16. Nora
Chapter 16
Nora
M y 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 was dreaming 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 the Dungeons as 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.
“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.
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.”
“Matty…I gotta warn him,” Mason said.
“Exactly, this is gonna be a shit storm…”
“Hey, Darlin…”
“Yes?”
“I love you, get your ass to my condo as soon as they finish taking your statement.”
Rolling my eyes. “Whatever.”
“Nora, we mean it.”
The second a uniformed cop reached the door, I hung up with Mason. Things were about to get weird as hell. This had been too deliberate.
Too calculated.
As the police entered the building and swarmed over the crime scene, I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.
The only thing that made me feel secure was the fact that while Imposter Boy had the codex, I had a backup. While he’d been robbing me, I had a backup digitized copy sitting in a cloud.
All wasn’t lost.