Page 53 of Matteo

How they had come to be.

And now I was about to hand it over to someone I didn’t know, because to refuse would probably spell death.

Turning, I began the short walk back to where he remained standing. His cold eyes tracked my every move. Another indicator that this wasn’t my lover’s brother.

Matteo had kind eyes with deep hints of warmth.

This man in front of me had the coldest eyes I’d ever seen. He extended his hand waiting.

“Are you sure that you need this?” I asked as if holding on to it a moment longer would offer a different outcome.

He didn’t respond only nodded.

“Very well," I tried to smile.

Handing the diary over to Matteo’s double, I watched as his hand extended. The sleeve of his shirt edged up slightly and I had to fight back a gasp.

A Roman numeral was present and glaring back at me.

His eyes drifted down to my own and he pulled the book free from my fingertips. “Jig’s up I guess.”

Before I could blink, he was up the walkway and stepping onto the elevator.

One more blink and the elevator doors were closing. Instantly, my hand went to my chest, and I started searching for my cellphone as I snatched my purse up.

The phone was ringing on the other end, but I wasn’t sure if the signal was strong enough.

“Come on, come on,” I murmured heading up to the elevator doors myself.

“You’ve reached Mason, leave a message at the beep…”

Groaning, I immediately redialed my boyfriend and then hit the up button. Mason finally answered as the door dinged open and I stepped on.

“Hey, everything okay?”

My throat felt dry. “No. We have a real problem.”

He was on high alert with questions of his own. “Darlin, are you alright? Are you hurt?”

The doors opened up again and I stepped off. The guard I’d just waved to maybe an hour ago was on the floor, lifeless.

His neck was turned at such a disturbing angle that I knew it’d been snapped. Stifling back a cry, I stumbled towards the door and hit the hidden silent alarm.

“Mason, I think I just met one of the missing Corsicans from the bunch Tobias was in, he got into my lab…he has the Codex…”

“Fuck,” he groaned, and I heard him take a sharp whistling breath. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

“Mason, that’s not all.”

“God, what else?”

“He…he looks exactly like Matteo…”

Mason uttered another round of expletives,as red and blue lights began to swirl around the room. “Babe, he killed someone too…”

He took a breath. “Okay, stay there. I’m on the way.”

“No, the cops are coming but chances are this is all on the security cameras. This might be bad you don’t need to be near this…and he wasn’t shy about hiding his face.”

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