Page 115 of Torn In Two

When Josiah had taken her away from me, not one person had stepped in to stop him.

Not one person had had my back.

Coming here changed everything.

When Hayden held his hand out to me, I put mine in it, knowing my daughter was loved.

And from the expression on his face, so was I.

34

HAYDEN

Ihadn’t talked to Hawk since our threesome and was happy to keep it that way, since he was hell-bent on keeping every hard-on he got for me some sort of dirty little secret. I had enough on my plate with the restaurant and Kara to give a shit about his rejections.

At least that’s what I was telling myself every time his green eyes crossed my mind and I thought about him sucking my cock in the dark, or how much I’d wanted to touch him while he’d been deep inside Kara’s body, making her moan.

So when I’d come home from work and he’d given me a single look and jerked his head toward “church,” all the smart-ass comebacks I’d been mentally preparing to guard myself with had disappeared.

Grayson had already been inside, and all available club members had filed in after, making it clear something was up.

Fucking Josiah starting a nationwide manhunt for Kara, complete with hefty reward money hadn’t been on my bingo card for the day.

Now it was my job to tell her.

With her sitting on the passenger seat of my truck, I drove us out to the bluff while my thoughts tumbled over in my head.

The guys had all suggested calling a lockdown. Possibly even a hard lockdown, where no one came in or out until the threat had passed. It was what they knew. How they’d always dealt with threats to one of their own.

But Hawk hadn’t liked that idea any more than I had. Even Grayson had spoken up and made an argument for Kara and Hayley Jade being allowed to come and go as they pleased.

They’d been locked in cages for far too long for us to put them in another.

“What’s happened?” Kara asked quietly.

I gazed at her in the early evening darkness. “I don’t want to scare you. But I don’t want to lie to you either.”

She sucked in a deep breath, reaching across the center console and running her knuckles down my arm. “Just tell me.”

“Josiah’s offered a reward for your return. Yours and Hayley Jade’s. A big one. One big enough that the people around here, who are already doing it tough, would easily see a way to make a quick buck. He told them your location. Made it so damn easy for them.”

Kara’s face fell. Her hand dropped away from my arm, and she sank back on her seat, shoulders hunching, folding in on herself. “I should just go back.”

I stopped the car. We were at the bluff parking lot anyway, not in a designated space, but it was late and there was never anybody up here at this time of day, which was exactly why I’d brought her here. “Over my dead body.”

She glanced at me. “Don’t say that.”

“You think I’m letting you go back to the man who abused you for years? You think Hawk is going to let that happen? You want Hayley Jade back with him?”

She shook her head hard enough tendrils of dark hair fell around her face. “Hayley Jade will never go back there. I don’t care what happens to me, but you have to promise me she’ll be safe. That you’ll always put her first.”

“You both—”

Emotion clogged her voice, and tears filled her eyes. “No! Promise me, Hayden. Promise me she’ll always come first. Promise me, if it ever comes down to it, you’ll pick her over me.”

I scrubbed my hands over my face. “I can’t—”

Her fingers wrapped in my shirt, desperately clinging to me, searching for the promise she needed. “Please. You have to. I’ve already failed her in so many ways.”

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