Page 54 of Lose Me In The Shadows

“Have fun?” she asked lightly.

“Would’ve been more fun if you’d been there,” the chaotic cypher himself said, joining her on the bed. Luke and Conor took up opposite sides of the room, arms crossed, mirror images of each other.

The thought of joining them—the memory of the four of them together—made her thighs clench.

Micah bounced a little on the bed. “Tell you what, Marcus has good taste in mattresses.”

She shrugged. “I liked our bed better.”

“Our bed?”

Micah raised an eyebrow. Conor grunted. But it was the expression on Luke’s face that did it for her—the shutteredlackbriefly disappearing and revealing a glint of something in his eyes. Hope? Maybe.

“What are you saying, sweetheart?” Luke asked.

“I wish we were back there,” she said. “We’re so close, and I wish we could just…”

“Go home?” Micah offered, a softness in his eyes. He saw through her, but he wouldn’t push.

But she couldn’t call it home—couldn’t give into that. Not yet.

“I’m still angry at you, you know,” she said suddenly.

“Because we kidnapped you?” Luke asked.

“Or because we made you stop running?” This from Micah.

But it was Conor—Conor, who’d seemed like the least perceptive of the three—who got it. “Because we saw right through you.”

She could yell, she could distract, she could cast blame…

…or she could be honest.

So she nodded.

“Strong girl,” Conor said, voice soft, “Don’t you want to be seen? We see everything about you, but welikewhat you see. Isn’t that the goal?”

She lifted her hands. “It can’t be that simple.”

“Why not?”

“Because you kidnapped me. Because I still don’t know what I am to you, or how I fit into this … family. You’re the boss, Luke’s the moral compass—to a degree, anyway—and Micah’s manipulating things from behind the curtain. The combination should be catastrophic, but for the most part it works. But where do I fit in? What’s my role? What do I provide, beyond sex? Why am I here?”

She pulled her knees in, hugging them. Micah traced a finger over her bare foot. “You’re what holds us together, even when our differences threaten to tear us apart. You challenge us, make us see the world and ourselves differently.”

Conor interjected. “Kara, the world—our world—was so dark before we took you. You gave us back the light we’d lost.”

Each admission, layered on top of each other, both buoyed her up and threatened to sink her. The words made her heart ache, made her want to wrap her arms around all of them and hold on tight.

“I don’t think I’ve ever meant that much to anyone before,” she said softly.

Luke shook his head. “Sweetheart, you gave us a home.”

The room went quiet. She held out her arms, and the men came to her. Rearranged her on the bed, so she lay between the three of them. Except where she expected sex, they just held her, passing her between them, and something about the familiarity of their arms around her almost made her shed those tears she’d been grasping tightly to for so long. Almost.

Finally, she said, “This doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you for kidnapping me.”

She only half meant it.

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