Inferno(83)

‘Shady?’ grumbled the young man with the shaved head.

‘Case in point: my kidnapping and attempted murder.’

That shut him up.

I stamped down the quiver in my throat. ‘I love my mother more than anything. Donata Marino is threatening to split us apart if I don’t do what she wants. Jack has installed himself in the Marino family. His vendetta against this family is stronger than ever. They are coming for me and they are coming for you. I’ve come here for your protection because I can’t protect myself. But that doesn’t make me weak; it makes me smart.’

‘So you propose we offer you our protection for nothing?’ snapped Elena. ‘You will deplete our attention and our reserves because you’ve involved yourself in something that was none of your business in the first place?’

‘We are the reason she’s involved in this,’ interrupted Luca.

‘No.’ The word was so small it almost got lost in the rising argument. But I had been expecting it. I had been waiting – like a lot of other people, apparently – for Felice to finally open his mouth.

Luca rounded on him. ‘What do you mean, “no”?’

Felice stood up, his sudden height commanding all of the attention in the room. He fixed his tie with one hand, his other clutching the envelope Valentino had handed him. ‘I mean we are not the reason she has been sucked into this world.’ His voice was utterly emotionless, his words quietly sure as he flicked his attention to me and said, ‘Sophie has been part of this world since birth.’

One by one, every head turned in my direction.

There was a cavernous silence.

Nic broke it. ‘What?’

Echoes of ‘What?’ followed.

‘What?’ I added, just for good measure.

Valentino was sitting back in his chair, fingers steepled in front of his mouth. ‘I gave you ten minutes, Sophie. I gave you the opportunity to come clean on your own, but you wasted it. So, you can say it now,’ he offered with blithe indifference. ‘Or you can let Felice tell them.’

I was suddenly keenly aware that Valentino was not talking about The Kiss, and that whatever was in that envelope was not evidence of what had happened with Luca.

‘Valentino …’ I began, trying not to focus on thirty pairs of eyes burning through my skin. ‘I really have no idea what you’re talking about. I think there’s been some confusion …’

‘Oh, there has been confusion, Persephone,’ said Felice. ‘Why don’t we alleviate it right now? Tell us, bugiarda, at what point in your pathetic relationship with my nephew were you planning on telling him that you are, in fact, a Marino?’

The accusation landed like a slap in the face. I jerked backwards, halfway between a laugh and a splutter, as incredulity washed over me. My mouth fell open, as I grasped for a response. It was a struggle to find the right words to aptly communicate just how insane Felice was being. This was character assassination at its worst. ‘Stop,’ was all I could manage. ‘Just stop.’

The silence sizzled as Felice leant across the table towards me. ‘I thought I knew those eyes from somewhere.’ He pointed directly at me and I noticed, dimly, that everyone else leant closer too. ‘Those are Vincenzo Marino’s eyes. Those are the same eyes I looked into when I pulled the trigger and shattered his skull.’

There was a collective intake of breath.

I almost smiled. His plan was so stupid, so outlandish, it would never work. He could never discredit me like that. I rolled my eyes – my incriminating eyes – so they could all get a good look at how dumb their consigliere was.

‘What is this, Felice?’ Elena asked. ‘What are you saying?’

‘You’ve said it yourself countless times, Elena. There is something off about this girl. You saw it that night in the hospital.’

Elena rose a little in her seat, latching on to Felice’s ridiculous diatribe. ‘Yes … but this …’

Felice glared at me. ‘I will ask you only once. Are you, or are you not, the granddaughter of Don Vincenzo Marino?’

‘You know I’m not,’ I gritted out. ‘Cut the crap. You know who my father is.’

‘I know now,’ he boomed, the sudden loudness shocking me a little. ‘Though it’s taken me far longer than I would have liked, I’ve finally found the missing Marinos.’

I lunged towards him, stretching across the table as my lungs burnt with all the names I wanted to call him. ‘You’re sick,’ I hissed. ‘To make up lies like this after I brought you real information that would help your family. It’s low, even for you.’