Page 56 of Lacey's Fight

Especially since with each passing second what he felt for her was becoming more and more real.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

August 7th

4:46 A.M.

Energy hummed through her veins.

Not the good kind either.

Lacey was strung out. Way past emotional overload but doing her best to hold it together because Ben looked about ready to snap. No way could both of them afford to fall apart at the same time.

They were still in the middle of a mission. They had to hold it together, play out their roles for the rest of the day, and then be ready to assist with the raid in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

If Ben was on the verge of losing it, then she had to be the strong one.

Hide behind a smile.

The words whispered through her mind with an insidiousness Lacey knew wasn’t actually helping her. Hiding and pretending that she was fine, that she wasn’t horribly scarred from her childhood only meant that instead of working on healing those issues, she just kept layering them under brightly colored cheerful pain rather than working to scratch away the black that clung to her soul.

Kept prolonging her own suffering.

“We need to leave,” Ben announced, moving toward his suitcase, presumably to pack like it was a foregone conclusion.

“We can’t bail,” she protested, swinging her legs over the side of the bed, and ignoring the sting in her back.

“It’s not bailing, it’s removing you from a dangerous situation.”

“I’m not in danger, not now we know The Master knows I’m here. I won’t go anywhere alone, and he can’t admit who he is and what he did any more than I can. If he lets on we have history, then he gives away our cover, if he does that it’s all over for him anyway. His best bet is to let things play out or for him to try to slink away.”

“You’re hurt, and you were assaulted here on their estate. Amelia won’t make a fuss, so our covers won’t be blown. Nothing will change, we just won’t be here when Prey raids the place.”

“I want to be here.” This was important to her, maybe the key to finally moving on rather than just pretending she was okay. How nice would it be if she wasn’t pretending, if she really did learn how to be okay?

Before Ben could utter what she was sure would be a retort, there was a knock on their door.

“I’ll get that,” she said.

“Like hell you will.” Scooping her up, he deposited her on the bed then went to the door, unlocking it and opening it just enough that he could speak to the person on the other side. “What do you want?”

“Darling,” she reprimanded. “Sorry, Drake is just a little shaken up.” Earlier she’d almost ruined everything by nearly calling out Ben’s real name. She was going to have to do better, keep tighter control.

“As I’m sure you are,” Amelia’s voice came through the mostly closed door.

“Let her in, Drake.” Although Lacey kept her voice soft, it was an order she hoped he knew better than to disregard. This mission was important to her, and she was not going to allow Ben to snatch it away from her and go all heavy-handed alpha on her.

Ben growled but stepped back allowing Amelia and two of her men to enter the room along with a man in a white coat. Obviously he was a doctor, but she didn’t want a stranger touching her right now.

Just because she had been able to tolerate Ben’s touch without feeling like she needed to rip her own skin off, didn’t mean that extended to anyone else. Especially someone who worked for Amelia and her human trafficking operation.

“We are of course, very sorry this happened to you, Mrs. Parker,” Amelia said as she hurried toward the bed. When Ben moved around her, planting himself between the two women she stopped and froze, nervousness emanating from her. “Do you have any idea who hurt you?”

Knowing that exactly what had happened to her had likely spread like wildfire through the estate made her burn with humiliation. It was one thing for people to know she had been abducted, even for people to know that she had been physically injured. But for strangers—evil strangers at that—to know that she had been sexually assaulted and found with her pants around her knees, her most intimate areas on display for the men who had found her, that was something else.

Something that cut deeply away at her already crumbling self-esteem.

The fight that had fed her while she faced down The Master was still there, but right now, in this moment, it was floundering. She needed reassurance but she was afraid to ask for it. Afraid she would fall apart or that Ben would, and afraid that they would somehow mess up this mission and all those innocent girls would pay the price.

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