Page 48 of Lose Me In The Shadows

Micah felt himself tense. Kara wasn’t safe until her former professor was dead, and Micah, for his part, wanted to bring about his death slowly and painfully.

Conor confirmed he felt the same when he growled.

“You have issues other than tracking down Christopher Johnathan,” Marcus pointed out. “The only living witness is also in the wind, and you need his testimony to exonerate yourselves. None of you are safe until then, including that woman you’re so protective of. Have you looked at the Most Wanted list? The three of you are the top of it, followed by Kara, although they’re calling her Jane Doe next to her photograph. Anyone spots you, and it’s a one-way trip back to a black ops site—and this time, there’s no rescue.”

“Damn,” Conor muttered, looking bleak. He sat down in a chair and, displaying a worrying amount of emotion, buried his head in his hands.

“Boss…” Micah murmured.

“I didn’t want to subject her to this life,” he said. “I wanted to keep her safe from it.”

Micah chose not to point out that keeping her locked up in a cabin, although protective, went too far in the other direction. Not that Micah felt guilty about it, but Conor lacked a surprising amount of clarity around what he’d done, and why Kara was so angry. Micahknew, he just didn’tcare. Oh, he cared about her happiness, he just had been sure they could get her there, even if she were trapped with them.

But maybe he’d been wrong.

Marcus cleared his throat. “I have a lead. But it’ll cost you.”

Conor snorted. “Of course it will.”

Micah ignored this, focused on the goal. He cared a little less about being exonerated—he’d been exiled before, so the military dishonorably discharging them didn’t rub him as badly as it had Luke and Conor. He actually liked being a hit man. It felt more honest than being a SEAL. Still, it would be nice to move around the world without fear of reprisal or imprisonment… or death.

And there was fear now because it wasn’t just the three of them. Kara had surprised and yes, impressed him, but these were powerful men with infinite resources at their disposal. Kara wasn’t safe, and that idea was abhorrent to Micah. Even if he did appreciate the fact that, for once, she realized she needed them.

“Name your price,” he told Marcus.

“There’s a…competitor of mine who tried to steal highly valuable information from R&D,” Marcus said. “He didn’t succeed, but he got something, and I need to know what it is.”

Micah felt that thrill he got before an assignment. He loved jobs like these. Got his blood going. He knew it didn’t say great things about him, but he couldn’t bring himself to feel bad about it. That was between him and god and no one else.

“So an interrogation. Will you need a disposal after?”

Marcus flashed him a grin. “Wouldn’t come to you for it if I didn’t.”

“Where?” Conor asked grimly. But then while Conor didn’t mind the hitman life, he hadn’t taken to it the way Micah had. He saw it as what he deserved, not what he was good at.

Before Marcus could answer with a location, Luke joined them in the war room. Micah watched him for some sign that something had gone wrong with Kara. Luke saw him and smiled, shaking his head.

“She’s asleep. And I’d rather not be left in the dark on next steps.”

Marcus was filing this away, possibly to be used later, the Machiavellian fuck. Micah knew he was being hypocritical, but he couldn’t help it. Storing away knowledge and using it to manipulate his loved ones later was his hobby, not this wealthy asshole’s. And he wasn’t about to give Marcus emotional access to Luke, Conor, or Kara.

But Micah said none of that out loud, just schooled his face into a bland, natural look and echoed Luke.

“Seattle,” Marcus said. “The mark’s going to be at a big swanky party and I’d like you to pick him up, take him to a warehouse one of my shell companies owns in the Industrial District, get some information out of him, and then complete the job. Easy.”

Easy, yes, except they had one issue.

“Kara,” Conor said.

“She can stay here with us. We’ll keep her safe.” Billy grinned.

“Like hell,” Luke growled.

Micah agreed. He wasn’t leaving Kara here. He knew that neither Billy nor Marcus—and certainly not The Doctor—could seduce her away, and he knew the compound was safe, but he wasn’t risking being proved wrong.

God, he hated being wrong. Especially about people.

“She’s coming with us,” Conor said. “We’re not taking eyes off her.”

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