Page 30 of Torn In Two

I changed the subject as Kara positioned herself on a kitchen stool in between us. “So how is it the VP of the Saint View Slayers MC can’t shoot for shit?”

He shrugged, loading up an injection of something. “I never learned.”

“I find that hard to believe. Didn’t your old man raise you in the club? I’m surprised you and War weren’t shooting things from the day you were born, just preparing for a life of crime.”

He poked the injection into my arm none too softly.

I probably deserved it. I was goading him. It was distracting me from the pain in my arm, and the worse pain of realizing I needed Hawk’s help. In more ways than one.

Hawk pushed down on the syringe, delivering what I really hoped was anesthetic and not some drug that was going to have me dead on the floor so he could run off with Kara alone.

Something in me knew he wouldn’t, though. He’d had his chance to kill me. More than once.

I might have even deserved it.

When my arm went numb, the throbbing pain from the wound disappearing, I knew I was right.

Hawk threaded a needle with some sort of medical fishing line and poked it through my skin. “Our dads tried. War’s a decent shot. I just ain’t.” He peered at me over the top of his thread. “But War can’t sew up a wound for shit, so who would you prefer here right now?”

I didn’t mention the fact if it had been War here, with his better aim, I probably wouldn’t be the one bleeding right now. But if Luca Guerra had been bleeding out on my doorstep, we would have had a whole lot more problems than whether my tattoo would still look right with a scar through the middle of it.

“Can you tell me what you’re doing?” Kara asked Hawk quietly.

She watched Hawk intently, like she was taking mental notes.

He jerked his head. “Come over here so you can see better. If you can get my phone out of my back pocket and turn the flashlight function on, that would be helpful too.”

She slid off the stool and slipped her hand into his back pocket, moving around Hawk with the familiarity of two people who knew each other’s bodies well.

Jealousy surged within me at the touch of her hands trailing across his back and ass. At their heads so close together, the two of them huddled over my arm and Hawk explaining the process to her, Kara nodding and soaking it in like it was the most interesting thing she’d ever learned in her life.

“Are you still going to volunteer at the hospital clinic?” Hawk asked her.

Kara’s reply was quiet. “I want to.”

“I’ll still volunteer with you. Even if you’re living here. I’ll still volunteer so you aren’t alone.”

She didn’t look up. If anything, she studied my arm even harder so she didn’t have to make eye contact with either of us. “Just because you pulled me out of a hole and showed up here tonight, doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you.”

It was suddenly like I wasn’t even in the room and it was just the two of them.

His voice went soft, verging on tender. “Please, Kara,” he whispered. “I’m so fucking sorry. About everything. You don’t have to forgive me. I get it. I blew any chance of that. But I can keep you safe. Just let me do that. Please.”

A younger version of myself would have given in to the jealousy that curdled my stomach, watching the two of them together. I would have demanded I could protect her too.

But tonight had proved I couldn’t be everything she needed.

She needed him too. Considering he was stitching me up yet again, apparently, she wasn’t the only one.

So I swallowed my fucking pride and through clenched teeth, I said her name.

When she turned her attention to me, my heart could have exploded with how much I wanted her. How much I felt for her. How much that connection between us demanded I do anything for her, even if that meant I didn’t get what I wanted.

“You should let him go with you.” I swallowed down the bitter regret building in my throat. “And I think you should go back to the clubhouse too.”

Hawk jerked his head up to stare at me, but I ignored him, focusing on Kara.

Her eyes were so damn huge. “You don’t want me here?”

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