Page 12 of Lose Me In The Shadows

She probably had only driven for an hour, even though it felt like years, when she reached the Welcome to Wyoming sign and then the sign for the town of Alpine. Making a left, she slowed her car, passing a gas station. Two men stood outside the little store, smoking, and Kara, who hadn’t seen an actual stranger in what she assumed was weeks (she had stopped counting), briefly considered continuing on, because who was to say that the men standing there were any safer than the ones she’d run from?

Instead, Kara pulled into the gas station as a sliver of dawn light made its way up the horizon.

She threw the Jeep into park, barely remembering to grab the keys, stumbling her way out of the SUV (don’t think about Conor lifting you into his truck in Coronado, Kara,don’t) and over to the men.

“You okay, ma’am?” one man, burly and bald, asked. He glanced at the other, tall, skinny, and pockmarked.

“I need to use one of your phones. Please,” she said, heart pounding.

After a moment, the skinny man handed his phone over. Kara took it and dialed Lola’s number.

It rang twice, and then Lola answered.

“Hello?” her high, sweet, clear voice asked, and Kara wanted to cry.

“Lola?”

“Kara. Oh, thank fucking god. I thought—”

“I’m okay. I’m…”

“Where are you?”

“Alpine, Wyoming…” she trailed off, looking at the men for confirmation. They nodded, looking concerned. “I don’t have a phone or a wallet, I’m just borrowing someone’s…”

“Hold on.” There was clacking of a keyboard, and then Lola came back on, “There’s a motel, the Moose Inn. It has a vacancy online; I’m booking you a room. You can crash there for the night. I’m going to book a flight to Jackson Hole and I’ll fly out tomorrow to meet you and get you home. Do you need medical attention?”

“No.”

“Are you safe?”

Kara choked back a laugh. Or a cry. She wasn’t sure. “I think so.”

A relieved sigh. “Good, good. Get some sleep. Lock your doors. I love you, honey, it’s going to be okay.”

“Lola…”

But her friend must have known what she was going to say, because she responded gently, “You can tell me everything tomorrow.”

Kara hung up and handed back the phone to the stranger. “Thank you.”

“Ma’am, do you need us to take you to the police station?”

She shook her head, remembering her promise to Luke. She knew it was foolish of her to stick to her end of the deal when he hadn’t, but they’d clearly Stockholmed her, no matter how fake the syndrome was, because she couldn’t think of them behind bars, no matter how angry she was. If Luke, Micah, and Conor were caught by the police and forced to live out their days in a prison cell, was it really all that much worse than what they’d done to her?

Much worse,her inner voice stated, amused.Prison doesn’t come with an eight-burner Viking stove.

She couldn’t do it to them.

“No, no police. Do you know how I get to the …”

“Moose Inn?” The bald man spoke. “Yes. Straight down 89, it’ll be on your right just past the grocery store. Can’t miss it.”

She thanked them and hurried back to the Jeep. The short drive was a blur; so was checking into the motel. She was given a key and directed on where to park. When she finally made her way into the clean but sparse room, she locked the door and engaged the security chain before collapsing face down on the bed.

She was exhausted. And yet alarms still went through her system. She should be relieved. Then why did things feel so…wrong?

It’s probably PTSD.Lola was coming. And she could finally go home. Her real home. Not the beautiful, unbelievable cage three beautiful, monstrous men had built for her. And as soon as she recovered, she’d go directly to the animal shelter and get a dog. It didn’t even need to be a lazy, big-eared basset. Any dog would do. She was going to live the life she’d promised herself.

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