Chapter 15 #2
He pulled out his phone and dialed. “Mia, it’s Kade.
Go somewhere you can talk in private.” He waited a few seconds, pacing, but Violet could see his mind working.
He answered the phone when it rang. “I want you to hear it from me first. What I said before about not being in love with Violet.” He met Violet’s gaze.
“I lied. You saw it before I did, at headquarters. It was just a crazy attraction then.”
Ah, Mia had seen that weird spark between them at the station. She spoke in a high-pitched voice but Violet couldn’t quite discern the words. She wasn’t happy, that was for sure.
“No, I’m not thinking with my wrong head.
When I got here, I couldn’t do it. But because Violet Castanega is innocent, and she doesn’t deserve to die…
yes, there’s something between us I can’t describe, can’t even believe.
I’m crazy in love with her, and I’m going to do everything I can to protect her.
Because of that things are going to get ugly. ”
Violet focused on Kade. She swore her heartbeat slowed as she studied his face. He was telling the truth now. It was in his voice, his eyes.
He waited while Mia screamed something else. “Yeah, just like our father,” he said. “Impulsive actions on behalf of women must run in our genes. I don’t care who I take down with me—”
“Even me?” Mia asked, her voice so shrill Violet could hear it.
Kade’s jaw ticked, his mouth stretching into a frown as he stared into the woods.
“Yeah, even you. I don’t care about anything but Violet.
When the shit hits the fan, tell Ferro about this conversation.
And how you don’t agree with my actions at all.
You think I’m crazy. Promise me, Mia. My life depends on it…
Yes, they’re trying to have me killed…and yes, she’s worth it.
I have to go.” He disconnected, his fingers tight on the phone.
Violet stalked over to him. She would have grabbed his shirt and shaken him if he’d had one. “You turned her against you?” The words nearly shrieked out of her.
“It was my only choice.”
Now he’d really lost everything because of her.
Something shimmered all around him, and suddenly she was staring up into Dune’s face. Dune, in one piece. She screamed and stumbled back. The image flickered, and it was Kade again.
“Illusion,” he said, fatigue in his voice. “Just like my life, like everything I’ve believed in up to now. Everything I’ve been. Now I’m going to sink fully into illusion and report in to Ferro about my mission.”
“As…Dune?”
“I can hold the illusion for short periods of time. Enough to get into the building.” Kade looked at his watch.
“For the last three months, Ferro has gone out to lunch every day at two o’clock sharp.
I’ll show up just past two, when he’s gone.
All I have to do is get into his office and find something that proves what he’s up to.
At the least, figure it out so we know how to fight back.
I want to choke answers out of him, but I know better.
The man’s a First Gen. Even if I survive long enough to get my hands around his throat, he won’t give up a word. ”
“First Gen?” she asked. “First generation Crescent?” She remembered the painting in his office. “Drakos is his direct sire?”
Kade nodded. “And Ferro’s proud of it. Yeah, even though Drakos belongs to the Tryah.”
“But what if Ferro’s still at the building when you get there?”
“Then I’ll report in as Dune, personally tell him you and I are dead.”
She glanced back at Dune’s body and shuddered. They almost had been. “How reliable is your illusion?”
“For a few minutes at a time, perfect.”
“But…”
He pulled Dune’s wallet out of his pocket and picked up the cell phone.
“I’ve never used it like this. It’s one of those unspoken rules: never impersonate anyone.
It’s akin to the Mundanes impersonating an officer.
Except that penalty will be nothing compared to my punishment in this case.
But either way I’m a dead man, so I’ll make it work.
” He met her gaze, and she saw dedication in his eyes. “I’m highly motivated.”
To protect her. She placed her hand on her chest, trying to calm her erratic heartbeat. “I don’t like it. You’re walking into enemy territory.”
He gave her a soft smile. “Someone else I know did that recently. If she can do it, I can.”
“Kade, this is different. They weren’t going to kill me on sight.” She tunneled her fingers through her hair. “The biggest risk I thought I was taking was being disdained, which I was.” She glanced at her brothers. “And having my family find out.”
Kade’s smile was long gone. “But they didn’t disown you.
They didn’t hurt you or kill you, even when they thought you’d taken up with me.
Family sticks together. They’re loyal.” Unlike the Guard, Kade’s family.
“I’m going to get answers. I’m already a rogue agent as far as they’re concerned.
Going after Ferro isn’t going to make it any worse. ”
“I’m coming with you,” she said, the words out before she could even consider them.
Her brothers started to object, but Kade beat them to it.
“No way. You’re a target. Now it is possible that they’ll take you out as soon as you walk in.
Stay here.” He met Jessup’s and Ryan’s gazes.
“Be ready, in case I don’t come back. Once the Guard targets you, they don’t change their mind.
And they won’t care if you or any of your clan gets in the crossfire.
” He looked at Dune, then waved his hand.
The mangled body disappeared. Kade reached in his pocket for his phone, then stopped and rocked his head back.
“It’s such a habit to put on the cover illusion and call for cleanup. ” The illusion fell.
“We’ll take care of the body,” Jessup said. “Gators will love it.”
Kade searched for his shoes and put them on. She felt frozen, perhaps as he had when he’d come upon her crying.
He paused in front of her, lifting his hand to her face but dropping it before making contact.
“Give me your cell number. I’ll let you know what’s going on.
” He programmed it into his phone under the name Astrid.
“In case they get hold of my phone. It won’t be an obvious link to you.
” He called the number and disconnected.
“Now you’ll have mine, in case something comes up. ” He started walking away.
She leaned forward, but Jessup closed his hand over her shoulder. “You’re not going with him. Dumb idea.”
She agreed, but still, it was so hard to just let him walk into the gator pit alone. The dappled shadows played over his shoulders and back as he walked into the woods. He paused, turned around. She waited for him to say something—anything. But he turned and continued on.
“They’ll kill him if they know it’s him,” she whispered. Her heart twisted at the thought. She didn’t know what she felt for Kade. She didn’t want to feel anything for him. He was magick and illusion. Deuces were, after all, named for their two-facedness. How much was real?
Well, she’d known him for one full day, had fought him, fought with him, and made glorious love with him.
No one had ever felt so right and so wrong all at once.
No one had made her hot and aroused and angry and afraid and…
no one had made her feel so much. He was a cold killer and a man willing to throw it all away to do the right thing.
And now he was out of sight. What if she never saw him again? She started to move, but Jessup’s grip tightened.
“She’s in love with him,” Ryan said behind her.
“She’s not stupid enough to fall for someone like him,” Jessup said, ever the skeptic. “Not after what Bren did to her.”
She spun around. “Hullo, I’m right here. And Bren didn’t do anything to me.”
Ryan continued to ignore her, talking to Jessup. “She melted when Kade was talking about how crazy he was about her.”
“That was all a lie, to push his sister away,” Jessup said. “Which was admirable, I have to admit.”
“I wasn’t melting,” she said. “I was devastated that he was going to cut ties to her like that. To save her.” But her heart had responded to the words.
Jessup leaned closer to Ryan. “Our Vee isn’t going to let a guy break her heart again. And a man whose whole life has been dedicated to fighting and killing isn’t the right one for her. Besides, he’s probably going to die today.”