Page 32 of Torn In Two

11

KARA

If it were even possible, the Slayers’ gates had somehow become even more imposing in the week I’d been away. Or maybe it was just the fact I was now approaching them in the passenger seat of Hayden’s truck.

“They’re going to lock me in the basement,” he mumbled. “This is such a bad idea.”

“They won’t,” I said, voice full of a confidence I didn’t really feel.

Unless I thought about how I trusted Hawk with my child and so trusting him with Hayden’s life was no different.

If he said Hayden would be safe here, then he would be. I had to believe that. I’d heard the sincerity in Hawk’s voice when he’d said he loved me. He wouldn’t hurt me by going back on his word.

It didn’t stop my palms from sweating when Hayden stopped the truck outside the gates and Ice appeared from the shadows, a shotgun held in one hand.

“Kara?” he called out.

I rolled down the window. “It’s me.”

He lowered the gun and came to my side of the truck, peering in. His face relaxed into a smile. “Hey. You don’t look dead anymore. You doing okay?”

“Much better, thank you.”

He grinned, but then his gaze slid past me to the bags in the backseat holding all of mine and Hayden’s clothes. Ice’s eyes darkened in Hayden’s direction. “You’re a brave man. There’s a whole club full of hate waiting for you down there, you know that, right?”

“I don’t want any trouble,” Hayden said quietly.

Ice shrugged and opened the gate for us. “Your funeral, brother.”

I glanced nervously at Hayden as he nodded once and then urged the truck through the gates.

They closed with a metal-against-metal clang that sent a shudder down my spine.

He reached over and took my hand, squeezing it. “Listen, if they give me shit, you don’t try to stand up for me, okay? If there’s a fight, don’t get in the middle. I’ve earned whatever is coming to me. You just let them go. I can take whatever they dish out. You hear me?”

I wanted to argue. Wanted to assure him none of that would happen.

Except we both knew we were walking into a lion’s den, and while the lions might like me, they all had the scent of Hayden’s blood on their minds.

I didn’t think I could agree not to help him if push came to shove though. So I didn’t make a promise I couldn’t keep.

Hayden parked the truck at the end of a row of bikes, and we both got out, him shouldering our bags, leaving me only the smallest of them all to carry.

I led him to the doors and pulled them open.

The entire club waited on the other side. All the guys. Their wives. Rebel and Bliss’s partners who weren’t part of the club.

Everyone fell silent, their gazes all on us.

It was Hawk who moved first, pushing his way from the back of the room with Hayley Jade in his arms.

My heart skipped a beat at seeing her sweet face, even though she quickly buried it in the side of Hawk’s neck.

I touched a hand gently to her back as Hawk leaned down to take the bag from my hands. He lowered his head, brushing his lips across my cheek. “Welcome home, Little Mouse.”

Despite myself, a thrill raced down my spine at hearing him use that nickname again. At having him so close his warm breath coasted over my neck, reminding me of the way his tongue felt every time he traced patterns there.

Despite how angry I was at him, my body still reacted in the same way it always had.

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