Page 42 of Wife Number One

I had the few hundred dollars Shari had given me, but that wouldn’t get us far. My fingers trembled. It was cold out. Not freezing, but definitely not warm enough for the four of us to sleep in the car.

The front door opened again, and me, Alice, and Kyle all swiveled in that direction.

A tiny pixie of a woman crashed out of the front door, knocking her shoulder hard on the wooden post holding up the porch. But it didn’t slow her. She sprinted across the crunchy winter grass, and on instinct, I braced myself for her attack.

She stopped short a mere inch from my toes and stared at me with huge brown eyes that hadn’t changed at all since the last time I’d seen her.

She was a couple of inches shorter than me and probably weighed about half what I did.

But she was the big sister who had given me shelter after I’d left that house of horrors. She was the big sister who had nursed me back to health. And she was the only person in the world I’d thought to run to when I’d had to leave my life behind.

A sob burst out of my mouth before I could even try to control it.

Rebel’s face crumpled. “Oh, Kara.”

And then I was in her arms, wrapped in the fiercest of hugs and wondering how I’d even considered for a second that I couldn’t come to this woman for help.

She held me tight, whispering in my ear, telling me that whatever had happened, whyever I was here now, it was all okay. She would make it okay.

Even though I knew that was a promise she couldn’t make, I just nodded into her shoulder and let her soothe me.

Fang came out onto the steps again, and when I lifted my head with my eyes stinging from crying, I noticed two other men had joined him.

“Where you been, lady?” Kian grinned at me. Then his gaze twisted to where Alice stood with Kyle. “Holy shit. Alice?”

“Who are they?” Kyle whispered to my sister.

“More brothers-in-law,” she whispered back while she waved enthusiastically at Rebel’s partners. “Rebel has three guys. But don’t you dare judge her. She’s not a slut.”

I shot her a look. Rebel was literally right there.

But my older sister just laughed and hugged Alice with her free arm. The other was still attached to me. She’d pulled back but didn’t let me go, like she wanted to assure herself I was real and actually there.

Or maybe it was me holding on to her for that reason.

Either way, we weren’t letting each other go.

At least not for tonight. Tomorrow would be a different story, but at least I would have right now.

“What on earth are you doing here? Dad kept telling me you were fine but you didn’t want to speak to me after everything that happened, and I understood, really I did, but then I would find myself writing you letters anyway, and even though I knew you weren’t reading them I just kept sending them.” Rebel shook her head sadly in the midst of her babble, her short dark hair falling across her eye. “I’ve missed you so much.”

She had barely aged a day since I’d last hugged her. Barely looked any different other than her once-flat belly now held a gentle curve, proof she’d birthed her babies while we’d been apart.

Little had changed with her, but everything had changed with me. I didn’t know where to start. How to fill her in on five years’ worth of trauma when I could barely even admit it to myself.

An expression of understanding came over Rebel’s heart-shaped face, and then she nodded determinedly, taking control of the situation. “Fuck, come inside. I don’t know why we’re standing on the lawn. Do you have bags? Where’s Hayley Jade?”

I turned back to the car.

Hayley Jade had slipped to the floorboard, scrunched into a ball so tight she could barely be seen.

Rebel took one look at her niece and then stared at me. “Is she okay?”

I touched my sister’s arm. “I have a lot to tell you. Can you help me get her inside?”

Rebel bit into her bottom lip and nodded, but despite me, Rebel, and Alice all trying to coax Hayley Jade out, it couldn’t be done. I didn’t dare get one of the guys to attempt it. They’d scared Kyle, a fully grown man, so I wasn’t about to test them out on a little girl, even if I knew they were totally harmless, at least to people they cared about.

Eventually, I picked Jade up and carried her inside, even though she screamed and kicked and bit at me hysterically.

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