Page 80 of Lose Me In The Shadows

“Nice to meet you, Kara Blum,” Micah said from behind her.

She hadn’t heard him enter. His reflection in the window looked tired. She turned around.

“You should eat something,” he said, and she suddenly realized she was starving. They’d never gotten that food on the train, after all.

Because they’d been too busy almost getting killed and killing people.

Together.

“Kara,” he said, and she followed him over to the open plan kitchen.

“Can I help?” she asked awkwardly.

His lip twitched. “You’ve helped plenty. Take a seat.”

She sat in one of the leather-backed bar stools, while he rooted around in the huge fridge, reappearing with mango, avocado, and fresh shrimp. He put the shrimp in a pan, washed his hands, and then began chopping up the mango on a cutting board on the kitchen island facing her.

“What’s that for?”

“Making you a salad. I’d like to give you something more substantial, but I’m not sure your stomach is up for it.”

“Is it weird for you, cooking with shrimp? I’ve never asked you that before.”

He shook his head. “I stopped keeping kosher the day I got kicked out of my home,” he said. “A woman bought me a cheeseburger from McDonald’s, and I wasn’t about to turn her down. Turns out, rules like that never really mattered to me, anyway.”

Learning little things like this about him was like discovering pearls in the sand.

“We never kept kosher. My parents are basically High Holidays Jews, if that,” she offered.

He nodded, peeling the avocado. “I know.”

“Right, you know everything about me,” she muttered.

“No, Kara,” he said. “I don’t. For instance, I had no idea you were going to shoot Luke. I especially had no idea you were going to make the stupid fucking decision to risk your life by giving head to aloaded firearm.” Rage thickened his voice. He took a deep breath and spoke normally again. “I also didn’t know you were going to kill that man today. No matter how much research I did on you, how long I followed you for, you constantly surprise me.”

“Me too,” she said, meaning it. “I didn’t think I was going to shoot that man, either. And it wasn’t like I planned to shoot Luke.”

She grabbed a chunk of avocado and dropped the creamy freshness in her mouth. Satisfied heat filled her at the way Micah’s eyes rested on her lips, his eyes becoming a deeper blue as she swallowed.

“To be clear, badass baby, I’m not upset you shot him. I’m glad you did—you saved your life, and that’s the most important thing in the world to me.”

“Shot him? Which him? That man today or Luke?”

Micah chuckled. “That man today, but I’m not all that upset you shot Luke, either. Not anymore. It’s what you needed to do, and it’s gotten us here.”

Absorbing that, she grabbed another chunk of avocado.

“There won’t be any left for your salad,” he teased gently, but he turned away to flip the shrimp.

“I don’t regret it,” she told him. “Shooting Luke, I mean.”

He nodded, going back to the cutting board, picking up the knife, and carrying it to the sink to clean it. “Regret is a funny thing, you know. Sometimes it teaches us what we did wrong, so we can be better. Sometimes we get trapped in it forever, and it paralyzes us. We never move on, too busy reliving the past and wishing we had done things differently.”

She wasn’t sure if he was telling her to stop feeling guilty for what she’d done in New York, or to not feel guilty for what she’d done today…or was letting her know he didn’t have any remorse over stalking, lying to, and then taking her.

“Will you ever regret kidnapping me?”

He paused, knife in his hand, gently lowering it into the sink. He turned, placed his thick arms behind him, stretching his back and then flexing, letting the veins pop.

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