Chapter Sixteen

LILY

We are only driving for a few minutes before the inside of the car begins to fill with a loud beeping sound. Kace growls and slams his palm into a button next to the stereo.

A robotic voice begins to speak. "Operative gone rogue. Is now in alliance with a known offender. Orders are to seek and capture. Repeat, seek and capture."

I sit frozen, staring at the dashboard. "That's a good thing, right? They aren't trying to kill us."

He reaches an arm into the backseat, rustling around in his large bag until he draws out his cell phone.

"Kace?" I prompt again when he doesn't answer me.

"Sure, it's a good thing if you enjoy being tortured for information," he says calmly as he presses on the button to roll down his window.

The cold breeze hits my skin, just what I need to shock some sense into me. "Tortured?" I scream, throwing my hands in the air.

His eyes flick to me. "I'd prefer if you didn't wave that thing around."

I look to where I still have a death grip on the gun and inhale sharply. Making sure the safety is on, I place it on the floor between my feet.

Kace takes both his hands off the wheel for a moment, grabbing each end of his phone and snapping it in half before tossing it out the open window. The show of his sheer strength shocks but excites me at the same time.

"We need to get rid of this car," he states as he winds it back up and focuses on the road again.

I tuck my hands between my legs, a useless attempt at trying to stop them from shaking. "Then what are we going to do? Walk?" I snap.

His hands tighten on the steering wheel. "No, we're going to get another car."

I slump into my seat. "Awesome. Because I'm sure we have time to pop into a used-car lot and buy a new car."

"Never said anything about buying," he states.

I flick my head to him. "Of course. Let's just add grand theft auto to the growing list."

He doesn't respond, making a series of quick turns until we're in a neighborhood I don't recognize. It's a not-so-nice part of town, and by that, I mean, there are no streetlights, and you wouldn't dare walk through it alone at night.

Kace pulls up behind an old-style Nissan. He leans into the backseat, pulling a thin rope from his bag and making a small loop in it.

"Who are you? Mary Poppins?" I ask, looking over at the bag that seems to hold everything, including the kitchen sink. He ignores me, throwing open his door and climbing out. I scramble with the door handle, not willing to be left here alone. As I scurry around the car, Kace already has the string inside the window and is pulling it back and forth, moving the loop down toward the old-school pop- up lock. I turn my back to him, my eyes scanning up and down the street as I tap my foot nervously against the sidewalk.

I see lights flash as a car turns onto the street. "Car!" I whisper urgently.

Kace grabs me and pulls me down, our backs against the Nissan as the car moves slowly down the street. We stay crouched as it pulls into a driveway a few houses down.

"I feel like this isn't your first time…" Kace murmurs softly in my ear as he holds me close to him. I shiver, feeling my cheeks heat in the darkness. "Stealing a car I mean," he adds in amusement.

"No, this is definitely a first," I reply, my heart racing as we listen to the offending car door open and the footsteps that follow. "But I've had to keep watch for Molly a couple of times while she took revenge on her ex-boyfriends."

We hear the front door of a house open and shut, and Kace peeks through the car windows to ensure the person is gone. "We're good. Get in," he orders, helping me to my feet while he rushes back to his car and pulls out his bottomless bag.

I climb across the driver's seat and into the passenger side. The car is cold and has a strange smell. I look over to the backseat, there's fast-food rubbish and a couple of books but nothing to really tell me what kind of person owns it.

Kace jumps in, throwing his bag in the back and handing me the gun I'd left on the floor of his car. I lean down, placing it between my feet again. "Are you going to hotwire—"

I look up suddenly, hearing a crunch, just in time to see the ignition barrel fall to the floor. My eyes widen as he shoves the screwdriver that he just used to wedge it off with, into the ignition and turn it. The car roars to life, louder than I expected it to be, and Kace throws it into drive, taking off at breakneck speed down the street.

