Thorn: Carter Kids #2 (2 page)

I had a family now.

Kyle was my brother, Lee was my sister-in-law, and the triplets and Hope were my niece and nephews.

Kyle had bailed me out. I was back in Thirteenth Street because of the guy and his big fucking heart. I couldn’t resent that. Besides, I knew what kind of upbringing my older half brother had, and it wasn’t fucking pretty. The man was self-made. I could only aspire to be like him one day. Maybe that’s why I had always felt so damn comfortable in the Carter’s house?

It was because I was one of them.

Well shit…

Just a few short hours ago, I was the only child of a murdered ex-con and a schizophrenic heroin addict. And now? Now I had brothers, and more family than I’d ever dreamed possible.

I should be losing my shit right about now, but the meds flushing their way through my bloodstream kept me highly sedated and extremely drowsy.

My body was in pieces. Everything hurt. My back, my face, my fucking chest; hell, even my dick was throbbing. But I was alive, breathing and I hadn’t killed anyone.

Pain was smothering my senses, my ribs were burning like vinegar seeping into an open wound, but I knew I would sleep easy tonight.

Because I was free.

Free from George Dennis, and free to live my life.

Free to be with Teagan.

Inhaling gingerly, I allowed my eyelids to flutter closed, comforted by the knowledge that my Thorn was safely tucked up in her bed next door.

Fuck it, a bright future was actually attainable for a guy like me.

“Mmm…Yes!” A female voice mewled, startling me awake.

The sudden weight that slammed against my pelvis was fucking fantastic.

“Thorn?” My voice sounded groggy and slurred.

So sweet and soft and warm.

So damn snug and tight.

A nervous tingle shot up my spine and I heard myself groan in pleasure.

“Shh,” was the last thing I heard before unconsciousness claimed me.

WHEN I CAME TO
I was alone on my bed, naked, and feeling more satisfied than I had in days.

Even though I couldn’t remember jack shit from the night before, the wet patch on the mattress assured me that a late night visit from my girlfriend was the reason I felt so sated.

Slightly dazed, and feeling like a freight train had mowed me down, I shrugged on a pair of sweat pants, climbed unsteadily to my feet, and made my way over to my bedroom window.

My eyes immediately honed in on Teagan standing on her front porch and my heart flipped inside of my chest.

I needed to get used to looking at her from behind a pane of glass,
I thought to myself as I studied her beautiful face. Her face that was
crying
?

Confused as hell, I watched in a mixture of surprise and anxiety as my girlfriend walked towards a cab with a suitcase.

What the…

I tapped on the windowpane and tried to get her attention, but she didn’t look back.

That caused the anxiety inside of me to multiply rapidly.

“Teagan!”

I could barely breathe from the pain in my side, but the slicing in my chest watching Teagan, followed by Hope, climb into the cab was fifty million times worse.

Fuck, I would rather take a knife than feel this.

“Teagan!”

I rapped my knuckles harder against the window.

“Thorn!”

And then the car pulled away.

Fuck no…

Frantic for answers, I grabbed my phone off my nightstand and swiped my thumb across the screen. Immediately, a message thread opened up.

Noah: Need 2 show u something. Front door’s unlocked. I’m in bed. Come straight up.

Teagan: Be there in 2.

“What the…” Gaping at the screen of my phone in confusion, I slowly worded out the messages under my breath as I tried to make sense of the texts I knew I hadn’t sent.

Forcing my legs to move, I shuffled clumsily out of my bedroom and down the staircase. Leaning against the hallway wall when I reached the bottom step, still woozy from the pain meds, I shook my head and tried to clear my vision.

Raw anxiety was eating at my gut.

What the hell was happening?

“Good morning, sexy.”

My entire frame froze the second my eyes landed on Reese, in the doorway of my kitchen, with a mug of coffee in her hands, dressed in nothing but my blood-stained t-shirt.

“What the fuck.” It wasn’t a question. I already knew the answer – it was smeared all over my dick. No doubt it was the reason Teagan had tore off in that cab quicker than a bat out of hell.

