Page 24 of Smoke and Mirrors

“But I think I’ve made a scene…” she continues, looking over her shoulder, “… I think we should leave.”

Kace takes that and runs with it as he drags us toward the exit. The cold air hits my hot skin as we break out onto the street. But he doesn’t stop, moving down the sidewalk away from the crowd waiting to get into the club.

“Kace… stop!” I demand.

He freezes, swinging around as he releases my hand. “I told you… you shouldn’t be here,” he growls in frustration and anger. “You need to go… now. This place is no good for you.”

I stamp my foot on the ground as I step into his space. “I’ve been here before. Who are you to say where I should go and what isn’t good for me? You don’t even know me.”

He doesn’t back down, holding his ground as he stares down at me. “I know more than you think,” he growls, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Lily, come on,” Molly urges from behind me, but I ignore her.

“You promised…” I accuse. “You promised you’d tell me. And now I find out you’re working for the damn Mafia.”

“It’s none of your business,” he snaps.

I reach out, my fingers wrapping around his upper arm and squeezing. “This made it my business.” He doesn’t even flinch, even though I know I have my fingers pressed against a very raw wound.

“What the fuck is going on?” Molly demands, stepping up beside me, her eyes moving between the two of us, expecting someone to answer.

Kace shrugs me off, his face softening a little. “Lily, you need to go. Something’s coming, and you can’t be here.” His voice is low, no longer angry, but almost pleading. “I can’t see you get hurt. Go home.”

I open my mouth to ask him what, but Molly cuts me off at the pass.

“That’s all I need to hear,” she says, her arm wrapping around me. “You can argue with him all you like when he gets back to the apartment, but for now… we are leaving.” She guides me toward the curb, and I let her, the whole time watching him. I don’t want to leave him. I know he feels that, for some reason, it’s dangerous for me to be here. But that means it’s dangerous for him too, and I don’t like that at all.

I hate it.

Kace stays until Molly manages to flag down a cab. I can see the apprehension in his body. He sways toward me as if he wants to come over, but there’s something holding him at a distance. Molly pulls the cab door open and climbs in.

Just as my body is halfway in the door, I hear car tires screeching and people screaming. I spin my body, checking for Kace, but he’s already sprinting at full speed back down the street into the commotion.

Two cars bump over the curb outside the club, barely missing the line of people who have to dive out of the way. It’s only a second before men in dark suits throw themselves out and run for the entrance, guns in their hands. One of them I recognize instantly as the Italian man Kace was threatening at the zoo.

What the hell?

“Kace!” I scream as he disappears into the panicking crowd. I try to climb back out, but Molly’s hands grip my shoulders and drag me inside the cab, my body crashing back onto the seat before she reaches over and pulls the door shut.

“Go, go, go!” she cries out to the cab driver who doesn’t waste a second in forcing his foot on the accelerator to the floor, the car taking off with a slight slide of the back end.

I scurry to right my body, peering out the back window and hoping to catch a glimpse of Kace, to tell me he’s okay.

“Holy shit! Was that the fucking Mafia?” Molly asks, breathless.

There are so many people, I can’t see anything. And as soon as we’re turning onto another street, the club is completely gone from view.

“Oh my gosh, are they following us? Do we have a tail?” she rushes out, looking at me with wide eyes. She’s scared, an emotion that’s rare from her.

I take a deep breath. “Don’t be stupid. We’re fine. There’s no tail, they didn’t even see us.”

Her head bobs up and down, acknowledging that we’re probably the last people on a Mafia’s hit list.

Kace, though, that’s another story.

One I’m going to get answers to, one way or another.

When we reach home, Molly is uncharacteristically quiet. I can tell she’s scared, and I want to talk to her about what happened, but my mind is focused on Kace, and I can’t help but wonder if he is okay. I just need to know that he’s all right.

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