Page 75 of Lose Me In The Shadows

Micah had decided to lead, because he said, “Conor, with me. Luke, stay with Kara. Kara, listen to everything he tells you to do. Every. Single. Thing. And if something happens to us…”

He shook his head, not finishing his sentence.

“No,” she said. She wasn’t being left like this. He wasn’t leaving her with a line like that. Sure, she wasn’t an ex-SEAL and couldn’t do much physical damage, but she’d already played sexy decoy once, and it had worked. Why not again? “Won’t they see we’re splitting up, and split up themselves? It needs to be all four of us. We do this together.”

Luke was gritting his teeth. “We’re trying to keep you safe, damn it. Conor, Micah, if anything happens to her, would you ever forgive yourselves?”

“Am I even safer just sitting here with one of you? We’ll be sitting ducks,” she whispered.

“She has a point,” Micah said. “There are two of them, three of us, and one honey pot. She did a great job last time. She wants to help, let her help.”

“She almost gothurtlast time,” Luke pointed out.

Kara stood, also stretching, playing with her dark hair and looking under her lashes. She stretched. Her men’s eyes followed her—and so did Chris’s new henchmen’s eyes. She missed her red hair—it was conspicuous, but it had always worked as her personal siren song. And it wasn’t like the dark hair had kept her hidden, anyway.

“They won’t touch me,” she murmured. “You know how I know?”

None of her men answered.

“Because you won’t let them,” she said.

20

Jesus fucking Christ, how had things gotten so far out of his control?

Conor would’ve laughed if he wasn’t already close to yelling. Micah, who never doubted himself, was feeling guilty, Kara was bossing them around, and Luke was the one who saw through Kara. Their roles were shifting in ways he couldn’t keep track of. And he didn’t have time to—he had to figure out quickly with his team how to keep her safe and eliminate the threats at the same time.

That was the key, wasn’t it? He couldn’t just lead anymore and expect them to follow. Everyone needed an equal role to play, even though he wanted to lock Kara in the cabin and turn on all the security alarms so no one could touch her, or hurt her, ever again.

“Fuck, I miss the cabin,” he muttered.

“Me too,” Kara said, surprising him.

No time to press her for more.

“Fine,” he said. “But if anything happens to you, I won’t forgive these fucks, or myself.”

“What’s the plan?” Micah asked.

The question pulled Conor out of his mood. It wasn’t like Micah to let someone else plan.

Seeing the look on his face, Micah shrugged. “It’s important for us to be flexible in our roles, sometimes, isn’t it? The more flexible we are, the stronger we’ll be.”

As Conor digested this, Luke spoke up. “The four of us head back to the vestibule where the bathroom is, between train cars. Make it seem like we’re going to fuck. We’ll seem sufficiently distracted, and Kara should be sufficiently distracting. When they attack, we counter-attack.”

Simple enough. Conor nodded. Luke and Micah stood. Conor took Kara’s hand in his and pulled her out of their seats and down the aisle, following his other lovers, his heart thudding. Please, god, let this not be a mistake. He didn’t believe in any god, so he prayed to Kara and Micah’s—the Jewish version of god was as good as any.

“Pretend like you can’t keep your hands off me,” he told Kara.

“What about you?” she asked, leaning into him and bringing his hand to her lips, nuzzling it as they walked past the rest of the travelers.

“I won’t have to pretend.”

As they passed the hitmen, he kept his eyes forward, dropping a hand into Kara’s jeans pocket and squeezing.

“The second we get to the bathroom, we want you on your knees,” he told her loudly.

“There’s no way we’ll all fit,” she teased back, matching his decibel.

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