Page 57 of Smoke and Mirrors

Chapter Seventeen

LILY

I wake up and move my hand to rub at my eyes realizing that it’s still clutched in Kace’s. We’re still driving, though I’m not sure where we are. The landscape isn’t familiar, and I feel slightly disorientated. I blink my eyes, they’re heavy with sleep, but as I look over at Kace, he seems as sharp as a knife like we’re out for a casual drive in the countryside.

I lick my lips as I take my time admiring him. His jaw is chiseled and square with a light brush of growth lining it. His features seem so perfect, too perfect to be real, but I know they are. I’ve felt his lips on mine, and they’re soft and gentle, a total contrast to the hard exterior he portrays.

His usually perfect hair is in slight disarray, almost as though he’s run his fingers through it over and over. My hand itches to do the same.

I have to wonder what makes him this way? What happened for him to be involved in this life he lives?

I knew he’d taken lives before. I’d had my doubts, but after last night, I believe every word he’s told me.

I should be scared.

But I’m not.

He may have stolen the lives of others, people who he said had done bad things, but when I’m around him, I feel like I’m more alive than ever. It’s almost as though every breath he takes, fills my lungs with air.

He’s made a huge sacrifice to keep me safe, not following the rules and pushing away from his friends—his people, his team.

“Was Luca really going to shoot you?” I ask, my voice still rough and filled with sleep. He doesn’t startle at my question, of course, he already knows I’m awake.

“If he had wanted to shoot me, he would have,” he answers, a twinge of pain in his words.

“So why didn’t he?”

He leans his elbow against the window ledge, his thumb sweeping softly over the back of my hand almost as though the gesture settles his apprehension a little. “Luca and I have been best friends for over six years. But it wasn’t an easy road to get to where we are… or were.”

I sit silently, giving him a moment and waiting for him to continue.

“Luca was young when he was assigned to my team. He was good, really good, but also really cocky.” He smiles. “He has this strange need to be hilarious all the time.”

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, I noticed.”

Kace chuckles, and I smile at the sound of his deep laughter. “I take my job seriously. My team is my responsibility. I need to make sure that not only do they know what they’re doing, but that they all come out of the situations we’re thrown into in one piece.” He shakes his head. “We clashed. I tried to have him thrown out on more than one occasion, but my superiors forced me to keep him on, telling me over and over what an asset he would be.”

“And he proved them right.”

“We were sent on a mission. It was meant to be simple… get in, get out, job done.” His lips purse. “It wasn’t simple. These people had more high-tech gear than any of us had anticipated. They saw us coming a mile away, and they were waiting.”

I tense up, even though I know the outcome had to have been good since he’s here and breathing. But just thinking about Kace in danger makes my head cloudy and my heart ache.

“I took a bullet to the side of my neck and two to my leg. I was lying on the ground in a dead zone, my men huddled behind barriers at my rear, and theirs ahead outnumbering us more than two to one.” His hand grips mine a little harder as though he’s reliving the pain. “I should have died there. But Luca being the cocky asshole that he was, gathered my men and created a distraction while he ran out into the middle of a fucking battlefield to get me.”

“Holy shit,” I whispered.

Kace smirks. “Fucker threw me over his shoulder and ran back to cover with a shot to the arm and a bullet wedged in his shin. You know you can trust someone with your life when they risk theirs for you.”

I can’t help but stare at him in awe. “Seriously, how are you guys still alive?”

He grins. “We have highly developed medical supplies, stuff that’s only available to special operations and the military.”

I frown. “Shit like that could save lives in the real world, Kace.”

He shrugs. “We save hundreds of lives every single day by stopping these assholes.”

I screw up my nose. I can’t really argue with that. Hence, I shake it off.

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