Page 52 of Matteo

“Hey,” I managed to get out, grabbing at my throat.

He stared past me and up at the wall behind me.

“Is it almost done?” He asked.

“Is what almost done?” I slowly moved my thumb over the screen and immediately began copying the files to a secret cloud that only I had access to.

There was something about the man in front of me. I wasn’t sure who he was, but this was not Mason’s brother.

His face pulled up into a grin that never met his eyes, and it caused me to take a slight step back. He raised his hand and pointed at the screen.

Keep him talking,I thought.

“The codex, of course,” he nodded, his hand lowering. “It’s done.”

My eyes raked over him quickly.

He was dressed in a suit that could have been Matteo’s. He had all the man’s mannerisms, but I could just tell it in my gut.

This was not Matteo.

“My phone got a hit earlier,” I took a breath and turned walking over to another laptop sitting nearby.

Sitting the tablet down, I entered my Deluca Tech credentials.

“Can I see it?” He asked, and I knew he was immediately behind me.

Taking a breath, I looked up, and noticed he was closer than before and I hadn’t heard him move.

This was definitely not Matteo.

I began to do mental gymnastics as I tried to come up with a plan where I walked away from this entire situation breathing and alive.

Slowly I entered more commands, and I pulled the codex up onto the screen. The very first page had been translated fully. “It’s a diary entry…”

I jumped when his hands landed on my shoulders, and I suppressed a huge gasp from escaping from between my lips.

“Where is the actual codex?” His grip on my shoulders seemed to tighten.

Panic began to flood me. “It’s in a vault, it’s safe.”

I heard him chuckle. “Nora, I need you to retrieve the codex. It’s imperative.”

Taking a deep breath, I stupidly asked, “Why?”

He eased in closer, his breath warm against my neck. “Don’t ask another question, fetch the codex or I’ll snap your fucking neck.”

A flicker of courage came to life in that moment as I stood and looked him in the eye. “Yes, okay. It’s your family’s property after all.”

“Good girl. And don’t do anything fucking stupid.”

I nodded and quickly hurried to the other end of the room where the vault was. It wasn’t much of a vault. Just kind of a safe in the wall that was airtight and kept out any pollutants. When I’d first brought the codex here, I’d had scientist scrub it clean and then we’d agree that once each page was scanned it would be kept away from contaminants, or it might further degrade the worn leather bound book.

My fingers rapidly tapped against the smooth keypad and the safe hissed as I opened it swiftly.

With care and a deep breath, I lifted the codex from its resting place. This book was maybe the key to understanding exactly what Mason and his brothers were.

How they worked.

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