Page 47 of Lily

He hadn’t even seen her enter, which was not like him at all. He was usually extremely in tune with her location, but this time, he was not.

Stefano’s laptop was open on the kitchen table, and he was pacing back and forth in front of it, glancing at it now and then. His hands were on his head, nearly pulling his hair out. He’d put on a pair of low-riding jeans but nothing else, so his body was sexy as usual, but he was not himself.

Roselia swallowed and remained very still, not daring to breathe. Instinctively, she knew everything was about to change. Something terrible had happened, and her perfect bubble with Stefano was about to blow up. It was palpable in the air.

She figured the longer she stood there silently, the longer she could put off the inevitable volcanic eruption.

“Fuck,” Stefano uttered, making her flinch. He must have seen her movement because he jerked his head in her direction. His mouth was a tight line, and his eyes spoke of horror. Whatever had happened was devastating, and she knew it involved her.

Had Master J found her somehow? That didn’t seem logical since Stefano would have packed her into the car and gotten the fuck out of there if he’d gotten a single inkling that they’d been found.

He lowered himself onto a chair, set his elbows on his knees, and dropped his head.

Heart pounding, she dropped the blanket and slowly approached. “What happened?” she finally managed to say, though what she really wanted was to rewind to a few hours ago and not let him get out of bed to face whatever demon was consuming him.

When she reached him, he sat up straighter, pulled her between his legs, and sat her on his thigh. He wrapped his arms around her and held her so tightly she could hardly breathe for a moment.

“I love you, Roselia.”

A chill raced down her spine. She looked at the computer screen, thinking it might have answers he was unable to articulate. There were strange boxes on the screen. Groups of six. It looked like he’d taken screenshots of them. Like short text messages. The one in the top left corner read:

Are you still there?

Any updates?

It’s been five days.

You’re MIA.

We won’t stop.

Must find Lily.

Her heart raced. What was this? It was clearly about her, but she couldn’t make sense of it. Who was looking for her? She shifted her gaze to the screenshot to the right of that one.

Please check in.

We’re worried.

Compromised?

Need an update.

Don’t give up.

Lily must be found.

Her blood ran cold as she shifted her attention to the bottom set of boxes. They were not screenshots. They were live. Each box said the same thing until she reached the bottom one.

Property of Roberto Moretti

Property of Roberto Moretti

Property of Roberto Moretti

Property of Roberto Moretti

Property of Roberto Moretti

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