Jesus Christ.

A million different emotions were coursing through me. I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t believe my fucking eyes. “You fucking rapist,” I snarled, feeling violated and furious.

“Calm down,” Reese cooed, holding out the mug for me to take.

I took it from her and plastered it against the opposite wall. She yelped when it shattered and coffee sprayed everywhere.

“You raped me.” Three words I never thought would come out of my mouth, but there they were. “You fucking forced yourself on me, didn’t you?”

When she didn’t deny it, I let out a roar. “You sent Teagan that text from my phone, didn’t you?”

Reese’s eyes welled up with tears as she nodded her head.

My heart sank. “Did she see?” I managed to choke out. “Did my girlfriend see you fucking me?”

“Noah please,” Reese protested. “Let me explain –”

“Don’t you dare goddamn
Noah
me,” I roared into her face. “You took advantage of me.” My voice sounded strange even to me. “And now Teagan’s gone because of you!” Violent and wholly enraged. “Was shaming her with that CCTV footage not enough for you?” I demanded, “You had to do
this
?”

“I’m sorry okay?” Reese shook her head in despair. “I didn’t expect you to behave like this. I thought you would –” she started to say, but I cut her off.

“What?” I stalked past her towards the front door. “You didn’t expect me to feel violated?” With the front door open, I glared once more at the girl in my shirt. “You better get suited with a good fucking lawyer,” I warned her. “There’s a special place in the state penitentiary for women like you. Don’t think you’ll get away with this because I’m the one with the dick.”

It was freezing when I stepped outside, wearing only a pair of black sweat pants, but I didn’t let it stop me. I was like a crazed man on a rampage.

I needed to stop Teagan from leaving me.

I
needed
her, period.

I wouldn’t survive the next few years without her.

Staggering across the yard, I stumbled up her porch steps and thrust my elbow against the panel of glass in her uncle’s front door.

The sound of the house alarm went off, almost deafening me, and I knew I was burying myself under another lawsuit, but I was desperate.

The glass shattered, as I knew it would, and I slipped my hand inside, feeling the nicks of razor sharp shards as they sliced at my skin.

Twisting the doorknob, I let myself inside and grabbed Teagan’s car keys from the desk table in the foyer.

Racing outside, I didn’t think twice about unlocking her little red Honda Civic and climbing inside, ignoring Reese’s screaming protests that I was on house arrest and couldn’t leave. With my foot to the floor, I tore out of the driveway in the direction the cab had gone.

I was less than a mile from The Hill when red and blue sirens alerted me to the fact that I had company.

Cursing like a sailor, I threw the car into fifth and gunned it. Praying for a miracle but preparing for the worst, I continued driving like a madman; driven by desperation – by fucking love.

In the end, I wasn’t sure if it was the meds, or the actual pain that caused me to veer off the road, but for the life of me I couldn’t keep control of the car.

I took the corner too sharply and stuck the nearby ditch.

The car flipped twice before settling on its roof.

Game over.

I HAD TO ADMIT
that it wasn’t my brightest idea, running home to Ireland with nowhere to go, but my ex-boyfriend’s family had taken us in when we arrived at their door at the crack of dawn last Saturday. They had been more than hospitable, all things considered.

“Are you okay, pet?” Sheila Harte asked me for the twelfth time in the past hour through the door of the toilet, and for the twelfth time I had to repeat the words ‘I’m grand, Sheila,’ as I clung to the toilet bowl in her downstairs bathroom like it was my very own personal lifeline.

The whole flight all I could do was cry, puke, scream, and die inside. I was fairly certain I wouldn’t be welcome back on an Aer Lingus flight anytime in the foreseeable future. And even though we had arrived at the Harte’s home almost a week ago, I was still vomiting and seriously considering taking the valium Liam’s mother had offered me last night.

Noah had never been mine.

I knew that now.

How could I even be sure that he was
ever
faithful to me?

I couldn’t be sure.

I couldn’t believe anything.