It was telling me to look.
Moving as softly as I could, I slipped from the bed and padded silently to the phone. He didn’t stir. He didn’t even stir when I picked it up.
My brother’s name flashed by, and my eyebrows shot down. What was Gio doing messaging him at this time? What could they possibly have to talk about that couldn’t wait until the morning?
I didn’t even think about it. I opened the message, and my heart plummeted.
I’m in London, taking care of a problem I should have taken care of a long time ago. We can discuss more when I get back stateside.
A problem he should have taken care of a long time ago?
Lily!
Heart racing, I tried not to cry out. Gio had gone to London to hurt my daughter just like he had threatened to do. I was out of time.
Gathering the keys that lay next to the phone, I hurried from the room.
I didn’t have time to kill Matteo. Even if I could, it would be too late for that. I had to get home before Gio took away the only good thing in my life.
Pausing just long enough to throw on jeans and a sweater, I looked around. My passport. If I was going to get home, I needed that, but I hadn’t seen it since I arrived, and I had no cash, either.
How was I going to get anywhere without those two things?
“Focus,” I told myself in a hissing whisper. “Focus and think, Sophia. Where would he have put them?”
Turning in a circle, I clutched the keys in my hand, and then my eyes found the locked door of his office.
He always locked it, but that didn’t really matter now, because I had the keys.
Tiptoeing to it, I opened it just enough to slide inside and close it softly behind me.
I knew I didn’t have long. At any moment, Matteo might wake up and come looking for me. If he found out I had read his message and was in here, he would demand to know what I was doing, and it would leave me no choice but to tell him the truth.
Of course, I could do that now. Wake him up and tell him everything. But there wasn’t time for that now. It would take too long to make him understand, if he ever believed me at all, and I didn’t have time to waste.
My brother was already in the United Kingdom.
I found the safe under his desk, and fell to my knees as another hurdle stared me in the face.
I didn’t know the code. And I didn’t have time to try and find some scrap of paper with it written down. Not that Matteo would be stupid enough to do that.
Reaching out, I typed in the first set of numbers I could think of.
My birthday.
The safe clicked open as I stared at it, open-mouthed.
What did it mean? He had used my birthday as his code.
What the hell did it mean?
It didn’t matter what it meant, because I didn’t have time to think about it. Lily was in trouble, or she would be very soon, and I needed to get to her. I couldn’t let the here and now and thoughts of the past distract me.
Shoving my passport into the back pocket of my jeans, I stared down at the wads of cash just sitting there.
I needed money, and Matteo had loads of it. It felt wrong to take from him, but I didn’t have a choice, and I didn’t owe him anything at all.
Plus, this was to save his daughter's life. He might not ever be able to know about her, but he owed us that much.
