Page 21 of Meet Me In The Dark

It was the first time she’d said the word out loud. She hadn’t even admitted it to herself before this. Saying it to Billy instead of to her men made her some form of chickenshit, but once she got to Micah, once they saved Luke and Conor, she’d have all the time in the world to tell them.

She wished she’d told them earlier, though. Wish she’d realized it earlier.

Billy whistled. “Damn, they worked fast.”

Kara laughed, despite herself. “I don’t know if two years counts as fast.”

“Darlin’, the last time I saw you, you seemed like you could barely stand the three of them. It’s been what, a week? And you’ve changed your tune completely.”

Kara nodded. “I stopped lying to myself. And now I can’t be left behind. Billy, what would you do if you were me?”

He groaned. “I’m not answering that.”

“Billy…”

“I’d do exactly this. Prey on my new bodyguard’s feelings and empathy, so that he’d do something stupid, something he wasn’t supposed to do.”

He put on his blinker and exited the highway.

Kara sat up straight. “Where are we going now?”

“To intercept your man. But, Kara, darlin’, you’re going to owe me for this. And even though I don’t call in markers the way Marcus does, you still don’t want to owe me.”

Kara laughed, relieved for the first time since Luke and Conor had been taken.

“I’m willing to take that risk,” she said.

Something like approval filled his eyes. “Good girl.”

The two words sending a pang through her chest, so sharp she almost cried out from the pain of it. “Only Conor's allowed to call me that.”

Billy made a U-turn, entering the highway again, this time headed in the other direction.

“Noted,” he said. “Now, let’s go get me in trouble.”

6

At least Kara and Micah were safe.

Conor repeated the words to himself, again, and again, and again.

He thought them while he watched her and Micah sink below the depths of the shallows, when he and Luke had fought the Johnathans' men to create a distraction so Kara and Micah could get away safely. They echoed in his head when he and Luke, by unspoken agreement, had let the other men win the fight and drag them onto the helicopter. They played on repeat on the interminable flight in the chopper to the airstrip, when they were loaded onto this military cargo plane, and he recited them in his head over and over on the even more interminable flight to god knew what hellscape they were being taken to.

They were safe. They were safe. They were safe. Micah would keep Kara safe.

Conor only wished Luke wasn’t with him; that he’d thought to force his lover to leave him behind. It was a futile wish; Luke would never have abandoned him. But when one of their captors handcuffed Luke to the metal seatframe, and then punched him in the throat, Conor had roared his outrage. It had only been the warning in Luke’s eyes that had stopped him from ripping his own goddamned handcuffs apart and punishing the guard for hurting the man he loved.

Right.

The man he loved.

If Micah were there, he’d point out that Conor was a fool, and had loved Luke for years. But Micah wasn’t there, and Conor, fool that he was, had only admitted that he loved Luke—and Micah, and Kara—to himself when Chris Johnathan’s fucking soldier had shoved a gun in Kara’s mouth and Conor’s entire fucking life had flashed before his eyes. Conor was not a man who let himself feel feelings, and suddenly he was swamped by the goddamned things.

Not particularly helpful at a time like this, when he needed to be focused on getting himself and Luke out of here.

But how? There were ten men on the cargo plane, not including the two pilots. Conor was strong, but these men were trained, and what’s more, they clearly had nothing to lose.

Whereas Conor had everything to lose.

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