Fasten your seat belts for a wild ride… Shay is in trouble again… but this time it's not with the law. After attempting to make amends with her former best friend, Shay is kidnapped off the streets of Manhattan. Her captor is the last person she expected. Will Jennings had been a childhood friend from Deepwater, TN. Now, he is a highly skilled assassin with ties to the mob, and currently, the one holding her hostage. Jennings traded his innocence long ago to pay his mothers medical bills. They say the mob is like family but for Jennings they literally are his family. When he gets the hit on Shay Montgomery he can't imagine it's the same sweet girl he grew up with. Now he will do anything in his power to protect her from the evil that is just a step behind them. But the more they are together the old feelings begin to smolder and the spark becomes a flame.
Lihat lebih banyakMy throat was dry, my hands were shaking, and I almost dropped my water glass when I tried to take a drink. Maybe it’s best if I just fold my hands in my lap. Does that look weird? What am I talking about? I look like a June Cleaver want to be in my sensible suit and fake pearls. This was a mistake; I should never have come. I can’t do this.
***
Step two: I believe that a Power greater than myself can restore my life and my sanity.
I’m a lunatic to think that she will ever forgive me. Shit, I fucked her sister’s husband for drugs. Self-loathing washed over me, and I wanted to get up—to run away from here. I don’t deserve to be in the same city, let alone the same room as her. I almost ruined her life. I sure as hell tried to.
***
Step three: I have made the decision to turn my will and life over to the care of God.
I have never been a religious person. My momma went to church when I was young, and she was always praying/cursing God for all of her mishaps. But what did I know about the big guy in the sky? He pretty much kept away from me and I sure as shit never invited him in. It was only in the darkest of moments when I was sitting in a county cell in my own urine that I finally asked if he was really there. If he cared about a meth whore like me because nobody else did. I had seen to that.
***
Step four: I have made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself.
My name is Shay Montgomery, I’m from a little city called Deepwater in Tennessee. I’m a methadone addict. I have stolen money from friends and family. I have had sex with men for drug money. I drove my best friend Mandy away and treated her like shit. To make matters worse, I slept with her sister’s husband Andrew—my dealer. If that wasn’t bad enough, he murdered their parents because they couldn’t pay what they owed him. I’m not sure I would have stopped using on my own. I was picked up nearly a year ago by the local police and served a little under a year for drug possession. I’m now clean and in a twelve-step program. This is my truth.
***
Step five: I have admitted to God, to myself and all other human beings the exact nature of my wrongs.
And now you know why I’m here. Sitting at a café in an ill-fitting suit that I picked up at the thrift store, with a set of fake pearls loaned to me by my roommate, Stacy. I met her at the bar that I work at. Her dark skin and kicking body have men flocking to her like flies to honey.
Shit, if I was into girls I would put her at the top of my list. But the most important thing is that Stacy is one of the kindest people I have ever met. She doesn’t put up with my bullshit and she doesn’t tolerate drugs of any kind.
It was her idea for me to try and make amends with Mandy. I had sent letters to both Mandy and Kim when I was locked up. Not surprisingly, I never heard anything back and didn’t expect to. But Stacy was right, Mandy deserved for me to apologize to her face. We were best friends, and I shit all over it.
I noticed her out of the corner of my eye. Mandy’s handsome husband was glued to her side and glowering right at me. Mandy’s slender shape and blonde hair were so familiar to me. I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face.
Mandy didn’t return it. She approached the table and didn’t sit down.
I nervously stood. “Mandy, it is good to see you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Shay, I wish I could say the same. Haven’t you done enough for my family? The only reason I’m here is that the lawyers said that it was your testimony that put Andrew away. I figured that I owed you the decency to listen to what you have to say. But now that I am here, I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want your excuses. I’m happy now. You can’t take that away from me.”
She turned on her heel to leave and I felt my panic racing up my throat.
“No, no, no! Please, Mandy, don’t leave!”
Elliot growled at me and I took a nervous step back.
Mandy turned, and I saw tears swimming in her blue eyes. Shit, I didn’t come here to hurt her.
