Page 120 of Torn In Two

That he wanted me just the way I was.

That I was his.

I pressed my face into his neck, licking his warm skin, tasting him and committing it to memory. My hips slowed their pace, but neither of us stopped completely, our frantic thrusts to get off turning into agonizingly slow glides that were sweet torture to us both.

I sighed into his neck, so content in his arms I didn’t want to remember there was a world outside.

One that wanted me hurt.

One that wanted us apart.

“Please don’t leave, Kara,” he whispered.

He didn’t ask me for a promise.

Because we both knew it was one I couldn’t make.

36

KARA

The next few days, everyone was on edge. Hawk hovered around, stressed to the eyeballs and seeming like he wanted to call a lockdown at any minute. Every time the men disappeared into church, the other women and I held our breaths, waiting for their decision.

I wrung my hands nervously, hating their lives could all be severely impacted because of me. Kiki and Amber told stories of the last lockdown they’d had and how they’d hated every moment of it. Queenie was too sweet to say anything, but the dirty looks Fancy threw my way told me nobody was very happy with me for bringing this to their doorstep.

But each time the men came out, it seemed Fang and the others had talked Hawk off the ledge.

I was glad for it. Not because I was selfless. Lord knew I’d been more than selfish a time or two lately. But because the fact was, nothing had happened.

The police had come by, and Hawk had yelled at them for a good hour, while they assured him they were investigating the kidnapping threats and that they’d issued an order for Josiah’s podcast episode to be removed.

That hadn’t been enough for Hawk, and Hayden and Grayson had sat by quietly, not looking too happy about it either, but nobody could get a word in around Hawk’s ranting.

He’d taken me to his room that night, and we’d had slow, sweet, lovemaking sex. The kind I doubted anybody but me knew he was even capable of.

It had been full of fear and love, and it broke my heart to see him the way he was.

Hayden had the restaurant, and Grayson had his job to distract them.

But in the absence of War, who was still holed up in his love nest with his family and new baby, Hawk’s focus was solely on keeping not only me but the entire club safe.

The toll was beginning to show.

But the world didn’t stop turning because we had problems.

Hayley Jade kept going to school because keeping her sheltered from the threats and happy was my main priority. She was thriving in the company of other children. She got herself up every day and was dressed and ready hours before we needed to leave. Once or twice, though she still didn’t make a sound, I caught her lips moving as she tried to read the simple, two-or-three-words-per-page books the school sent her home with.

I volunteered at the hospital more than I ever had.

Partly because I loved it. Partly because wherever I went, Hawk went, and if anyone needed to be in their happy place right now, it was him.

The hospital was truly turning out to be that for him. He and Grayson bantered back and forth every time they found themselves in the clinic together or on the same ward on days the clinic didn’t run. I didn’t miss the way Hawk asked him questions any chance he got, comfortable enough with Grayson or Nurse Willa to show interest in something, even if they were the only two he did that with. He still curled his lip at the doctors who acted like nurses and volunteers were so far beneath them they didn’t even get the courtesy of a hello. I couldn’t blame him. Some of them were horrible.

The Friday free clinic rolled around, and Hawk actually whistled beneath his breath, despite the fact the parking lot was unusually full and we had to walk farther than normal.

I nudged him. “You’re in a good mood.”

He shrugged. “I like it here. I like feeling useful and like I’m doing something that actually matters.” He glanced at me. “I think we should enroll for the GED classes.”

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