Free - A last chance love story Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Free

  A Black Ops Romance

  Riley Edwards

  by

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2017 by Riley Edwards

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover design: Riley Edwards

  Written by: Riley Edwards

  Published by: Riley Edwards

  Edited by: Elfwerks Editing - https://elfwerksediting.com/

  FREE – A Black Ops Romance

  First edition – August 2017

  ASIN: B0732M6181

  All rights reserved

  Riley’s Rebels

  Sign up for the Riley’s Rebels mailing list and stay up to date on releases, sales, and giveaways.

  http://eepurl.com/cBkqKn

  Contents

  Other Books by Riley Edwards

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  NIGHTSTALKER

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  XOXO - Riley

  Other Books by Riley Edwards

  Nightstalker

  The Gift

  The Awakening

  Unbroken part one – A Collective Novel

  Unbroken part two – A Collective Novel

  Acknowledgments

  A special thanks to my two Alpha readers – Michelle Thomas and Chriss Prokic. Thank you both so much for all your help on this book.

  Elfwerks Editing took my normal jumbled up mess and polished it. Thank you for all your hard work. Your notes and suggestion undoubtedly made this book better.

  To the BETA readers, reviewers, and Bloggers that took time out of their lives to read, review and promote this project – THANK YOU! As with anything else in life it takes a village. I couldn’t have published this book without your help.

  Ellie Masters – Thank you. Your friendship, guidance, and steadfast support means the word to me. I wouldn’t have finished this book when I did if it wasn’t for your word sprints. You truly are one-of-a-kind.

  Kendall Barnett – My business partner and friend -You are the bomb dot com. I love you woman!

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to all the brave men and women who serve or have served in the United States Armed Forces. There are no words to properly convey the sacrifices they make and the appreciation I have for the cost of their service.

  A special thanks to the sailors aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN68). I wrote this book while thinking about her crew, especially my daughter who is currently aboard in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.

  Godspeed sailors. BRAVO ZULU!

  The world lost 31 Heroes 06 Aug 2011. SOC SEAL John W. Faas was among the crew that died that day. Even in death, John continues to inspire all those who knew him and love him. He is not forgotten - never forgotten. His sacrifice and that of his family’s reminds us that freedom is never free.

  We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.

  Whether it was the writer George Orwell, the essayist Richard Grenier, or the Washington Times columnist Rudyard Kipling who originally wrote those words matters not. The sentiment rings true. We are only afforded the luxuries we have because rough men are willing to stand at the ready. Chief Faas was one of those men.

  31 heroes – From a grateful nation.

  Chapter 1

  I traced my finger across the cool, smooth headstone over and over. SHANE McGRATH OWINGS. It had been five years to the day since I lost my best friend. My only friend.

  Growing up the way we did, wealthy and privileged, you didn’t have real friends. They were business associates. All of them jockeying for position in the elite Hollywood crowd. Even when we were in high school, especially high school, it was all about who you knew and who your family was. It was never about who you were as a person. No one wanted to know you, they wanted to use you.

  The night before Shane left for basic training we went to Santa Monica Pier and sat on the beach for hours talking. When the sun set we laid in the sand, stargazing and telling each other anything and everything we could think of. He knew all my secrets. The only person I could drop the record producer’s daughter façade with and be the real Lillian Nelson.

  Shane didn’t want anything from me. He didn’t care that my neighbors were famous rock stars, he didn’t care that my house was in an exclusive gated community. Shane’s family had more money than mine. In the twisted hierarchy of Hollywood royalty, the Owings’ name was higher up the ladder than Nelson.

  If anyone found out we had slept on the beach in the sand, we would’ve been chastised for behaving like low- class Valley kids. Drink a ten-thousand-dollar bottle of scotch and promptly throw it up in your dad’s theater room – no problem. Get caught underage drinking at a premier party – brushed under the rug. Get caught sleeping at the beach – end of the world.

  Rich kid problems.

  The morning Shane left for Army basic training was the day he was free. His family made it clear that if he got on the plane to Georgia, he would no longer be an Owings. Nor would he benefit from all the privilege that name brought, or bought, depending on how you looked at it. When I snuck to Fort Benning to see his basic training graduation, I was so proud of him. He looked different. Taller, stronger, like he had turned into a real man while there. I missed him every day he was gone. It was the longest twelve weeks of my life. I wrote to him every day, and he wrote me back when he could.

