Deceit (The Vindicated Series Book 1)

by Addison Jane

  I’m only a few feet from them now, their voices are whisper soft, but they carry toward me on the breeze along with the smell of aftershave that delights my senses.

  “Friday night,” Kace says simply. “Make it happen.”

  “I’ve been trying to make it happen for weeks now. You don’t just get an in, you have to earn that shit,” the Italian looking man in the suit snaps, his body fidgeting like he doesn’t enjoy being out in the open.

  Kace is still and confident, like I’d expect anything else from him.

  “Make it happen, or I’ll find my own way,” Kace counters with a deadly spark to his voice that sends a chill through my veins. “And trust me, you won’t like it.”

  The suited man growls in frustration. “I’ll be in touch.”

  With that he turns, and I jump, snapping my head in the opposite direction like I’m enjoying the view of the makeshift savanna that the zoo has created. I tuck my hands in my pockets, trying to act innocent as he passes by me without a second look. I lick my lips, considering whether I should make a run for it before Kace turns and sees me.

  “Anyone ever tell you it’s rude to eavesdrop, Lily,” his voice says loudly, causing my body to freeze in stunned silence.

  I risk a glance at him, he hasn’t even turned around.

  How the hell did he know I was here?

  My mouth moves, but the words are lost on my tongue as I race to try and come up with some kind of excuse. “I-I work here.”

  A quiet snort comes from him as he turns, his eyes hitting me with a steely yet amused gaze. “I know.”

  I raise an eyebrow. “You know?” I confirm warily.

  He nods to my chest, causing me to blush for a moment before I realize he’s pointing out the vet’s pass that hangs around my neck. “Oh, right.”

  He takes a purposeful step forward, and I force myself not to move away from his imposing form. He is scary, that much I can admit. But not in the kind of way that I think he’ll hurt me, I don’t feel that at all from him. I’m scared more because he’s unknown. A beast of a man who makes me feel so small in comparison.

  He met here with a strange man.

  That rings alarm bells in my mind.

  Who the hell is this guy?

  What exactly does he do?

  His body’s free of tattoos, and his face never shows anything other than what he wants me to see. He has control—of his body, his senses, his emotions.

  Something inside tells me I should stop and run. But unlike him, I can’t control the emotions that I feel, and curiosity is winning over all my other emotions. They say curiosity killed the cat, but damn if Kace doesn’t make me purr.

  “So what are you working on today?” He asks the question seemingly so innocently. Almost as though I hadn’t just seen him standing with a man making threats.

  I study him for a minute, his face blank as usual and giving me no indication of whether he’s actually interested, or simply trying to draw my mind away from what I’d witnessed.

  “Um… one of the lionesses had cubs a few days ago, so I came in to help with their health checks,” I explain.

  He raises an eyebrow. “You get called in like that often?”

  I shake my head but can’t fight the smile that rises across my face. “No. Misty is special to me. I’ve been working with her for a while now. So the lead vet knew I’d want to be in on it.”

  He nods, his eyes drawing away from me and moving out across the plains that encase some of our deadliest animals. “You love working with them,” he notes.

  “With animals?”

  “With the lions,” he confirms, turning back to face me.

  I nod. “I love all animals. But yeah… I’m quite fond of the work I do here.”

  He’s silent for a while, his eyes still on me are beginning to make me feel a little uncomfortable.

  “Do you… um… want to come back and have a look?” The words stun even me, and for a moment I wish I could take them back.

  His head tilts ever so slightly to the side as though confused by the invitation. But just when I get the feeling he’s going to decline, he nods. “You allowed to do that?”

  I shrug. “Yeah. Sometimes my best friend Molly comes to visit with me.”

  “Okay.” He puts his hand out, gesturing for me to lead the way.

  I swallow tightly, forcing one foot in front of the other, a strange stirring beginning in my stomach as he walks beside me toward the door that will lead us to the back of the savanna exhibit.

