Something bad had happened last night but neither of the bigger boys would tell him what it was. From what Daniel had overheard from the grown-ups, Jake had been poorly and needed to be carried back to the villa by the dads. And today Jake was cross, especially after his mum had announced that they were going back to England. Everything was f-this and f-that. He’d always seemed a bit crazy, but today he was acting properly weird, like he didn’t care about anything any more. It made him even more unpredictable than usual. But it was also – in a weird way that Daniel couldn’t really explain – more exciting to be part of his gang, to be an insider for once, rather than on the outside.

Jake crouched down suddenly and his brother followed suit. There was a man, up ahead in the trees, with his back to them. Jake and Ethan’s dad.

‘Jake?’ Alistair called out into the woods. ‘Ethan? Are you going to come back to the villa now, gents? We need to pack.’

‘Get down!’ Jake hissed under his breath.

The three of them dropped flat behind a bush, watching Alistair. He stood, looking all around, one hand stroking his beard.

‘Jake?’ he called again. ‘Ethan? Time to go, come on.’

With one final look around, he shook his head and began walking deeper into the woods, away from them.

After a minute, Jake rose up to a kneeling position and the other two did the same.

‘You still got your lighters?’ he said.

‘Yeah,’ Ethan replied, fishing in his pocket and holding out the blue plastic Bic lighter.

Daniel nodded too, blushing, hoping they wouldn’t notice.

‘Yeah.’

The truth was, he’d managed to lose the little yellow lighter they’d given him for being a member of their gang. It had been in his bedroom. But he’d gone to look for it yesterday and it had disappeared. He searched under the bed, in his bedside drawer, in his empty suitcase, but it was nowhere to be found. He didn’t want to ask Jake and Ethan because they’d think he was stupid for losing it. It must have fallen out of his pocket when they were playing outside.

It was a secret, a big secret, so it wasn’t like he could ask Mum and Dad if they’d seen it. He’d be in massive trouble if they knew he had such a Dangerous Thing. Although they’d both been a bit weird these past few days, like they weren’t really paying attention to anything but themselves. Mum seemed to be sad all the time and Dad was distracted; you’d say something to him and he would look at you like he was listening but he wasn’t really listening. Sort of like he was looking straight through you, then he’d say something random on a totally different subject.