Page 2 of Katie 3

He scoffs and shakes his head. “Disappoint me?”

“We never talked about this stuff. I didn’t talk about it with you or Brad or…” More yelling echoes downstairs and I shiver. “Henry.”

“I just…” Carter draws back from me and rubs his jaw. “I thought we were closer than keeping secrets like this.”

And there’s the disappointment. I knew it would come. I knew he’d embrace it and I feel a wall building between us. I can either let it happen, or I can do something about it. So I take his hand and put it on my stomach.

He looks from my face to where his hand is, and I clear my throat. “I don’t know whose it is. Brad thinks it’s his, but… we all know it could belong to any of you. I don’t know what it will change between us. I don’t know if the father really matters. But it’s big and I was afraid to make it real by talking about it.”

“So, you said it only when you couldn’t hold it back anymore,” he fills in.

“Yeah. Because if I didn’t say it, if you all didn’t know, then.” I sigh. “It wasn’t real. I mean, what am I going to do about this? I still have to finish a semester of college, then I was supposed to find work and instead…” I trail off.

“It was real either way, doll. The baby doesn’t care if you’ve told people or not. It’s growing, right here inside you,” he says.

I nod, accepting that, but Carter stands after a moment. I have a feeling he’s going to leave. Leave me alone. Maybe he’ll fix things downstairs first. Maybe not. But he runs his hand through his hair, then clears his throat.

“Brad was right about you needing to be taken care of. Let’s get you cleaned up so you can relax, and we’ll figure things out another day,” he decides.

I swallow. “Okay.”

And that’s what we do. He asks me questions while I’m in the shower, watching through the curtain, but not pushing a single limit, not touching me, just watching. He asks what happened inthe woods. What I saw. What Brad did. What state Dan was in. What Brad said.

Once I get out of the shower and wrap myself in a towel, Carter takes care of the scratches on me, making sure he doesn’t miss a thing. He sighs when I tell him that Dan was still there when Brad and I left.

A door slams downstairs and I flinch.

“This is going to be a fucking shitshow,” Carter growls. “If that asshole doesn’t shape up… god, the trouble we’re going to be in.”

“Could I go to jail?” I whimper.

Carter’s eyes meet mine and the resolve in his gaze is nearly overwhelming. “I’m not letting that happen, doll. You’re not going to jail for what Brad did. He fucked up. He was the one who did all that. You couldn’t have stopped it when he brought you out there.”

“I didn’t call the police,” I say anyway.

“We’ll deal with it. Dad and I are very good at what we do,” Carter says darkly.

That’s all I get before he leads me to bed and tells me to put on pajamas and relax. He promises to take care of everything, promises that I’ll be okay. But when he turns the light off, my thoughts just swirl.

There’s no chance of relaxing when our home is in chaos all over again.

Chapter two

Carter

“We really don’t need to. It’s still so early,” Katie murmurs in the passenger seat.

She’s insisted on keeping things normal despite the fact that just a few days ago she was hauled out to see something horrible while Brad fucked her until she admitted she was pregnant. I’m sure he was rougher with her than normal. I know she’d never admit to it. She’d never tell me if he hurt her. She’d blame herself for not being able to take it.

“Most people go to the doctor to confirm a pregnancy,” I answer darkly.

There’s too much in my head and until I know if she and the baby are okay, I can’t fuck her the way I need. I don’t even want to open the door to fucking her mouth because I don’t think I’d be able to stop.

Henry’s been absent, saying he’s preparing for things. Preparing for the fucking shitshow Brad caused.

We need to keep Katie out of this chaos. The stress, the baby… I know it’s messing with Katie as it’s doing to all of us.

It’s rare more than two days go by without one of us pouncing on her. Granted, I don’t know if Brad’s fucking her daily right now. What he does when I’m not around isn’t normally my business, but I don’t want him breaking her.

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