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Grace

Mirage was quite passionate and responsive for an assassin who’d had his emotions biologically engineered.

Grace had never experienced such liberation and freedom in all his thirty-nine years.

He no longer felt regret for working a double shift the night his mother was killed. He didn’t have nightmares of his past combat missions. And there was no longer any guilt caving in his chest for all the wrong in the world he’d yet to make right.

Nope, he felt nothing at all.

Somehow…Mirage did, and it was bleeding into him.

“Well?” he pushed.

Grace wasn’t letting it go. He wanted answers.

“More important, how did you get in?” he rasped.

Grace could feel Mirage’s anxious energy vibrating inside his own chest.

It was unwelcome.

“How do you even know that was me in the hall?”

Mirage’s gaze held a spark of mischief beneath his intelligence.

Grace would’ve rolled his eyes if he could still react to ridiculousness. Instead, he answered, “One, because I never said you were in the hall, and two, I know for the same reason you knew it was me behind that door.”

Mirage swallowed hard enough that Grace could see it.

“I could feel you.”

The startled exhalation from Mirage’s parted lips caressed Grace’s chin.

He got lost for a moment in Mirage’s eyes, which turned another interesting shade of blue.

Mirage spluttered for a second before he put together an answer.

“I have a master’s in neurology, but I’ve also done extensive research on affective neuroscience.” Mirage shrugged. “I was curious about the ingredients in the serums. The scientist in me wouldn’t let it go. That’s all.”

He’s lying.

Mirage backed away and turned toward the window.

“It’s groundbreaking medical advancements. I couldn’t resist.”

Still lying.

Mirage’s reasons were his own. He , on the other hand, was indifferent and couldn’t care less about the details behind the Ravens’ technology.

Mirage continued to stare down at the evening traffic.

“You never wonder what they’re pumping into your bloodstream every day?”

Grace shook his head. It was the truth.

As long as they allowed him to kill as many bad guys as they promised, without the hassle of legal or government restrictions, they could be injecting him with a mixture of heroin and asbestos for all he cared. He didn’t give two shits.

“ No , I don’t care. I’m here to eliminate the people I wasn’t allowed to in the Marines.”

Mirage licked his lips as if he liked that answer.

“I need a partner that’s here for the same thing or, at least, similar reasons as me.” Grace hardened his tone. “Not one doing espionage.”