Page 34 of Wife Number One

I quickly released the hold I had on him, the back of my neck burning for no good reason.

Chaos just leaned in so far his warm breath brushed over the bare skin of my neck. “I could, but I don’t want to,” he said, parroting my words back at me. He grinned. “Enjoy spending the night in jail with Simon. He seems pretty obsessed with my dick too, so maybe the two of you will have something to talk about.”

11

KARA

My legs throbbed. My chest burned.

I’d spent years basically doing nothing while my muscles withered away, and I ate to curb my depression. I’d never been a small woman to begin with, but now I was at my heaviest and trying to run through the darkness with the added weight of a five-year-old.

My lungs were going to explode.

The road I’d thought wasn’t really that far suddenly seemed like a million miles away. My steps slowed with every minute that passed.

Alice glanced over at me worriedly. “Do you want me to take her?”

I nodded and started to hand her over, but Hayley Jade’s fingernails dug into my arm.

This poor child. She’d been ripped from the safety of the only home she could remember. It was cold and dark, and she had no idea what was going on.

“I’ve got her,” I promised, picking up the pace again.

A clock ticked in the back of my mind, counting down the seconds until Naomi would raise the alarm.

A horn sounded somewhere behind us.

Alice and I both stopped dead, spinning around when lights came on and the members of our community all staggered from their homes.

In the distance, a group of men stood outside our parents’ house, Naomi talking frantically with them.

Time was up.

Neither of us needed to say a word. My burning muscles and breathless lungs suddenly ceased to exist, adrenaline coursing through me. I ran for the cover of the trees, following closely behind my sister, neither of us willing to be sitting ducks on the road.

I pushed my body, running harder and faster as the noises of the community and shouts of our names pierced through the night.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” Alice mumbled, her eyes wide. “Hurry, Kara!”

I didn’t answer. I was too busy trying to keep myself upright. Too busy trying to keep myself going. Panic swelled inside me, and as if she could sense it, Hayley Jade held me tighter.

If this had been anywhere else, any other time, I would have relished the feel of her in my arms. She was so much bigger than the last time I’d been allowed to hold her. With every sharp inhale, the sweet smell of her hair filled my nose and took me right back to when I’d arrived back here with a tiny baby in my arms.

I’d been so stupid.

I’d gotten us into this.

It was up to me to get us out.

“Think, Kara, you stupid, stupid woman,” I muttered beneath my breath. But all I could do was put one foot in front of the other. I had no idea what we were going to do once we got to the road. The nearest town was miles away. We could walk, but it would take hours, and in that time the sun would come up.

Josiah would get his dogs.

He’d find us. Drag us back.

Make us pay for our disobedience.

This was not like the last time I’d left. Josiah had raised the stakes a hundred-fold, and not making it out now would mean certain death.

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