Page 80 of Torn In Two

I frowned. “What’s Sinners?”

Kara opened her mouth, probably to explain, but Hawk cut her off, sniggering with a smirk. “You’ll see. You like to push me out of my comfort zone, Doc. Let’s see you get out of yours.”

As soon as I got home, I googled Sinners and found it to be a new, upper-class restaurant in Providence. The photos of the interior showed a stylish bar and restaurant, and Hayden’s name was listed as head chef. Which explained why Kara and Hawk were attending the grand opening.

What I couldn’t work out was why Hawk had said it was time for me to get out of my comfort zone. Nice clothes and fancy food weren’t exactly out of my norm these days. Though I sounded like a spoiled rich brat, even thinking that.

Which made me uncomfortable. I was no stranger to those nicer things in life now. But it hadn’t always been that way. I hadn’t forgotten that. I never would. The horrors of my childhood and teenage years were so firmly imprinted in my brain, there was no amount of therapy that could make me forget where I’d come from. Even as an adult, my past had kept coming back to bite me, until it had cost my wife her life.

I showered, finding that for once, my brain switched from memories of Annette to the present day quicker and easier than I ever had before. I’d spent years sitting in my grief over her death, waiting for something to break the spell.

Instead, it had been a someone.

Shame that someone already had two men and only saw me as the friendly neighborhood doctor, who delivered babies in his spare time.

Hawk had told me to dress nicely, so I pulled on a fresh pair of suit pants and a button-down shirt, cuffs rolled to the elbows. I slapped on some aftershave, picked up my phone, and locked the front door.

My phone buzzed on the way down to my car, and when I checked the message on my watch, I stopped.

Another body came in. Same cause of death. Strangulation. Cops identified her as the sister to the last one. Whoever this guy is, he’s escalating. Want to come check it out? I can probably only keep her another day or so.

It was my contact at the morgue.

This time, at least my blood didn’t run cold at the thought the victim could have been Kara. I’d seen her only an hour ago, so she definitely wasn’t the dead woman lying cold in the morgue with the life strangled out of her.

But it could have been.

If this guy was escalating, how long would it be before he got to her?

I pushed the thought out of my head, reminding myself that for now, at least, she was safe.

And she wasn’t mine to protect. No matter how much the urge was there to do so. If I continued to listen to it, it was only going to end with Hawk beating the shit out of me.

I’d probably deserve it.

By the time I parked my car down the street from Sinners, I’d convinced myself I could just be friends with her. Because there was no alternative.

But the minute I walked in the restaurant doors, and she looked up and waved to me from a booth in the back corner of the room, I knew I was full of crap. She had her hair down, brushed out and glossy, just begging for me to twist with my fingers. The deep-blue dress clinging to her tits and then falling softly around her knees nearly had me on mine. She was a world away from the sweet-faced woman who put on scrubs when she came to the hospital and worked her damn ass off.

“I’m so fucked,” I muttered to myself, raising a hand in return and pointing her out to the maître d’, who waved me on.

“You made it!” Kara stood as I approached. She pressed up onto her toes and kissed my cheek. “Thank you for coming. I know it’ll mean a lot to Hayden.”

Despite knowing I shouldn’t, I took her arm, leaned down, and kissed her in the same spot. “You look beautiful,” I whispered gently into her ear.

I knew it was out of line.

But I couldn’t help it. It was the truth. The dress clung to her curves so damn enticingly it was impossible not to notice how effortlessly pretty she was. This darkened room, with all its black-and-red interior, low lights, and sultry music, only made me want her more.

I so needed a drink. I hadn’t had a crush like this since high school, and it was getting downright embarrassing.

Next I’d be having wet dreams about her like I was fucking fifteen years old with no control of my dick. Kill me now.

“Thank you.” Kara ducked her head, though it did nothing to hide the pink blush in her cheeks.

Had she liked me calling her beautiful?

A tiny seed of hope lit up inside me. One that whispered she noticed me too.

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