Deceit (The Vindicated Series Book 1)

by Addison Jane

  A vibration against my leg startles me and I jump. Kace curses, hanging his head as he holds himself over me with such little effort. The vibration continues, and my lust-filled brain starts to realize what it is—his phone.

  He looks up at me beneath a heavy brow. “I gotta get that, Lily. I have a meeting.”

  I swallow, my high floating down and the now cold air sweeping across my naked breasts sends a wave of goose bumps over me. I nod, rushing to cover myself as Kace moves back, allowing me some space.

  When his phone starts to vibrate again, he snatches it from his pocket and holds it to his ear, his eyes never leaving me. “I’m coming, damn it,” he snaps, his words full of venom for the person on the other end. Kace scrubs his hand through his hair and steps toward me. He reaches out, cupping my face in his palm. “I want to talk more later,” he says, his gaze stern and serious and leaving no room for argument.

  A thrill shoots through me and I nod. “Okay.”

  He dips his body, brushing his lips across mine in a kiss that promises more.

  But later.

  I snatch my bag off the floor and he follows me out the door.

  “Later,” he says once more as he moves off down the hall.

  I nod, but he’s already gone, leaving my body buzzing and my head swirling. I try to calm my breathing but it’s hard, my heart still racing in excitement.

  Maybe I was wrong.

  Now he had the truth and trust between us, maybe we could see where things go.

  Maybe.

  I’m making my way back to my apartment after the meeting about Cavaleri. Mom tore me a new one about leaving my post when I should have been protecting him. I took it, I deserved it. I’d let my team down and put them in danger because of this unexplainable need to protect Lily.

  God, Lily.

  The fire between us that had been smoldering before was now completely alight.

  I know she’s still wary. My job isn’t for the feint of heart. It takes strength, determination and above all else, understanding. Understanding that what we do, is for the better. It’s something that not a lot of people can wrap their heads around and the reason that none of the Seven have partners or families at home waiting for them.

  How do you love someone who can so easily take another person’s life?

  It scars your soul, it haunts your dreams. We live in the shadows with little contact with the outside world, and that’s our burden to hold. But what keeps us going is the fact that we are stubborn and hard-headed and refuse to let the bad guys win. We aren’t ever recognized for our efforts, but seeing people walk the streets freely, smiling, laughing, that’s thanks enough. I jog up the stairway to my apartment, eager to find Lily.

  She calls to me, her body, her mind, her sweet heart. She’s everything I thought that I could never have or be worthy of. Yet she’s finally letting me in and it’s almost like I’m having withdrawals. I just need a fix, just to know if she’s okay. I know physically she is, I’ve been keeping track of her. But mentally? I’m still not quite sure. And that—that is driving me crazy. I know I said I’d stay away from her, but my resolve is weakening.

  And after her visit this afternoon, the walls have begun to crumble completely.

  I want her.

  More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.

  Approaching my door, I notice someone standing in the hall. My muscles tense when I notice the figure in the shadows, but the stature is familiar. I move my hand closer to the hidden Glock at my hip as I approach, but when I get closer Noah steps out and gives me a chin lift. He’s wearing his glasses so I know he’s off duty, but then again you’re never really off duty when you’re a part of SO7. His tall stature and broad shoulders would intimidate some, but not me as they match my height. His disheveled brown hair and slightly longer than normal growth of beard covering his chin make me think something’s on his mind.

  “Noah? Where the fuck have you been?” I ask as he steps forward to greet me. Noah hadn’t been at the briefing this afternoon, and he’s been off the grid since my mom called him into the Loft for this mysterious assignment.

  I’m not happy.

  Noah is one of my men. I hate the idea of him being out there alone without our backup and support even though I know he’s capable of handling himself.

  The Seven is a team. We have each other’s backs.

  I’m pissed my mother put him in this situation.

  Noah exhales and shakes his head. “Kace… man, I swear I didn’t know.” His voice is strained, and his brows furrow.

