Page 53 of Days Of Valentino

I sit next to her and take the phone out of her hands. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”

“I… What?” She looks up at me.

“Ignore them. Those messages are a fishing game, Josie, and it’s a game you’re not playing,” I tell her.

“How do you know?” she asks me.

“We don’t have secrets, right?” I remind her, and she rolls her eyes.

“You hacked my phone?”

“Zio Theo and I are handling it,” I tell her instead of answering.

“How?”

“Easy. I’m going to find whoever this asshole is and kill him.” I shrug.

“I don’t want you to get into trouble because of me.” She sniffles while wiping at her cheeks.

“You are the best reason I’ve ever had for getting into trouble, babe.” I push to my feet and hold out a hand in her direction. “Come with me.”

I take Josie into my uncle’s office. I don’t want her to be alone. Most of all, I don’t want to give her the opportunity to sneak out and do something stupid, like follow some psychopath’s instructions in the hopes of saving me from… something.

“You doing okay?” Zio Theo stands up from his desk. He walks around the other side, shoving me away to position himself in front of Josie.

“Seriously?” I growl.

My uncle ignores my protest. “Whoever is doing this, I’m going to find them. I don’t want you to do anything but stay in this house until I know the threat is gone.”

Finally, something we can agree on.

“Okay.” Josie nods her head.

While my uncle is hogging my girl’s attention, I pick up my laptop, open the app that has Josie’s phone cloned, and fire off a response.

Josie:

What do you want me to do?

The ass takes the bait. Josie’s phone pings with an incoming message and I see her flinch.

Unknown:

Meet me at ten pm. Don’t be late. I’m dropping you a pin. And Josie… come alone.

“Got him!” I call out, turning my laptop around to show my uncle the messages.

“Wait a minute… Why do you have my phone on there?” Josie asks.

“Because he’s a grade-A stalker, Josie. I’ve been trying to tell you that you could do better,” Zio Theo says.

“Because there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep you safe,” I counter. Josiecoulddo better than me. I’d just never let her leave me long enough to try.

“That’s creepy, Dante, even for you,” she says.

“Okay,” I agree before closing my laptop and turning to my uncle. “What’s the plan?”

“The plan is for you to stay here with Josie while I go and handle this fucker,” he tells me.

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