Risky Obsession (Wolf Security #3)

23. Lacey/Tory

CHAPTER 23

Lacey/Tory

I jolted awake and rolled in my seat toward Kane.

He pulled on the handbrake. “Hello, sleepyhead.”

Stretching, I tried to get my eyes to focus on the car’s LCD display. Shit, I’d slept for four hours. “Damn it, Kane.” I rubbed sleep from my eyes. “I told you to wake me after an hour.”

“I know, but you were fast asleep. I couldn’t wake you.” He turned off the engine, and the darkness outside swallowed all the light.

As my eyes adjusted to the dimness, I scanned our surroundings. We seemed to be parked on a narrow dirt track surrounded by thick, shadowy foliage.

“Where are we?” I croaked.

As I reached for a water bottle, Kane undid his seatbelt.

“I drove through Cuxhaven and found some woods out of town to ditch the car.” His eyes looked weary with exhaustion. “We need to clean off our fingerprints, and take all our things out of here, then we can walk back to town.”

He used the sleeve of his jacket to rub down the steering wheel.

Despite the heavy bags under his eyes and the weary slump of his shoulders, he was still ruggedly handsome. It was both infuriating and alluring. I probably looked like crap. I certainly felt like it.

He ran the end of his sleeve over the front of the dash .

“Hang on, I’ve got some wipes in my bag we can use.” I pushed the door open and frigid air rushed in. “Oh shit, it’s freezing out here.”

Trying to ignore the pain in my bladder, I opened the back door, rummaged through my bag, and pulled out a pack of wet wipes.

I returned to the front and passed him the wipes. “Here, this will work. I’m going to duck into the bushes for a sec.”

He ran the wet wipe over the steering wheel. “I’ll go after you.”

From the back of the car, I used the moonlight filtering through the trees to navigate around a bush to a secluded spot to pee. The trees swayed overhead, making the area around me feel like it was alive, and the air was so cold, my skin prickled, my teeth chattered, and my dislocated fingers ached like hell. I pulled up my pants and raced back to the car.

“My turn.” Kane darted away and vanished into the bushes.

I unplugged the phone and charger and shoved them into my jacket pocket, then I added our rubbish to the plastic bag with our purchases from the shop and placed it on the dirt outside. As I focused on wiping the LCD display and the radio knobs, I tried to recall all the areas I’d touched.

The wind howled through the trees, adding to the ticking sound of the cooling engine.

Kane returned to the driver’s side open door and shuddered. “Christ! It’s cold.”

“I know.” I finished wiping down the dash and turned my attention to the leather on the inside of the door.

“I don’t think we need to worry too much,” Kane said. “I’ve never been fingerprinted.”

He swept his gaze to me, and my brain just about fried.

“Ooh, looks like Tory has a story to tell.” He wriggled his eyebrows.

A wave of heat barreled through my body. I’ve been fingerprinted twice, once on each side of the law.

“When did you get tangled with the cops?” His gaze drilled into me and the grin faded from his face.

My thundering heart competed with the howling wind.

“Hey, you know you can tell me anything.” His gentle tone nearly crushed my brain.

He’d just given me an opening. It was time to reveal the secret that had been crushing me for days.

“Let’s finish this first,” I said. “Then I’ ll tell you.”

His expression shifted from curious to confused. “Sounds ominous.”

Ominous didn’t even begin to describe the dread oozing through me. I had no idea how to tell the man who had captured my interest in so many ways that I was a liar.

In my life, I’d switched from innocent to guilty twice. I hadn’t even finished working off the first round of guilt and my new wave weighed as much as it did when Tory had died in my arms. I had been young, na?ve, and brainwashed back then, but I knew what I was doing this time and I struggled to convince myself that I was just doing my job.

I am not what I have done . . . I am what I have overcome.

I would need every ounce of my resolve to live up to the tattoo on my arm this time.

I felt the heat of Kane’s gaze as we worked together to clean the car, progressing from the doors to the seats. As he wiped down the steering wheel again and the gear stick, I shifted my attention to the outside of the car.

I shut my door, and as I wiped the handle and trimming, my brain seemed to squeeze so hard it was a wonder I didn’t pass out. I pulled our bags from the back seat and shoved in the items from the plastic bag and our rubbish.

“I think I’m done,” I said as I shut the back door with my elbow.

“Same.” Kane locked the car, wiped down the fob, and then pegged the keys into the woods.

“There,” he said dusting his hands. “We were never here.”

He gathered the handles on his grandfather’s duffle bag. “You ready?”

I nodded and grabbed my suitcase. As we walked away from the BMW, the wheels on my case bumped over the loose stones on the dirt track beneath our feet.

“Damn it’s cold,” I muttered, tugging the collar of my jacket under my chin. A gust of wind howled through the trees as if suggesting it could be a hell of a lot worse.

“Welcome to Germany nearing winter. I could never live here.” He shifted the duffle bag to his other hand. “So, shall I start guessing what you did to result in your fingerprints being taken?” Grinning, he bumped his shoulder to mine.

I huffed out a breath. “No.”

