Page 125 of Wife Number One

I lifted my head. “And?”

“It’s majority owned by Luca Guerra.”

I stood so fast my chair went flying. “Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me? That human trafficking piece of shit Caleb worked for?”

“One and the same.”

Chaos could draw her back in a heartbeat. She was still so brainwashed that all it would take was one smile, one touch, and she’d be right back in the clutches of a human trafficker. Bile rose in my mouth.

War gripped the table, his face pale like he was imagining the same things I was.

Women held captive.

Women forced into sex work.

Little girls stolen and sold to the perverted creeps who lurked on the dark web.

I knew he was picturing his daughters.

But there was also Bliss. Rebel. Amber. Kiki. Remi. Lavender.

Hayley Jade and Kara.

All of them in danger if she went back to Chaos.

The thought was horrifying.

There was no longer any doubt in my mind, and it was clear there was none in War’s either.

He glared at me. “If she still thinks he’s dead, then leave it be. It’s safer and kinder that way. She can’t live here if she goes back to him. She can’t have contact with any of us. It’s cruel to make her choose between the man she’s been brainwashed into thinking she loves and the family who actually does.”

Turmoil raged inside me. Not telling her felt wrong. But knowing we’d all lose her if she knew, knowing she’d be out there beyond the fences, unprotected and at the whims of men who did unspeakable things to women, was unbearable.

Kara had named her goddamn daughter after that prick. She still dreamed about him five years later.

Chaos had her as brainwashed as Josiah did.

That sort of influence was all she’d ever known.

I wasn’t fucking telling her.

I was going to take her on a date. Dress up nice. Say sweet things.

I was going to make her happy.

And we were all going to forget that Hayden Chaos Whitling had ever walked this earth.

35

KARA

Something was going on up at the clubhouse. Queenie had brought Hayley Jade down to the cabin and chatted my ear off about the men all being up in “church,” though their church wasn’t anything like the chapel we had at the commune.

Hayley Jade played quietly with a basket of Barbies she’d brought down with her. She dressed them all carefully, pushing their arms through the appropriate holes on the little T-shirts and jackets. When lunchtime rolled around, I made sandwiches for all of us and watched Hayley Jade nibble at the edges of the ham and cheese I’d placed in front of her.

“Would you prefer something different?” I asked her. “You can choose anything you like.”

She glanced at me.

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