  I flash my card over the reader, a buzzer sounds and the light goes green, unlocking the door allowing us to pass through.

  Kace’s eyes wander as we walk down a long hall. “Not very good security back here.”

  I snort, quickly covering my mouth in shock. “Yeah, well, you don’t get many people willing to break in and hang with a pack of lions very often. They can be quite… intimidating.”

  “Yet you do it.”

  I push through another door that leads us into the confined enclosure where we’re keeping Misty and her cubs. I can see through a window a few of the zoo hands working with Grayson, the cubs’ father, trying to coax him inside, but he’s doing a pretty good job of ignoring them.

  I smile. “The opportunity came up and how could I turn it down.” I touch the glass with my finger, tracing the outline of Grayson’s mane. “They’re beautiful creatures. The way they move, the way they act, they’re stunning.”

  I feel his body come up beside me, warmth seeming to radiate off his entire form. Or maybe the word warmth is too soft to use. He’s more like a fire, smoldering away until the right moment when he’ll burst into flames.

  “You just said they were intimidating.”

  I look up at him, his eyes still watching me with curiosity and interest. “They are. And incredibly deadly under the wrong circumstances. But animals are what I live for. It doesn’t matter their size or what kind of label they have. Just being around them builds me up, and helping them makes me happy.”

  I know there’s a huge grin on my face, I can’t help it if I try.

  That’s the honest truth. Animals can’t talk, so sometimes they need people to be their voices, stand up for them, rescue them, help them when they’re in pain. I want to be that voice. I want to show them love and compassion.

  “Seems a little naïve to think you can just fuck around with a lion and expect it to play nice.”

  I roll my eyes. “Oh… trust me, I know just how dangerous they are. But it’s not about expecting the worst from them, it’s about respecting their power and understanding that… yeah, okay, Grayson out there could rip my arm off if he wanted. I’m not stupid, I get that. I give him the space and the respect he deserves just like I do every other animal I work with, but it doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the beauty in a creature so deadly.”

  I notice Kace’s eyes have not left me since we entered the enclosure. They stay glued to me like he’s breathing in every word and every movement I make. His body’s so still like he’s being wound tighter and tighter the more I speak. I swallow past the large lump forming in my throat, thinking I must be rattling on, and he’s becoming annoyed.

  “What about the lions do you enjoy the most?” he asks, my eyes going wide with surprise.

  “Umm… I-I…” I stutter, trying to put my thoughts into words. Luckily, in that moment, one of the zoo keepers throws Grayson’s favorite toy. A smile forms on my face as he crouches and starts to slink across the ground as though he’s sneaking up on it.

  “They’re predators. The way they move, so swiftly and silently. How their muscles bunch just before they strike. It’s intense, but so utterly mesmerizing.” My body jumps in surprise as Grayson finally springs, sailing through the air and landing incredibly gracefully on top of the soft toy rabbit.

  “An effortless killer,” Kace comments, sending a chill through my body.

  I smile and look up at him, his brows furrow as he watches the lion play with i
ts so-called prey. “It’s the circle of life.”

  His eyes flash to me with an intensity that makes my body jolt. “You believe that?”

  I raise my eyebrows. “I believe that they have to survive. And in order to do that, they have to kill. It’s that, or they die.”

  I watch Kace’s Adam’s apple bob harshly in his throat, and his fists become clenched. I know he’s holding back. Something about this has forced his emotions to show.

  My hand reaches out to him. “Are you okay?”

  He pulls away suddenly before our skin can touch, almost as though I’ve shocked him.

  It’s only a few seconds, but I feel like, within those seconds, I’ve caught a glimpse of Kace. Not the mask. He seems lost, confused maybe, as his eyes watch me cautiously.

  “I’m sorry if I—” I say nervously, but he quickly cuts me off, the strong confident mask, sliding back into place and a smirk touches at his lips.

  “No, don’t worry. I’m just not as self-assured around animals as you are I guess.”

  An excuse if I’ve ever heard one.

