higher.

Elena: ‘Felice has returned.’

Nic: ‘I can do it.’

Luca: ‘No.’

Valentino: ‘It’s not about doing the right thing. It’s about doing the intelligent thing.’

Elena: ‘They’ve broken the truce.’

Valentino: ‘It’s my decision.’

Luca: ‘Don’t worsen the situation, Valentino.’

Valentino: ‘We need to show solidarity in this.’

The conversation dipped to low Italian murmurs.

After a while, Elena left the room with CJ in tow. Her arm was resting along his shoulder, pulling him against her as she strode along the hallway. Luca and Nic emerged next, ashen-faced. Something was definitely wrong. Even more wrong than it already had been.

Luca walked ahead of us. ‘Follow me. You can shower and get cleaned up in here.’

He led us into a bathroom halfway down the corridor. It had a gigantic marble-fitted bathtub and gold faucets. The business of killing really was so lucrative. Nic disappeared into a different room.

‘Where did your mother go with CJ?’ I asked Luca.