Kane slowed his pace and glanced at me sideways.

When I stopped, he faced me. In the moonlight, his expression was troubled, as if he knew what I was about to say would ruin the trust he’d built in me.

“I’m not who you think I am,” I blurted.

His brows swooped upward. “What do you mean?”

I forced the words out: “My name isn’t Tory. I’m Lacey Brooks.”

Raw anger blazed across his eyes. “What?”

“I’m an undercover cop.” That admission was both liberating and painful.

His face twisted into pure disdain. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Aria hired me to go undercover with you.”

“To spy on me?”

“No, to work with you.”

“Bullshit! You’ve been lying to me all this time?”

“Only my name and my career.”

The air crackled with tension.

“Why would you do that?” he bellowed.

“It was a job, that’s all. I took it before I knew you.”

“You’re unbelievable.” He strode away.

“Kane. Wait. Please.” I chased after him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know who you were when I accepted this job from Aria. I wanted to tell you.”

“When did you want to tell me, Tory? Lacey. Fuck.”

“When I got to know you. Aria was wrong not to trust you.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t give a fuck about her.” He spun to me. “Or you. Fuck!” The tendons in his neck bulged.

“I’m sorry. I was just doing my duty. You know what that’s like. You were in the Navy.”

He charged away again. “I thought I could trust you!”

I chased after him, yanking my case over the gravel. “You can trust me. Ask me anything. I’ll tell you the truth. I promise.”

“No, you’re a liar. I can never believe you.”

I sprinted to him and gripped his arm. “Kane, please, let me explain.”

He yanked his arm from my grip. “Get away from me.”

He marched off, taking long, angry strides.

I sprinted after him, cursing my stupid case. “Kane. Please? When I took his job, I was told you weren’t to be trusted.”

“So you betrayed me. ”

“Yes, and I hate myself for it.” I spoke to his back. “It was just a job, but I . . . I’m falling for you.”

He released a scornful laugh. “Oh, that’s rich. Don’t give me that bullshit.”

“It’s true.” Strangling the handle of my suitcase, I sprinted to catch up and raced in front of him. I dropped my case and raised my hands. “Please, will you just hear me out?”

His duffle thumped to the dirt. Clenching his fists, he released a demonic growl.

Wind rustled the leaves around us, and the moon emitted an eerie glow, casting shadows beneath his eyebrows and nose, adding darkness to his furious scowl.

“My name is Lacey Brooks. I have been a police officer for nearly ten years. A couple of weeks ago, I was attacked while trying to apprehend a suspect and he dislocated my fingers and gave me those bruises you saw. My boss forced me to take time off work to recover.” I rambled, desperate to get my words out quickly. “I was furious because I can’t take time out or . . . or my mind—anyway, Aria sold me an idea to go undercover as a treasure hunter to work with you. I didn’t know who you were. I didn’t know how nice, decent, and honest you were. I never asked enough questions. I just took the job.”

He folded his arms over his chest. “You should have told me.”

“I wanted to.”

“When, Tory? Lacey. When you cried in my arms? After we fucked?”

He said it like our sex was dirty, and my chest caved.

“Yes, Kane, both times. I should have told you, and I hate myself for not doing it.” I reached for him.

“Don’t.” He snapped his arm away.

“Kane. Please?”

“Please what? Forget that you’ve been lying to me? After what I told you about women lying to me all the time.”

“I know. I feel terrible. I should have?—”

He raised his hands. “I don’t give a shit about how you feel.”

“I’m sorry. I’m falling for you. I really am.”

“Well, whatever I felt for you has gone. When we get to Cuxhaven, you can piss off back to where you came from.” He dodged around me.

“Kane. I’m sorry. I need you to understand.” Tears stung my eyes .

“I’m done with doing things for you.” His heavy footsteps left prints in the dusty path.

“I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you. Please stop. Let me explain.”

He didn’t slow down, he didn’t even glance back. The distance between us grew, opening a chasm that bled right into my heart.

I slumped to the ground, and the gravel dug into my palms. “I didn’t know you before I took this job.”

The air seemed to still, and the dense woods added another level of suffocation to my heart.

“I was just doing my duty,” I yelled to him.

He spun to me and even with his distance from me, rage blazed in his eyes. “So I was nothing more than a mission. Is that it?”

Desperation burned in my chest as I jumped to my feet and sprinted to him. I stopped two feet away and my chest heaved as I studied his eyes. “Initially, yes. But I didn’t know you. Now I do. It wasn’t all a lie, Kane. My feelings for you are real.”

“I don’t give a shit about your feelings. What about mine? Huh?” He clenched his jaw so hard his chin quivered.

“I know. And I deserve that. My name was a lie and my job, but everything else was true and real. You still saw the real me.”

“Really? So your treasure-hunting father really is dead?” He glared at me, and I knew he already had that answer.

The blood drained from my body.

“I can’t believe I trusted you!” He stormed away.

A sob burst from my throat. “I’m sorry. Please. I never meant to hurt you.”

My chest heaved and tears spilled down my face as the most incredible man I’d ever met walked away from me.