Page 61 of Wife Number One

I didn’t hesitate this time. He was giving me permission, and so I did exactly what he’d said.

I ran.

The cool afternoon air did nothing to calm the burning behind my cheeks. I sat beside Rebel and Bliss, surrounded by other women from the club, but I heard almost nothing of the conversation. Thankfully, nobody asked me any direct questions, because if they had, I wasn’t sure I could have answered them.

I kept an eye on Hayley Jade, who quietly obeyed when her younger cousin told her she had to play with him.

I hated that she looked uncomfortable but did it anyway.

But that’s what we’d been taught at the commune. That a woman’s place was to follow. I had always accepted it, because fighting was futile.

Was that what I’d just done with Hawk?

Only, when he’d made demands of me, I’d wanted to obey them.

I was glad when Rebel noticed and called out to Madden, “Hey, quit being a bossy boots. How about you ask Hayley Jade what she would like to do instead of just assuming she wants to play your game?”

He shrugged. “She doesn’t talk though.”

Queenie, one of the older club wives who’d been the sweetest to me when I’d come here with Hayley Jade as a baby, spoke up. “She can talk, sugar. She just don’t want to talk to you.”

I shook my head quickly. “Oh, it’s not that—” The last thing I wanted was for Rebel to be offended that my child didn’t want to play with hers.

But she was laughing and waving off my apology. “Queenie is right. That boy is too alpha for his own good. Remi is too quiet and easygoing to put him in his place, and the others are too young yet. Queenie fills the void.”

I bit my lip. But then Rebel’s son was running across the yard to argue with Queenie, who sassed him back good-naturedly.

Hayley Jade stood off to one side, watching the exchange with huge eyes.

Rebel squeezed my hand. “It’s fine, really. Queenie loves him and he loves her. Takes a village to raise a well-rounded kid, right?”

I swallowed hard. “Does it?” I whispered. As soon as we got back to the house, I was packing up Alice and leaving the last of my family behind. Kyle could go back to the commune, or stay in Saint View, I didn’t care. But after the stunt he and Alice had pulled, I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. After that, it would just be the three of us.

Or maybe really just the two of us. As much as the thought sent panic into my throat, I couldn’t see Alice sitting at home with me and a five-year-old every Friday and Saturday night. I couldn’t really blame her. She wasn’t built for that sort of life.

It was the whole reason she’d come with me in the first place. Otherwise she would have just stayed and married some man from the commune like Naomi and Samantha would.

But if it was just me and Hayley Jade, what village would we have?

I fought off the fear gripping my throat. There was no other way around it. I was endangering everyone just by being here, and as soon as we got home, after I shook Alice for running off in the middle of the night, we were getting on the first bus out of town.

The door to the clubhouse slammed, and Hawk strode out, bare-chested with his jeans slung so low on his hips the V-lines either side were visible. “War. Fang. Need a word.”

His hair was mussed up in the back.

From lying on his bed.

Stroking his…

It took a second to register he’d called over the president of the club, as well as Fang, who I knew was high up in the Slayers’ hierarchy.

He was going to tell them what I’d done.

Expose me for the perverted woman I was.

My fingers trembled. “Can we go?” I asked Rebel in a breathless whisper. “I want to go home.”

Not that I had one anymore, but anywhere other than here would do.

---