His innocent wife is a dangerous hacker.

Chapter 791 Who is this?

"Are you two hiding something else too?" Bella asked, her voice low.

Jace answered quickly. "No. No, we’re not."

His voice was meek and uncertain, the voice of someone who was lying and knew he was lying and knew she knew he was lying. His eyes darted away from hers, looking at the floor, at the wall, anywhere but at Bella’s face.

Bella’s eyes narrowed.

Jay forced a smile, a tight, uncomfortable thing that did not reach his eyes. "Oh, Bella Bell. We’re hiding nothing. Nothing at all."

Bella stepped further into the room. Her flats were silent on the wooden floor. The gray light from the window fell across her face, casting half of it in shadow.

Her foot touched something on the floor, something small and flat. She looked down.

A photograph.

She bent and picked it up.

It was the same photograph she had seen on Scarlett’s phone. The one with the bride. Jace and Jay stood on either side of a woman in a white dress, her face blurred, her veil blowing across her features. Jace and Jay were smiling, but their smiles did not reach their eyes. The woman’s hands rested on their arms.

Bella held up the photograph. "Who is this?"

Jay’s face went pale, the color draining from his cheeks like someone had pulled a plug. Jace’s jaw tightened, a muscle twitching beneath his skin, his hands curling into fists at his sides.

Jay spoke, his voice too careful. "She’s an old friend from before. We were at her wedding."

Bella raised an eyebrow. "Her wedding?"

"Yes. A year ago. We’ve lost touch since."

Bella looked at the photograph again. Why did this woman look a bit familiar?

"You’ve never mentioned her."

Jace shrugged, but it was a stiff, unnatural movement, like his shoulders were made of wood. "There are lots of people we’ve never mentioned."

Bella looked at them, at their tight faces and avoiding eyes, the way they would not look at her, the way Jay was picking at a thread on his sleeve and the way Jace kept glancing at the door.

She wanted to push, wanted to ask more and demand the truth. But something in their unnatural expressions stopped her.

She handed the photograph back to Jay.

"Fine," she said. "But you need to tell Leo. Whatever it is. He’s worried. We’re all worried."

Jay nodded. "We will. Soon."

Bella’s voice was sharp. "Soon isn’t good enough. If you two don’t tell, I don’t mind telling him everything personally."

Jay met her eyes. "It’s going to have to be."

Bella stared at them for a long moment, her arms still crossed, her jaw tight. Then she turned and walked out of the room without another word.

Her mind was spinning. They were lying. She could feel it in her bones, a heavy certainty pressing down on her chest like a stone but she did not understand the secret. She did not understand the reason. She did not understand how to pull the truth from them.

She walked down the hallway. The gray light from the window fell across her face, cold and pale.

Her phone buzzed. She glanced at the screen.

Unknown number.

She almost ignored it, almost shoved it back in her pocket, almost walked away but something made her answer. Some instinct she could not name.

"Hello?"

The voice on the other end spoke. Bella’s blood grew cold after what she heard. Her feet stopped moving. Her hand tightened on the phone. The world around her seemed to fade, the walls of the hallway dissolving into nothing.

She stood alone in the silence, the phone pressed to her ear, her face pale, her eyes wide.

Her hand trembled as she lowered the phone. The screen had gone dark but the voice still echoed inside her skull—a cold, male voice, disguised behind what sounded like a voice changer, yet the words landed sharp and clear enough.

"Your friend Mira is with us." The voice came through the phone like a blade scraping bone. Cold, Flat and Empty of anything human. "You want her safe? You want to walk her out of here alive? Then you come to the address I send you alone."

A sound came from the background, a wet, choking gasp that could only be Mira, trying to scream with a mouth full of blood.

"You hear that?" The voice almost smiled. "That’s what happens when she doesn’t answer my questions fast enough. Imagine what happens when I get bored."

Bella’s knuckles went white around the phone.

"Don’t you dare tell anyone. Not your husband, his men, or your little friends. Because I have eyes on that house. I have eyes on every street corner. I know when you blink, Bella. I know when you breathe."

Another pause. Another wet, broken sound from somewhere behind him.

"If you come and I see anyone with you—a cop, a bodyguard, or even a fucking dog—I will empty my clip into her goddamn face. Then I will find you. Then I will find your precious Leo. Then I will find every sorry soul you have ever loved and I will not kill them fast, you understand me? I will take my sweet time. I will make every bullet hurt. I will make you watch every single second until you fucking break."

The line went dead.

Bella’s blood turned to ice. Her stomach dropped. Her knees felt weak, but she did not allow herself to fall. She gripped the edge of the hallway table and forced herself to breathe.

Mira. They had Mira.

That was why she had been missing. That was why her mother had sounded so strange on the phone. Maybe they had gotten to her family too, threatened them and hurt them. Maybe worse.

Bella looked down at her phone. A message came through carrying a photo. She opened it without hesitation.

Mira was tied to a chair in a dark room. Her glasses were gone. Her face was bruised, swollen, bloody. Her lip was split. Her eye was nearly closed. Her clothes were torn, and there were dark stains on her shirt that could have been dirt or could have been blood.