  I clench my face and tilt my head slightly. “Didn’t know what?”

  He looks toward Lily’s door, and my chest heaves slightly. Noah might look like a complete nerd, but don’t treat him like a fool because he’s one of the Seven’s most lethal killers.

  “Noah?”

  He looks back to me and reaches his hand out grabbing my arm. “I didn’t know you were a thing,” he replies, and I look down at his arm noticing the wounds.

  Fresh wounds.

  Scrapes and holes.

  Scabbing wounds.

  Bite marks.

  My breath catches and I heave slightly as I pull his sleeve up higher to reveal more bite marks. He winces as I lift his shirt to reveal severe lacerations to his side that have been stitched. My eyes flick up to his as he shakes his head and his eyes plead with me to understand.

  But I don’t.

  I don’t understand at all.

  “You? Fuck! Noah… what the hell?”

  “Like I said, I didn’t know she was your girl!”

  Fury floods every inch of me making me rage red hot. My skin prickles in intense anger as I shove him hard against the wall. He doesn’t fight me as I pull him up the wall slightly and glare at him through gritted squeaking teeth. “What the fuck were you doing, going after Lily? Were you there to kill her?”

  He sighs and shakes his head. “I was. It was a kill order. Then Daisy came out confusing the fuck out of me. She tore me to shreds, and I bailed out the balcony when I heard you guys coming in. That confused the shit out of me, too.”

  “But why the hell were you there to kill her in the first place, Noah? You’re supposed to be on my team?” I yell in his face spittle flying from my mouth in utter aggravation.

  “Kace… man, I was just following orders!”

  I scoff. “Following orders? The only orders you should be following are from me. Who the fuck are you working for? Are you a double agent? I swear to God, Noah, if you’re double-crossing The Agency I’m going to rip your—”

  “The order came from your mom,” he blurts out quickly effectively cutting me off.

  My body stiffens as everything starts to spin. I drop my grip on Noah as he slides down the wall, and I heave in and out of my mouth as I shake my head trying to figure out what the fuck he’s just told me, and more importantly what’s going on.

  “What the… the Loft assignment?”

  He rests his hand on my shoulder and nods his head. “Kace, boss put the kill order out on Lily. She gave it to me as a sole act and didn’t share with anyone else from the Seven. I’m assuming because I didn’t know about you and Lily, and some of the others on our team did. I don’t know what’s going on, but Kace, you know there’s a reason for it. There always is,” he says as laughter filters down the hallway. We both turn our heads to see Lily and Molly walking toward us.

  My muscles clench as I turn back to Noah and open my eyes wide. “Don’t you hurt her,” I murmur as the girls go quiet and walk past us. Lily looks at me, and her chest lifts with quickening breaths, and she offers me a sweet smile that soothes the monster that’s raging inside me.

  Molly looks from me to Noah, and her lips creep up in a slight smile as she looks Noah up and down.

  “Wow, looks like you’ve been in the wars,” Molly says looking at Noah’s bite marks on his arm.

  Lily looks down, and I tense up as Noah gasps and quickly attempts to cover his arm, bu
t Lily reaches out and grabs onto his arm pulling his sleeve back. Noah doesn’t fight her. She drops his arm and pushes his shoulder, but he doesn’t budge even a millimeter. “Was it you? Were you in my apartment?”

  Molly scoffs. “Are you a creeper? You sexy asshole fucker.” Her voice turns up a notch as she assesses Noah.

  “I should go.” Noah looks at Lily as her face contorts with rage, and her nose curls up like she’s ready to attack.

  “Yes, you should,” I agree.

  “You better move before I put my fist through your perfectly chiseled jawline,” Molly threatens, and I furrow my brows at her strange insult. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was crushing on Noah while attempting to be angry at him.

  “What the hell is going on?” Lily grunts placing her hands on her hips as she glares at me, her eyes sparkling with hurt. “Who is this?”

