Let Hate Go

Copyright © 2019 by DC Renee

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, things, living or dead, locales or events is entirely coincidental.

LET HATE GO

Cover Design by Rebecca Pau, The Final Wrap

Interior Formatting by Elaine York, Allusion Graphics, LLC/Publishing & Book Formatting

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Other Books by DC Renee

Connect with DC Renee

Other Books in the Let Go Series by DC Renee

Let Me Go - Book 1

Let It Go - Book 2

Let Hate Go - Book 2.5/3

Other Books in the Cupid’s Aim Series

Kamikaze Heart by Chelle C. Craze - Book 1

Arrow of Love by Clementine Floyd - Book 2

Bloom by Jaime Russell - Book 3

Love’s Lost Embrace by ChaShiree M - Book 4

Let Hate Go by DC Renee - Book 5

Swipe Right by Sadie Grubor - Book 6

To my abula. Know that you’re loved by even those who never got to meet you. And especially those who miss you.

To Baba & Deda. You’re loved and missed.

Sorry Kat, I said as I got into my car. I promise I’ll come for dinner this week, I told her after I’d started the engine.

I’m not trying to give you a hard time, she told me, and I could hear a bit of worry in her voice as though she was afraid she was piling on the pressure. It’s just … we haven’t seen you in weeks, and the twins miss their uncle Eddie.

I pictured Katy’s big doe eyes and Benji’s toothy grin. I’d been a part of their lives since the day they were born, and they’d called me Uncle Eddie since they could pronounce it. Benny had been their cool uncle, but I was the fun one—or at least I used to be. I’d been younger, and even though my schooling had been rough, followed by one heck of a residency, I’d managed to find quality time to spend with them. Now they were teens, and soon they’d get into that phase when they didn’t want to hang out with the stuffy old folks, which I’m sure included me, as young as I was in comparison.

Ever since I’d started working, though, I hadn’t seen them or Kat and Mason as much as I used to. I’d followed in Mason’s footsteps and had only been working for three years since my residency. For most of my life, I didn’t have a good role model, let alone a good male role model, until Mason came along. He was like an uncle and dad and stepdad rolled into one. He was a doctor, and naturally, I veered toward that profession. Even with the long hours I was pulling now, I didn’t regret my choice in profession. I was good at it. No, I was damn good at it. I was in the top five percent of my class at the USC Keck School of Medicine. I had gotten a highly sought-after residency at Cedars-Sinai, and then they hired me. I loved my profession. Like many others, I went in with big dreams of saving the world, one patient at a time, and even though that wasn’t the case, I felt immense satisfaction when I was able to help someone. It was a joyous feeling that I couldn’t describe. The downside were those you couldn’t save or knew were headed down a dark path. That was when the world tilted on its axis, and you couldn’t find your footing. You felt like your entire body was going to fall away from you, and there was nothing you could do about. The overarching emotion was helplessness. And no matter how many times you delivered bad news, it didn’t get easier.

Sadly, that was part of the job. And even though I was proud of how well I was doing and how quickly I was advancing, I was still a newbie by most standards. In other words, I didn’t get the best hours at the hospital, and when I was done with my shift, I was generally tired.

All I wanted to do was go home, grab a beer, sit on the couch, and do nothing until I passed out. Hearing Kat’s voice, though, made me realize how much I missed them. It also reminded me I needed to call my mom too. It had been a few days since I’d talked to her, and a few more since I’d seen her as well.

I miss them too, and I miss you guys. It’s just been so crazy lately. But I’ll definitely make it to dinner this week.

Good, she said excitedly. Let me know when as soon as you figure it out. I’ll let Benny know too, so maybe he, Sophie, and their little rug rats can make it too. I know they’d love to see you as well.

That would be nice, I responded genuinely.

My mother, sadly, had been an addict for a big chunk of her life, but she’d been clean and sober for a few years now. Even though those had been some of the darkest days of my life, her addiction had ultimately led to me meeting Kat, Mason, and their entire gang. And though they weren’t family by blood, they most definitely were family. Kat’s twin sister, also a drug addict, had been my mom’s buddy. Even in her drug-induced haze, Kat’s sister—also Kat, ironically, short for Katherine, whereas Mason’s Kat was short for Kaitlyn—always managed to look out for me. So when she passed away, she asked her sister, Kaitlyn, to take care of me.

She and Mason took me under their wing instantly and never made me feel like I was anything other than part of their family. By extension, I got Benny, and later, Sophie, John, and Chain.

I might have had a bit of a crush on Sophie for a while, but I grew out of that when I realized how much I enjoyed having her as an aunt. I still liked to joke with her and Benny from time to time, mostly because I got a kick out of how it riled him up.

Ah shit, Kat, I gotta go, I said, snapping out of my revere as I saw the flashing red and blue lights behind me.

Everything all right? she asked, immediately worried.

Yeah, yeah, don’t worry about it.

Okay, she responded, but I could hear the skepticism in her voice.

I’ll let you know about dinner.

Okay. Bye, Eddie.

Bye, Kat, I said and hung up just as the officer approached my window.

I rolled it down, and an unexpected voice said, Sir, do you know how fast you were going?

My eyes snapped up to see a woman staring down at me. Her silky voice coupled with a bit of an edge was sexy as hell. But add that to the way she looked—her hair in a tight bun, like a librarian, waiting for me to pull it out and let her hair cascade down, her big brown eyes framed by thick, dark lashes, full lips in a slight pout, waiting to be kissed, and after a quick scan down her body, I saw she was a perfect mixture of curves in all the right places—and I couldn’t help the images that flashed through my mind. The different ways I’d loosen her up, or let her take charge, her tone telling me—no, demanding me—to do dirty, dirty things to