Page 74 of Smoke and Mirrors

He chuckles looking back to the road as I shuffle into the seat getting comfortable. I have no idea where we’re going, but I know it will be somewhere on the outskirts of the city.

***

To my surprise, Kace pulls the van down a suburban street. I’m wondering why the hell we’re in the suburbs when he pulls up in the driveway of a one-story modern, sleek home in what looks like a really upscale area.

“Kace, where are we?”

“Blue Bell,” is all he says.

Sighing, I nod, and he turns to face me drawing his lips into his mouth. “Okay, so don’t stare,” he says out of nowhere.

Furrowing my brows, I shake my head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

He opens the van door and sighs. “You’ll see. Just… don’t stare. In fact, don’t say anything either. Ethan can be… volatile.”

My stomach flips in on itself, and the nausea I already felt has now worsened.

Great, another crazy person!

Are all the people Kace is associated with freaks?

He hops out of the van, and I take a deep breath trying to calm my nerves as I open my door, stepping out with him. Walking around the van, he takes my hand as we approach the front door. Kace’s eyes take in everything around us as he spots a surveillance system above us. He takes a deep breath and presses the buzzer on the door. It sounds, and my nerves are shot to hell.

“State your identity, classification, code, rank, social security number, and government-issued ID,” a voice says through a speaker.

Kace rolls his eyes and huffs. “Ethan, it’s Kace Colt, SO7, highest level, Agency. I’m not giving you my social security number or my government ID so you can steal my money.”

A gentle laugh echoes through the speaker, and I furrow my brows. “Okay, you got me. It was worth a try. I knew who you were, anyway. I can see you through the camera on surveillance. I just wanted to see how much info you’d give me. Who’s the broad?”

I tense slightly as Kace looks at me and half-smiles. “She’s an asset under my care. She’s fine, Ethan, I can vouch for her.”

A buzzer sounds, and then a bunch of clicking locks echo through the mid-afternoon air as the door creaks open ever so slightly, and I look forward expecting a muscular, tall man like Kace, but then the door opens fully, and I can’t see anyone.

“Down here, sweetheart,” a voice from below shocks me. As I look down to see a man in a wheelchair, his legs amputated at both knees, I swallow hard as I take in the sight before me, noticing that’s not the most abnormal thing about him. I look at his face, and there’s a giant scar running from the top of his hairline right down through his eye socket where there’s a gaping hole and no eye, then it continues down his face, through the edge of his lip, over his chin, and disappears under his shirt. A slight gasp erupts from my mouth, and my eyes dart away quickly, heeding Kace’s words of ‘do not stare.’

No wonder Ethan’s volatile as Kace puts it. He must have been through something horrific to end up a double amputee and to have an eye missing as well. Empathy washes over me as an eerie silence encapsulates the three of us.

“Well, are you gonna let us in, or are we gonna stand at your door all day?” Kace asks, and Ethan chuckles.

“Still as pushy as ever. Yeah, yeah. Come on in. Tell your girl to get over it. I’m deformed not diseased.”

My eyes open wide, and I shake my head looking back at Ethan. “No. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“It’s okay, I’m teasing. When people see me for the first time, this is the usual reaction. Some people even cry, some scream, so your little gasp was quite conservative, I have to say.”

I chew on my bottom lip and sigh. “I’m sorry. Kace should have told me,” I say, glaring at him through my lashes. He winces, and Ethan shakes his head.

“It still wouldn’t have prepared you, sweetheart. Don’t go denying your lover his sweet treats because of it,” Ethan says.

Kace furrows his brows. “How did you…” Kace asks, his question fading off as Ethan wheels himself into his living room. The room is amazingly beautiful with vaulted ceilings and pristine white walls.

“It’s oozing from both of you. I’m drowning in your lust for each other, it’s sickening. Really, you guys need to rein in the googly eyes if you want to keep your relationship under wraps. If you don’t, then please continue your infectious magnetism toward each other.”

Kace looks at me and half smiles as we sit down on the brown loveseat. “So, Ethan, I’m obviously here for a reason.”

“I have no doubt. I had a feeling this day would come, Kace,” he replies.

I furrow my brows along with Kace.

---