Page 9 of Malevolent Secrets

I think I see him turning another corner, so I hurry faster, my breath coming in heaving gasps.

As I round the corner, I slam into someone. I look up and my heart quails as I realize that I’m looking into the face of Massimo Ranieri.

“I need to get to Jeremy,” I insist, trying to slip around him.

“No,” he says to me in that deep, resonant voice that I can feel all the way to my core. He reaches out and grabs my shoulders in his elegant, long-fingered hands.

“Let me go!” I cry out, struggling against him.

“Jeremy was the past,” he says to me. I look up and see that he’s smiling at me softly. “I’m the future. Stop fighting against me.”

I scream, trying to break his grip on my shoulders. I hear him laughing and I realize that he has pressed a gun to my head. I feel terror freeze my heart in my chest just as he pulls the trigger.

I jolt awake with a gasp. I look around the room in a panic for a moment before I realize that I’m alone. I press a shaky hand to my forehead. It was a dream.

My mind races, thinking about all of the footage that I have watched of Massimo talking to the press advertising his various businesses. I think about the candid images that the press have captured of him at his villa in Italy or leaving the gym that he owns in downtown looking sweaty and dangerous.

Massimo's face haunts me, but so does my confusion about what he has to do with Jeremy.

I need answers, and I need them now.

Determined, I get up and throw on some clothing. I found an address for Massimo’s main business headquarters while I was doing research last night.

I punch the address into navigation and then pull out of the driveway. I follow the route to a slightly seedy part of town that reeks of desperation and danger. I park outside the drab, grey building and take deep breaths. My heart pounds in my chest, but I push the fear aside. I have to do this. For Jeremy.

The building is old and rundown, its brick facade crumbling with neglect. It makes me wonder why Massimo is doing business in a building like this. He’s clearly wealthy, so there’s no reason that he couldn’t afford a better location for his company’s headquarters.

The air is thick with tension as I make my way to the rusty front door of the building. My palms are sweaty,I wipe them on my jeans and take a deep breath to steady myself.

I push open the heavy door and step into a dimly lit hallway. The smell of mildew and stale cigarette smoke assaults my senses. Every creak and groan of the building sets my nerves on edge, but I force myself to move forward.

The hallway dead ends and I’m confronted with a counter that is protected by bars. I stretch up on tiptoes to see if anyone is seated at the desk. It’s empty. I glance around, but I don’t hear or see anyone.

“Hello?” I call out, looking over my shoulder again. My voice echoes in the large, empty space. “Is there anyone here?”

I try calling out a couple more times, but get no reply. I sigh, combing my hand through my hair. It was stupid to come here. I start to turn away, when suddenly, I hear a voice that I realize I would know anywhere.

“You’re far too brave for your own good, Dani.”

I whirl around and squint into the shadows. I know it’s him, but I can’t see him yet. Finally, he emerges from the gloom, the dim lighting in the hall throwing shadows under his high, sharp cheekbones and nestling in the edges of his full, lush lips.

“You don’t sound surprised to see me,” I say back, proud that my voice doesn’t tremble.

He tilts his head and gives me an appraising look. It makes me feel like he is seeing beyond just my skin and clothes.

“Grown men aren’t brave enough to come to this place and try to find me,” he replies.

“I’m not here for any trouble. I just…you were at Jeremy’s funeral…and I wanted to talk to you about how you know him.

“Really?” he says to me. He steps closer, his face fully lit by the spare, unprotected bulb in the hall. I swallow hard.

I whip out the lie I had prepared before coming here. “It’s been hard these past weeks. My therapist says that I need to find some closure, so I’m trying to get to know more about the part of his life that he clearly didn’t share with me. I need to know about his life before he met me.”

The lie rolls off my tongue with more ease than I expected it to and Massimo seems convinced.

A smirk plays on his lips. “You want to know about Jeremy? Well…he was a piece of shit. As dumb as he was selfish.”

My hands clench into fists. How dare he! “I thought you were close?”

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