Page 42 of Light Me Up

I nod with an ache deep in my soul, one I see mirrored in his irises.

“Kate… I lo—”

I shake my head vigorously, silencing him. I can’t hear it right now; my heart can only handle so much.

He tips my chin up and searches my eyes before planting a kiss to my forehead. I squeeze his forearms before pushing him away.

“Santi’s waiting,” I say quietly.

He nods, fingers grazing my cheek and dropping to his side. “Come on, Char is downstairs.”

I follow him down the hall and staircase, finding Char on the couch. She sits straighter when she sees me walking towards her.

“We’re headed to meet Ted,” Santi says from the doorway. Lorenzo decisively walks up to me and brings his hand behind my neck, pulling me closer. “Please stay here, no matter what. Promise me.”

I nod. “Okay.”

“Say it.”

“I promise,” I agree reluctantly.

His eyes lock with mine. “Think about everything. Process it. Do what you do best. Whatever you decide, I’ll understand.”

“Okay,” I whisper. He closes the gap, pressing his lips to mine for a kiss that says those words I didn’t let him say before.

And then he’s gone.

Char places her hand on my knee when I drop into the seat next to her on the couch.

“How are you?”

All of my emotions bubble to the surface and I start balling. I’m not sure how long I cry for, Char stroking my back the entire time, before I finally wipe the last tears.

“Did you guys talk?” Char asks. When I nod, she says, “What did he say?”

I recite every last detail that Lorenzo told me, some of which she knew. The details of my kidnapping are hazy and distorted, but I tell her everything I remember from when I arrived at the hotel to when Lorenzo shot my kidnapper.

He shot a man.

I didn’t even know he had experience with firearms. I realize that for as many answers as I got today, there are still a fuck ton more.

“This is all just so insane…” Char says when I fill her in on everything. “You said there were stacks of money?”

“Inside the wall.”

“I wonder if it’s the whole wall. If those are hundreds… damn.”

“Yeah.”

“You should have grabbed me a stack.”

“Char!” She giggles but I can’t join her. The repercussions of my actions are starting to catch up with me. When she catches my expression, she sobers up. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be joking about this.”

“I don’t know what to make of any of it. I still don’t understand why he didn’t just walk away from the business. Why did he have to go to the extreme of involving the FBI? How did that even happen?”

“From what they told me, it sounded like they didn’t have much of a choice,” Char says despondently.

“There’salwaysa choice,” I say.

---