Page 108 of Inferno
Jack’s frame seemed to press outwards against the narrow hallway. There was no space – no place that his shadow didn’t touch. ‘Sophie.’ One word: not quite angry, but stern.
‘Jack.’Antony, I reminded myself. But no matter what the truth was, he would always be Jack to me. A liar. A coward. The name tasted too bitter in my mouth. My fingers squeezed into my palms until their tips bent back on themselves.
He shut the door behind him. ‘You didn’t answer me.’
I felt my voice vibrating with fear, so I forced it higher, louder. ‘I was upstairs. Can’t you wait, like, two minutes?’
There. That teenage indignation. Jack huffed a sigh and I watched his shoulders dip. He thought this would be easy; hethought I would come around.Idiot. He stepped closer, and it took everything in my power not to attack him. ‘Are you ready to come with me?’
We both knew it wasn’t a request; he was just allowing me the illusion of free will, for old times’ sake.
‘Do I have a choice?’ Surly, but not unbendable. It was a delicate line.
‘No. Either you come or she’ll kill you.’ A sigh, a flicker of the man I used to know. ‘And we’ve lost enough already.’
We’ve. I contemplated lunging at him and clawing his eyes out. I might get one before he wrenched me off him.
‘You’ll have to come now,’ he said.
Focus. I stamped my foot. ‘This issounfair.’
‘Hurry up and pack a bag. I’ll wait down here.’
I jutted out my chin. ‘Can’t we just stay here?’ The idea of having him anywhere near the last place my mother had laughed and lived made me want to scream, but he would expect some opposition to the move, and if I didn’t dig my heels in, he’d get suspicious and trail me while I packed.
‘We’re going somewhere nicer,’ he said impatiently. ‘Somewhere closer to the trade.’
‘Where?’ I whined.
‘Will you just pack? I’ll tell you later. Libero and Marco are waiting in the car.’
I couldn’t escape.Double crap. At least he hadn’t brought that murderous skeleton near my mother’s house. I didn’t know how much more my wavering restraint could take, and the idea of coming at Donata Marino with a kitchen knife was just too tempting.
‘Fine.’ I trudged back upstairs, blinking back the tears ofrage that spilled freely down my face once I was turned away from him.
I hovered in my bedroom, staring out the window as hopelessness wrapped itself around me. My eyes fell on the wooden trellis crawling up the back wall – the last of my mother’s garden projects. Slowly, carefully, the threads of a plan unfolded in my head. I’d have to go out back. It was my only chance – my last chance.
I opened the window in my room and swung my already-packed bag out, angling my arm so that it landed in a bush to the right of the kitchen, away from the window. Then I stuffed an old rucksack with towels and sweatshirts to make it appear full. I stomped around for a while, slamming my feet against the floor above Jack so he’d think I was having a tantrum.
After ten minutes, I came downstairs. He hadn’t moved from the hallway. He stopped scrolling through his phone and registered the bag as I dropped it by his feet, taking care not to be any nearer to him than I had to be. I scooted backwards, arms folded across my chest. ‘There.’
‘Good,’ he said, stowing his phone in his pocket. ‘You’re cooperating. I knew you’d come around. It was all just a horrible accident, Soph. The wrong person died, but don’t worry, we’re going to take another run at those bastards, and this time they won’t get out alive.’
I sneered internally. He obviously didn’t know I was the one who had rescued them. Man, he was such a moron.
I forced a shrug. ‘Whatever. I can’t make rent by myself, and we both know I have nowhere else to go.’
The ghost of a smile flickered across his face, and I caughtmyself wondering what it would be like to cut it out of him and watch the colour drain from his lips. I smiled too as the image danced in my brain. One day I would find out.
Jack unclasped the front door and lugged my bag over his shoulder. ‘Ready?’ he asked, his tone already lifting.
I stalled. ‘I need to pee.’
His brows lifted. ‘What? Why didn’t you go upstairs?’
‘I was too busy rushing for you!’
‘Fine. Hurry up.’