I pull my belt on quickly as we make a left out of the intersection. "Do you know Molly's phone number?" he asks. "We need to get to a payphone and call her, I'm gonna need her to watch Daisy."

"Yeah, I know it," I tell him nervously, not knowing what Molly's reaction will be.

We drive for ten minutes in silence before he pulls the car down a street that seems to have a few pubs that are just on closing time. Young inebriated patrons are lining the street, and I glance at Kace wondering what his thought process is.

He parks the car and takes a deep breath. "Okay, stay in the car, don't get out for anything."

Furrowing my brows, I let out an exacerbated gasp while he opens his door. "Kace!" I murmur. "Kace," I almost yell again, but he's gone and shutting the door before I can even register. I groan and turn in my seat to watch him move off into the crowd. I feel open and vulnerable in the car by myself, but he hasn't gone far, and he walks with the crowd and clumsily bumps into a drunk guy. I chew on my bottom lip as the guy turns to Kace to yell at him, but takes in his size and quickly decides to leave it as he scurries off in a drunken haze. Kace turns and heads back toward the car confusing me. I have no idea what he's doing as he opens the driver's door. I shake my head as he climbs in, quickly starting the car and pulling off back down the road with a slight smirk on his face. I huff, crossing my arms over my chest as my brows crease so close together, I'm sure they're joined.

"Umm, you gonna tell me what the hell that was about?"

He pulls down a side street, pulling it to a stop parking it against the curb. He glances at me sideways with a cocky smirk reaching into his pocket, pulling out a cell and throws it to me. I fumble to catch it and gasp.

"What the? How did you? When? I'm confused?"

He chuckles. "The guy I bumped into."

My eyes open wide. "You stole it?"

"We need it, Lily," he winces and slumps his shoulders.

I nod and swallow hard. "True, and I guess he was super drunk, so he probably could have lost it in his stupor."

His lips turn up in a slight smile. "Exactly. Let's just hope it doesn't have a fingerprint ID on it."

I gnaw on my bottom lip and swipe the screen to see it doesn't even have a pin code. Smirking, I giggle and show Kace. He shakes his head, rolling his eyes. "Jesus Christ, kids these days. Security is so important."

I nod and purse my lips. "Just happy we don't have to mess around with trying to figure out the code."

"It would have been one, two, three, four, with the look of that guy."

I laugh and tilt my head. "Probably, I should—"

"Yeah."

I dial in Molly's number, and she groans as she answers. "Who the hell are you and what the fuck are you doing calling me this late? And if you're not a hot guy, I'm hanging up!"

Shaking my head, I sigh. "It's me, Molly."

"Lily?"

I sigh in relief when I hear her voice. Molly may be crazy and psychotic at times, but being away from my parents had been lonely and scary at first. Molly has become my rock. She tells me when I'm being stupid and isn't afraid to stand up for me when my back's against a wall. Just hearing her speak calms my body.

"Hey, Moll. I need a huge favor," I say slowly. "I have to go away with Kace for a while, I'm not sure when I'll be back."

"What do you mean you have to? Is he kidnapping you?" she asks frantically.

I laugh. "No. It's better if you don't know, but he's going to look after me." I look up at him. His eyes are focused on me, hardened with a vow of protection as he silently confirms my words. "He'll keep me safe."

"Lily, you're scaring me. Safe from what?" The sound of desperation in her voice makes my heart sink. I want to tell her everything, try to explain, so she won't worry.

"The less she knows, the better," Kace whispers softly, the hard look on his face changing to one of understanding as I attempt to console my best friend.

I clear my throat. "Kace wants to know if you'll please look after Daisy?"

He pulls the phone slightly from my ear so we can both hear. "She's in my apartment, the door is unlocked. There's enough food there to last her for a while, and I'll get some money to you for anything else," Kace says loudly enough so she can hear through the receiver.

"Will she eat me?" Molly asks.

A smile touches the corner of Kace's mouth. "She only attacks when told to or when she senses danger. You'll be fine."

