Chapter 436 - TWELVE YEARS OLD

"Who are you texting?" Kace frowned when Hope was busy with her phone, even when he came, Kace wasn't welcomed with a warm hug like before.

Instead, he found Hope was sitting on the living room, giggling over her phone, yet the moment she saw Kace, she put down her phone hastily as her expression turned tense. 

This kind of reaction made Kace frowned. 

"When did you come?" Hope asked, trying to hide her nervousness by avoiding kace's eyes, as if she was being caught red handed doing something illegal. 

"Just now." Kace flopped his body beside Hope, but she was only getting tensed by the proximity. "What?" 

"What?" Hope was trying to create some space between the two of them smoothly, but it was too obvious for Kace as he grabbed her wrist. 

"Why do you react like that to me?" Kace stared at her conflicted black eyes, gripping her chin when Hope trying to avoid his eyes.

"No. I don't. Like what?" The pitch of Hope's voice was slightly higher than she intended and this made Kace squinted his eyes dangerously.

"You are hiding something from me Hope." Kace stated, he nodded affirmatively with his own words. He knew she was hiding something from him. 

Hope swatted his hand and stood up. "No. I don't. Why are you asking me that way? As if I was stealing something from you."

"You know that is not what I meant." Kace crossed his arms in front of his chest. He was trying to figure out, what happened with Hope, he felt like they grew apart. 

"I will do my homework." Hope mumbled after they were in staring contest that felt like forever. 

After saying that, Hope was literally running toward her bedroom and closed her door with a soft clicking sound, which indicating she just locked her door. 

Kace was flabbergasted, didn't know how he should react to that. 

He was coming here because he missed his little angel, but now she became a private person and… a little bit rebellious…? If Kace could say…

Kace was very familiar with the sight in those eyes. Because one time in the past, he had those kind of look too. 

He sighed deeply when realization hit him hard. His baby girl had started to grow into a teenager. She would like to socialize herself with her surroundings more and followed her friends, maybe she would forget about him.

That thought made him sullen. Well, Kace should expect this. 

However, what else he could do? It was not appropriate to make a move on twelve years old girl! That idea alone freaked him out!

Maybe Kace just had to give her time that she needed, so she could enjoyed her youth, gave her a normal life like the other teenager around her age, before everything got messed. 

Yes, everything would get messed eventually, with the devil out there and the war that Serefina was trying to discuss every now and then, but Kace just turned down the conversation when she started.

Kace didn't want to think about that. He wanted to enjoy the moment with Hope without the fear about what would happen in the future. 

Especially when this relationship started not in common way.

Kace pinched the bridge of his nose as he leaned his back against the backrest of the sofa. The tiredness immediately flooded his system and as soon as he closed his eyes, he was light a light bulb that goes out. 

He had been investigating some matter with Serefina, chasing after Gluttony, which was still roaming around this area and trying to avoid Maximus.

That guy was really annoying. It was pretty hard to make him believed that Kace was in certain place more than a week, because after that, he would start to realize that Kace deceived him… again. 

All of that mess finally took a toll on him…

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Kace didn't know how long he had slept, but when he felt there was someone near him and tried to get closer to him, he was full alert.

Before that person could touch him, Kace's eyes snapped at the intruder as his hand moved very fast to catch their hands and was about to break their bones.

Yet, he immediately pushed that person away when he recognized her, even under this dimly lit room. When his mind started to work, her scent reached him.

"Lana, what are you doing?" Kace rubbed her face harshly. 

He had been sleeping like this for as long as he could remember. Since he became a rogue and Maximus was determined to bite his head off. 

"Are you okay?" Kace watched as Lana rubbed her wrist, which Kace was holding before, maybe coincidentally he had indeed broken her bones. Kace moved closer toward Lana to see how much that he had done. "I am sorry," he murmured apologetically. 

"No, it's alright." Lana resumed her cold expression as she put down her hand. "I saw you fell asleep, so I just wanted to give a blanket." 

Kace followed Lana's eyes, which staring at the blue blanket on the floor. 

"But, since you are already awake, why don't you go to the guest room?" Lana immediately stood up.

Fortunately the lack of the light managed to hide the blush on her face or maybe Kace was too sleepy to see that. 

"No, it's alright." Kace glanced at the clock there and stood up, stretching his body and yawning. "I have to go."

"Go?" Lana frowned. It was three o'clock in the morning, where did he want to go?

"I have so many things to do." The corner of Kace's lips pulled into a wolfish grin. "Can you help me to pay close attention to Hope? She was acting strangely."

"She is a teenager now." Lana grumbled. 

"I know." Kace ran his fingers through his shoulder- length black hair in frustration. "I just don't want her to meet some jerks out there." His voice became a growl as he extended his hand and tousled Lana's hair. "Okay?"

"Okay."