Inferno (Page 40)

It was Aldo who spotted us. Wiping his nose with an overused tissue, he pointed through the doorway. ‘Who are they?’ he asked, tugging at his brother’s sleeve.

Sal cocked his head. ‘I don’t know.’

Aldo’s eyes grew. ‘Is that … is that … blood?’

I looked down at myself. Uh-oh.

Valentino followed Aldo’s gesture, and our eyes met. He dropped his face into his hands, his reaction muffled by his fingers. I was expecting a mild explosion but his response was weary. ‘Luca, why would you bring her in here looking like that?’

CJ lifted his head. He lurched forwards, bending over his knees. I thought he was going to be sick but instead he cradled himself, his fingers clutching at his sides as he stared down at the floor. He was probably smart enough to know it wasn’t my blood.

Luca looked at me sharply and I had the sudden image of him strangling me.

‘Sorry,’ I mouthed, hands raised in supplication. Millie and I backed away, into the semi-darkness of the hallway. We waited with our backs pressed against the wall and our hands squeezed tight while the conversation turned to angry Italian murmurs inside the room.

In the distance, down the marble stairs, we heard the purposeful clacking of heels. At the end of the hallway, coming at us like a bird of prey, was the crisp figure of Elena Genovese-Falcone. Her face was shadowed by the darkness but she glided with purpose, her black dress pooling around her. She was so like Donata and yet the idea of them once playing together as children seemed impossible. She was every bit the Falcone queen, marching through her dark castle. It was hard to decide who was worse between her and Donata, but they both definitely had a seat waiting for them in the pits of hell.

I pulled Millie against the window at the end of the hallway. Part of me wanted to open it and jump out into the garden. I’d take a thousand bees over Lucifer any day.

Elena came to an abrupt stop outside the room. She turned on the heel of her boot and pinned us silently with her eyes. Her lip curled, and in that plummy voice she said, ‘Did I not tell you to stay far away from my sons, girl?’

Millie gulped. I gulped.

She gestured at Millie, one wiry finger tracing her outline. ‘And now it seems you have multiplied.’

I felt an unexpected rush of indignation course through me. ‘I was staying away from them,’ I protested. ‘Maybe you should have told them to stay away from me.’

Millie pinched me. Shut up.

Elena flashed her teeth. ‘You think I didn’t?’

‘W-we d-don’t want to be here,’ said Millie. ‘It wasn’t our choice. We were in Eden when it all kicked off and we got caught up in the … in the hustle. We just want to go home, Mrs Falcone.’

Elena pitched forward and got right in my face. ‘Rubbing shoulders with my sister, were you, little Gracewell?’

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.’