Free Seduced in Shadow by Stephanie Julian Page B

her best glare.
    “Yeah, we are,” Sal said. “Bonnini’s men are in the city and it’s not gonna be long before they hone in on Justin. You and Scary have to get back to Florida. And, Antonin, you need to take Ellie—”
    “No way.” Justin waved a hand over the table. “Ellie goes with me.”
    “Not gonna happen.” Sal shook his head. “We need to keep you two separated, split Bonnini’s focus.”
    “Daniel Bonnini?” Ellie asked. The people around her nodded. “The man we both used to work for? What did you do, Justin? Why would I need a bodyguard to protect me against a Fortune 500 business owner? Somebody please tell me what the hell’s going on?” She practically shouted the last words and everyone looked at her but still no one answered. And the panic creeped in. “Okay, that’s it. I need to know what else is going on. Right now. What aren’t you telling me?”
    Ellie looked into the face of each person at the table. Sal looked at Justin and raised his eyebrows. Scarlata looked at Justin. Justin took a deep breath. And Antonin…
    Antonin held out his hand to her. Ellie took it without a second thought, holding on to him as if he was a lifeline and she was drowning.
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    Then Antonin turned to Justin. “Tell her. Now.”
    Justin sighed, his angry mouth a straight line. “It’s about Dad. Well, he’s… It’s kind of… He’s really…special—”
    “You make it sound as if I have brain damage, son,” a voice sounded out of nowhere. “Why don’t you let me take this from here?”
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Chapter Five
    Ellie knew she was losing her mind because the voice of her dead father was coming from behind her in the living room.
    “Sorry I’m late. Couldn’t be helped. I know you were trying to stall, Justin. This really shouldn’t have been your situation to handle. It’s mine.”
    Ellie turned slowly so she wouldn’t lose the tenuous grip she held on reality at the moment. She also held on to Antonin as if he was the only one who could save her.
    What, or rather who, she saw in the living room pushed her over the edge.
    “Hello, Fiorella. How are you, princess?”
    Her father stood there. Her dead father. Exactly as she remembered him from her childhood. He’d died when she was fifteen. Ten years ago. Her parents had already been divorced for five years but she and her dad had been close. Not as close as she and her mom, which she’d always attributed to the girl thing, but she’d loved her dad with all her heart. She still missed him.
    That couldn’t be him standing there. Which meant she’d finally lost her mind. Ellie wondered if anything else that had happened today was real. Maybe it was all just a dream, some weird, freaky dream she would wake from and call her brother to laugh about. Maybe she’d fallen at Nolde on her run this morning and was lying on the trail hallucinating.
    Or maybe she’d fallen, hit her head and she was in a coma. Or—
    The panic attack hit her like a load of bricks dropped from a great height onto her chest. Unlike other attacks she’d had—the ones that started with tight muscles, lightheadedness and faint nausea—this one sideswiped her with its intensity.
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    Her heart rate went from normal to “holy-shit-I’m-gonna-die” in seconds. Her head swam and her stomach heaved. She couldn’t draw in enough air. It felt as if she’d swallowed a rock and it was blocking her air passages.
    Ellie closed her eyes, trying to calm down.
    Around her, she heard Sal and Justin yelling.
    No, not yelling. They weren’t angry. They were trying to help. Vaguely she heard the fear in their voices but she didn’t care about that right now. She knew she had to calm down or she would completely embarrass herself by throwing up and passing out.
    Unfortunately it’d happened before.
    “Ellie, I’m right here. It’ll be okay. Just listen to me, okay?” Antonin. His voice was calm in her ear, rational. It