Page 103 of Wife Number One

His fingers circled my wrist, and he gave it a tug I was helpless to resist. He went to close the door behind me, but I knew in a heartbeat if he did, I would find myself naked and on the receiving end of that second orgasm. I couldn’t do that.

Not today.

I caught the door before he could close it properly. “I need you to take me to the hospital.”

Any dark, sexual desire that had been lingering in his eyes disappeared, and his gaze swept over me quickly. “Why? What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” His gaze darted to Hayley Jade. “Is she?”

I hushed him, not wanting to scare her. “I want to take her to the clinic they have there. Rebel said they have pediatricians and that they don’t ask for ID or payment.”

Hawk rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. “Yeah, they do.” He glanced over at Hayley Jade. “You think she’s getting worse.”

It was a statement, not a question. Everybody knew she was.

I swallowed down a lump in my throat. “She’s traumatized from what I did…”

He grasped my chin so I couldn’t turn away. “She’d be traumatized a whole lot worse if you’d left her at that commune to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.”

Logically I knew that, but it didn’t make it any easier to bear.

My actions had caused her hurt, and there was nothing I could do to take that back. All I could do was try to help her now. “Please. Can you take us? I don’t know what else to do.”

“Clinic closes in an hour. If we’re going, we need to go now.”

I nodded, then cocked my head to one side. “How did you know that? About the closing time, I mean.”

He shrugged. “Not important.” He looked past me to the main recreation room. “Hay Jay! Wanna get out of here for a bit?”

She glanced up at him with interest. Then her gaze landed on me, and she shook her head quickly.

I should have been used to her rejections by now, but each one still hurt.

“Nah, Little Mouse. You don’t take that personally. She’s hurting right now. That ain’t about you.”

Except it was. She didn’t know what Josiah had planned for her. All she knew was I’d taken her from the only mother she could remember and the only home she’d ever known.

Hawk picked up his jacket from a chair and shrugged it on. In the doorway, his boots sat waiting, and he shoved his feet into them, stooping to do up the laces. “Tell her we’ll get her rainbow ice cream,” he said quietly.

“Ice cream?”

“Rainbow ice cream. Specifically rainbow. She doesn’t like the other flavors.”

I stared at him in surprise, and he sighed.

“Just fucking ask her, Mouse. The clinic ain’t gonna wait for us.”

“Ice cream,” I blurted out to Hayley Jade. “Do you want some ice cream?”

“Rainbow,” Hawk hissed.

“Rainbow flavor,” I clarified for Hayley Jade.

She sat up gradually, her gaze darting between me and Hawk, and then she slowly nodded.

Hope lit up inside me. It was the first time she’d responded to my gentle questions in days.

It was something. But it also wasn’t the full truth of where we were going, and I didn’t want to start rebuilding a bond with lies.

I knelt in front of her. “Would it be okay with you if we went to see a doctor first? I promise, he or she will be very nice, and I think they might be a safe person for you to talk to. If you want that, of course.”

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