The Time in Between by Kristen Ashley
He was there. He remembered that conga line. He remembered sitting in the back with Jason Templeton who was then a freshman at Notre Dame, both of them watching it and laughing their asses off. He remembered thinking he’d feel stupid, a sophomore at Purdue, coming home, taking his senior girlfriend to her prom. But he didn’t feel stupid.
She’d had a blast. Feb always knew how to have a good time and Colt loved it when she did. He remembered the conga line flowing by their table and Feb had grinned at him at the same time she sang the words to the song at the top of her lungs. Then she twisted her neck and looked back at Angie who had her hands on Feb’s waist. They’d laughed in each other’s faces and then Feb, in the lead, always the one who started the party, wound the conga line away.
“I didn’t want her dead, even back then, when we were fighting—”
“I know that.”
She stared him in the eye for a brief moment before dropping her head. “I can’t believe this.”
“Feb, think.” Colt brought the matter back to hand. “Anyone back then who took an interest in you, made you feel funny? Anyone that’s still around now?”
She kept her head lowered and shook it, her long hair sliding across his hand, more of it falling forward around her face.
Christ, there was so much of it, he’d never seen so much hair, he’d never felt anything as soft.
He took his hand from her neck and she lifted her head. She looked at his fallen hand before her eyes found his. They were soft and lost for a moment, telling him only he could make her feel found and he almost touched her again, put his hand back where she needed it, before she straightened, ripping that look away from him.
He wanted it back, so much he felt that weight shift in his gut and the flash of anger at her for taking it away, keeping him out. Fuck, even now she wouldn’t let him in.
He bit his lip, something he knew he did to control his anger. He had his father and mother in him, straight to his bones, and he held close to that control. He had to. Both of them could be ugly and violent, with words, with fists. Colt had it too. It came out twice without control, twice he’d nearly killed someone with his fists—one was his own father, the other Feb’s husband.
“No,” she answered. “No one.”
“February—”
“I’ll think, Alec. I’ll think about it. I need some time. But I promise, I’ll think and I’ll let you know.”
She was looking at him again, straight in the eye. She wasn’t lying. She’d think. But right now this was too much . . . for anyone. Most people would lose it just from finding Angie’s body. Feb was holding on.
His anger dissolved. It was no longer his place but he was proud of her.
“You’ve got my number?”
Those dents came back at her eyebrows and that lost look came back into her eyes before she masked it.
“Morrie’s got it.”
Colt straightened and dug in the back pocket of his jeans for his wallet. He pulled out a business card and handed it to her, flipping the wallet closed and shoving it back.
She stood, his card held in both hands by thumb and forefinger at both bottom edges, her head bent studying the print.
“I want you to have a care. Keep your cell on you all the time, keep it charged. Let people know where you’re going and when you get there. Don’t ever be alone. You feel something you don’t like, see someone who makes you feel wrong, it doesn’t matter they’re innocent, you tell me, Feb.” Her head came up and she looked at him. “Doesn’t hurt them for me to ask a few questions, dig around.” He watched her suck in her cheeks and he knew she was hesitating, Jack and Jackie’s daughter, through and through. “This is serious. This is murder, Feb. This is about Angie.”
She closed her eyes tight and looked away but not before he saw them get bright. Then she took in a breath and opened her eyes, the brightness gone. She’d locked onto her control. Looking back at him, she nodded.
Colt had one more piece of unpleasant business to deliver and he hated it, but he did it.
“Tomorrow, first thing, you need to write a list.”
“A list?”
“Anyone who wronged you. Anyone you felt slighted by—”
“Alec—”
“Anyone someone not in the know might think did you harm or upset you.”
Her eyes went bright again and her bottom lip quivered. “Alec—”
He hated to see her lip move like that, knowing her throat burned with the effort at fighting back the tears. But he had to be relentless, lives were at stake. “If this is about you, we need to lock it down.”
“People are gonna—”
“Freak.” Colt nodded. “But better they freak and stay breathin’ than—”
“They’ll hate me,” she whispered.
“They won’t. But if they do, they’re stupid. This isn’t about you. This is about a sick fuck who’s out of his mind. They blame you, you’re better off without them.”
“Easy for you to say, people like you.”
“People like you.”
Something in her face shifted. He couldn’t read it, it was there and gone. But whatever it was, it made that weight in his gut feel even heavier.
“Feb, I’ve no idea what this fuckin’ guy is thinking, but I’ve gotta—”
She lifted her hand and waved it between them, the movement desperate. “I’ll write a list.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to say, that’s my girl.
He didn’t say it.
It was then the full realization dawned that this business was going to take its toll. On Feb, on him, likely on Morrie and undoubtedly on Jack and Jackie who, as soon as they heard what was going on, would be back. They were probably already on their way.
