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    Scarred Monster
    Scarred Monster
    Scarred Monster
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    Scarred Monster

    By Winter Sloane

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Liliana: The last time I saw Caleb, I was eighteen and he went off to join the army. We promised to see each other again but things change. Ten years later, I’m stuck in an arranged engagement with a cheating bastard.

    One text message and I drop it all for him. I’ll risk it all for Caleb, even if it costs me everything.

    Caleb: Without my gun and uniform, all I am is a scarred monster, a killer who’s numb and empty on the inside. The one good thing in my life is her—the girl that got away, but she’s all woman now. Some things never change and Liliana was always meant to be mine.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEvernight Publishing
    Release dateMay 21, 2018
    ISBN9781773396873
    Scarred Monster

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      Book preview

      Scarred Monster - Winter Sloane

      Published by EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ® at Smashwords

      www.evernightpublishing.com

      Copyright© 2018 Winter Sloane

      ISBN: 978-1-77339-687-3

      Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

      Editor: Karyn White

      ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

      WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

      This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      DEDICATION

      To my amazing readers, I hope you enjoy this story as much as I loved writing it.

      SCARRED MONSTER

      Winter Sloane

      Copyright © 2018

      Prologue

      Ten Years Ago

      Liliana Hurley gripped the current page of her book so tightly, the page ripped. That seemed wrong to her. The characters in her books were her friends. People, she never fully understood, not in her four years of high school either. Noticing she’d been reading upside down, she let out a huff and set it down. She didn’t remember the title, except it was one of her reading assignments, or what chapter she’d been on.

      No surprise. She’d been distracted all day, her thoughts preoccupied by one man. Caleb. In the background, the tumble and whirr of the dryer didn’t calm her nerves as it usually did. Whenever her parents started one of their shouting matches, she’d make an excuse to start doing laundry and hide out here, book in hand.

      She rose to her feet, deciding to check on the dryer. Five minutes more. Liliana paced the tiny laundry room, back and forth, trying not to think so hard about time.

      I’ll wait for you, until it’s time. I know you’ll come.

      Why did she keep hearing Caleb’s voice in her head?

      Liliana sucked in a breath. The memory of Caleb pressing her body against his muscled chest blazed in her mind. It hurt to breathe. Liliana would go to a state college in a few weeks, and Caleb, God knew where he’d be.

      She couldn’t leave things like this.

      Liliana fingered the cross linked to the necklace she wore every day, her grandmother’s memento to her. She’d been close to her grandma, more than she’d ever been to her own mother, but she’d passed away when Liliana had been twelve. She wished she could ask for her grandma’s advice now though. Her nana would understand, would be sympathetic.

      Damn it, I shouldn’t be hiding in here, hoping he’ll get the message and leave, she muttered to herself. One look at the time told her she only had fifteen minutes left to reach their special place. She wouldn’t make it, but she’d try.

      Lilian yanked the laundry room open and ran towards the front door. The house always felt huge, daunting to her even when she’d been a kid. Large and lonely. Maybe that was why she spent so much time in her books. It felt good, jumping from one world to the next, too, until that night with Caleb, when he kissed her in front of everyone in school.

      No, he’d claimed her mouth, holding her so tightly to him like she was the best thing on earth.

      She grabbed her car keys, not bothering with a jacket. Liliana got into her car and drove out of the driveway and down the street like a madwoman. Her heart beat so fast, so painfully against her chest like it had wings, like it wanted to burst past bone, muscle, and skin, seeking its other half.

      Her other half?

      Liliana scoffed. Her mother had always accused her of reading too many romance books.

      Wake up, Liliana. Those books aren’t real, her mother liked to say.

      Except they got one thing right. Falling for Caleb hurt like hell.

      Why was she doing this? For more heartache? Liliana gripped the wheel so hard, her knuckles turned white. She silently berated herself for taking so long to figure out the simple answer.

      I want to see him.

      She stepped on the pedal. Liliana had always been a careful driver, but time wasn’t on her side. Liliana sent a silent prayer to the God she never quite believed in.

      Please, let me not be too late.

      ****

      Caleb looked at his wristwatch. Time’s up. He let out a small sound of frustration and balled his hands into fists. Caleb yanked his car door open, then looked over his shoulder again, at the empty dirt road. He blew out a breath, returning his attention to the view in front of him instead.

      Gorgeous, Liliana had whispered while tucked against his body the first time he took her here. Caleb saw the same seemingly endless blue sky, the outline of their shitty little town underneath that and thought differently than she did.

      He’d always known he wanted out of this town ever since he could remember and planned on enlisting in the army after graduation. He only stayed, because someone had to look after Liliana. At least that was the pathetic excuse he told himself.

      Caleb was no saint. Hell, he hardly considered himself a decent man, especially for wanting Liliana.

      Fuck, but he had so many things he wanted to tell her. Unsaid words that would remain that.

      He gritted his teeth. Caleb needed to go soon.

      Liliana wasn’t going to show. Shit. He’d really thought she would. True,

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