Molly is silent for a minute, and I know she really doesn't like this. That girl is talkative at the worst of times, the silence now tells me just how fearful she really is.

"Molly," I murmur. "I'll be okay. We'll be back before you know it. Think of it as us going on a holiday for a bit."

"A romantic holiday?" she prods.

I giggle, shaking my head.

"You're going to fuck him, aren't you?"

"Molly!"

"You need to call and tell me if he's any good. And how big it is…"

And she's back.

I avoid looking at Kace, but I can feel him smirking beside me. "Okay, we're done. We need to go now."

She groans, "Spoilsport. Okay, I'll watch the dog. But tell him he owes me. I will take payment in orgasms for my best friend."

"Goodbye, Molly!"

"Love you," she calls sweetly before we hang up.

I stare at the phone for a minute. "She's such a pain in the ass." I laugh awkwardly, trying to fight through some of the tension I can feel swirling between our bodies.

"She's definitely unique," he agrees in amusement.

A small breeze whips through the open window, and I shudder, pulling my sweatshirt around my body.

"Come on, we need to get going." He squeezes my hand with his, and I wind up the window.

He pulls off his jacket and then places it over my lap. I want to tell him I'm fine, but the heat from it instantly warms my body inside the cold car, and I relax into the seat.

He gazes at me longingly, smiles, then starts the car quickly pulling back onto the empty street. By this stage, I can tell he's heading out of Washington. We drive through small surrounding suburbs and soon hit the open road.

"Where are we going?" I ask, turning my head to him and leaning it against the headrest.

His eyes stay focused on the road. The occasional car flashes by, but for the most part, it's just us lighting up the darkness. "I don't know."

"How long will we be gone for?"

"I don't know," he answers again.

I'm beginning to become frustrated. "Will we have to keep running from them?"

"Lily…" I guess so is he, "… I don't know. Okay?"

I clench his jacket in my fingers. "At least tell me this… why is this happening?"

His fingers tighten on the steering wheel, and his eyes continue to avoid even a glance at me.

"We get orders," he says through gritted teeth. "We get orders. We follow them. We don't ask questions." He exhales sharply out his nose like an angry bull. "But I just disobeyed an order."

I tuck his jacket in around my legs, not sure if I'm actually cold or whether it's just the feeling of Kace around me, filling me with comfort and safety. It feels almost like a protective shield.

"What does this all have to do with me?"

He doesn't answer right away. And the longer he stays quiet, the more I feel my hand itching to reach out and pull the door handle. Maybe I should take my chances with the asphalt rather than hear what he has to say?

"The order I disobeyed… was you. "

A shudder runs down my spine. "This is all because of me?"

He shakes his head, turning to look at me for the first time since we got back in the car. His eyes are so expressive, so beautiful yet so haunting.

Shadows fall across his face, but they seem to sparkle even in the small amount of light in the car. "At first, I thought it was," he answers honestly, before moving his eyes back to the road. "You're so exquisite, so smart, and so strong. Even before we spoke, I could feel a pull toward you that my mind couldn't comprehend."

My body buzzes at his admission, my senses all becoming electric.

"When I was told who your father was, I felt like it made sense. You'd pulled me in purposely. The way you walked, the quirks you had, the way you acted around me… all a conscious effort to attract a man like me and draw me in." His eyes flicked to mine again. "But it was all you. It was just you being you, and fuck…" I blush as he shifts in his seat as though he's suddenly uncomfortable.

"Kace…" I whisper.

"When I realized, in the apartment tonight, that none of this was a lie. That this shit between us is real…" He scrubs across his jaw with his hand, and I make a snap decision, reaching over and taking it in mine. He looks down at our hands as I link our fingers together, giving him the support I feel like he needs. "There's something else going on here, Lily. Something bigger than us."

I swallow tightly, forcing out the words that scare the shit out of me. "Then we need to find out what."

His eyebrows raise, and a smirk touches the corner of his mouth. "Yeah, we do."