And the toll to be paid was not just because of Angie’s murder and Feb’s admirer, but because Colt and Feb had no choice but to be wound together again after years of being unraveled.
“Can I go back to the bar now?” she asked.
Colt nodded.
“You wanna talk to Morrie?”
Her question struck him like a blow, she knew him so well. And a thought he hadn’t contemplated, hadn’t allowed himself to contemplate for two years, came into his head.
How in the fuck could this woman who was laced into the fibers of his life be so fucking removed?
Colt nodded again.
Feb lifted her chin and without another word walked out the door.
When he lost sight of her, Colt’s neck twisted and he bit his lip.
It was either that or tear the fucking office apart.
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Violet Winters and her daughters once had it all, but lost it when Lieutenant Tim Winters was murdered by a criminal madman.
Over a year later, during a cold winter night, cop’s widow, Violet, has to leave her warm bed to tell her neighbor to turn the music down.
And that’s when she meets sinister, scarred, scarily attractive security specialist, Joe Callahan.
She wants to deny it, but she can’t beat back the hunger she feels for Joe so she gives in again, and again, and again. Feeling it himself, Joe feeds Vi’s hunger, breaking his own rules to keep her in his bed.
Even though Violet had only one man in her life, she’s sure Joe is giving her the signals and Vi decides she’s ready to take a second chance at life and, maybe, love.
But Violet doesn’t know the dark secrets in Joe’s past, secrets so soul-wrenching, they’ve drained him dry. With nothing left to give, Joe’s determined to live his life alone.
But Violet’s husband’s murderer is obsessed with her and heartbreak again haunts the door of the Winters girls. When it does Joe is forced to face the knowledge that he can’t fight the combined pull of Violet and her daughters, they’ve gotten under his skin and filled him full to bursting.
Joe needs to win them back and put his life on the line to keep Violet safe.
But, having had it all twice, can Violet endure losing Jo
Tanner Layne and Raquel Merrick fell in love young, hard and fast and both of them knew a beautiful life they thought would be forever.
Until Rocky left Layne, no explanation, no going back.
Layne escapes the ‘burg only to come back years later because his ex-wife has hooked herself to the town jerk and Layne needs to make sure his sons get raised right. Layne manages to avoid Rocky. But when Layne gets three bullets drilled into him while investigating a dirty cop, he can’t do that because Rocky stops avoiding Layne. They make a deal to work together to expose the dirty cop but they have no idea the strength of their enduring attraction or the sheer evil at work in the ‘burg.
As Tanner Layne and Raquel Merrick play their game and dance around the pull that draws them together, Layne has to discover the dark secrets buried so deep in Rocky’s heart she doesn’t even know they’re there at the same time untangle a sinister web of crime so abhorrent it has to be stopped…at all costs.
And to do it, Layne has to enlist everyone, including his ex-CIA mentor, Rocky’s detective brother, the town’s unpredictable informant and Layne’s two teenage sons. All the while stopping Rocky from doing something crazy and keeping their game secret so Layne won’t get himself dead.
From the balcony of his house, Mike Haines can see the quiet, commonplace beauty of the Holliday farm. But what he remembers is Dusty, the little sister of his high school girlfriend, who grew up there. As a teen, Dusty had gone off the rails but when she was a kid, she was sweet, she was funny and she had a special bond with Mike. After high school, she took off and Mike never saw her again.
Tragedy strikes Dusty’s family and she comes back to town. Mike thinks she hasn’t changed back to the sweet, funny girl he knew but instead continued to be selfish and thoughtless, leaving her family alone to deal with their mourning. He seeks her out and confronts her in an effort to understand what went wrong and to force her to sort herself out.
He finds out quickly he’s wrong about Dusty Holliday. Very wrong. After Mike discovers that, the bond they had years before snaps back into place in ways he would never suspect.
But Mike Haines had a bad marriage and then he played games of the heart for a good woman…and lost. In order to protect himself and his kids, he’s cautious, he’s careful to read the signs and he’s not interested in finding a woman he has to fix.
When he learns what happened to Dusty, he thinks she needs to be fixed.
He swings, he misses and in this new game of hearts, Mike just got strike three.
Since his brother’s death, Benny Bianchi has been nursing his grudge against the woman he thinks led to his brother’s downfall. He does this to bury the feelings he has for Francesca Concetti, his brother’s girl. But when Frankie takes a bullet while on the run with Benny’s cousin’s woman, Benny has to face those feelings.
The problem is Frankie has decided she’s paid her penance. Penance she didn’t deserve to pay. She’s done with Benny and the Bianchi family. She’s starting a new life away from Chicago and her heartbreaking history.
Benny has decided differently.
But Frankie has more demons she’s battling. Demons Benny wants to help her face. But life has landed so many hard knocks on Frankie she’s terrified of believing in the promise of Benny Bianchi and the good life he’s offering.
