She felt a light touch on her arm. ‘Clover, I’m sorry . . . Can I ask you to forget that ever happened?’ She looked to find Ari addressing her, his voice barely more than a murmur. ‘Please.’ Ari jerked his head towards the other side of the room, and she followed him. ‘That was bang out of order,’ he said in a low voice. ‘But he’s not himself at the moment. He’s stressed.’ Stressed? Clover stared at him. How much of Ari’s job involved damage limitation for Kit’s behaviour? This was the second time in twelve hours he had had to physically intercede. ‘This is unworkable,’ she whispered. ‘I cannot do my job if I’m going to be physically threatened, Ari.’

‘I know. And I’ll tell him that if he so much as lays another finger on you, I’ll pummel him myself.’

She looked over at the brothers. Beau was dabbing Kit’s cuts, Kit hissing and jerking like a scalded cat at every touch.

‘He’s dealing with a lot of shit right now,’ Ari murmured, glancing over to check they weren’t being watched. ‘Although I appreciate he doesn’t present sympathetically.’

Clover looked back at him. ‘How’s he going to be able to talk to me, if he can’t even look at me?’

‘Just give him time. He’s a good guy – underneath it all.’

How far underneath? She was an interviewer, not a miner.

‘Look, even if you don’t believe me, from a purely selfish perspective, I’ve just come off the phone to Julian. Again. He rang me seventeen times today. There’s no fricking coverage at the park.’ He gave an irritated look. ‘Anyway, he heard we hadn’t been around yesterday and he’s made his feelings very plain. It’s no more Mr Nice Guy . . .’

Clover frowned. Who exactly had told Julian they weren’t around yesterday? Not her or the others.

‘Look. I don’t want Kit to be dealing with a lawsuit after all the shit he’s already been through so I promise you, I’m dealing with it. Kit will play ball. I just need a few days to make him see sense. Can you give me that?’

Clover sighed. She could see Ari was doing his best. And he had just stepped in between her and Kit, which was more than he’d done at their morning confrontation . . . ‘Well, I guess we could do some B-roll shots while we wait,’ she said finally.

‘B-roll?’

‘Backdrop shots. Stills. Panoramas.’

‘Right. Yeah, B-roll. That’d be good.’

She glanced over towards the brothers on the sofa. ‘They seem close,’ she murmured, watching Beau tending his brother’s wounds.

‘Yeah.’

She looked back at Ari. ‘I really am sorry about the chess game. I didn’t know.’

‘How could you have?’