Page 111 of Wife Number One

I stared into Kara’s worried eyes. “I don’t want to scare you. Truly, that’s the last thing I want. But my wife had a sister too.”

Kara stilled in front of me. “Why are you telling me that?”

I didn’t want to tell her, but for her own safety, she needed to know. “Because she was murdered too. Just a few weeks before my wife.”

She shook her head, stepping backward toward the door. “That doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

Except it did. My gut instinct swore that this was history repeating itself.

But this time, I had the ability to stop a woman from dying. I’d failed once before, and I didn’t want to do that again.

I couldn’t stop myself reaching for her hand, stopping her from walking away. “It does, Kara. I’m sure of it. I saw the marks on your sister’s body. They’re nearly identical to the ones that were found on my wife and her sister.”

She tried to pull away, but all I could see was my wife’s cold, dead, strangulated body. Her eyes no longer warm and brown like Kara’s. Her cheeks no longer flushed pink with good health.

All I saw was the deathly blue tinge in her lips. The waxy sheen on her skin. The heart-stopping knowledge that no matter how many times I pumped her chest, no matter how many breaths I breathed past her cold lips, she wasn’t coming back.

“No!” Kara’s voice held a hint of panic. “No! Let me go!”

I blinked, staring down at where my hand held hers.

My fingers were wrapped around hers. Horror filled me at the realization I was scaring her.

Hurting her.

I instantly let go.

Hawk’s fist connected with my face. Something cracked, though I wasn’t sure if it was my nose or his knuckle. Pain exploded in my face, and I stumbled back, my vision blurring and blood pouring.

I hadn’t even seen him coming.

I smacked into the counter, catching myself before I could hit the floor, and blinking rapidly, trying to shake off the fuzziness in my head.

By the time it cleared, Hawk was gone.

And so was Kara.

32

HAWK

Idrove home in a blind fucking rage, furious at myself for being so stupid. Hayley Jade sat in the back seat, quiet as always. She hadn’t even gotten to see the doctor.

I’d heard Kara cry out. Heard the fear and pain in her tone.

I’d picked up Hayley Jade and run down the hallway like I was fighting for gold in the one-hundred-meter sprint at the Olympics.

I’d never punched a guy out while holding a kid in one arm, but fuck, seeing that asshole from the morgue with his hands on Kara had sent me over the edge.

Now all I could do was curse myself.

Like Hayley Jade wasn’t already scared enough.

Like Kara wasn’t already so fucking traumatized she could barely function.

I’d gone and let her walk away from me, completely unprotected, and look what had happened.

I couldn’t fucking breathe.

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