Page 102 of Wife Number One

I squinted, trying to make sense of what they were saying, but I couldn’t. “The police won’t release her body until further investigations have been completed, but she needs to be buried. Our religion believes in reincarnation and that Alice’s soul will be kept captive in her body until she is buried. Her sins can’t be forgiven and she can’t enter Heaven until her soul is released. She isn’t at peace until then. So please, tell us what you know. I need to know you’re getting closer to working this out so I can bury my sister. Who do you think the other suspect is?”

The officers wouldn’t answer.

My stomach twisted into knots. What if they thought it was me? I knew they’d targeted Rebel for the murder of her mother and stepfather at one point, what was stopping them from doing the same to me?

Absolutely nothing.

I turned to Hawk in terror. “They think it was me, don’t they?”

Hawk glanced over at the police and then back at me. Slowly, he shook his head. “No, Little Mouse. What they’re refusing to say is they think there’s a serial killer out there.”

30

KARA

After three solid weeks of wandering around the Slayers’ compound, it had begun to feel like as much of a prison as the commune had. While I appreciated that we were safe here, and that we had food and protection, I was quickly realizing those things, while satisfying basic human needs, couldn’t sustain me forever.

They weren’t enough for me. And they weren’t enough for Hayley Jade.

Who was getting more and more withdrawn, rather than getting better. She stared listlessly at an old iPad Rebel had brought over for her, a cartoon playing on the screen, but Hayley Jade’s expression never changed.

Rebel tried to bring Remi over as much as she could, and Hayley Jade did seem to perk up a bit in the presence of her younger cousin. But Remi couldn’t be here all the time. And when she left, Hayley Jade went right back to being listless and unenergetic.

Yesterday she’d taken a three-hour nap, even though she didn’t have a fever or any signs of a physical illness. That wasn’t normal behavior for a five-year-old.

Rebel was right. She needed to see a doctor. And we both needed to get out of this compound.

I’d been avoiding the outside world and all its terrors long enough. Staying here, hiding from them, was creating a bigger fear than all the others.

The fear I was doing my daughter permanent damage by keeping her inside these gates.

I left Hayley Jade on the couch with her cartoons and crossed the room, moving a little way down the hall to Hawk’s bedroom.

I’d been avoiding it ever since he’d vowed to give me the second orgasm he apparently owed me if I ever knocked on his door.

But I couldn’t avoid it anymore. The clinic at the hospital was today, and if I missed it again, it would be another week before I could get her there.

I honestly didn’t know if I could take another week of watching her deteriorate the way she had been.

I forced my knuckles across the heavy wooden door.

“What?” Hawk snapped from behind it.

My instinct was to shrink away or apologize for bothering him. But one quick glance at Hayley Jade reminded me I couldn’t. “It’s me.” I called out, trying to make my voice stronger than I felt. “Kara, I mean.”

The door flew open.

Hawk grinned at me from the other side, his smile so handsome it made my insides flutter uncontrollably. My tongue seemed to lose all control of itself as tingles surged across my skin at just the sight of him.

I hadn’t seen much of him since the police had come. He’d been busy with club stuff. I’d been busy hiding in my cabin or quietly watching my daughter from a distance.

Like the church mouse he’d correctly labeled me as.

I couldn’t be that person today. I needed to be stronger and to ask for what I wanted.

But he took my breath away every time and made it so darn hard to speak.

Hawk’s eyes darkened in the face of my hesitation. “Get in here, Little Mouse. Get in here and tell me what you want.”

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