My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 582

Chapter 582

The room had gone strangely quiet because my mind had stopped letting anything in.

The air.

The people.

The lights.

Everything faded into a dull blur.

There was only one thought left.

She’s gone.

The words repeated over and over until they drowned out everything else.

Someone grabbed the back of my neck hard, “Raphael.”

Nothing.

A sharp shake rattled my body, “Raphael.”

My eyes stayed locked on the phone.

“Raphael!”

My head finally lifted.

Vincenzo.

His hands were locked around the back of my neck, forcing me to look at him.

His mouth was moving, for a second I couldn’t hear a single word. Then the sound rushed back all at once.

“…focus.”

My breathing came back in one rough pull.

“I’ve got you,” he said, “Listen to me. If you stay in your head, you lose time,” his grip tightened, “And every second matters.”

The words hit something, not my emotions.

My training.

I shut my eyes for one long breath, stopped, started thinking hard.

No.

Analyzing.

When I opened my eyes again, I forced my thumb away from the refresh button. Refreshing the same screen wasn’t solving anything.

It was wasting time.

Time was something Gianna didn’t have.

Neither did I.

Phone dead and no live signal. That didn’t mean there wasn’t data. I opened another application instead, not the tracker, the carrier logs, the emergency location cache.

A hidden diagnostic menu I’d built years ago because I hated relying on software other people designed.

My fingers moved on their own, password, authentication, system access. A stream of information flooded the screen.

Connection history, cell towers, signal strength, battery status.

My breathing slowly evened out.

Logic.

Every instinct I had spent years building reached the same conclusion at the exact same time.

This wasn’t an accident.

Someone had taken her.

My grip tightened around the phone until the glass creaked beneath my fingers.

Whoever had touched her had just made the last mistake of their life.

Dad’s phone rang. Every head turned toward him. He looked down at the unfamiliar number for only a second before answering.

He immediately tapped the speaker button when Vincenzo gestured to him.

A man’s voice filled the quiet hallway, “Is this Salvatore Capone, sir?”

“Yes.”

A brief pause followed, “My name is Cole Mercer. I’m afraid…” he said slowly, “…I have your stepdaughter, Gianna… ”

My fingers curled into fists.

Dad’s expression didn’t change, “What do you mean… you have my daughter?”

His voice wasn’t mocking, it wasn’t arrogant, it was neutral, “She was unconscious when she was brought to me. She’s injured, but she’s alive and I know who did this to her.”

Janedoewritings Author

I hope you enjoy today’s update!

A little reminder, though, please take a moment to read the disclaimer at the beginning of the book before asking about the update schedule. I update as often as I realistically can, and rig