Frankie’s new life leads her to The ‘Burg, where Benny has ties, and she finds she not only hasn’t succeeded in getting away, she’s doesn’t want to.
I was delighted to be nominated for an RT Book Reviews Reviewer’s Choice Award for Hold On in the Indie Contemporary Romance category! Cher and Merry didn’t win but with this prestigious nomination, I loved it that they were considered!
Since she was young, Cher Rivers knew she was not the kind of girl who got what she wanted. A girl who could hope. A girl who could dream. She knew a happily ever after just wasn’t in the cards for her.
In love for years with the last bastion of the ‘burg’s eligible bachelors, Garrett Merrick, Cher worked hard at making him laugh. Being one of the guys. Having him in her life the only way she could. All this knowing he was in love with another woman.
The Merrick Family is known for loving deep. So when Cecelia Merrick was murdered, it marked the Merricks in a way none of them recovered. Both Cecelia’s children found love. Both turned their backs on it. But Garrett “Merry” Merrick knew in his soul the woman he divorced years ago was the one for him.
Until the night when Cher took Garrett’s back and things changed. The Merrick family loves deep. They also protect fiercely. And with his eyes finally open, Garrett sees the woman who truly is for him and he goes after her. The problem is she’s surrounded by danger. So he has to win her at the same time keep her safe.
Click here to order these and other titles by KRISTEN ASHLEY
KRISTEN ASHLEY GREW UP IN in Indiana, has lived in Colorado and the West Country of England but now she calls the Valley of the Sun home. Thus she has been blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her posse is loopy (to say the least), but loopy is good when you want to write. Kristen was raised in a home with a large and multi-generational family. They lived on a very small farm in a small town in the heartland and existed amongst the strains of Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched). Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up. And as she keeps doing it, it keeps getting better.
Rock Chick Series:
Rock Chick
Rock Chick Rescue
Rock Chick Redemption
Rock Chick Renegade
Rock Chick Revenge
Rock Chick Reckoning
Rock Chick Regret
Rock Chick Revolution
Rock Chick Reawakening
ALSO AVAILABLE ON AUDIO
Rock Chick
Rock Chick Rescue
Rock Chick Redemption
Rock Chick Renegade
Rock Chick Revenge
Rock Chick Reckoning
Rock Chick Regret
Rock Chick Revolution
Rock Chick Reawakening
The ‘Burg Series:
For You
At Peace
Golden Trail
Games of the Heart
The Promise
Hold On
ALSO AVAILABLE ON AUDIO
For You
At Peace
Golden Trail
Games of the Heart
The Promise
Hold On
The Chaos Series:
Own the Wind
Fire Inside
Ride Steady
Walk Through Fire
A Christmas to Remember
ALSO AVAILABLE ON AUDIO
Own the Wind
Fire Inside
Ride Steady
Walk Through Fire
The Colorado Mountain Series:
The Gamble
Sweet Dreams
Lady Luck
Breathe
Jagged
Kaleidoscope
Bounty
ALSO AVAILABLE ON AUDIO
The Gamble
Sweet Dreams
Lady Luck
Breathe
Jagged
Kaleidoscope
Bounty
Dream Man Series:
Mystery Man
Wild Man
Law Man
Motorcycle Man
ALSO AVAILABLE ON AUDIO
Mystery Man
Wild Man
Law Man
Motorcycle Man
The Fantasyland Series:
Wildest Dreams
The Golden Dynasty
Fantastical
Broken Dove
Midnight Soul
ALSO AVAILABLE ON AUDIO
Wildest Dreams
The Golden Dynasty
Fantastical
Broken Dove
Midnigh
The Honey Series:
The Deep End
The Farthest Edge
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The Deep End
The Farthest Edge
The Magdalene Series:
The Will
Soaring
The Time in Between
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The Will
Soaring
The Time in Between
The Three Series:
Until the Sun Falls from the Sky
With Everything I Am
Wild and Free
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Until the Sun Falls from the Sky
With Everything I Am
Wild and Free
The Unfinished Hero Series:
Knight
Creed
Raid
Deacon
Sebring
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Knight
Creed
Raid
Deacon
Sebring
Ghosts and Reincarnation Series:
Sommersgate House
Lacybourne Manor
Penmort Castle
Fairytale Come Alive
Lucky Stars
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Sommersgate House
Lacybourne Manor
Penmort Castle
Fairytale Come Alive
Lucky Stars
Other Titles by Kristen Ashley:
Heaven and Hell
Mathilda, SuperWitch (Mathild’s Book of Shadows)
Play It Safe
Three Wishes
Complicated
ALSO AVAILABLE ON AUDIO
Heaven and Hell
Play It Safe
Three Wishes
Complicated
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