Page 51 of Smoke and Mirrors

“Y-You’re s-scaring me.”

“Good! Because you have no idea what I’m capable of. You should be scared.” He glares at me, the harshness in his eyes is unsettling. “Gael Sinclair,” he jabs.

I shudder unmistakably at hearing his name.

“So you do know him?” Kace yells, stepping closer to me and clenching his fists at his sides like he’s restraining himself again.

I flinch as my breathing hitches. “I know of him.”

Kace groans and rolls his head from side to side cracking his neck. “Don’t fucking bullshit with me.”

Shaking my head, I exhale. “I only know of him because he’s the asshole who raped my mother in an alleyway and beat her senseless leaving her to die. She found out she was pregnant, and I was the product of that rape. Then she saw the news while she was pregnant with me that Gael was found dead at the bottom of a lake.”

Kace jolts his head back in what looks like astonishment, then he shakes it furrowing his brows. Reaching up, he rubs the back of his neck, his tense body relaxing slightly.

“How the hell did you even know about him? My mom never put his name on my birth certificate or told anyone other than my stepdad what had happened?”

Kace shakes his head from side to side like he’s trying to process the information, but it isn’t registering properly in his mind. “DNA doesn’t lie. The Agency killed Gael. You’re here in my apartment building to seek revenge for the killing of your biological father,” he accuses.

Jerking my head back in confusion, I shake it and scoff. “For what? For starters, I’m glad he’s a rotting corpse for what he did to my mother. He should be dead. Do you know what it feels like to be a product of something so disgusting and violent? I love my mom. And I hate him for what he did to her. So thank fuck someone put him down.” My breathing is becoming heavy and emotional. I close my eyes for a second in an attempt to calm myself before I speak again. “So you guys killed him? What for? What did he do to you?”

Kace frowns and exhales. “The Sinclairs have history. They’re all chemists. With their background, they were able to develop, create, and produce bombs and weapons. They were selling them to known terrorist organizations. It’s well known that the Sinclairs pass down their skills through the generations of their family.”

My eyes open wide, and I cough slightly. “They what now?”

Kace’s face hardens again, but even I can see the resolve coming over him. He’s hearing my words, taking them in, and piecing them together in his head. “Seriously, don’t play dumb with me, Lily. I know you’re in on this with them—”

Standing up, I shake my head. “I’m a vet! I know nothing about any bombs. Hell, I don’t even like static electricity!”

He races forward grabbing my shoulders and shaking me. His fingers clenching into my skin making me cringe. “Stop fucking around!”

My eyes well as I cower away from him trying to break free from his vice-like hold, but his grip is too strong.

“Kace, you’re scaring me. Stop it!”

He flinches looking down into my watering eyes, and the darkness in his blue eyes lifts as does his tight grip on my shoulders. “I’m used to people being scared of me. But I never want you to be afraid of me.”

Sniffing, I swallow hard forcing my eyes not to let the tears fall over my eyelids, and so I stand a little taller. “Yeah, well, you don’t have to be so angry with me. I had no idea about Gael. And I can prove it about Ron, my stepdad. There’s a letter,” I say, looking over to the opening of my bedroom door.

His arms drop to his sides as he lets me go. I move over quickly to the doorway and glance back to Kace. His stance is hard as he watches me with his eyebrows drawn and a stern stare. I turn and step inside my room, taking a moment just to breathe, then walk to my closet and reach up above the hanging space for a box I haven’t opened for a long time. It’s a keepsake box for special memories. Things from my childhood. Memories, mostly good, but some from things I’ve tried to forget.

I grab the box with unsteady hands and pull it down, taking it carefully back out to where Kace hasn’t moved, not even an inch. It’s like he’s scared if he moves that something between us might fracture irreparably. At least that’s how I’m feeling right now. I open the box, and he eyes me suspiciously as I take out an envelope and hand it to him.

He takes it from me and furrows his brows. “What is it?”

I sit back down on the sofa, and he exhales and takes a seat next to me. “It’s a letter asking Ron to adopt me. I remember being really upset when I found out that Ron wasn’t my real dad. So much so that I wrote this letter to ask him to make it official because to me, he was my dad in every sense of the word. He was there for me ever since I could remember, and just because I have someone else’s DNA, that doesn’t make him my parent. Ron is my dad, not Gael.”

Kace exhales loudly, closing his eyes and running his fingers through his hair in agitation. “Fuck. The Agency made it seem like you were in the Syndicate with your family.” He shakes his head like he’s as confused as I am.

I don’t know why they’d do that?

Suddenly, his face drops and all the color drains from his cheeks. His muscles clench and his breathing becomes rapid. “Oh shit!”

I tense up and shake my head. “What?”

Kace races toward the door, and just as I’m about to cry out in frustration at being left once again with no answers, he drops down, crouching in front of a large duffle bag. He pulls at the zips before snatching a cell phone from inside and looking down at it, his eyes wide. “Fuck.”

I’m frozen in place, confused and a little frightened. Kace isn’t the kind of man to freak out easily. He always has his shit together, knows what he’s doing, and keeps calm in the process. But the look on his face right now, it’s like he’s seen a ghost.

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