Chapter 38
SHAWN
It was unclear which home Kara meant. My apartment in Munich? Her flat in Maastricht? Or perhaps she meant the same home that Jason always claimed was his . . .
America.
Fine. I could do that. As soon as the doctors were confident the drugs were purged from her system and her concussion wouldn’t require anything more than rest, I begun the process of making that a reality.
And after she’d fallen back asleep, I finalized those plans with my assistant.
“How long have you been awake?” I asked L when she sat up.
“Since you were making out with my sister.” Her eyes were more vibrant than Kara’s and not as guarded, even when she was shooting daggers at me. But I much preferred her sister’s icy blue ones.
“You have no one to blame but yourself for that. You introduced us.”
“I also introduced you to Markus. Do you make out with him?”
She glanced at Jason, who was passed out so hard he looked dead. He hadn’t slept until it was clear Kara would be all right, and maybe he hadn’t truly slept since the CIA had taken Juric. Now he was making up for lost time.
L’s gaze returned to me, more serious. There was a question she was trying to put together in her head.
“Out with it already,” I said, a half-smile.
“Do you love her?”
I inhaled deeply, my gaze going to the woman asleep, her face peaceful in sharp contrast to the bruise fading on her cheek. This terrible ordeal had proven my feelings beyond doubt. “Yes.”
“Then be careful with her,” she said. “If you hurt her, I’m going to have to hurt you.”
I bit back the desire to tell her she looked adorable when she threatened me. “All right, noted.”
The final phone call squared away, I tried to get comfortable on the chair and sleep for a few hours, but as soon as I nodded off, Kara thrashed on the bed. She slid over to one side and looked at me expectantly.
“Get over here,” she whispered.
This was a command I was more than willing to follow. I lay down, pulling the blanket up over us. I was on my side, off the wound on my back, my feet hanging over the edge of the bed. Her head turned to me, waiting impatiently for my hold.
Unlike the rest of my family, I wasn’t afraid of emotions, but the feeling of her in my arms was so powerful it left me breathless.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yes. I missed you.”
She pulled my arm tighter around her. “Me, too.”
Getting her discharged from the hospital in the morning took forever. The day nurse was physically unable to move above a glacial pace.
“Can I shower and get dressed?” Kara asked while waiting for the final paperwork.
“Yeah,” L replied, “here.”
She produced a pile of clothes from a bag that made Kara blink. “These are mine.”
“Your apartment’s less than two hours from here,” I said.
I didn’t explain that I’d hired a team to clean it up and pack nearly every piece of clothing she owned in two suitcases, which were sitting in the trunk of a limo in the circle drive downstairs.
She seemed too relieved to see something familiar to ask questions. She came to her unsteady feet with my help and attempted to walk on her own toward L.
“I’ve got her,” L said to me, a slight edge in her words like I was encroaching on her territory.
“All right,” I relented. I pulled the privacy curtain near the door closed. “Let me know if you need my help. I’ll be here.”
I listened to L move into the bathroom and start the shower, and a few minutes later she pulled back the curtain. Her gaze locked on mine, her face hard and her voice full of fire. “Juric’s really fucking lucky he’s dead.”
I’d never spoken truer words. “I agree.”