Page 74 of Torn In Two

Something passed between them that didn’t need words.

Kara’s spine straightened. Her shoulders pulled back.

A soft smile spread across Hawk’s lips, and then he lowered his head and pressed them against hers, like I wasn’t even in the room.

“That’s my girl. Go do your thing with Gray and Hayley Jade.”

“And then we’ll go to Hayden’s restaurant opening afterward?”

Hawk groaned and pressed his forehead to hers. “Seriously? You’re going to make me go to that?”

“Please.”

He let out a huff. “You know I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”

She smiled at him as he dragged himself away, and then she glanced at me, jumping a little, like in Hawk’s presence she’d forgotten I was even present. “Oh, sorry. That was terribly rude of me. Let me get Hayley Jade.” She hurried toward the door next to Hawk’s.

I caught her hand before she could pass by.

Both of us stared down in surprise at my fingers wrapped around her. Her skin was so warm. The pulse at her wrist flickered too fast beneath my fingertips.

I realized I was staring, as well as crossing a professional line. I dropped her hand. “Wait. I like to start by talking to the parent first. Can we sit somewhere and talk privately for a moment?”

Kara cringed. “I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t want to do that.”

“I need to know what’s been going on with her, so I know where to start. Especially because she’s currently nonverbal.”

Kara surveyed the clubhouse with a critical eye. “It’s not exactly very private around here. Do you mind coming into my bedroom?”

I wanted to groan. Refuse to see the place she slept, because I had no doubt in my mind that where Kara was at night, Hawk and Hayden probably were as well. She led me into her room, closing the door quietly behind us, but all I could do was stare at the bed, imagining her naked in it, with Hawk’s and Hayden’s big bodies sandwiching her between them while they writhed around, pleasuring each other.

This was so damn unprofessional.

I squeezed my eyes closed, irrational jealousy coursing through me that I had no right to feel. She had men in her life. She wasn’t available for me to desire the way I did, just because she was sweet and kind and so broken I was desperate to fix her.

There was nowhere to sit but her bed. She perched on the edge and then indicated I could take the spot next to her.

Friends. Friends. Friends.

I pulled my phone from my pocket and showed her the recording app I used during all my sessions. “Are you okay with me taping this? It doesn’t get shared with anyone. It’s purely for my own notes.”

She nodded, and I set the phone to record and put it down between us.

“What do you want to know?” Her hands twisting around each other gave away how nervous she was.

“All of it. Every reason you can think of as to why Hayley Jade might have stopped speaking.”

She let out a shuddering breath and nodded.

The story came tumbling out in a rush of words I didn’t have a hope of slowing. Like she’d been holding it all together for too long, all of it on the tip of her tongue, the story desperate to be shared in every horrifying detail.

Somewhere amongst the avalanche, Hayley Jade’s story became Kara’s.

Cults. Forced marriages. Assaults. Hayley Jade’s birth. Josiah. Hawk. Hayden. Rebel. Her sister’s death.

More trauma than any one person should ever have to endure.

She clutched her stomach, as if setting free the words had caused a physical ache. “All of it is my fault, isn’t it?”

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