Page 51 of Matteo

“They don’t know I heard them,” Nora bit at her lip. “So, like…don’t go off on Matteo or anything. And he was just doing his job.”

Rolling my eyes, I picked up my remote and put the show back on. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s what he was doing.”

Nora winced again but eventually we settled back on the couch. At some point, my eyes started to get heavy, and I found myself dreaming.

It was as if I couldn’t stop myself from falling asleep.

In my dream I was wearing a white dress, and I was standing barefoot in a field beneath a black sky but… A full moon was rising fast…

He was there.

I could feel him.

“No, no, no. Not again!” I whispered.

His warm breath was on my neck. “You’ve come back, I see.”

“No,” I shook my head.

“You can try running now…but Rain…I’m going to catch you…and when I do. All bets are off.”

I didn’t wait to hear anymore. I started to run, knowing that he was going to find me. He was going to catch me.

He was going to fuck me.

Chapter 16

Nora

My phone pinged and I looked over at my sister, who was talking in her sleep. When we’d been kids she’d always been a heavy sleeper.

She won’t even notice you’re gone,I thought.

Looking back to my phone, it was the analytical test I’d been running on the codex that Mason and I had retrieved from the crypts in Corsica. When we’d gotten back, I’d started running hundreds of programs trying to piece together what was in the book.

We still had no idea how old it was.

Reaching on the back of the couch, I pulled a blanket across Rain. She looked so peaceful, and I wondered what she wasdreaming about. Hopefully good things because so much had happened in her life lately.

At least Kenji is behind bars,I thought as I imagined the man I’d only seen here and there behind steel bars and wearing an orange jumpsuit.

Rain had no idea what he was. What he really was… and I was worried for her if she ever found out. The man was both a monster literally and figuratively and I wanted him nowhere near my family.

Giving her one last look, I left out of her apartment, making sure to lock up tight. Reversing out of the small parking lot, I headed back to Deluca Tech which was probably forty-five minutes away.

The second I walked through the doors, I waved my badge in front of the censors and offered a wave to Joe, the nighttime security guard.

“You’re here late!” He said cheerfully as he pulled up a mug of coffee to his lips.

“Just needed to take care of something. Shouldn’t be in here too long,” I waved once more as the elevator dinged taking me to the sub levels where we had mainframe upon mainframes sitting in development.

I was now heading up a cybersecurity department and even though my brand-new office was right next to my old boss Sebastian’s, I found myself down in theDungeonsas some of the other tech geeks called it. The doors closed in front of my face and a feeling of unease seemed to work its way into my stomach. I watched the numbers count down and slowly the feeling began to fade.

Stepping off of the elevator, I began the walk down the long hallway, my feet hitting over the metal grates until finally I reached the main room. The analytics were on the main screen, and I picked up a tablet so that I could get a better look.

Sliding my fingers across the screen, I opened the linguistic program I’d created. It was cross referencing every single word that had ever been written, every language that had ever been spoken.

A count down began on the screen, a slow clicking that was counting down to five more minutes, when I heard someone behind me. Startled, I whipped around to find Matteo standing there with his eyes cold and burning into my own.

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