Page 41 of Smoke and Mirrors

“Good, because I don’t need a leader who’s going to fall asleep on my briefings.”

Mom’s a funny creature—behind closed doors she goes easy on me, but in front of my team, she’s a taskmaster.

“Understood! I have a question,” I ask.

She exhales and tilts her head. “I didn’t realize this was a Q & A briefing, Kace. But sure, why not. Go ahead.”

My eyes open slightly wider at her tone, and I breathe in harshly through my nose wondering why she’s being exceptionally hard on me right now.

Maybe she knows about Lily?

Shit!

My palms start to sweat as I take a quick glance around the room to see if anyone looks guilty like they might have spilled the beans about me spilling the beans, but everyone looks calm and relaxed.

“Are you even with us right now, Kace?” Mom asks, snapping her fingers in front of my face.

I turn to look at her and nod. “Shit! Yes. Sorry.”

“Your question?”

“Where’s Noah?”

She swallows hard and sits up a little taller in her chair. “That’s classified.”

Furrowing my brows, the others all move in their chairs like they’re as uncomfortable with that answer as I am. “I have Top Secret clearance with the appropriate briefings.”

“This requires a Loft briefing, Kace.”

We all look at each other, and there’s sudden tension in the room. None of us have ever had a Loft briefing, not even me. It must be big, whatever it is.

“Is there an imminent threat to the country?”

“Kace… what part of classified did you not understand?” Her harsh glare stabs right through me, and I can tell she won’t shift on this.

Something weird is going on, and I don’t like it. I find it strange that being the head of the Seven that I don’t know what’s going on with one of my operatives. An eerie silence falls over the boardroom, and only the sound of the air-conditioning can be heard. My heart is pumping fast in my chest as I realize something strange is definitely going on. I just don’t know what, and I hate not knowing. I can tell Eli, the one who likes to know everything, is struggling with this too as he shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

A shadow appears in the doorway, making us all look up at the hunched frame. Noah’s pale frowning face fills the open space as his hand grips onto his side which is covered entirely by a long-sleeved sweater while he slowly enters the room like he’s in pain.

“Noah, you’re back,” Mom says.

Noah looks to me, and something shifts in his face. Remorse? Apprehension? Concern? I’m not sure, but he quickly looks away.

“Yes! Mission was a failure, boss. I’ll have a report on your desk by the morning.”

Mom straightens her back in her chair, her mouth forms a tight, thin line. Her hands ball into tight fists, and her nostrils flare as she breathes out of her nose.

“Sorry, boss, I was intercepted. Will fill you in once this briefing’s over.”

She slams her open palm onto the table sending a thud through the room. I furrow my brows as I watch Mom obviously worked-up over the mission failure. Whatever it is, it must be important. And Noah is definitely hurt by whatever happened.

“How injured are you?” I ask.

“You can fill me in on the briefing, Noah. Let’s go now, I need to know what happened. This briefing on Cavaleri can wait. We will reconvene again Monday at thirteen hundred. Get some rest, especially you, Kace. I need you more alert. Noah, my office.”

Mom stands up, and her chair almost falls over as she pushes it back with force. She strides out of the room with Noah, who’s limping behind her.

I take a deep breath rubbing the back of my neck and look around at the rest of my crew. “What do you make of that?” I ask.

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