Page 11 of Smoke and Mirrors

“I’m okay, just have to go downtown.”

His brows crease together, and he shakes his head slightly. “It’s the middle of the night.”

I shrug and purse my lips together. “Duty calls.”

“How are you getting there?” he asks but doesn’t ask where I’m going.

“Was gonna just leg it. Quickest way I guess without a car.”

He huffs. “No, I’ll take you.”

His friend looks at him and furrows his brows. I find that strange but ignore it as I don’t really have time to be arguing, Molly has a crisis I need to get to.

“Thanks, but I can walk. It’s not far.”

He drops his grip from one arm but keeps it on the other and starts leading me down the hall. His grip is tight, not painful, but enough that I couldn’t break free without a struggle.

“Kace… man, we have that thing we need to do,” his friend calls out.

“It can wait, Axel. I can’t have Lily out in Washington DC in the middle of the night on her own. It’s dark, and there are unsavory people out there.”

I furrow my brows as he continues to pull me down the hall.

“Kace!” Axel calls out.

Kace ignores him, walks me down the hall, and we turn the corner.

“Kace, I really don’t want to interrupt your night,” I say as his grip on my arm lessens.

“You’re never an interruption, Lily. But there’s no way I’m letting you go out on the streets this late at night by yourself. Not when I can drive you.”

“Your friend didn’t look too happy.”

Kace finally smiles. “That’s how he always looks. You get used to it.”

I laugh as we climb into the car. “I’m sorry, for a second there I thought you made a joke? What would Axel say about that?”

Kace smirks. It’s a good look on him as he starts the car and pulls out onto the road.

“Axel doesn’t get a say. He listens.”

“Are you like… his boss?”

Kace laughs, but then silence fills the car because he doesn’t answer.

I figure why not push, so I ask more questions. “So you must run a pretty tight ship? Must be a stressful job?”

Kace doesn’t turn his head, but his eyes shift toward me and look right through to my soul. “Don’t dig, Lily. You might not like what you find.”

“But sometimes… what some don’t like, others do.”

He finally turns to me, his face is stern. Hard. Unreadable. “And those ‘other’ people are the ones who end up hurt.”

The intensity of his stare sends goosebumps over my skin. My stomach flips as electricity flitters through the air. We stare at each other, and every breath catches in my throat. He’s a force, an undeniable energy that’s pulsing through my body. The tension is rising, and as his eyes stay locked on mine, it’s only now that I realize his car has stopped, and a screaming baby breaks me away from the trance. The dark night crumbles around me shattering the daze as the streets and surroundings all finally come into view. My lungs finally take in that deep breath I need, while I look around to see we’re out the front of Molly’s place. I blink a couple of times as Kace seems to be gathering his bearings from our moment too as I try to figure things out.

Shaking my head, I look around the car furrowing my brows and wrack my brain, but nothing’s coming to me.

“Lily, you look weird. What’s going on in your head?” Kace asks.

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