All Chapters of Love in the Line of Fire: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Ilana’s head had only just hit the pillow after Calix had left the room before she sat back up, a gasp escaping past her lips.She got down from the bed in a frantic rush and felt the glass shards prick her feet but she didn’t stop to inspect.She ran out of the room and towards Calix’s room, pounding on his door and then bursting in without waiting for a response.He sat upright, eyes a little wide as he switched his bedside lamp on.“What is it? Are you alright?” He asked and she heard a tinge of panic in his voice, his face aglow in the warm yellow light of the lamp.“Yes,” she breathed out, her heart a hummingbird in her chest. “It's… whatever happened that night, it wasn't random. I wasn't just at the wrong place. It was planned. Someone sent that guy after me.”Everything around them quieted to a vexing buzz, as if Ilana's words had stolen their sound from them.“Okay,” Calix said gently, getting down from the bed. “Why do you think that?”“The nightmare… Well, my nightmares are

“Oh, thank God!” Ilana heard Calix’s voice exclaim before she’d had the chance to fully open the door to this apartment.She laughed, shrugging off her coat and hanging it on the rack next to her.“Yeah, still alive,” she replied, closing the door behind her.“How did it go?” He asked, offering her a cup of coffee.“Better than I thought,” she said, gratefully taking the cup from him. She didn't tell him about the two lives she'd taken.Ever since their talk last night, things between them relaxed a bit. She could still that familiar sting of tension creep up on her if she looked at him for too long or if she allowed her emotions to take full rein but things were much better now.She could function around him now without drowning in her own guilt or being suffocating by that pressure on her chest.He understood her reasonings but she knew to not push him too far. This new dynamic between them was still precarious, being held together by flimsy threats that could snap by one wrong word

Calix stood still for a long moment - long enough to make Ilana uncomfortable - his gaze on her, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. Ilana wasn’t sure what that action meant. Was he angry? Was he considering the right words to say in a situation like this? Was he about to attack her?? Now that seemed out of character for him but Ilana prepared herself nevertheless. Just in case.“I didn’t mean to sound accusatory,” she began, when he made no effort to say anything. “I meant it when I said I don’t care what your answer’s going to be. I just need you to tell me so that I can stop chasing this mystery - if there is any.”“You wouldn’t care if I’d tried to have my mother killed?” He asked and out of all the things, this wasn’t what Ilana had expected him to question.“I won’t. God knows I’m the last person to be judging someone else for their crimes,” she said, an awkward laugh bubbling out of her throat.He opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again, givin

Meyer's vacation house looked surreal even in the darkness. Gigantic and luxurious as if it had been pulled out from some fever dream.She'd only seen houses like these on those obnoxious reality tv shows or while on some of her undercover missions.Now, Calix reached over and offered her his hand. She took it, mostly to feel that sensation of his skin against hers, even if it was fleeting. He grasped her wrist and pulled her into a room at the corner of the wide hall.He pushed the door open and turned on the lights, walking behind the desk. She followed after as he crouched down and Ilana noticed how the last drawer looked a little odd, a little out of place, like it didn’t belong here. It blended seamlessly with the furniture and the rest of the drawers but Ilana knew it was a cover and she was sure there would be safe behind it.And sure enough, he pressed onto the side of the camouflage and it popped open, revealing the steel safe with a keypad at its side.It was meticulous wor

“So what did you find?” Calix asked once they’d hit the road, mere miles between them and the truth now.“A bunch of things. Connor Mathews’ was your mom’s classmate. He died in February, 1987 while still at school. Your mom and dad got married shortly after. October of the same year actually. Now, the police report had a lot of holes which suggests that it was tampered with. Probably a dirty cop, under your father’s payroll, who edited it so that your mother’s name stays off the record? I’m not sure. Cause of death was blunt force trauma to the back of his head. Here’s the twist though, the Mathews’ never really pursued the case in the first place. They let it go.”“Why would they do that?”“Two reasons: your father paid them enough money to shut them up or their son was up to some shady shit that caused his death and the family wanted to keep it under wraps so they let the murderer walk away.”Calix didn’t respond for a long time, probably processing all this information. She gave h