  Knowing that Shane had escaped the life he hated made every minute of my loneliness worth it. We spent three awesome days together after graduation before he had to leave for training in Kentucky. We kept in regular contact while he was away, only now, I knew he was keeping secrets. He was evasive when I asked questions about the Army. He tried to cushion the hurt and explained there were things he couldn’t tell me about his training or what he would be doing. As much as the distance stung, I understood.

  Whenever he called to catch up, it was like nothing had changed. I filled him in on th
e latest pretentious Hollywood gossip, and he told me what he could about the guys in his unit. I was so jealous. He was living his life and doing what he wanted to do. He spent time in Kentucky, went for training in Texas, and then back to Georgia. Meanwhile, I stayed in California doing everything my father told me to do.

  After a while, his calls started coming less and less. And the time it took to return my calls grew longer and longer. Not talking to him every day broke my heart. I missed him so much, but I continued to try and understand he was busy. But it was hard; I was lonely and surrounded by people I despised. Now that Shane was all but gone out of my life, I had no one.

  It had been months since I had heard from Shane when he called to tell me he had five days of leave and wanted me to come visit him in Georgia. I was over-the-moon excited and booked my ticket while we were still on the phone. I counted down the days like a prayer; I needed to see him so badly.

  When I finally got there, I didn’t realize how much I had truly missed him. He was the same, yet so very different. He was rougher now, hardened and more muscular than the last time I saw him almost two years before. He took me around the small town he now lived in and showed me what there was to see. Which wasn’t much. But I didn’t care; as long as I was with Shane nothing else in the world mattered.

  He avoided the base he lived on. Even after I begged him to take me there and show me around, he refused. I never met a single one of the guys in his unit either. When I asked him if he had a girlfriend, he told me he didn’t have time for that shit and changed the subject. I was sad there was now so much distance between us. I wanted things to go back to the way they had been when we were in high school.

  He asked me a thousand questions about UCLA and what I was studying. He was proud when I told him I had maintained a 3.5 GPA both freshman and sophomore years. I was not a strong student and had pretty much struggled through high school. How did I get into UCLA then? Money. Daddy bought my way in. It never ceased to amaze me what people can buy. You want your average C-student daughter to go to UCLA? No problem. Write a check with a shit ton of zeros for research and an acceptance letter comes in the mail.

  My lying, womanizing father always said, “It pays to be rich.” I believe the saying actually went “It pays to be a winner”, but when you’re a rich, egotistical ass, you could say whatever you wanted and people would go along with it.

  I spent four wonderful days with Shane.

  On the last day, he took me to the Army Infantry Museum and wowed me with all the exhibits. It was so beautiful and humbling there. As I sat in a room full of glass tiles bearing the names of all the Medal of Honor recipients on them, it made me sad to think that for most people the names on the wall were just that - names. A flash on the news or a passing article in the newspaper. Most of us don’t think about the sacrifices made by the men and women who served and died for this country. That day, I felt those names deep in my soul. It was a special time that I will carry with me forever.

  Shane told me that some days when he needed to think he visited the parade grounds of Soldier Field where he graduated basic. He said it was his favorite place in Georgia. He didn’t feel lonely when he was there. He explained how the field was made up of sacred soil taken from all major battlefields his brothers and sisters in arms had fought on. It truly was a beautiful place full of rich history and meaning. I asked him if he felt lonely often and if he regretted his decision to join. He grunted a well-practiced answer about serving his country and never addressed the loneliness part.

  Sitting on the grass that afternoon was a wake-up call, or more like a slap in the face actually. I felt my best friend slip away. Shane was not the same person he had been when he left California. Even though he sat only inches from me, I missed my friend. I wanted to scream and cry at the injustice of it. Now, I truly had no one.

  When we left the parade grounds, it was like a switch had flipped and he barely spoke to me after that. Short one-word answers and it seemed the excitement of my visit had worn off. I was devastated. By the time the sun was setting, his mood had become even more dark and distant. I tried everything I could think of to get him to open up to me, but he completely shut down. I had watched him do this with his parents, but he’d never closed me out before.

