Page 69 of Winter With You

Ronnie made a move and straightaway, on some kind of inbuilt instinct, Luca had his hands in a lock he wasn’t letting go of.

‘Marcello! Quit that, it fucking hurts.’ Ronnie’s expression quivered for a moment as Luca increased the pressure but then the thug laughed, ironically, manically. ‘Your father taught me that. It’s good to know it works.’

‘I’m warning you, Ronnie. Don’t fuck with me.’

‘I’m not fucking with you,’ Ronnie stated, face back to contorting with strained pain. ‘I know nothing about any dress or any other shit or whatever paint job someone has done on you.’

Internally Luca felt the ferocious fire start to burn in a different direction. This couldn’t be. But he knew Ronnie’s style, if he said he knew nothing then he knew nothing. The henchman had no reason to lie now. So, what happened next?

‘Give my father the message,’ Luca snarled. ‘And keep out of my whole orbit, Ronnie. Got it?’

He didn’t wait for a reply. He let go of Ronnie’s hands with force and the man went flying backwards in the chair that tipped up and left him sprawling on the floor.

Luca started to walk back toward the door of the bar until Ronnie shouted out again.

‘Marcello! Listen to me!’

Luca turned around and faced the man still wriggling like a rotund worm on the floor.

‘What you said about attacks and breaking in… you know, maybe we have a problem that needs attention.’

‘“We” isn’t even a thing, Ronnie. Get that.’

‘Marcello, if this⁠—’

‘No,’ Luca roared, pointing a finger. ‘And my name is fucking Manning.’

He wasn’t waiting around for a second longer. He needed to wash his body of the red liquid and delete the detestable company he’d been forced to interact with from his mind. To the sound of ‘Holly Jolly Christmas’ playing over the sound system, Luca stepped out onto the sidewalk.

43

THE ROYCE HOTEL, MANHATTAN

‘So, have we covered everything now?’ Gabriella asked, getting up from her position at the table Cheyenne had set up like it was a boardroom not a hotel room. She and Phoebe had left the Christmas market shortly after Luca because, despite reassuring her niece that everything was OK, it was the only thing on the teenager’s mind. And, after a dressing down from Cheyenne about their disappearing act, the publicist had launched into interview strategy like she was advising an errant member of the royal family.

‘I don’t know, Gabriella, you tell me,’ Cheyenne said, staring intently over her iPad.

Cheyenne was a fan of the question spin; Gabriella was not. ‘I don’t think there’s a question I could be asked that I’m not prepared for.’

‘Really?’ Cheyenne said, raising an eyebrow. ‘Because at the library I thought you were going to melt like a cheap candle at midnight mass. Deer in the headlights comes to mind.’

‘Uncalled for,’ Gabriella said. ‘And false.’

Cheyenne sighed. ‘Gabriella, as much as All Chapters are committed to supporting your restricted questions agenda, we do consider it a hindrance to the book’s sales potential and we can’t guarantee the same if there’s a book two.’

‘If?’ It wasn’t the first time that her publicist had said that. OK, the contract wasn’t signed, but she was halfway to having something she thought was good enough to move forward with and this visit to New York was because sales were taking off this side of the Atlantic and that was the publishing dream.

‘You know nothing is concrete and we really need to think very carefully about curating the content.’ Cheyenne took a breath and hit Gabriella with an intense look. ‘All Chapters wonders if it’s time for the shock factor.’

Gabriella blinked and then frowned. ‘You’ve lost me.’

‘I know you wanted more of Lulu’s story in Zero Fucks Given and I know that we have thinned her essence slightly in this new edition, but with good reason.’

Gabriella felt a creeping sensation of unease spread across her shoulders like the winter breeze was coming in through the closed balcony doors. She put a hand to the back of the chair like she needed to hold onto something. Her other hand went to the chain around her neck.

‘All Chapters want more of what happened that night. The mystery… and the intrigue… and the build up to catastrophe so the readers can feel and resonate with the kind of mental trauma your family has gone through.’

Gabriella was hearing the words Cheyenne was saying and they were hitting like darts, sharp, invasive and her heart was trying to deflect the attack at the same time it was pulsing with pain at the way the publicist was talking, like what happened to Lulu was clickbait.