Page 142 of Thin Lines (Donati Bloodlines 2)

“Where is Calisto?” Emma asked.

Ray made a frustrated noise, and waved a hand at her.“Stupid girl. How could you possibly know what I need?”

He turned fast on his heel and disappeared intoAffonso’s office. The heaviness in Emma’s feet damn near kept her rooted inplace in the hallway, but she pushed forward. The quiet whines of Midnightechoed from the living room, telling her the dog was scared to be alone.

Emma’s own heart was whining, too.

Crying.

Sobbing.

Something was wrong.

Inside the office, she found Ray digging throughpapers on the desk. He tossed them here and there, letting them fall to thefloor like he didn’t care at all. He pulled open drawers, and yanked files outto slap them on the desk. Again, he went through the contents, tossing whateverhe didn’t find useful to the floor.

“Where in the fuck is it?” he growled.

“What?” Emma cried. “Where is what?”

“I need …” Ray trailed off, grabbing the laptop. Heturned it on, and then slammed his hands into the keyboard when a passcode pagelit up the screen. “Goddammit!”

Emma shuddered.

His rage was visible in his burning eyes and hisshaking fists.

It was the first time Emma didn’t feel safe in Ray’spresence.

“I need to call him,” Ray mumbled, reaching for astack of Post-it notes on the desk. “I have to.”

Emma went numb all over. The pain finally stopped fora moment, but she couldn’t feel anything at all. Ray wouldn’t need to findCalisto’s phone number. He would already have it. He called Calisto on a dailybasis.

But for Affonso … Ray had been out of the loop.

A lot like everyone else.

Even Emma.

“Why do you need to call Affonso?” Emma asked, hertone barely above a breath.

Ray ignored her. He continued searching through thescraps of paper and another drawer of things. He typed on the keyboard of thelaptop, trying different password combinations only to fail each time.

Emma found her voice, somehow. “Why?”

The volume of her shout was enough to make Ray stutterin his movements. He stared at her, taking her in as his hands shook over thepapers.

“There was an accident,” Ray said quietly.

Emma took a step backward.

No.

“Calisto was driving down the highway and—”

“Stop it,” Emma mumbled, putting her hand up as if toblock Ray’s words.

She had backed up to the doorway, and was standing init. Her heart was beating, but it felt like with each one, total agony wasbeing pumped straight into her bloodstream.

Oh, God.