Page 165 of This Life of Mine

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.”