Whispers in the Dark

The clock in the palazzo tower struck three in the morning. Elena sat wrapped in a cashmere blanket by the arched gothic window of the palazzo library. Across the room, Alessandro slept on the velvet sofa, exhausted by the violence and passion of the night, his bare chest rising and falling in rhythmic peace. On her lap, Elena's smartphone was connected to a portable decryption reader. She opened the file…