  My eyes flick to Molly for a second before I focus in on Lily. “One of my guys,” I tell her, trying not to offer too much information in front of her friend.

  Lily takes a step back, and I follow her while reaching out to grab her arm, but she swats my hand away. She’s shaking.

  I growl deep in my throat, stalking her as she retreats toward her apartment door. “What happened to trusting me?” I ask, low enough so Molly can’t hear.

  She stills for a moment, contemplating my words. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  I can feel Molly moving closer to us, she’s protective of Lily and for that I’m glad. But Lily is strong. Stronger than she lets people see.

  “I can’t talk about it right now, but I’m going to find out.”

  She swallows, the movement drawing my attention to her neck. I have to hold myself back from going to her and pressing my lips to what I know to be the softest skin I’ve ever touched. She nods, but I can still feel the wall begin to build up between us again. I need to sort this shit out and stop it before she builds it so high and so thick that I can’t penetrate through.

  Even though I want to stay and talk to Lily, make sure she’s okay and find out if we can mend what might be broken between us, I turn grabbing Noah by the scruff of the neck and walk with him to talk to my boss—my mom.

  Kace storms off with the guy who was in my fucking apartment and that Daisy saved me from. The fact that he’s part of Kace’s team doesn’t surprise me, but it does annoy the shit out of me. Turning, I put my keys in the lock and open my door, stomping inside.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa! You think you can just storm off after that…” she waves her hands around, “…like nothing epic just happened, missy?” Molly asks following me inside and slamming the door shut behind me. The loudness of the wood hitting the door jamb doesn’t even startle me because the blood pumping through my ears is so loud the thud seems like nothing more than a muted hum.

  “What? What do you want from me?”

  She opens her eyes wide and scoffs. “Umm… maybe for you to calm the fuck down and start talking.”

  As I pace my living room, I look down at the spot on the carpet where the blood stain is still slightly visible. To the normal eye you probably wouldn’t even notice, but to me, it’s a reminder of the danger I was in that night and how utterly terrified I was. In this moment, I’m torn, I’m angry, and I’m fucking scared. I want to tell Molly everything, but I don’t want to hurt Kace either.

  “Kace, he just… he throws me off. Every time I get close, something seems to push us further apart. End of story,” is all I say instead, and Molly scoffs rolling her eyes.

  “Well… you want me to fuck his friend and dump him on his ass for payback? ‘Cause I will do that for you… take one for the team.”

  Finally cracking a smile, I slump my shoulders and relax a little. “No, it’s better if we both just stay away and keep our distance from them.”

  Molly shrugs and sighs. “Shame.” She smirks and I shake my head. It’s almost like she actually wants to sleep with that guy—the one that broke into my place and tried to… tried to what? I don’t even know!

  Trust her, she always did like the bad boys. “But really, Kace lives next door. There’s only a wall separating the two of you. And I bet he walks around naked in his apartment. And so do you. Aaand… if you’re naked at the same time, weeell… there’s basically just a wall stopping you from having his cock inside you. That’s not keeping your distance. With those muscles, he could punch through the damn wall, grab and fondle your boobs as you stroll by.”

  My stomach flips at the thought of what we’d done only a few hours before. His hands on me, his mouth. I finally force a laugh and shake my head despite my body reliving those moments. “Jesus girl, will you stop!”

  “Why? Your panties getting wet?” She smirks tilting her head, and I pout my lips forcing a breath out of my nose as I storm up to her and turn her to face the door pushing her toward it. She laughs and walks with me as I move her along, then open the door.

  “Get out. You are too much right now,” I say, and she turns kissing my forehead.

  “Talk to me next time someone comes into your apartment uninvited, okay? Don’t bottle that shit up. And seriously, we’re going to have a real talk about who you’re associating with when you’re ready.”

