Page 85 of Keep Me Safe
He didn’t answer right away, but otherwise there was no reaction. “I am.”
“Tell me what you want. To work out a trade?”
Ethan put a hand on Jason’s shoulder and kept him in place. He’d been none too pleased with his wife’s suggestion, even if it were a lie.
But Juric smiled and shook his head. “You don’t have anything I want.”
“I... don’t understand.” There was a tremor in her voice.
“I was going to make you and the marshal suffer and then kill you for what you’ve done to me.”
Kara’s eyes went wide, and her chest rose and fell with her rapid breathing.
“I thought I couldn’t let you live, even if I wanted to,” he continued. “But now I have Kara. I won’t hurt her. I’ll keep her safe, and in return,” he said it like he was making a huge concession, “I’ll let you and the marshal go.”
Staying emotionless wasn’t possible for her anymore. Her face twisted with horror. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“She belongs to me. If you try to come between us, I’ll kill you.”
“No,” Kara gasped.
“Yes,” he said, turning to her. “Yes.”
“You can’t have her.” L’s expression went dark with fury. “She’s not yours. She’s?—”
“Shawn Dunn’s?” The cold, blue eyes snapped back to the camera. “Yeah, she told me all about him in the shower.”
Kara’s face flushed bright red and her handcuffed hands flew up to cradle her face. “He drugged me, but nothing happened.”
Juric smirked. “Liar.”
I couldn’t get to the door. There were hands stopping me, some on my arms, and others on the back of my shirt, strangling me as I fought against their hold. Someone muttered for me to be quiet as Jason pleaded for me to stay calm.
L’s voice echoed through the speakers of the laptop. “Ryan, please. I’ll do whatever you want.”
“You fed me to the CIA.” Anger made his voice rise in pitch and volume. “You don’t want me, and Idon’t fucking want you.”
His face took a horrifying dark cast, revealing the monster he was, and true fear swept through me like a river of ice. This monster had Kara. He wanted tokeepher. And,Scheiße, if our plan failed, we might lose her forever.
I wasn’t mentally prepared to handle that idea, and suddenly all the air vanished from the room.
You will not let that happen,I promised myself.You will do fucking anything to get her back.
The anger in Juric began to fade. “We go our separate ways,” he said, calmer. “If anyone comes after us? I’ll have to kill her, and no one wants that. Do you understand?”
L didn’t say anything. She just stared and stared at the camera.
“Answer me, Laurel,” he ordered. “Otherwise, you won’t get to say goodbye.”
Her eyes filled with dread, and it was heartbreaking. “I... understand.”
“You’ve got one minute.” He stood and disappeared from the screen?—
But not from the room. Kara made that apparent when she lifted her gaze to him, beyond the camera’s range, and delivered a look of pure, unadulterated hatred. If Juric was half as smart as he believed he was, he should be afraid.
“Kara,” L said, getting her sister’s attention back on her. “I love you. You do whatever you have to do to stay alive.”
A painful half-smile leaked out on L’s face, masking the true meaning of her next statement.