  I knew there was something he wasn’t telling me. I pleaded with him to talk to me and tell me what was wrong but he refused. That night when we went back to the hotel, instead of ordering room service and watching movies like we’d done every night, he wordlessly grabbed his already packed bag off the bed, threw the strap over his shoulder, and headed toward the door.

  I thought we had one more night together before I left the next morning.

  But, I didn’t.

  He stood in front of the door in silence for long moments before he turned and pulled me into him. One minute, I was in his arms kissing him for the very first time, the next he tore me to shreds. I hadn’t even recovered from the shock of the kiss we had shared before he told me his news.

  He was leaving the next day, too. I was going home to California, and he was leaving on deployment. That was it. No details, no location, no I’ll write you. A simple “I’m leaving.”

  With his hand on the door, he turned to face me, and there was nothing I could do to hide the tears rolling down my cheeks.

  I’ll never forget his last words to me as long as I live. We don’t say goodbye in the Army, only “I’ll see ya’ later.” I love you. You’ll forever be my best friend. I’ll see you later, Lily.

  I was stunned into silence. My heart was screaming at me to stop him, talk to him, yell at him. But, my brain wouldn’t engage. I was so stupid. And then he was gone. And I didn’t even say it back. Something I’ll regret for the rest of my life. I never told him that I had always loved him, too.

  Thinking back, that’s when the lie started. Without Shane around, I had no one. I was surrounded by fake people only pretending to like me. I had no choice but to slip into the role my father demanded I play. That was another lie. I had a choice, I could’ve done what Shane had done and said fuck it all and ran away. Only, I wasn’t as strong as him. Especially without him by my side telling me I could be brave.

  I tried to fight it at first. But once Shane was gone forever, I gave up. I became exactly what Shane and I had always despised - a fake rich bitch who took her daddy’s money. It was pathetic really. If Shane were here, he’d hate who I’d become.

  “I miss you, Shane. Not a day goes by I don’t think of you.” I wiped the tears from my eyes and continued to trace over the smooth letters of his name.

  He died two months into his deployment. And in those two months, I wrote countless letters. I poured my heart and soul onto the paper. But the letters remained unsent. They sat in my desk, a constant reminder that Shane was lost to me.

  “I wish you were still here. I need you so bad right now. Dad is pushing me to marry Lucas. The prenup has been drawn up. Everyone seems to be happy with it. But I don’t love him.

  “Remember when we were kids and we told each other what type of person we were going to marry? I don’t think executive producer was on my list. I don’t want this, Shane. I don’t want to marry a man because it’s good for business. I want someone to love me, the real me. The me I was when I was with you.”

  I looked around the cemetery and sighed. Damn, I missed Shane. It was a beautiful Southern California day. On a day like today, Shane and I would’ve taken a drive up the coast to get out of the busy city. No doubt we would’ve ended up in Monterey, we always did. We both loved to sit on the pier and watch the seals.

  Someone setting flowers on a headstone pulled me from my memory, reminding me I wasn’t getting ready for a scenic coastal drive with Shane, I’d never have that again. This was all I had left of him - a sad cemetery plot I visited once a year on the anniversary of his death. There were a few people milling about visiting their loved ones. A man sat on a bench not too far from where I was sitting on the grass talking to Shane
. His ball cap was pulled low, and his face was buried in his hands obstructing his features. Poor guy looked distraught. I would bet that’s what I looked like the first few years I came here. When I was still too afraid to sit on the ground and touch Shane’s gravestone.

  “You know, I might’ve mentioned this before, but I really hate your dad. I still cannot believe he had you buried in your family’s plot instead of the National Cemetery. It really burns my ass he refused all military honors at your funeral. What a piece of shit. You deserved that. I miss you so much, but I am damn proud of you. I am proud of your service and your sacrifice.”

  I pulled in a deep breath. “I love you, Shane, forever. I’ll see ya later.”

  Chapter 2

  “Yo, Lenox, how was leave?” Jasper called out as soon as I walked into the hangar.

  “Too short,” I answered looking around at the gear stacked in the middle of the large space. “Everyone ready for the load out?”

  “Fuck yea. We have a lock on that douche bag Bishop. Time to do some hunting.” The wicked smile that lit up his face was almost disturbing.

  “Is he still in Turkey?” I asked.

  A lot could’ve changed in the last three days I had been gone.