Page 4 of Torn In Two

He was such a hypocrite. “You were willing to kill me for stepping through the gates a minute ago, and now you’re worried for my safety?”

Hawk grimaced, rolling the shoulder that had slammed into me when he’d slid. “Yeah, well, it’s a confusing feeling to hate someone and yet also apparently need to keep them alive because…”

He clamped his lips together.

“Because Kara loves me.”

He said nothing.

But I knew I’d hit the nail on the head. “And you love her, and you don’t want to see her hurt. That about sum it up?”

“Her taste in men sucks if that’s true.” He got out of the van and moved to the entrance. Still rubbing at his shoulder, he reached for the control panel that would presumably require a pin code. Then stopped and leaned hard on one of the gates.

It swung open.

It hadn’t been locked at all.

I rolled my eyes and called out the open window, “Seriously? It wasn’t even locked? We could have been down there by now!”

Hawk turned around. “The gates are never unlocked. Never unmanned.” He poked at the panel and shook his head. “It’s completely dead. The entire security system is down.”

I twisted my fingers around the steering wheel at the tone in his voice. “What does that mean?”

He shook his head and got back into the van. “Not only could anyone have gotten out, anyone could have gotten in.” He swallowed thickly. “The cops think there’s a serial killer. One who goes after sisters.”

I shook my head, trying to make sense of that. “What has that got to do with anything?”

“Kara’s sister was murdered a couple weeks ago.”

My blood ran cold. “So not only are we up against an entire chapter of bikers who apparently want to drag her back to her abusive husband and his whack-job cult, we also have to worry about some serial killer potentially inside the gates?”

Hawk looked over at me. “As well as none of the Slayers killing you on sight.”

“Or you stabbing me in the back. Which we all know is more likely.”

Hawk sighed and then held out his hand. “Twenty-four-hour truce. I fucked up with Kara in letting her think you were dead. And you’re right. I love her and I want her back. Killing you will only make her hate me more. The last thing I want to do is cause her pain.”

I wasn’t an idiot. Hawk was the way I got inside without being shot on sight. He’d grown up on this land and he knew it, even in the dark. I didn’t. He was my best bet at finding Kara, as well as staying alive long enough to take her home with me.

I took his hand, shaking it. “Did we just become best friends?”

It would have almost been funny if shots hadn’t interrupted, the cracking boom of a gun piercing the night air.

3

HAWK

“Leave the van!” I shouted to Hayden. “Those shots came from the woods. We’re going to have to go in on foot.”

I wasn’t waiting for him. We had rules about guns within our boundaries. Nobody was permitted to use one without some sort of very good reason, and the punishment was harsh for breaking the rules. It was to stop drunken Friday night arguments over a pool table from turning into a shootout. When everyone was armed and nobody’s moral compass gave a shit about ending a life, we had to have some sort of guidelines or we’d have no members left living.

The prez was the only person permitted to fire a bullet and walk away without question. So either War or Riot was getting trigger-happy, or somebody else had found a reason to send a bullet into the night air.

All I could think about was someone taking Kara from me. But imagining someone forcing her onto a bike to take her back to her husband, or putting a rope around her neck and drawing it tight until she couldn’t breathe was useless.

No one was hurting her.

Shouts came from ahead, muffled by the blood rushing in my ears and Hayden’s heavy footsteps crunching through the undergrowth behind me.

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