Page 25 of Lacey's Fight

Nothing gave anyone the right to inflict pain on another.

Nothing at all.

It was a little cowardly, but she’d hidden in the bathroom for a while last night, crying out her pain into the shower, before finally slinking out and back into the bedroom. Without a word exchanged, Ben had gone into the bathroom, and she’d quickly changed and climbed under the covers.

They’d discussed sleeping in the same bed or not and decided Ben would take the couch. There were no cameras in the room so no reason to believe anyone would know and he had been adamant that he wouldn’t share a bed with her. At the time she’d believed it was just because he saw her as some sort of easy lay who slept with anyone. Now she wondered if it ran deeper than that.

Not that she cared.

She was done worrying about him, done thinking about him. She just wanted to do this mission, play her part, find The Master, arrest anyone who was here buying or selling people, and rescue as many trafficking victims as they could. To do that, she didn’t have to like Ben or care about him at all. She just had to pretend he was her husband.

Something that was harder to do this morning than it had been last night.

As they stepped out of the room and into the hall, Lacey pasted on a bright smile.

It wasn’t new to her, pretending that all was fine when it was anything but. Not that she’d ever admit it out loud, but it was how she spent most of her life since being rescued by Prey.

When you were smiling people assumed you were okay.

A smile was the ultimate disguise because it was all people saw.

Maybe she shouldn’t lie to others—and herself—but that was the thing when you lived in survival mode. You just did whatever worked.

“I hope they have raspberry pancakes for breakfast,” she said loudly, keeping her voice cheerful, her mask in place.

“Amelia said whatever you wanted you could ask for,” Ben said. Although there was no hostility in his tone, his voice was flat, his expression blank. It was a good thing that his cover was a man who didn’t express much emotion otherwise they were all but broadcasting that they didn’t fit in here.

“Ooh, I wonder if she has raspberry juice.” That was actually her favorite. She had a bit of a raspberry obsession. They were her favorite fruit, and anything with raspberries in them was an instant favorite.

“If not, you can ask them to get you some,” Ben said.

Although she didn’t want to, she slipped her hand into his as they walked through the hallway and down the grand staircase. This morning, after dragging herself out of bed after very little sleep, she’d read through the folder of information provided for them. She’d learned the schedule for the day and memorized a map of the manor house and its grounds, so she knew exactly where the breakfast room was and that it was open from six until nine.

It wasn’t a coincidence they were heading down toward the end of the time. She’d wanted to hide out in their room for as long as possible because as soon as they left it she had to have her game face on.

“What would you like to do after breakfast, darling?” she asked as they crossed the entrance foyer to the breakfast room down a hallway to the right.

“Whatever you wish.”

“How about we walk the grounds?” That would give them the perfect opportunity to get the lay of the land. They would then relay as much information as they could back to Prey with the tiny device they’d brought with them. It was supposed to be a cell phone-free zone, Amelia Kutcher’s attempt to make sure her manor house wasn’t raided. The small device didn’t look like a phone, and she’d managed to smuggle it in by hiding it inside the charger for Ben’s laptop. Although the laptop had been confiscated upon arrival no one had questioned the fact that they hadn’t handed over the laptop bag that contained the charger.

“Sounds delightful.”

Actually, he sounded like he thought it was anything but, but she didn’t say so. Instead, she shoved aside the pain he’d caused her last night, and reminded herself that he was likely acting out of some sense of self-preservation, the only reason she could think of for his meltdown over her kissing him.

Big picture.

The voice whispering in her head was right.

This wasn’t about her or Ben. It was about saving lives, bringing down as many human traffickers as they could, and hopefully catching The Master.

As they entered the breakfast room, her gaze immediately scanned the tables looking for any sign of him. Although she hadn’t seen him in six years, both Ivory and Pearl had said that the man hadn’t changed and still looked the same.

There was no way she would ever forget a single detail about him.

More nights than not he haunted her dreams.

The Master was like a small demon sitting on her shoulder, constantly whispering in her ear that she would never be free of him. That constant presence made it so hard to move on, but she did the best she could, and found happiness where she could.

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