Page 117 of Torn In Two

She shrugged. “I don’t know how to drive. I’m always reliant on you or Hawk or someone to pick me up and chauffeur me around. I can’t go anywhere by myself.”

It had never even occurred to me. The clubhouse was in the middle of nowhere. It wasn’t like there was a bus stop right out front. She didn’t have her own money or her own vehicle.

When I stopped and thought about it, it was really no surprise at all she felt trapped.

She was as reliant on Hawk and me and the rest of the club as she’d been on Josiah.

We might not have been abusing her, but in trying to protect her, keep her safe, and give her everything, we’d made her helpless.

Kept her in a cage.

Smothered her independence.

The realization hit me like a sledgehammer, rolling my stomach until I felt sick. I took the keys from the ignition and tossed them at her. “Catch.”

Her reflexes were fast enough to snag the keys before they were lost to the darkness of the floorboard.

She stared down at them. “What are you doing?”

“You said you wanted to learn to drive, didn’t you?”

35

KARA

Iclutched the keys in my fingers, nervous laughter bubbling up my throat. “I can’t drive your truck! What if I crash it? I don’t even have a license!”

But Hayden was already out of the truck and rounding to the passenger side to open my door. “There’s nobody out here. Everyone starts in an empty parking lot. And we have one of those. We won’t go out on the roads.”

A swirl of excitement formed inside me. “Really?”

He eyed me. “All you had to do was ask. You want to learn how to drive? No sweat. You want to learn how to make a perfect duck breast with apricot chutney? I can show you. You want to learn how to crochet? Well, I don’t know how to do that, but I can figure it out with you.” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I didn’t know we were holding you back. I didn’t mean to. And I know Hawk didn’t either. We just…overdid it. We thought we were protecting you.”

“I know.” I smiled at him, anticipation spreading through my body. “Better put your seat belt on. You’re the one who needs protecting now.” I slid out of the seat and trotted past him to the driver’s side.

He got in, making a show of putting on his seat belt while I adjusted the seat. My legs were about half the length of his.

“Could you get any closer to the steering wheel?” He sniggered.

“Hey! I have short legs, okay?”

“Fine, fine. I hope you don’t crash into anything because the airbags are really going to be painful at that distance.”

I glared at him. “Super reassuring.”

He laughed. “Put the key in the ignition—”

I was already three steps ahead of him, the engine turning over and rumbling to life, aided by my foot on the accelerator.

Hayden’s fingers slid to the handle above the window. “Why do I get the impression you’ve done that before?”

“I haven’t,” I assured him. “But I’ve watched you and Hawk do it enough times to know how.” I revved it again, the truck vibrating beneath me. I grinned at the feeling it gave me. “Parking brake off. Gear shift moves to drive. And—” I widened my eyes at the truck lurching forward. “Aaah!”

Hayden tightened his grip on the door. “And you’re driving. Don’t forget to steer.”

I shot him a dirty look, but the reminder probably wasn’t in vain. I had taken my hands off the wheel for a second. I clamped them back down, fingers tight on the hard plastic and giving it an experimental tug as we crept along at a snail’s pace, just letting it move off its own car magic. My foot was nowhere near the accelerator, too nervous to move it in that direction when having it hovering over the brake felt a whole lot safer.

Hayden’s hand landed on my thigh, warm and reassuring. “Relax. You’re doing fine. Give it some gas.”

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