“I wanted to tell you how sorry I am,” I started, and she actually laughed in my face.
“You? Are you sorry? You know what? Whatever, thanks for letting me know.”
She whipped back around and stormed out of the café, her expensive shoes clicking on the tiles. Her husband glared at me. “Don’t contact us again.”
I nodded—defeated. “I won’t.”
He followed her, and I sank back down in my chair. The snotty waitress who had shamelessly watched the whole scene raised a brow. “Are you going to order anything? Because if you aren’t we really need the table.”
The fucking café was empty, and she knew it as well as I did. They wanted the trash out of the establishment—me.
I stood, tucking the strap of my purse over my shoulder, only to have the thin leather snap. Suddenly everything I had in my bag was scattered over the tiles. There were tampons, lip gloss, my phone, some lotion, gum, and my twelve-step book. The waitress grabbed the book and looked at me again with a hint of pity.
I thanked her and tucked the bag under my arm with my possessions shoved back inside.
The voices had already started up.
‘Just one hit, it won’t hurt anything. You will fell so much better. All of this will go away. Do it, Shay, we need it.’
I choked back a sob. This had been a mistake. I didn’t feel any better; if anything, I felt a crapload worse. But this wasn’t about me feeling better. It was about owning up to my mistakes.
I pulled out my phone and started to dial Stacy’s number.
“Hey, Shay, how did it go?”
Right as I was about to answer, a hand wrapped around my mouth and yanked me back against a hard chest. The other arm wrapped around me like a vise and lifted me up off the pavement.
“Shay? Girl, did you butt-dial me?”
My phone fell to the pavement as my captor shoved me inside of an unmarked van that I hadn’t noticed parked at the curb. I couldn’t call out, couldn’t move, and didn’t expect when the blow came to my head and black dots appeared in front of my eyes.
“Shit, there is no need to rough her up!”
The man’s voice was somewhat familiar, but I couldn’t place where.
“She was going to scream!” The man who hit me argued. “What do you care if I hit the bitch?”
I didn’t hear the other man’s answer because I had finally escaped into nothingness.
Bonus Chapter 2 - Julio & Natalia“I’ve seen more cows than people in this town,” Jackson complained as they drove into the small town of Otterville Falls. “Why are we here, again?”“Because according to Jennings, Natalia is here. Why? I don’t really know. Fro
BONUS MATERIAL -How Julio got his groove back...
CHAPTER 24 – ShayAt the computer putting the finishing touches on a manuscript...A lot has happened since our stay at the Villa. As I began to recuperate Will was busy selling his mansion and finding us a new forever home. It was obvious that going back to the United States wouldn’t be in his best interest. Will wasn’t precisely on the Feds list, but they weren’t exchanging Christmas cards either.
CHAPTER 23 – WillI hated being away from Shay at the Villa, but the truth was that if we were ever to have a future together I was going to need to get out of the family business. Julio understood where I was coming from and promised to take good care of her while I went about tying up loose ends.In between all of this, the threat of Redmont was still weighing on us. I knew that he would be coming after her. That crazy son of a bitch just didn’t know when to stop. Most people would have thrown in the towel long ago, so I knew there had to be more involved.
CHAPTER 22 – ShayWe fell into a certain pattern at the Villa, I was able to spend time with Mandy and her daughter and slowly she began to thaw towards me. It was never the close relationship that we had once shared, but I could tell that she didn’t hate me and that meant the world to me.Will was often gone in the daytime and then when he returned we would make passionate love all night. I loved him more than the air I breathed. I would often tell him so and every time he didn’t return the statement a little bit of me died inside.
CHAPTER 21 – Shay“For heaven’s sake would you please just sit down?” Gina scowled at me. “I am supposed to be mad at you and I can’t even do that properly with you freaking out.”“You don’t understand,” I was wringing my hands, wearing out a hole in the carpet. “She hates me, Gina, they both hate my guts and now because of me they are forced to come here.”Gina raised a brow, “Unless you are God and can control what that bitch Emma does, it is no
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