Page 20 of Lose Me In The Shadows

“Easy, easy,” Micah murmured.

“How the fuck did you let her get away? Where the hell is she? What were you two assholes thinking?”

Conor’s face went hard. “We were thinking you’d just been shot. Saving you was the only option. You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Jesus fuck.” Luke coughed again. “We have to find her.”

“She shot you,” Micah reminded him, curious where this would go.

Luke’s voice was raspy but angry. “Yeah, and once I’ve recovered I’m going to lay into her ass so hard she won’t sit for ten years. Maybe lock her up in a chastity belt with a remote control vibe and edge her for a year before I let her come. Make the spider gag part of her daily routine. I’m so fucking angry at her.”

Finally, they were getting somewhere. Micah looked at Conor. “She needs to pay for what she’s done, doesn’t she? Can’t do that if she’s far away.”

Luke closed his eyes. “If she’s not safe… if something happened to her… I’ll finish the job she started.”

Thatwas concerning. What was more concerning was that Micah felt the same way.

“So we find her?” Micah asked.

Conor’s throat worked. “Fine. We find her. I don’t know what’s next.”

Micah worked a hand under Luke’s back, making eye contact with Conor. Together, they began to help Luke sit up, the three back in sync for the first time in a long time. Micah’s chest settled.

“Fortunately, there are three of us. One of us will figure it out,” he said.

They had to.

“As long as we use our brains and not our dicks to think this time,” Luke said.

“About that.” Marcus appeared back in the doorway. Earlier, Micah had asked Marcus to try to track Kara down. The billionaire’s hackers weren’t as good as Micah, but Micah was otherwise preoccupied. “Kara Blum doesn’t have a missing person’s report—assume that was your work, Micah?”

Micah nodded. He’d kept an eye on it and deleted it when it first appeared, then sent Lola a series of texts and emails from Kara’s phone to make it seem like Kara had gone off on a head-clearing road trip. He’d also forged a doctor’s note requesting accommodations for a leave of absence, which her work granted. It had been good for keeping the kidnapping off the radar, but it meant tracking her down would be that much harder. Lola had been suspicious, but she hadn’t reported Kara missing.

“What about flight manifests?”

“Nothing.”

Micah started to get a bad feeling.

“No police reports? Any phone calls or texts to her friend, Lola Jones?”

Marcus cleared his throat. “One. Call was short, from a cellphone in Alpine, Wyoming.”

The bad feeling grew.

“One other thing. Billy searched for Kara Blum everywhere—medical records, birth certificates, everything he could think of. And nothing came up.” Marcus cleared his throat. “Turns out Kara Blum—yourKara Blum—doesn’t exist. Your work?”

The bad feeling threatened to overtake him. He knew Kara Blum wasn’t a fake name—he’d looked into her after her fling with Conor. So then who the hell wiped her identity? And why?

“No,” Micah said, slowly. “It wasn’t.”

6

“You know, the last time I was kidnapped, the digs were nicer,” Kara said conversationally, even though she wanted to throw up. It was at least satisfying when Chris’s face began to turn red.

“You want to be my whore again?” Chris asked. “Like you were theirs?”

Kara couldn’t hide her revulsion, jerking back at his words. He turned even redder.

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