Page 43 of Meet Me In The Dark

Nothing happened.

She couldn’t see Micah’s face, but it was as if she couldfeelhis horror. He was mouthing her name, probably screaming it, and she was sure she was screaming, too, because everything was not okay and she should not have trusted the goddamned universe, she knew better than that, and she was going to die before she ever saw Luke or Conor again and was able to tell them she loved them.

It was amazing, the clarity being so close to death brought you. It had happened that time she’d been beaten and bloody on the floor and she’d realized she cared about Luke, Micah, and Conor, and they cared about her. This time, watching Micah’s face as the earth grew closer andcloser to her, she knew there was only one thing she could do.

I love you, she mouthed.So much. Tell them I love them too.

And even though the wind was too loud to hear anything, she swore she heard Micah’s roar.

12

“Ifound her,” Chris repeated. “I found both of them.”

Luke, who was already having trouble breathing after those fuckers fractured his ribs with their boots, lost the ability completely. What the fuck had been the point of any of this, if Micah had let them be found so easily? Were they here? Could he reconfigure the plan to get them out, too?

He knew better than to ask, though. If Chris were lying, Luke would just play directly into his hands.

He did his best to blink his left eye open. The world, blurry at first, cleared. Mostly. There was crusted blood blocking some of his vision, but he could see that Conor’s whole body was hulking out, like he hadn’t been stabbed in his left side hours earlier. Veins had popped out everywhere as he tried to break his shackles. But it hadn’t worked earlier when Luke was getting the shit kicked out of him. It wasn’t going to work now.

“Unfortunately, I did not find them alive,” Chris continued. “We did, however, collect their bodies for you. Do you want to see?”

Conor dropped to his knees, an anguished moan leaving his mouth. Luke tried to reach out to him, to argue. They weren’t dead. They couldn’t be. If Kara and Micah were dead, he’d know. He’d fuckingknow.They were a part of him, he’d feel it deep in his soul. Unless when he’d been beaten and tortured, he’d lost that part of himself. Was that even possible?

“Do you want to see their bodies?” Chris said conversationally. “Of course, we can’t transport them here, but we will show them to you. And, because I’m not a complete monster, I’ll make sure they both get a Jewish funeral and get buried in a Jewish cemetery, together. I’ll even tell you both where it is so you can go visit them there. All you need to do is tell me the coordinates of your mountain cabin, and we’ll let you go.”

“Go?” Luke asked, as his brain whirred, circling around this information again and again. Something Chris had said was off, but he couldn’t figure out what.

“Yes. I don’t need you anymore, do I? My brothers feel a bit differently, of course,” Chris waved his hand, “but I can handle my brothers.”

“They’re not dead,” Conor growled from the floor.

“Oh yes, here, let me show you,” Chris said, and a TV monitor turned on. Two bodies lay in a morgue, a curvy woman with dyed-black hair, like Kara’s had been when Luke had last seen her, and a large, blond man who looked like Micah. Sheets were pulled up to their shoulders, so Luke couldn’t be sure…

Conor yelled, in a voice that would haunt Luke for the rest of his life, no matter how long it lasted.

…but there was no tattoo.

Buried in a Jewish cemetery.

But you couldn’t be buried in a Jewish cemetery if you had a voluntary tattoo.

Which Micah hadn’t gotten until after they’d been court martialed.

Luke inhaled, breath returning to his lungs. It hurt, but in a way that felt sweet with relief. He stared at Conor, tried to communicate it to him, because he couldn’t say anything in front of Chris. This was it, their element of surprise. The Johnathans had no plans to let them go. But if Chris thought that Luke and Conor believed him, he wouldn’t suspect the hand Luke and Conor were about to play.

He needed to wait. Chris would leave at some point.

Except then the chains came loose, and he was being dragged out before he could do anything about it.

“I think it would be good to give you both time to yourselves to decide what you want to do. I know they say misery loves company, but. . .” Chris shrugged an elegant shoulder. “While my misery likes a party, I’m sensitive to realize yours may not.”

Oh, fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

He couldn’t leave Conor like this. Not believing Kara and Micah were dead. Conor wasn’t a complete idiot, but he was too lost in his grief to see straight. And if Luke weren’t with him, Conor wouldn’t know Micah and Kara were alive, and they couldn’t enact their escape plan.

Luke’s mind was blank. Maybe he’d been wrong, maybe he wasn’t up for this. Maybe he couldn’t be a leader, a plotter. Maybe he’d only been good as the third wheel.

No, that was defeatist shit, right there. He wouldn’t fall for it.

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