Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72969 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72969 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
She escaped hell. Now it wants her back.
At just eighteen, Daniela Agudelo has already lived through more than anyone should. After fleeing Colombia and the men who stole her childhood, she lands in Texas with a dream of becoming a gourmet chef and a desperate need to stay invisible. But everything shifts when she meets Hawk Bellamy.
The middle son of the Bellamy billionaire ranching family, Hawk is used to being overlooked. Trapped between a hero brother and a reckless one, he’s the family fixer, the one who follows the rules—until Daniela crashes into his life with her intense beauty and haunted eyes.
Their connection is magnetic. Dangerous. She’s too young. He’s too jaded. Too bound to secrets and responsibilities he never asked for. But need has a way of ignoring the rules.
Until the first cryptic message arrives—and the hell Daniela thought she left behind doesn’t feel so far away.
And Hawk? He’ll break every rule in the book to protect her
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
HAWK
Fifteen Years Ago…
There is nothing more important than family. Remember that, Hawk.
I swear to God, if my father bludgeons those words into my brain one more time, I’m really going to become unhinged.
But at age twelve, I’ve been trained to say, “Yes, I understand, Dad.”
“It’s important that you always understand—he clears his throat, hiding his mouth—“that what I did was necessary.”
I nod. “Yes, I understand that.”
Even though I don’t.
Even though what he did lacks all understanding. All compassion. All goodness.
I look around my father’s home office in our sprawling house on Bellamy ranch. His massive mahogany desk, his leather reclining chair, his four giant computer monitors. Bookshelves are lined with tomes I’m sure he’s never read but look good. They smell good too. I inhale the crisp scent of parchment and leather.
It does nothing to soothe me.
What happened wasn’t right.
I don’t like when things aren’t right.
My brother Falcon tells me I need to be more realistic and less idealistic. The world is a complicated, messy place.
But why should I sacrifice my own standards? Why should I just accept injustice in the world?
My father drones on. “It was necessary to protect your mother. She could’ve been violated. Or even killed. Same for your sisters.”
I gulp down the lump in my throat. If that’s truly the case—though I don’t believe it is—then I do understand. My twin sisters are only thirteen, a year older than I am. And my mother…
She and I have a complicated relationship. I love her, and I certainly wouldn’t want to see her raped or murdered. The thought of it makes me want to puke.
Suffice it to say that I’m pretty sure I’m her least favorite child of the five of us. Her favorite is my younger brother Eagle, the baby. Followed by Raven, my sister who is the most like her. The other, Robin, prefers to hang out with my brothers and me, doing boy stuff.
“It was necessary to keep you and your brothers from being killed in your sleep,” Dad says.
I nod for the third time. And I repeat myself. “Yes, Dad, I understand.”
My father threads his fingers through his blond hair. It’s beginning to gray—just a touch of silver around his temples. Then he looks at me with those blue eyes that are so like my own. I’m the only one of five who inherited them. My brothers and sisters all have dark-brown eyes, like our mother. We all share her darker skin from her Mexican heritage.
So as I stand, looking at my fair-skinned father, I focus on his eyes. The eyes he gave me.
Only me.
And I try to find something in common with him other than the one feature we share.
Something.
Anything.
But I can’t.
How could he do what he did?
Though I’ve repeated the mantra—Yes, Dad, I understand—I don’t understand. No rational person could.
“I’m sorry, Hawk,” he finally says.
My eyes go wide.
Did I truly hear the words?
I’m sorry, Hawk.
I didn’t know Austin Bellamy was ever sorry about anything.
Of course, when you shoot one of your own children, you probably should be fucking sorry.
1
HAWK
Present Day…
“What’s up, Fal?” I say into my phone.
“Hawk. Thank God you answered,” my older brother, Falcon, says.
My brothers and sisters always give me shit about not answering my phone. Texting is easier for me, and it’s the method I prefer. That way I can answer at my leisure.
“It finally happened,” Falcon says. “Dad’s awake.”
His words rattle around my head like loose ping-pong balls before they register.
I should probably feel happy about the news. Our father has been in a coma for the past several months after a botched suicide attempt.
The whole thing makes no sense. Austin Bellamy is a great shot. If he’d truly wanted to kill himself, he probably could have. But he only grazed his skull, which doesn’t explain the coma.
The doctors can’t find any medical explanation for it, and though I hate myself for thinking it, I’ve wondered if he could be faking.
Austin Bellamy couldn’t fake a coma by himself, of course. But he could with help. Someone could easily be on the inside at the hospital dosing him up with drugs to keep him unconscious.
Why would he fucking do that?
Why would he try to kill himself in the first place?
And why would he botch it so badly?
I have no answers, but when it comes to my father, nothing should surprise me.
I hold back a scoff. My relationship with my parents is fucked up to the nth degree. I’m actually closer to my father than I am to my mother.
“I’ll get there as soon as I can,” I say to Falcon.
“Great. Thank God. This is such awesome news.”
“Yeah, sure is.” I end the call.
I walk outside, get into my truck, put it in gear, and start the drive to the hospital that has been my father’s home since his suicide attempt.