 by KB Winters.jpg)
Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
It’s a burden, but it’s my cross to bear. Because I know what’s at stake.
You think you know me? You don’t know Jack.
Or Father Eric.
Or Father Sean.
Or Father James.
I know them quite well—and more. Biblically, you might say.
And then there’s sweet, obedient Thomas.
No one knows Thomas like I do.
He’s strong, capable, smart. A real man. Not like the others.
They’re all men, of course. But Thomas…he’s different. He doesn’t play by the rules.
And that’s what I love about him.
He’s my kind of man.
And our game is very simple.
Kill or be killed.
There are no rules, no mercy, and no second chances.
You either win…or you die.
And I always play to win.
Warning: This book touches on addiction and abuse. It contains strong language and graphic violence.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
Sadie ~ 1981
Everyone thought they knew how the great Sadie Rose Ashby came to be. The wife of Colm Ashby and daughter-in-law of Cillian Darragh Ashby, they assumed I was a young whore or a ruthless bitch. That was the story anyway, what people thought they knew about me and my life.
What I let them believe.
If anyone knew the actual details of my life, they would fear me even more. It wasn’t Colm, Cillian, or even The Crusaders who got me started on this path.
No, that title belongs to a piece of shit from the summer of 1981.
Before I became an Ashby, I was Sadie Rose Malone, a proper Catholic school girl who went to class, said her prayers and loved her parents dearly. I tried to do the right thing, be a good person, and follow the path laid out in The Good Book. I tried really hard, and one day, it all fell to pieces in the most spectacular fashion.
Owen Doyle was seventeen years old and the definition of cool. He was gorgeous with broad shoulders and a slender body that young girls thought was so grownup.
Even I wasn’t immune to the charms of the most popular boy in school. Owen Doyle had big blue bedroom eyes, and when he turned his attention my way, I was flattered.
I was flattered for the first—and last—time in my life. It was the only time pretty words made me blush like a schoolgirl, the only time I accepted anything or anyone at face value.
On Friday night, my parents allowed me to go to the high school football game because it was a special game. St. Mary’s Catholic School played against our Lutheran rivals. To my extremely Catholic mother, that made it a special occasion worthy of me possibly spending time with boys.
I couldn’t tell you one thing about the game because I didn’t give a damn about football. I just wanted to hang out with kids my own age away from the church.
“Hey, want to go somewhere quiet to hang out and talk?” Owen Doyle wanted to talk to me, invisible, prim, proper, Sadie Malone, and I nodded like an eager little puppy.
I turned to my best friend, Emily with a wide-eyed grin. There was no question of what my answer would be when I turned back to Owen.
“Yeah, sure, that would be cool.” My fingertips tingled at the idea of going somewhere with Owen. I followed him down the metal bleachers and around back where the cool kids hung out and smoked cigarettes and drank beer if they could snatch some from their parents or older siblings.
Only when we got back there, we were alone.
I thought it was romantic. “So, uh, what do you want to talk about?”
Owen flashed a crooked smile that made my heart race as he leaned against the metal leg of the bleacher. “How pretty you are, Sadie.”
“Me?” I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and smiled like the naïve little girl I was. “I’m not,” I insisted because vanity was frowned upon in my house.
I wasn’t allowed to wear makeup or style my hair, and even the denim skirt I thought so stylish hit just below my knees.
“But you are.” Owen’s insistence, accompanied by smiling at me and running his index finger along my jaw, sucked me right in. “So pretty. I’ve been thinking about kissing you all night. All semester, really.”
His words shocked and thrilled me, but they also confused me. “But you never said anything.”
“Neither did you,” he shot back. “But here we are.”
His words were so smooth I couldn’t help but smile. “Here we are.”
Owen took a step closer so I could feel his breath fan across my face and sucked in a deep breath. He smelled like cinnamon and melon, an intoxicating blend of spicy and sweet.
“I need to taste your lips,” he growled a moment before his mouth crashed down over mine.
The sensation startled me at first, but the feel of his lips on mine was lovely. His tongue slid between my lips; a strange feeling that slowly started to feel good. My heart thudded against my chest, and my palms were sweaty against the leather arms of his letterman’s jacket, but I couldn’t bring myself to push him away.
I leaned into him and threw myself into the kiss because even though it was my first kiss, it was the most exciting, the hottest, and thrilling kiss of my life.
Then one hand slid down my bottom until he reached up under my skirt to my bare skin, and that hand slid up the inside of my leg until his fingers brushed over my private parts. I gasped in surprise, but it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling.
“Owen,” I panted as he ran two knuckles back and forth over my privates.
“I’m right here, pretty Sadie.” His fingers pushed my panties to the side, and his bare fingers slid between my lips.