Page 74 of Meet Me In The Dark

Micah snapped his fingers.

“What?”

“Oh, I’m agreeing with and supporting you. I’m proud you’ve finally gotten your head there, baby.”

Luke shrugged, feeling proud and, if he were honest, a little bashful. “Yeah.”

To Conor, he said, “What the hell happened to you? Why did you let that fucker get so deep inside your head?”

“I’d like to know the same thing,” Micah said, stroking his beard. It had grown back in over the past month, soft and sexy despite the filth of the cell. Luke forced his attention back to the matter at hand.

“The professor?—”

“Chris,” Micah interrupted. “You’re giving him too much power over you. He’s just a man.”

But Conor was being stubborn. “The professorpointed out that everything that had happened to Kara and to Luke was my fault. And that he and I were the same, because just like him, I took her from her life, and still refuse to give her back.”

Shock reverberated through Luke’s body. “Conor, you—we—are not the same as Christopher Johnathan. How could you even think that?”

“How could you think differently?” Conor’s voice had a desperate tinge that Luke had never heard from his loverbefore. “What makes us different? What makes us better for her?”

“We care about her, for one thing. The whole of her. We love her,” Luke said.

“And more importantly, she lovesus,” Micah pointed out.

As Luke watched, Conor’s stiff shoulders started to relax, like their points were getting through.

And Luke had one last argument. “And we want what’s best for her,” he said.

Conor’s jaw went tight. “Do we? Is this what’s best for her? Being trapped in a cell with the three of us, living under the threat of rape, of death, being mentally tortured by those fuckers every time they drag her off to take a shower without us?—"

At that, Luke had to pause. Because Conor was right about that.

Conor continued, his voice breaking in ways that broke Luke, bit by bit. “What if we do get out of here, and we pick up another enemy, and then all of this happens again? But worse?”

Luke hated that he could imagine worse. Still, he had to ask. “Are you really willing to give her up?”

“If that’s what it takes,” Conor said. “You’re right. I’m not the man I was, before we kidnapped her and brought her into all of this. I’ve changed. She’s changed me. And the man I am now—it’s a man that can’t keep her locked in a gilded cage in case she ever wants to go free.”

“She won’t—” Micah started, then sighed.

“Can you be sure?” Luke asked.

Micah shook his head. “I’ve changed, too. I’ve learned that, as omniscient as I try to be, even I can never be sure ofeverything. The only person who can be sure of anything is Kara. So we need to askher.”

“She’s going to tell us what we want to hear, and I think she’s been brainwashed by us, accidentally…”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Conor!” Micah ground out. Luke was taken aback. When they’d first met Micah during BUDS, he never said “Jesus” anything, still deep in his religious past. As time went on, and they rubbed off on him, it slipped from his mouth occasionally, but not like this. Micah rarely raised his voice.

“You know, I try to lead you in the right direction. I know you’re aware of it. I’ve been trying to coax you toward getting your head out of your damn ass, but clearly that’s not working. We need a giant fucking pair of forceps to remove it.” Micah was visibly shaking from anger. “You are being a complete dumbass, and I am sick of it. I know we’re in a fucked-up situation, but this pity party you’ve been throwing yourself isn’t helping. It’s like you’re halfway there, to understanding Kara deserves to be free—but you still don’t get what freedommeans.”

As if on cue, the door to the cell slid open with a grinding sound, as bad as nails on chalkboard.

Kara walked back inside, shivering, head held high. And Luke was torn between gratitude that the walls were too thick for her to have heard them fighting, and wishing she had heard the whole thing, so they could have it out, once and for all.

She stopped, staring at them. “What’s going on? What happened?” she asked.

“Did they hurt you?” he asked. Despite the interrupted argument, they needed to know, like they always needed to know.

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