I gaped at her.

‘I have eyes everywhere, Sophie.’ She shook her head. ‘And I am no fool.’

‘Why? Why send me there?’

‘Don’t you understand power structures, silly girl?’ She lowered her gun and tucked it in her pocket. Her smile was a patronizing slash of red lips. ‘Our strike tonight is only as good as the highest-ranking member we kill.’ Her smile grew as she saw comprehension move across my features.

She knew she could never get to Valentino. But Valentino was one half of a whole.

So …

‘Luca is the target,’ I whispered.

She nodded. ‘I wanted the underboss to know we were coming so he would come out of that mansion and stand with his brothers, where I can get at him.’

As she shut the door behind her, I caught a glimpse of Gino Falcone slumped against the doorframe, his gun held limply in his hand as rivers of crimson pooled across his T-shirt.

I knew in that split second that I had made the gravest mistake of all, and that tonight we would all pay for it.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

THE GAS

Donata seized me by the collar and dragged me with her like a dog. ‘The others are at the back door?’ she asked Jack. There was another bang from the kitchen and she smiled, her question answered. She indicated behind her with a flick of her wrist. ‘Giorgino Falcone was too busy playing with his phone to see me. Imbecille. Libero and Marco will cover the front now. The others are en route. The Falcones have backup, so we’ll have to be quick.’

God. There were so many of them moving around in the darkness, seizing the storm and harnessing its protection.

I struggled out of Donata’s grasp and tried to crane my neck to search the doorway again. She pushed me back into the kitchen, where Jack was lifting the bursting duffel bag on to the island. My mother’s eyes were closed but she was still groaning softly, reality filtering back to her, piece by piece. Donata ignored her.

‘Sophie, I am going to do for you what I could not do for my sister many years ago. I am going to get those demons out of your head. Tonight is the beginning of the life you were meant to have. Tonight you will become a Marino.’

The door heaved again, and this time a dent formed in the centre of it.

Jack stretched his body over the stove and flicked the gas on, one burner at a time. I watched the air above them start to ripple.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ The realization came upon me like a bed of nails in my back. Before I could scream at them, Donata had clamped her hand across my mouth, suffocating the air as I tried to suck it in.

‘Family business,’ she said, and I felt the whisper of her smile in the hairs on my neck. ‘Let me explain something to you, Sophie.’ She was breathing so heavily I couldn’t hear myself think. ‘When I was a little girl, my sister stole my favourite doll while I was at school and cut all her hair off. When I got home, I seethed for two days and two nights. Then on the third day, I told her that in revenge I was going to go out to our garden shed, open the hutch inside it and take the head off her pet bunny rabbit.’

I struggled harder, but she clamped down, speaking faster. ‘Elena was terrified. She wanted to know when I was going to do it. As a matter of fairness, I told her I would do it in two weeks’ time, on the fourteenth day, and that I would wait until she was asleep so she couldn’t stop me.’

The gas was filling up the room with frightening speed. I could already smell the sulphuric burn sticking to the inside of my nostrils. There was another crash – and this time Nic’s voice rang out above the thunder and the rain. ‘Marino, you coward! Open up!’

Nic. I shut my eyes tight. Dammit.

Donata was still talking. ‘Instead of coming on the fourteenth day, she spent every single one of those nights camped outside in a sleeping bag, waiting for me. Once she knew I was going to do it, she couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t stand the suspense, the idea of not truly knowing when or how I would strike. Her protective instincts drove her to that cold, damp shed, and her fear kept her there. It deprived her of sleep, of sanity … and still, when the day came, I took the head as I swore I would.’

Jack was circling the kitchen. He had unstuck the cork noticeboard and wedged it beside the stove, and now he was dropping everything flammable he could find on to the floor, throwing tablecloths and napkins around the countertops like he was playing with streamers.

‘You see, Sophie,’ said Donata, ‘Elena has always been calculated, cautious … predictable.’ I could feel the smile in her last sentence. ‘Gianluca Falcone is every bit his mother’s son. He will always place himself where the threat is greatest. And that’s how I know he’s outside that door right now.’

As if in answer, the door clanged again and this time a hinge crumbled.

Donata’s laugh rang out. ‘The underboss is Valentino’s highest protection. He only comes out of his brother’s shadow when he knows real, palpable danger is near. Caution has brought him here tonight, and his predictability will get him killed.’

I shut my eyes tight. Luca wouldn’t leave Valentino in the middle of a blood war.

There’s no way.

We were facing the caving metal doorway from across the kitchen. Behind us the passage was free, safe from the destruction Jack was cultivating. As the full horror of their plan crystallized before me, Jack’s psychotic laugh surged through the kitchen, rising up with the gas.

‘Come on in, boys!’