Page 83 of Smoke and Mirrors

My eyes take in our surroundings. It’s mostly an open plan with the living room straight ahead as I walk forward through the entrance. When the wall to my right stops, the kitchen appears as well as a dining room with a six-seater table.

The area is decorated beautifully like it was meant for a family, and even though I know it’s empty, it has a homely vibe. My body warms despite the knowledge that we won’t be here for long. But it’s not a hotel room, or a lighthouse, or a painter’s van, it’s a home.

I walk straight ahead and drop myself onto the soft sofa, a small groan escaping from my mouth. I hear Kace chuckle, but I don’t even care, wiggling my body to get more comfortable.

“Why don’t you go upstairs and have a shower?” he suggests, and I finally force my head to the side to look at him.

Now that his body is illuminated, I can see the dried blood on the sleeves of his shirt.

He follows my eyes, looking down at his arms. He nods. “I’m gonna take a shower downstairs, and then I’ll make us some food,” he says quickly, his body tensing again as he heads for the hallway to the left of the living room. He stops in the doorway. “There are clothes in the dressers up there. Find something that fits, so you’ll be more comfortable.”

I purse my lips and nod even though he’s already gone.

My body aches to stay on the sofa, but the idea of a hot shower is just too powerful. I find myself snatching the backpack which holds the underwear that Kace and I shopped for from the counter, and head up the staircase in search of a bathroom to relieve some of the aches and tension in my body. The bathroom is large with a stunning walk-in shower. My eyes light up at the sight of it and find myself stripping as I walk over, turning the water on.

I don’t even wait until it’s completely hot, stepping right in, letting the lukewarm spray hit my body. My knees become weak, and I give in to exhaustion, dropping to the tiled floor with a heavy sigh. The water becomes hotter and heavier, beating at my skin and washing away the filth of the day.

I need this. Everything that has happened weighs so heavily on me, dragging me down until I’m fighting just to breathe.

Kace has been my strength the last few days, and to see him falling to pieces, the weight of his sins smothering him and pulling him into the dark depths of hell has me wanting to fight back. I want to show him that he is not that person they made him into, that he can see right from wrong because he’s proven it with me.

Mistakes had been made, he’d been fooled, but that was not on him. That was on them. And they would pay for what they’d done.

All I have to do is to make him see that the tunnel may be dark, but it can’t continue forever, and in the end, the light will prevail.

We will prevail.

***

After twenty minutes of scrubbing myself raw, I know exactly what I need to do.

I dry my body from head to toe, a smile touching at my lips as I pull the lacy black number from the bag, the one I know Kace can’t resist. With my hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, I take one last glimpse of myself in the foggy mirror and turn to head out the door with purpose in my step, and excitement building in my stomach.

I take the steps slowly.

“There’s food. It’s not anything fancy, but it’s something,” he says loudly from the living room just as I reach the bottom step. I move around the small wall that separates the two, leaning my shoulder against it as I study him. He’s sitting on the sofa, his knees spread with his elbows braced on them, and his head hanging low.

He’s in a pair of fresh track pants, his hair wet, and his upper body bare. Goosebumps settle over my skin as I admire his muscles and broad shoulders, remembering the strength he holds within that body. He’s right, there is a darkness inside him, and I’m about to bring it out but in a whole new way.

I wait silently. It takes him a few moments, but soon his eyes move over to me. They narrow. “Lily.” The roughness of his voice tells me everything I need to know. My plan may just work. “What are you doing?”

I stalk toward him, never breaking eye contact, letting him know that I’m not afraid. As I draw closer, his eyes drift lower scanning my body, taking me in.

“You’re angry,” I state simply.

“Lily,” he warns again, his fingers tightening into fists.

“You’re frustrated. Feeling like darkness is taking over again…” my voice is low but strong, “… let it.”

He growls deep in his throat as I step in front of him. He doesn’t move to touch me, his eyes now level with my stomach. I brace my hands on his shoulders, pushing him back until he’s leaning against the sofa.

He doesn’t fight it.

“You don’t know what you’re doing. What you’re getting yourself into.” He breathes, his words sharp as though they’re meant to scare me. They don’t. Kace is a killer. That much is true, but he did it because he felt as though he was protecting innocent people from being hurt. He put his life on the line thinking that he was changing the world and making it a better place.

He did what he had to do for the protection of his country.

That doesn’t make him a monster.

---