50. Chapter 50
Chapter fifty
Lina
Alex picks the mask up and releases the latches along the sides. He walks over and turns it toward me. The moment the mask opens, a series of small lights illuminate the interior.
“You ready?” He asks, smiling.
“It’s not going to smell like a boy’s locker room in this thing, is it?”
Alex throws his head backing laughing. “I clean it with alcohol, love. It may smell like a hospital at first, if anything.”
He lifts the mask up and over my head and gently brings it down.
My eyes lock on the screen directly in front of me. I can see everything so vividly.
“It has several features. You can tell it to show you different visual displays. Thermal, infrared, target identification, night vision. Speak into the mask and say night vision.” Alex says.
So I do. “Night vision.”
I jump back, startled by the voice coming through the mask.
“Whoa!” I say, adding, “This thing sounds deep.”
Alex laughs. “There’s a voice modulator built in.”
I lift the mask up and over, blowing the hair that got caught in the latches out of my face.
“It feels suffocating. I do have a bit of an issue with small spaces, so that’s like a nightmare for me.”
“When you lock it in place, there is a ventilation system that pushes air through,” he counters.
“Oh, well that’s cool. Where the heck do you buy something like this? It must have cost a fortune.” I say as I set it back down.
“I had it made in Germany. And yes, it did cost a small fortune.”
“How did you get into this?” I ask, pointing at the gear laid out across the chair. “How do you even start?”
Alex leans back against the dresser and folds his arms across his chest.
Briefly, I suspect he’s about to sidestep my question.
“My father,” he replies.
The words catch me off guard.
I frown. “Your father taught you how to become a vigilante?”
A corner of Alex’s mouth twitches. “No. My father taught me how dangerous people think.”
The humor disappears as quickly as it appeared.
I study him.
“My father taught me how to read people. How to tell when they’re lying. How to spot weaknesses. How to use fear. His intention in teaching me these things was for me to follow in his footsteps.”
I don’t miss the bitterness beneath his calm tone.
“But you didn’t,” I counter.
“No.” Something dark flickers behind his eyes.
“After I changed my name, I did whatever work I could find. Security. Executive protection. Fugitive recovery. Private investigations. Anything that paid and kept me moving.”
It explains a lot. The way he notices everything. The way he always seems to know where the exits are. The way nothing ever catches him off guard.
“And Reese?”
A genuine smile appears. “Reese is the smart one.”
I smile in return.
“Don’t tell him I said that.” He winks.
“Before Reese ever touched the private sector, he spent years in military cyber operations tracking people who didn’t want to be found.
After that, he moved into corporate cybersecurity, where we ended up working under contract for the same firm.
His job was breaking into networks. Mine was breaking into buildings and taking care of the targets. ”
He takes a breath and continues.
“We went independent ten years ago when our contracts ended. I take more risk, so we split sixty-forty. Under contract, we each only made twenty percent. And now, well, let’s say we are pretty well off from all the jobs we’ve taken over the years.”
I raise my eyebrows, trying to imagine what pretty well off means in Alex’s world.
I’m thinking owns multiple passports, disappears for weeks at a time, and somehow always has access to a private airstrip money.
Honestly, the fact that I’m even having this thought makes me want to laugh. Because what the actual hell is my life?
“Reese could probably find anyone in the world with enough time, a laptop, and his particular brand of obsession. He spends his days buried in digital footprints, shell companies, burner phones, and the mistakes people don’t realize they’re making online.”
He continues. “He has it easier than I do. Works from home. Owns a cat. Has a long-term girlfriend he’s been carrying a ring around for the last six months because he’s terrified of proposing.” Alex laughs.
“I, however, typically live on the road.”
“And eventually this happened?” I ask.
Alex follows my gaze to the mask. The smile fades.
“Not immediately.” His eyes linger on the mask for a moment.
“When I first started taking certain jobs, I looked like myself. Just a man.”
I nod my head.
“People lie differently when they can see your face.”
“What does that mean?” I ask.
“It means most people need to find something human in you. Something familiar. They watch your face, your expressions, your reactions. They convince themselves you’re just another man.” His gaze returns to mine.
“Fear changes when they can’t do that.”
I glance back at the mask. A shiver runs through me.
“They’re afraid of the mask?”
“No.” His voice is calm.
“They’re afraid of what they can’t understand.”
The room falls silent.
Alex pushes away from the dresser and picks up the mask.
