Page 155 of Arturo's Temptation

“It’s okay, Mama.”

“I wonder where everybody is,” I thought to myself as my mother opened the connecting door to the kitchen for me. Inside, I glanced around the room, noticing the half arranged lilies on the side and a half open drawer. That was weird…

“Guys, something doesn’t feel right.” Wandering over to the side to shut the drawer, I spotted Arturo’s pen knife and frowned. “I’m getting a bad feeling.”

“I think you’re just tired, Bells,” Luca said with a patient smile. “Why don’t you go upstairs and get some sleep?”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I sighed as he pulled me into his embrace, something I hadn’t felt in a while. “Think I’ll have a shower first. I feel icky and smell like the hospital.”

“Just be careful, and shout if you need anything.” Mama ordered with raised eyebrows as she opened the fridge door.

After a quick shower,I padded back into my room, pulling on my tank which snagged at the bandage in my head. I winced and rubbed at the sore spot before perching on the end of my bed. The last time I’d been in my room I’d been in here with Tyler. My lip quivered as his voice came back to me. If only I could rewind time, then Tyler might still have been here. I took a shaky breath and started sliding backwards to lie down when I spotted my top drawer was open.

I sat up, my eyebrows furrowing. The last person who had been in my room had been my father, I knew that because he had brought me a change of clothes. Swivelling my legs slowly over the side of the bed, I crossed the room and reached for the drawer, my fingers lingering on the handle.

When we had started junior year, Peyton showed me a trick that would make my drawer stick, ensuring my journal loaded with all my secrets would be safe and sound from two annoying brothers. My heart quickened as I slid it slowly open.

Shit.

My journal was not where I had left it, in the gap between two drawers. I fished it out, then reached toward the back to replace the piece of wood that kept my drawer in place. But as I stood up, holding my journal in one hand, my mind whirled. He wouldn’t have read it, would he? No, of course not, Papa would never betray my privacy like that. I gnawed my lip and pulled the cover back. It was nice to read back on previous entries. I started laughing as I spotted the entry I had written when Arturo first came. Wow, how blind I had been. There it was, in furious hand strokes, my obsession with my sexy new bodyguard, smothered in futile rage. As I flicked through a few more pages a red flag began waving manically in my head.

Wait, something was missing.

Blinking, I flicked back to the front of my journal and carefully turned page after page. Something was very wrong. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as it dawned on me.

The photos from our first date. They were gone!

Cursing, I dropped my journal and fled from my room, pelting my way down the stairs only to collide with a hard chest.

“Ouch.” Knocked back, I looked up to see Gino in front of me, looking suspicious as hell.

“Bella, you shouldn’t be running around the house, you’re not w—” His eyes shifted to the side and he scratched at his beard. He looked very uncomfortable.

“Oh, don’t give me the caring act, G, where is my father?” I demanded. At this his head snapped back to me. He was hiding something.

“I haven’t seen him.”Fucking liar.I folded my arms and took a good look at him. He was shifting from foot to foot and rubbing the knuckles of one hand against the palm of the other.

“Bullshit.”

“Look, it’s better if you stay out of it. Okay?” Gino said calmly.

“Stay out of what?” I frowned. When he cursed and stepped back I saw a splash of red on his brown suede loafers. “Gino, I’m only going to ask you one more time, where is my father?”

“I’m sorry, Bells, but I can’t tell you.” He replied, rubbing his forehead.

“Oh yeah?” I asked, rage making the fists at my sides tighten. “Then where is Arturo?”

Gino narrowed his eyes before mouthing back, “Getting what he deserves.”

Fear swirled in my belly like angry piranhas as I spirited for the kitchen, finding my mother speaking with Luca.

“Ma, where is Papa?”

“I don’t know, baby, I haven’t seen him since we got home.” she huffed, genuinely annoyed.

Frustrated, I reached out to grab my cell to call him when a thought occurred to me. There was only one place in this house my father would go if he didn’t want to be disturbed… or caught doing something he shouldn’t.

The basement.

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