Keeping Karly (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read Free

and hurt by the public accusations she’d flung his way that he hadn’t stopped to wonder if she’d had more than one reason to interpret her sister’s lifestyle the way she had.
    The siren of the ambulance was a welcome respite to his inner turmoil. He’d left the front door open when he’d come through earlier so there was no need to leave Karly alone, a thought that was solidified when her grip tightened on his fingers.
    “It’s okay, sweetheart, I’m not going anywhere.”
    “What happened?” one of the ambulance officers asked as they hurried into the room.
    “Her husband attacked her,” Bryce said, even knowing that Karly probably would have liked to keep the identity of her attacker quiet. She sobbed louder, but didn’t let go of his hand. The ambulance officer nodded as he reached into the bag he’d been carrying. “And you are?” The question was just a little too casual to not be offensive. Clearly the man had seen too many horrifying outcomes to love triangles.
    “I’m a friend of her sister’s,” Bryce answered as he pushed down the annoyance. The guy was doing his job, just trying to assess the situation and keep himself and his partner safe.
    “So why didn’t you call the police?”
    “I did,” Bryce answered through gritted teeth. Admittedly, he’d hesitated to contact the police. After what happened to her sister, having Karly arrive at the hospital accompanied by two men the police had spoken to the night of Casey’s heart attack was not going to look good for any of them—especially in light of the newspaper articles Karly had written. Thankfully, good sense had kicked in and he’d asked for both police and ambulance because, very simply, it was the right thing to do. Karly’s husband needed to be charged with assault, and if Karly even so much as thought about not doing it, Bryce intended to remind her of everything she’d said to Casey, hoping to convince her to have Robert charged.
    Ironically, in the end it had been Casey’s decision to go against the advice of all her friends. It had taken some time, but eventually every member of the club had supported the idea of Robert being charged—even if it did personally expose them to uncomfortable scrutiny. At least that was what Grant had told him via email. Having been out of the country for five months Bryce could only go on secondhand information. He trusted his brother’s assessment of the situation, but with Grant’s idea of a long email being three whole lines and a phone call longer than a minute being a waste of time, Bryce was working on the bare bones of information.
    Thankfully, the arrival of the police in the driveway cut off any further interrogation and the EMTs turned their attention back to their patient. Bryce didn’t blame them for their wariness—domestic disputes were often unpredictable—but he sure wished for a world where it wasn’t necessary.
    The police officers asked several quick questions before agreeing to meet them at the hospital. They’d seemed reluctant at first to let him go in the ambulance with Karly, but once they’d verified his identity via his driver’s license and determined that a car had left the driveway in a skid-marking hurry the way he’d described they let him accompany her.
    Their decision probably had something to do with the fact that Karly’s hand was wrapped so tightly around his that he was losing feeling in his fingers. No way was he going to leave her side when she needed someone so desperately to hold on to.

Chapter Three
     
    I wake suddenly, my heart pounding in terror.
    I need to clean the carpet. Shit, I probably got blood all over it. John is going to be so mad when he gets home. I need to get it cleaned to a spotless perfection. I don’t want to disappoint him the way I did earlier with dinner.
    But sitting up makes me dizzy. I swallow hard, unable to open my eyes, not certain where I am.
    “Karly,” my sister says in a sad voice as gentle hands ease