“Most bad people spend their lives believing they’re the predator in every room. They know how to manipulate people. Intimidate them. Control them.” His fingers trace the black material.
“But when they can’t see a face...can’t read an expression...can’t figure out who they’re dealing with...” He shrugs.
“Their imagination usually does more damage than I ever could.”
A chill creeps through me. “That’s terrifying.”
“Exactly.”
His eyes lock on mine. “It’s easier to get the truth when people fear the unknown. When they can’t find humanity in front of them. When they don’t know whether they’re dealing with a man, a myth, or something in between.”
In that instant, I understand. The mask isn’t for Alex. It’s for them—the people he hunts—the people he wants afraid. The people he wants second-guessing every shadow and dark corner they encounter. It’s intimidation. Psychological warfare wrapped in matte black armor.
Though this is all a bit disarming, I smile as a thought comes to mind. Because while I can appreciate how terrifying this thing must appear to the wrong person, I’m discovering I have a very different reaction to it.
Instead, I’m fascinated by it.
Maybe it’s because I know the man beneath it. Or maybe it’s because the man beneath it happens to be ridiculously attractive. Whatever the reason, the mask has completely failed to intimidate me. If anything, it has the opposite effect. I’m drawn to it.
Just six years ago I was arguing with Cole over grocery budgets and pretending our marriage wasn’t slowly killing me. Now I’m sitting in a cover location having a conversation with a ridiculously attractive vigilante who hunts dangerous people for a living.
I scrub a hand over my face.
This is the kind of thing that lives in my Kindle.
The kind of story I stay up until two in the morning devouring because I can’t put it down.
The brooding morally gray man with a mysterious past. The genius hacker best friend.
The secret identities. The dangerous missions.
And the ridiculous amount of money that somehow always accompanies people who spend their lives doing things that should absolutely land them in prison.
Somehow, I’ve managed to stumble face-first into that exact storyline.
If I told Val any of this, she’d assume I’ve gone insane. Honestly, I’d probably assume the same thing.
A giggle bursts forth before I can hold it back.
Alex’s brow furrows. “What’s funny?”
I smile. “Nothing.”
“Lina.”
“I’m realizing how insane this all sounds.” My hands rest on my neck and shoulders, trying to tug the tension in them out.
His expression doesn’t change.
“You realize you’re basically the walking embodiment of every BookTok boyfriend, right?”
Alex blinks. “Every what?”
“It means you’re tall, mysterious, typically emotionally unavailable, ridiculously competent, secretly rich, and apparently spend your free time hunting bad people in the dark.”
A smile threatens the corner of his mouth. “And what am I supposed to do with this information?”
“Nothing. I’m just having a moment.” I blink my eyes closed, trying to stop myself from sounding like a lunatic.
“A moment?”
“Yeah.” I lean back and stare at the ceiling. “A moment where I’m forced to acknowledge that I’ve somehow wandered into the plot of a romance suspense novel.”
His laugh is quiet. “And which character are you?”
I glance at him. “The woman making increasingly questionable life choices.”
That earns an actual laugh from him.
And honestly? I can’t even argue with the assessment.
The craziest part is that none of it makes me want to leave. If anything, it makes me want to plant my stance.
I glance back at the mask resting atop the armor. Then to Alex.
A dangerous intrigue unfurls inside me, slow and deliberate, and before I can stop it, the corner of my mouth lifts into a smile.
“What’s that look for?” Alex asks.
I glare at the getup. “I think I want to see it.”
His brow furrows. “See what?”
“The full getup,” I say, nodding my head towards the gear.
His expression tightens. “Lina...”
“I want to see you in it.” I fold my arms, letting Alex know this is something I’m not joking about.
The room goes quiet. Now, for the first time, Alex looks genuinely uncomfortable.
“That’s not a good idea.”
“Why?” I ask, eyebrows raised.
His jaw flexes. “Because I don’t want you to be afraid of me.”
I stare at him. “Alex.”
“I’m serious,” he counters.
His eyes drift toward the mask. “You know me as Alex.” A grim smile touches his lips. “When that mask goes on, that’s not who I am.”
“Then who are you?” I ask.
His gaze lifts to mine. “The Wraith.”
I blink. “The Wraith?”
He nods.
“Is that like...your calling-card name? People know you as The Wraith?”
“Yes.”
The tone of his voice sends a chill through me.
I study him for a moment. “Do you think you would hurt me?”
His eyebrows shoot upward. “What?”
“You make it seem like you flip a switch.” I gesture toward the gear.