I press my lips together. “That’s not yours, and it’s not mine. If I were you, I’d put it back.”
“Good thing you’re not me.” Darius sets it on the counter and continues overturning canisters and emptying cabinets.
“Listen, I don’t know what I have to do with any of this,” I say. “This is not my kitchen. I don’t live here. All of this is Lucia’s, so you’d probably get a lot farther if you talked to her. Why don’t you go get her?”
Jett and Darius exchange a look.
“About that,” Jett says carefully. “Lucia has been relocated to Tommy Demonio’s residence.”
I blink. “Tommy’s?”
“Yes, miss.”
“Why?”
A pause. “Mr. Vin Demonio’s orders.”
Something prickles at the back of my neck. “Why would Vin sendLucia to Tommy’s?”
Another pause, longer this time. Jett heaves a short sigh as he glances up at the ceiling like he hopes his lines are up there. “Mr. Demonio says,” he clears his throat, “this is your kitchen now.”
I have a hard time processing the words. He said a bunch of crazy stuff about us being together earlier, but to send Lucia away? A woman who has been the only positive fixture in his life since he was a child?
“Mykitchen,” I repeat slowly.
“Yes, miss.”
“I don’t live here.”
Jett says nothing.
“I have a kitchen. It’s in my restaurant. In the city. Where I live.”
“Mr. Demonio says—”
“Jett, I understand that what Mr. Demonio says is of great importance to you, but to me, not so much. Does that make sense?”
Jett straightens slightly. “Mr. Demonio says you are the lady of the house.”
The kitchen is very quiet except for the low hum of the fan over the stove.
I look at Jett. Then Darius. Then the semolina dusted across Lucia’s counter.
“If I am the lady of the house,” I say slowly, “then you will let go of me, stop destroying my kitchen, and return everything to its proper location.”
Darius looks down at the dried bundle of hemlock.
“Except that,” I concede. “You can keep that.”
“After we finish the sweep,” Darius says. “Mr. Demonio was very specific.”
“In the meantime,” Jett adds, “I need to take you to your room.”
“It is not my room.”
“It is now,” he says.
I sigh deeply. “You know I’m not going anywhere with you, Jett.”
