Black by Ted Dekker Read Free Book Online

she’d felt for his bullet wound vanished. “Of course they found you, you idiot! What do you think this is—Manila? You can’t just walk away with $100,000 of the mob’s money and expect to live happily ever after. They let one person get away with it, and every Tom, Dick, and Harriet will be robbing them blind!”
    â€œI know! I just got shot, for crying out loud!”
    â€œWe’ll be lucky if we both don’t get shot! What were you thinking, moving here?”
    Her statement hit him broadside. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The whole business suddenly felt impossibly heavy to him. He’d risked more than she could ever know to help out their mother. He’d left a life behind in New York to protect her, to make a clean break, to get back on his feet with the import business. That he would endanger Kara by bringing this debt to Denver had never occurred to him.
    What was he thinking moving here, she wanted to know? He was thinking that they’d both been abandoned by their parents. That they didn’t have any real friends. Or any real home. That they were suspended between countries and societies and left wondering where they fit in. He wanted to be Kara’s brother—to help her and to be helped by her.
    â€œI was twenty-one,” he said.
    â€œSo?”
    â€œSo I wasn’t thinking. You were having a tough time.”
    Her hands dropped to her thighs with a slap. “I know. And You’ve always been there for me. But this . . . I just can’t believe you were so stupid.”
    â€œI’m sorry. Really, I’m sorry.”
    Kara looked at him and began to pace. She was steaming all right, but she couldn’t bring herself to take his head off. They’d been through too much together. Being raised as outcasts in a foreign land had woven an inseverable bond between them.
    â€œYou can be
an idiot, Thomas.”
    Then again, the bond wasn’t beyond being stretched now and then.
    â€œLook,” he said, “I know this isn’t good, but it’s not all bad.”
    â€œOf course not. We’re still alive, right? We should be eternally grateful. We’re walking and breathing. You have a cut on your head, but it could have been much worse. We should be toasting our good fortune!”
    â€œThey don’t know where we live.”
    â€œSee, that’s the problem here,” she said. “It’s already gone from I to we . And there’s nothing we can do about it.”
    The pain in Tom’s head was making a strong comeback. A wave of dizziness swept over him, and he walked unsteadily for the chaise lounge. He sat hard and groaned.
    Kara sighed and disappeared into her room. She came out a few seconds later with some gauze, a bottle of peroxide, and a tube of Neosporin and sat by him.
    â€œLet me see that.”
    He faced the wall and let her dab the wound with peroxide.
    â€œIf they knew where we lived, they would be here already,” he said.
    â€œHold still.”
    â€œI don’t know how long we have.”
    â€œI’m not going anywhere,” she said emphatically.
    â€œWe can’t stay here, and you know that. They found me in Denver, probably through the dinner theater. I should’ve thought about that—the theater advertises all over the country. My name’s in the credits.”
    She wound the gauze around his head and taped it. “Seems appropriate that a production of Alice in Wonderland would end up being your demise, don’t you think?”
    â€œPlease. This isn’t funny anymore.”
    â€œNever was funny.”
    â€œYou’ve made your point, okay? I was a fool, I’m sorry, but the fact is, we are still alive, and some pretty bad people are trying to kill me.”
    â€œHave you called the police yet?”
    â€œThat won’t stop these guys.” He ran his fingers along the bandage and stood. His world tipped