Page 54 of Smoke and Mirrors

I look to where I still have a death grip on the gun and inhale sharply. Making sure the safety is on, I place it on the floor between my feet.

Kace takes both his hands off the wheel for a moment, grabbing each end of his phone and snapping it in half before tossing it out the open window. The show of his sheer strength shocks but excites me at the same time.

“We need to get rid of this car,” he states as he winds it back up and focuses on the road again.

I tuck my hands between my legs, a useless attempt at trying to stop them from shaking. “Then what are we going to do? Walk?” I snap.

His hands tighten on the steering wheel. “No, we’re going to get another car.”

I slump into my seat. “Awesome. Because I’m sure we have time to pop into a used-car lot and buy a new car.”

“Never said anything about buying,” he states.

I flick my head to him. “Of course. Let’s just add grand theft auto to the growing list.”

He doesn’t respond, making a series of quick turns until we’re in a neighborhood I don’t recognize. It’s a not-so-nice part of town, and by that, I mean, there are no streetlights, and you wouldn’t dare walk through it alone at night.

Kace pulls up behind an old-style Nissan. He leans into the backseat, pulling a thin rope from his bag and making a small loop in it.

“Who are you? Mary Poppins?” I ask, looking over at the bag that seems to hold everything, including the kitchen sink. He ignores me, throwing open his door and climbing out. I scramble with the door handle, not willing to be left here alone. As I scurry around the car, Kace already has the string inside the window and is pulling it back and forth, moving the loop down toward the old-school pop- up lock. I turn my back to him, my eyes scanning up and down the street as I tap my foot nervously against the sidewalk.

I see lights flash as a car turns onto the street. “Car!” I whisper urgently.

Kace grabs me and pulls me down, our backs against the Nissan as the car moves slowly down the street. We stay crouched as it pulls into a driveway a few houses down.

“I feel like this isn’t your first time…” Kace murmurs softly in my ear as he holds me close to him. I shiver, feeling my cheeks heat in the darkness. “Stealing a car I mean,” he adds in amusement.

“No, this is definitely a first,” I reply, my heart racing as we listen to the offending car door open and the footsteps that follow. “But I’ve had to keep watch for Molly a couple of times while she took revenge on her ex-boyfriends.”

We hear the front door of a house open and shut, and Kace peeks through the car windows to ensure the person is gone. “We’re good. Get in,” he orders, helping me to my feet while he rushes back to his car and pulls out his bottomless bag.

I climb across the driver’s seat and into the passenger side. The car is cold and has a strange smell. I look over to the backseat, there’s fast-food rubbish and a couple of books but nothing to really tell me what kind of person owns it.

Kace jumps in, throwing his bag in the back and handing me the gun I’d left on the floor of his car. I lean down, placing it between my feet again. “Are you going to hotwire—”

I look up suddenly, hearing a crunch, just in time to see the ignition barrel fall to the floor. My eyes widen as he shoves the screwdriver that he just used to wedge it off with, into the ignition and turn it. The car roars to life, louder than I expected it to be, and Kace throws it into drive, taking off at breakneck speed down the street.

I pull my belt on quickly as we make a left out of the intersection. “Do you know Molly’s phone number?” he asks. “We need to get to a payphone and call her, I’m gonna need her to watch Daisy.”

“Yeah, I know it,” I tell him nervously, not knowing what Molly’s reaction will be.

We drive for ten minutes in silence before he pulls the car down a street that seems to have a few pubs that are just on closing time. Young inebriated patrons are lining the street, and I glance at Kace wondering what his thought process is.

He parks the car and takes a deep breath. “Okay, stay in the car, don’t get out for anything.”

Furrowing my brows, I let out an exacerbated gasp while he opens his door. “Kace!” I murmur. “Kace,” I almost yell again, but he’s gone and shutting the door before I can even register. I groan and turn in my seat to watch him move off into the crowd. I feel open and vulnerable in the car by myself, but he hasn’t gone far, and he walks with the crowd and clumsily bumps into a drunk guy. I chew on my bottom lip as the guy turns to Kace to yell at him, but takes in his size and quickly decides to leave it as he scurries off in a drunken haze. Kace turns and heads back toward the car confusing me. I have no idea what he’s doing as he opens the driver’s door. I shake my head as he climbs in, quickly starting the car and pulling off back down the road with a slight smirk on his face. I huff, crossing my arms over my chest as my brows crease so close together, I’m sure they’re joined.

“Umm, you gonna tell me what the hell that was about?”

He pulls down a side street, pulling it to a stop parking it against the curb. He glances at me sideways with a cocky smirk reaching into his pocket, pulling out a cell and throws it to me. I fumble to catch it and gasp.

“What the? How did you? When? I’m confused?”

He chuckles. “The guy I bumped into.”

My eyes open wide. “You stole it?”

“We need it, Lily,” he winces and slumps his shoulders.

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