  Nodding, I smile, and she turns and walks down the hall. Closing the door, I run my fingers through my hair and walk toward the balcony to breathe some fresh air. Stepping over to the door, I look out and notice Luca standing on my balcony. My teeth grit together, and my body slumps as he grins at me and waves slightly. I shake my head opening the door and stride outside. The cold air assaults my face, but it’s not cooling me down in the slightest.

  “Luca.”

  “Lily. You look very pretty today.”

  Huffing, I roll my eyes. “No, I’m not doing this right now, Luca. I need to breathe,” I say and turn to walk back inside.

  “Lily, wait! I need to talk to you about Kace.”

  “I don’t want to hear another thing about Kace,” I call back out. “I want my life back. A life which was perfectly dull and boring until he stepped into it.” I say the words even as I feel a sharp stab in my heart.

  Heavy footsteps follow me into the apartment, and I exhale while turning around to face him. He walks through the balcony doors toward me.

  “They never fucking listen,” I murmur under my breath. “You ever use the door like a normal person, Luca?”

  He flashes me a grin. “I’m not exactly normal.”

  I tighten my hands into a fist. “Right, how could I forget?”

  “He told you, didn’t he?” Luca asks all traces of jokes aside. His face is serious and stern. Almost a little scary.

  My muscles tense, I chew on my bottom lip. “Wow, for a joker you’re being really serious—”

  “This is a serious matter, Lily.”

  Swallowing hard, I look at him, his dusty blond hair spiked perfectly, his chiseled jaw firm and clenched, but his stance isn’t threatening. He’s not here to hurt me—I don’t think.

  “How am I supposed to believe all… this? I don’t know how to get my head around it. How to understand it all.” I wave my hands around like a mad woman.

  He sighs and steps closer, but it’s not intimidating. “I’d rather you didn’t, in all honesty. What Kace did… telling you the things he said, he’s risked all our lives. Everything we’ve fought so hard for.”

  “I’m not going to tell anyone,” I say softly, hoping he believes me. “I may be lost and confused and angry, but he still means something to me. I wouldn’t—”

  He shakes his head rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s not that simple, Lily. There’s people that would kill for a minute piece of information on the Seven. What we look like. What our names are. Where we live.”

  I take a deep breath absorbing what he’s saying. It hits me like a ton of bricks, and my chest feels heavy as I sink further into myself. “So… I’m in trouble here, aren’t I?”

  He shrugs. “Not if you keep your mouth shut.” H
is intense stare bores through me as his stance grows taller, his eyes darken, and his stature now far more intimidating. For the first time, I’m actually a little scared of him. But I get that he’s just trying to protect Kace.

  “Goodbye Luca,” I say.

  He smiles so brightly it’s a stark contrast to the death glares he was just sending my way. His joker side is back, and it makes me breathe a little easier. Even though Luca uses humor, I think he has a darker side when it comes to protecting those that he cares about.

  Storming up the ramp toward Mom’s office, she spots me and stands from her chair as I pull back the heavy glass door and stride into her office.

  “Kace?”

  “Since when do you go behind my back and give orders to one of my men without telling me?” I yell.

  She walks around her desk to stand in front of me.

  “I checked every single person inside that apartment building before I moved in. I know her, she’s sweet, she’s beautiful—”

  “You only found what she wanted you to find. She may be beautiful, but she’s a manipulator, and she works her way into men’s hearts only to break them, son. She can’t be trusted. She’s your next target… now do your duty.”

  My eyebrows scrunch together so forcefully they must be joined as one and I shake my head in confusion. “What do you mean, she’s my target? She can’t be my target, she’s a normal woman. There’s no issues with her, Mom.”

  She places her hands on my shoulders and sighs looking directly into my eyes. Her brown eyes are hard and look at me with no emotion. “Lily’s real dad died when she was little, and her Dad is only her stepdad, but he adopted her, and she took his last name. Her real father was related to the Sinclair Syndicate, you know, the crime family that’s always on the evening news. Lily is still living within the Sinclair Syndicate.”