Page 4 of Scarred Sunrise

Chapter 2

Lizzie hitthe brakes on the car as she drew to a halt outside Fortis Security. Her breath heaved out angrily as she slammed the door closed and stormed towards the entrance. Celeste’s wide eyes moved to her in surprise.

“Let me through, Celeste,” Lizzie demanded of her friend who could permit her through to the conference room and offices.

Celeste slid her hand underneath the desk and pressed the door release as Lizzie felt a frisson of guilt for treating her friend so abruptly, but she had no time to explain or apologise. Time wasn’t something she had, and her belly squeezed with a cramp of anxiety as she thought of the man who’d been a part of her heart since she was too young to understand what love was.

Stepping into the conference room, she saw all eyes move to her. Every single Fortis operative was there, including her sister Lucy and her brother Dane. She cast them a withering glare, her anger no longer in check as she faced Zack’s ire.

“Lizzie, what’s going on?” His cool gaze showed no emotion, and she knew she’d have a fight on her hands.

Walking to the spare chair on the opposite side, she felt the eyes of her family and those she considered friends on her as she plopped down in the seat. “I want in!” Her statement was met with a few cautious looks.

“Sis, I’m not sure what you mean. In on what?” Dane cocked his head as if she were a slightly crazed animal he wanted to appease.

Lizzie raised a brow at him, knowing he was being deliberately obtuse. She would, however, spell it out for them, as she knew the schedule was short. “To rescue Smithy. I want in.”

“Absolutely not.”

“No way.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

A barrage of negativity hit her from Lucy, Dane, and Daniel, who was like a brother to her. She stonily met their words before she turned her attention to Zack, who was watching her with a questioning expression.

“What makes you think you can help? You have no skills that we need, no business being involved with this.” He sat back throwing a pencil he’d been playing with on to the table.

Lizzie knew this would be a hard sell, and she was still struggling to understand it herself. But how could she explain a feeling that wasn’t tangible? Just pain and longing so strong it was crippling before a torrent of grief hit her, almost knocking the breath from her body. She’d been getting dinner ready when it happened, the hand bracing herself against the counter the only thing holding her up as her knees almost gave way.

“He needs me.”

The sympathetic looks Nate, Drew, and Kanan shot her made her hands curl into fists. She knew what everyone thought, that she was a fool to care for a man who would never have it in him to feel the same, but none of them, not even her siblings, knew of the love they’d shared.

The connection two teens had felt for each other, a love that could never be destroyed for either of them. At least that was what she’d thought until Ty Smith had broken her heart so severely she’d thought it would never heal. Yet Lizzie couldn’t regret the past, without it she wouldn’t have Mateo—her beautiful son who was the joy of her life.

Not wanting to go back in time and evaluate all the ways her life had gone off track Lizzie squared her shoulders.

Zack looked at her thoughtfully, and she saw guilt on his face, the man had a big sense of responsibility sometimes, one that was misplaced. “I know you think I’m a fool,” she put a hand over her heart, “but I know him. In here. What we went through forged a bond between us. Only his guilt stops him from seeing it.”

Lucy stood and moved to her, placing an arm around her shoulders, the swell of her belly bumping against her shoulder. Lizzie glanced up, offering a smile of gratitude at her silent support as she laid her hand over Lucy’s.

“I understand you care for him, Lizzie, but this mission is dangerous. It will take us right to the heart of the Divine Watchers’ compound. The risk of a civilian being there is just too dangerous. I’m sorry.” Zack’s face was hard with finality and Lizzie’s heart sunk with dismay.

“I could stay somewhere safe. I won’t get in the way, but I need to be there, Zack. I can’t explain how I know, but this is important, and if I’m not there, I worry he won’t come back.”

“You think you being there will help, but you’re the one he feels the most guilt over,” Zin said quietly.

Lizzie glanced at Zin, his cool eyes unflinching, hiding his emotions under a veneer of ice but she wasn’t afraid. Zin might scare almost everyone else, but to her, he was a mouse. She’d faced pure evil and come out scarred and broken, but she’d survived.

“What’s between Ty and I is nobody’s business but ours. I wouldn’t presume to know what goes on between you and Celeste, so do me the same courtesy.”

“Are you saying Whittaker Smith is your soulmate?” Zin cocked his head, and the silence in the room became oppressive.

Nobody called Smithy that anymore, nobody ever really had before. He hated the name and only went by Smithy, but she called him Ty, and he never seemed to mind.

“He always has been. We just lost our way, and now we need to find it again. I need to make him see that before it’s too late.”

“Liz, it might already be too late for him.”