Page 67 of Wife Number One

Except I already knew I did. There was a slow churning nausea in my belly, and it wouldn’t ease until I’d seen for myself. “No. I want to go too. I’m sorry about fainting. I’m fine now. I can do it.”

Rebel grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “We don’t know it’s her. It might not be. She could be waiting at home for us right now.”

But we both knew she wasn’t. Vaughn and Kian had taken their four kids home about fifteen minutes earlier. They would have called if Kyle and Alice had been sitting in their living room watching movies and chowing down on snacks from Rebel’s pantry.

I took my feet off of Hawk’s pillows, still astonished the man had let me use them like that when it was so terribly disrespectful. But he didn’t seem to care at all.

Fang put his arm around Rebel’s shoulders and pulled her tight, her tiny frame dwarfed by his near six and a half feet. “I don’t want you doing this. Your morning sickness always gets worse in the night, and we don’t know what we’re going to find down there. I can ID the body with Kara.”

She stared up at him, adoration in her eyes. “I love you so much, but if you don’t already know what my answer will be after five years, then I’m going to question our whole relationship.”

He sighed heavily and guided her to the door. “It was worth a shot.” He glanced back over his shoulder at me, and then beyond to where Hawk walked with Ice and Aloha. “We’ll take the van. No one on bikes, especially not the women. Just in case.”

I looked up. “Just in case of what?”

“Nothin’,” Hawk answered quickly from behind me. “Just safer if we’re all in the one vehicle. Too fucking cold to ride bikes tonight anyway.”

Which wasn’t really true because I knew they rode bikes in all sorts of weather.

Which told me they were expecting danger.

My fingers trembled, and I tucked them into the pockets of my thick, woolen skirt so nobody would notice.

Hawk grumbled when Fang lifted Rebel into the front seat like she was a tiny porcelain doll and then kissed her lips before moving around to the driver’s side. Ice slid open the back door of the unmarked van and held a hand out to me.

“Need a hand getting in, Kara?” he asked politely. “It’s a bit of a step.”

Holding his hand was the last thing I wanted. Ice had been nothing but polite, but I didn’t want any man touching me.

Hawk made a weird noise behind me.

I glanced back at him. “Sorry? I didn’t catch that.”

He coughed and cleared his throat. “What? I didn’t say anything. Go on. Get in.”

But he glared at Ice like he’d committed a mortal sin.

Ice screwed up his face, a silent question of “what did I do?” written all over his expression.

Hawk shouldered him out of the way and got in after me.

I took the seat in the very back row of the van, farthest from the sliding door and from the driver’s seat. I put my seat belt on but then made myself as small as I could, hunching in on myself and staring out the window into the darkness beyond while the others took their seats and the van rumbled to life.

Every mile that passed beneath the van’s tires increased the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. It spread up my throat and across my tongue until the bitter tang of fear was all I could taste.

It was almost a relief when Fang pulled the van into the empty parking lot, the two cop cars turning in behind us. I stared at the squat, rectangular building, a shiver running down my spine at the thought my sister’s lifeless body could be inside.

I pushed my palms together and doubled over, pressing them to my forehead and mumbling the Lord’s Prayer beneath my breath, the words barely legible above the squeak of my seat as I rocked on it.

“Please Lord, don’t let it be Alice. Please Lord, keep her in your embrace and return her safely to me. Please Lord, forgive me my sins. Don’t punish my sister for the mistakes I’ve made.”

The van was silent.

I could feel everyone’s eyes on me but I didn’t care.

Aloha whispered something, but all I heard was Hawk snap and tell him to shut up. With the addition of his favorite expletive, that was.

It was clear to me Hawk didn’t want to be here. That War had forced him to be my chauffeur, and for that I was sorry. He’d already done enough for me tonight. He didn’t need to witness my breakdowns as well.

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