  “Thanks for the tour,” he says, his voice a deep baritone that vibrates through me and lights up my senses. “I better get going.” He dips his head before turning for the exit, not hurried, but taking purposeful steps.

  “Okay!” I call after him. “Bye…”

  Marshall passes him as he exits the door, moving out of the way for Kace’s giant stature. “Who was that?” he asks as he joins me beside the window where the zoo keepers have finally managed to wrangle in Grayson without too much persuasion.

  I shake my head and whisper to myself, “I’m still not really sure.”

  My feet feel like lead weights as they march swiftly, thumping and pounding on the cement. I try to catch my heavy breath while it races unevenly in and out of my nose in quick succession. Lily has shaken me, and I bet she doesn’t even know it. This woman, this crazy, beautiful woman is like no one I’ve met before. She is smart, gorgeous, and without knowing me at all, she gets me. Even though she doesn’t know it yet. Her views on wild animals—on predators—the way she appreciates them for how they are, the understanding of the need to kill or be killed…

  When I moved into my apartment two months ago, I thought it would be the same as always. Keep my head down. Stay invisible. But she saw me, and I noticed her watching me. And fuck, did I notice her. The moment I saw her she lit up the entire hall way. She had a glow about her, a spark, something I haven’t seen emanating from anyone, ever. I can’t describe it. She knocked me off my feet from the moment I first laid eyes on her. And that light that pulls me to her has never dulled. Every time I see her I want to run to her, to bathe in her glow, to feel her warmth.

  But I can’t.

  There’s just no possible way.

  Even now she has a spark about her, the way she lights up, even when talking about something so dark. Like even though she knows that there’s danger involved, that still excites her. I realize she was talking about her job, although I can’t help but think about her being in my life and how that might work in her favor if she knew.

  If only she knew…

  Making friends isn’t on my list. I should have said no to going back there with her to view the lions. Little does she know that I’m the lion—the predator—and when Lily talked, it felt like she was speaking about me, not to me. That’s why I clammed up in there.

  I’m struggling to stay away from her, but I can’t figure out why. I’ve never had this problem before. Women were always a scratch that tended to an itch. I’ve never had a problem walking away. But with Lily, I’m finding myself watching her every move. I could have met Cavaleri’s nephew anywhere, but I knew Lily would be here, at the zoo, at this time.

  So why did I risk being spotted by her when it was obviously going to happen?

  It was sloppy.

  I’m not sloppy.

  Ever.

  Taking in a deep long calming breath to rein in my racing thoughts as I reach my car, the button beeps as I press unlock sending a small high-pitched beep through the back street. My jaw is still tightly clenched from the tension of my actions and the unease of how easily Lily rattles me.

  This woman has the potential to unravel me.

  It’s distracting.

  It’s unsettling.

  It’s… kind of nice.

  Letting out a deep throaty groan as I open my door and slide into my car, I turn on the engine and rev it to capacity. Pushing the car into gear, I hammer the throttle down roaring off down the street at speeds definitely not law-abiding to get home and try to sort my fucking head out before she arrives home too. I can always tell when she’s home because living next door to her I can sense her, and it’s something I’ve become very accustomed to.

  After spending the rest of the day with Marshall and the cubs, I’m on a giddy high. Or maybe that’s from meeting Kace officially today. I can’t really tell. Maybe it’s both? His awkwardness in the lion’s den was strange. He tensed up, but I’m not sure if it was from something I said or something I did. Or maybe just from being alone together and having wild animals around us. Either way, he wanted out of there fast, and I’m hoping that doesn’t mean that he’s going to avoid me from now on.

  I know very little about him really—other than his name, and that he meets weird Italian men at zoos apparently. I wonder what that was about. I want to ask him, but I’m not sure we’re at a stage in our ‘neighbor relationship’ that I could ask him something like that yet, I mean technically we’ve only really had one conversation.

