Page 92 of Lose Me In The Shadows

“Conor? Micah? Are they—”

“Both fine. But I think Jean Pierre’s dead. Got crushed by falling shrapnel from the club. It was a bomb.”

Suddenly, Kara couldn’t breathe, and it had nothing to do with being trapped between rough carpet and the six-foot-six man on top of her.

“But Luke, the evidence…”

“Don’t care,” he said over the ringing in her ears. “The evidence doesn’t matter. Exoneration doesn’t matter. All that matters is that the four of us are safe.”

The words made themselves at home in her chest, and her heart.

Her heart.

It sank, sank, sank.

“Luke…” she began, but he was getting off her and pulling her to her feet.

Micah and Conor joined them as Kara surveyed the room. There were dead bodies everywhere, including Jean Pierre and his guards, who stared up at the caved in ceiling with empty eyes.

He’d never see his boys again.

“She okay?” Conor asked Luke. Micah was already checking her over for any possible injury.

“I’mfine,” Kara said. Her ears had stopped ringing. “Are you okay?”

Neither answered; they didn’t have to. Conor looked stricken, Micah his usual unperturbed self.

“Marcus is going to be pissed,” he said.

“How do we know Marcus didn’t set us up?” Kara countered.

Micah glanced at her sharply. “He didn’t.”

“We need to get out of here,” Luke said. “We’re sitting ducks right now. Not to mention that the second the police show up, we’re fucked.”

As they headed down the hallway, a quiet sob stopped them.

The waiter from earlier was curled up in a terrified ball.

“Wait,” she said.

“No time,” Luke retorted.

“Just wait.” Kara bent down, touching the waiter on his shoulder.

He jerked.

“You’re going to be okay,” she said. “But only because you never saw us, got it? You tell anyone, and I can’t promise you’ll survive a second time.”

With that she stood, warmed by their approval.

There was another rumble, and sirens.

“Time to go,” Luke said, and then she was being lifted into the air and over his shoulder, bouncing as they ran down a series of hallways and exited the side door into a dark alley. Luke stopped, lowering Kara gently to the ground.

“Now what?” Kara asked.

“We’re going to have to walk back to Marcus’s apartment.”

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