Page 42 of Lose Me In The Shadows

Conor gripped her wrist harder.

“Kara, this is Marcus,” Micah said. “He owns the plane, and the house we’re going to be hiding out at for a bit. And he might lose one of those favors if he keeps looking at you like that.”

Kara ignored the burst of heat in her chest at Micah’s jealous, if even toned, warning. “I can’t decide if I should berate you for being involved in my original kidnapping, or thank you for being a part of my rescue.”

“What you should really do is thank The Doctor for saving Luke. I’m sure that guilt would be more torturous than whatever Chris Johnathan inflicted on you,” he said.

Wow, was he an asshole. Insightful, but still an asshole.

They loaded up in the car, Billy behind the steering wheel, the silent, nameless doctor beside him. Marcus sat in the second row next to Micah, leaving Kara between a pissed off Conor and pissed off Luke, although they seemed angry for two very different reasons. All the testosterone threatened to overwhelm her, and she found herself scooting closer to Conor and reaching for Luke’s hand without thought.

Luke jerked his hand away.

She told herself she didn’t care.

She did, though.

“You know, if you need to get some aggression out and punish your runaway, or fuck her, you’re welcome to,” Marcus suggested.

“But we get to watch,” Billy added from the driver’s seat, eyeing Kara through the rearview mirror.

“Absolutely not,” Kara said. She looked at Conor. “There’s no fucking—”

She didn’t have to. Violent energy filled the car, crackling it with tension. Conor was growling, Micah was reaching for…something. Hopefully a gun and not his dick.

But it was Luke who surprised her as he leaned forward and gripped Marcus’s shoulder with his good hand. Marcus, who didn’t look like a physical slouch, grabbed at Luke’s hand, but Luke was too angry to be deterred.

“I don’t care if you’re the richest man in the world, or that we owe you seventeen favors,” he said, voice filled with icy rage. “Either of you say a word like that again, and I will rip both your dicks off your bodies and force feed you each other’s. You hear me.”

He released Marcus, who straightened his tie.

“Loud and clear,” Billy said.

Micah coughed. “You all really need to get your own woman,” he said.

“We have plenty,” Marcus replied.

“One day, some woman is going to show up and smack you upside the head with her very existence,” Conor said.

Billy snorted, starting the car. “Too much trouble.”

“Luke,” Kara started quietly, but he’d retreated from her again. Conor released her wrist to grip the back of her neck, softening the blatantly and aggressively possessive hold by stroking her ear with this thumb, sending waves of heat and desire through her.

“So why do they call you the Doctor?” Kara asked, a little breathless from his touch, but mostly the alpha male display that had just gone down.

“Because Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were already taken,” Micah said, relaxed again, or at least pretending to be. “I’d be careful to piss him off, baby. He knows all the best poisons.”

11

His shoulder was fucking killing him. And as nice as Marcus’s mansion was—“house,” his right ass cheek—Luke hated being here. No matter how far he’d come in his life, he’d always feel like the grubby, gangly kid who grew up in a trailer park with no manners, and being in opulent homes like Marcus’s Jackson Hole mountain compound just rubbed more salt in that wound.

Speaking of wounds. The woman who had wounded him—in every way possible—was teetering on her feet, she was so tired. Conor had released her wrist and he and Micah were conferring with Billy. Luke would feel left out and worthless, if he wasn’t so tired himself.

So when Kara tripped on the bear rug, it was Luke who had to catch her. He didn’t have to scoop her up in his arms though, especially because it pulled on his shoulder and made him want to yell from the pain. He gritted his teeth.

“Put me down,” she protested, but her words were slurred with exhaustion.

He ignored her demand and tried to ignore how right she felt in his arms, even after everything that had happened and everything she’d done.

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