  After a big day, it’s nice to be home. I’ve already had a long soak in the tub, probably too long because the tips of my fingers still look like dried wrinkled prunes, but it was worth it. I love working at the zoo, but it can be hard on the body. Lion cubs may look little, but they weigh quite a bit and holding them for prolonged periods of time, especially when cuddling them like I do, can give you a sore back and arms. So I’m tired and ready for bed.

  My fluffy bathrobe tickles my senses as the soft textures glide against my skin while I walk to my room to get changed into my pajamas. The annoying tone of Milkshake by Kelis starts to play from the living room. I groan wondering what crisis is happening tonight as I roll my eyes and turn on my heels, heading back out of my bedroom toward the living room to pick up my cell.

  “Molly, it’s nearly eleven at night! Shouldn’t you be heading out to some guy’s house by now?” I quip and then the extremely unusual sound of a baby crying echoes down the line. I tilt my head slightly at the foreign noise that I would never associate with Molly, especially considering her major distaste for children is common topic of conversation for us.

  “Lily, you need to help me. Like… I mean… really help me. This is the biggest emergency I’ve ever had.”

  I take a deep breath and sit down on the couch next to me as the tone of her voice is actually one of seriousness and not banter for once. “Molly, do you have a baby with you?”

  She lets out an exasperated groan as the baby cries harder, sounding on the verge of tears herself. “Yes! Oh my God, Lily! You have to help me. My niece is here, she’s six months old and she won’t stop crying. Can you come here now? Please, Lily. Please, I need you.”

  I smile briefly. “Of course, but why isn’t Holly helping?”

  She sniffs sounding like she’s going to cry again. “My sister isn’t here. It’s just me and this… thing. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you when you get here. Just hurry the fuck up before it dies from crying or something.”

  Standing up, I race into my bedroom to get dressed. “Okay Molly, just stay calm, and I’ll be there as soon as I can. I’m getting dressed now, and I’ll leave straight away.”

  She sniffs again. “Hurry… and bring chocolate!”

  “Babies can’t have chocolate, Molly.”

  “It’s not for her, it’s for me. I need calming down, not her. This thing is causing all the trouble, not me. Just get here, Lily!�
� She hangs up her cell, and I giggle to myself picturing Molly holding a screaming baby out in front of her as far away from her body as humanly possible. For Holly to leave her daughter with her sister alone, something must be wrong. So I get dressed as quickly as I can, slipping on my sneakers. I’m going to have to run to get there fast. I don’t have a car, and the quickest route right now is to sprint the two blocks to her house.

  Opening my door, I race out of my apartment not looking where I’m headed, and my body collides straight into a brick wall. Well, that’s what it feels like anyway as my body slams straight into it. An “oomph” escapes me as I step back looking up.

  Strong arms reach out grabbing my upper arms to prevent me from completely falling backward. Swallowing hard, I look up into Kace’s smoldering gaze as he looks down at me. His eyes boring into mine with such intensity my knees buckle marginally. His grip intensifies on my arms as I dip slightly.

  “You okay, Lily?” His deep baritone voice washes over me like smooth silk shaking my very foundations.

  I swallow hard again trying to shake myself from the trance of his gaze and simply nod once as I chew on my bottom lip. It’s only when a slight chuckle from next to us alerts me that someone else is here. My eyes finally break from Kace, and I notice a man next to him wearing a white wife beater, a leather jacket, and jeans. His hair is short, but a little longer on top and he has a well-maintained beard. His eyes, though, they’re piercing blue and could give Kace’s a run for their money. His face is well defined, and his build is strong and masculine—he clearly works out.

  A lot.

  Though his arms aren’t quite the size of Kace’s.

  When I hear the clearing of a throat, it makes me realize I am staring at the man, and his smirk makes my cheeks turn red hot.

  “Lily?” Kace repeats.

  Clearing my throat, I shake my head as if to bring myself back to the present, and look to Kace, who I notice still has a tight grip on my arms.

  “I’m okay, just have to go downtown.”