All eyes in the room shifted to Jon’s stunned expression. Without warning, he took a phone of all things out of his pocket and pressed the screen twice.

Tobey stood up. ‘Thanks for confirming that you were the one responsible for making the bomb, Jon, even if you did give Troy and my daughter Jarvis’s name rather than your own. Your phone won’t activate shit though. Didn’t I just say that the bomb has been defused?’

Tobey stalked towards him, his fists clenched. Now everyone was on their feet, including me.

Jon leaped up and pulled a gun from his jacket pocket. ‘That’s close enough, Durbridge.’

Jon and Tobey were less than two metres apart. Callie immediately put herself between them. Stupid child! Sonny tried to stop me, but I shrugged out of his grasp and ran to stand before my daughter, pushing her back.

‘No, you don’t.’ A thwack from behind us. Eva cried out. I turned to see the gun she’d been holding clatter onto her desk. She collapsed back into her chair, cradling her forearm. Jarvis had hit her with the retractable steel baton he was putting back in his belt. He retrieved the gun off the desk at once. Eva’s other bodyguard swore and drew her weapon. Jarvis opened fire. A deafening shot made me cry out in alarm. The bodyguard dropped to the ground without making a sound, a rosette of red in the middle of her forehead. Tobey took a determined step towards Jon, who took a step back, his gun arm outstretched.

‘I said that’s close enough, Tobey,’ said Jon, freezing Tobey in his tracks.

Unexpectedly, Eva started to laugh. ‘Isn’t this jolly?’ she declared with delight.

‘Jarvis, put the gun down,’ Jon demanded. ‘I won’t ask twice.’

Reluctantly, Jarvis placed the weapon on the desk out of Eva’s reach.

‘Now how about we all just take a deep breath and chill?’ said Jon. ‘Go on. You heard me. Everyone sit back down.’

‘Jon, no—’ Callie’s heartbroken whisper filled the room.

Jon cast her a look of real regret, but the gun in his hand didn’t waver for a second. I perched on the edge of a couch, Sonny beside me. Across the room, Tobey and Callie sat next to each other. Tobey’s expression was carefully neutral, but he never took his eyes off Jon. Not once. I could only hope that he wasn’t about to do anything stupid. Eva was still cradling her arm, while Jarvis stood behind her, watchful.

I couldn’t help glancing at the Nought woman lying dead on the ground. I’d seen violent death before and it never failed to horrify me. Sonny took hold of my hand and squeezed it, drawing my focus away from the dead woman. I jerked it away.