Carys Jones - Fourth To Run

Brandy sniffed and wiped a hand across her eyes, slightly smudging the mascara she’d carefully applied that morning.

“Are you okay?” The sound brought Aiden back to the present. He reached for her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“I’ll always be hated here,” Brandy stated bleakly. She looked up towards the fluorescent lights overhead, blinking rapidly.

“Don’t listen to Clyde White, he’s just a bitter old man.”

“He’s wrong anyway.” Brandy lowered her head, satisfied that she’d overpowered her need to weep. “I don’t see Brandon anywhere,” she said defiantly. “We didn’t go anywhere together, at least not during our marriage. He doesn’t haunt my steps.”

“Good.” Aiden leaned down and kissed her cheek. “You’re unbelievably tough, Brandy.”

“We’re both going to have to be tough.” Brandy sighed. “Soon all of Avalon will know I’m back and then we’ll have Clyde times ten to deal with.”

She looked down in to the shopping cart and her shoulders slumped.

“Can we just pay and go home now? I’m done with shopping for today.”

*

Aiden was tired long before his head hit in the pillow. The intense heat of the day had managed to linger into the night and so the bedroom window was cracked open, the newly hung curtains dancing reluctantly in the breeze.

In the darkness where dreams are made, Aiden hoped to find respite from the stresses of the day but instead he found only further turmoil.

He was standing in the middle of a rain-slicked road. It was dark but light enough for him to make out the distant silhouettes of trees. It was eerily silent. The air felt charged with unseen energy, like the calm before a storm.

“Aiden!” a voice hissed directly in his ear and Aiden turned with a start. His heart was hammering madly in his chest, frantically flooding his system with adrenalin to enable him to either fight or take flight.

Justin Thompson was standing beside Aiden, his hair flattened against his head. Not from rain but from blood. Aiden realized with horror that half of Justin’s face was awash with blood which seemed to pour off him like an angry, relentless river.

“Don’t just leave me,” Justin begged. His voice now sounded distant despite his body’s proximity to Aiden. He reached for his friend and Aiden gasped as he saw his hand. The skin had been crudely torn away to reveal the bright white of bone which now clasped Aiden’s shoulder. The skeletal fingers gripped him with surprising force.

Aiden tried to find his voice but had been rendered speechless. Then the skin on Justin’s face began to melt away as easily as wax, revealing the network of muscles below. Aiden opened his mouth and screamed.

“Aid, are you okay?” Brandy was beside him, the whites of her wide eyes bright in the relative darkness of the bedroom.

Aiden was breathing heavily. When he turned to her he half expected to see Justin’s disfigured face. The sheets beneath him were soaked. As his breathing calmed, he realized it was from his own sweat.

“Did you have a nightmare?” Brandy whispered soothingly, her hands already rubbing his back.

“Yeah!” Aiden gasped. “I did.”

He heard Brandy anxiously explain: “Aiden, you were shouting.”

“Turn on the light,” Aiden requested gruffly, his voice hoarse. Brandy swiftly obliged, turning on her bedside light and Aiden was grateful for the yellow light which pushed back some of the shadows.

“Aiden, are you okay?” Brandy asked gently, a cool hand pressing tenderly against the base of his back.

“Yeah.” Aiden sighed as he ran his hands across his face, trying to push away the images from the nightmare.

“Is something troubling you?”

Aiden turned to glance at Brandy. She was so close he could smell her vanilla-scented skin, could see each individual eyelash which framed her dark eyes. He didn’t want to lie to her. Their relationship was still so new, so fragile, like a baby bird that still needed to learn to fly.

“Yes, something is troubling me,” Aiden admitted.

“What is it?” Brandy pressed, her tone soft and soothing, there was no pressure in her voice.

“You don’t have to tell me,” she added.

Clearing his throat, Aiden prepared to breathe life into his nightmare.

“Many years ago I lost somebody close to me, a friend,” Aiden explained, now feeling wide awake as the dust of sleep had been blown away by the intensity of his nightmare.

“I’m sorry. Do you want to tell me about him?” Brandy whispered.

“Can we…can we go back to sleep?” Aiden gestured towards the lamp.

“Sure.” Brandy nodded as she plunged the room back into darkness.

Only Aiden didn’t go back to sleep. He lay awake thinking about his old friend, Justin. An endless stream of questions floated through his mind ‒ why hadn’t he known Justin was in danger? How did he never think to question his death before? If his old high school friends from Greensburg hadn’t sought him out in Avalon, he’d have gone on thinking Justin had died in a motorcycle accident. Aiden had thought that searching for the truth might liberate his guilt, but it only gnawed within him with even more fervor. Because the question which troubled him most was: how could he bear the thought that Justin’s killer had been allowed to endure?

Chapter Two Contents Cover Blurb Even happy endings aren’t perfect. At long last, things are looking up for Aiden Connelly. A successful lawyer, now running his own firm, he has earned the respect of the townspeople of Avalon, and he has the woman he loves, Brandy Cotton, by his side. But Aiden can’t forget the mystery surrounding the death of his friend Justin ten years earlier. When a new tip-off leads him to Mexico and an infamous cartel, he unwittingly unleashes a sinister and dangerous force that follows him back to Avalon. Threatened and afraid, Aiden must form an unlikely alliance with the man who once tried to drive him out of town: Avalon’s sheriff, Buck Fern. These two men will have to turn their backs on the law they uphold to protect their town and those they love. Book List Title Page Fourth to Run Carys Jones Copyright Author Bio CARYS JONES Carys Jones loves nothing more than to write and create stories which ignite the reader’s imagination. Based in Shropshire, England, Carys lives with her husband, two guinea pigs and her adored canine companion, Rollo. When she’s not writing, Carys likes to indulge her inner geek by watching science fiction films or playing video games. She lists John Green, Jodi Picoult and Virginia Andrews as her favorite authors and draws inspiration for her own work from anything and everything. For Carys, there is no greater feeling than when you lose yourself in a great story and it is that feeling of ultimate escapism which she tries to bring to her books. Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Endpages About the Publisher

The Chances You Take

The only sounds in the office were the gentle whirring of the air conditioning system and the distant tapping of Betty’s fingers maneuvering across her keyboard. In the relative silence Aiden stared at his computer screen. His inbox was unusually empty. It seemed that Clyde White had swiftly managed to spread the news of Brandy’s return to Avalon and now the town were keeping their distance from Aiden.

Groaning, he refreshed the page. He had enough open cases to keep him busy; some work updating wills and settling property disputes. But he’d feared that the work would suddenly dry up. It was as if overnight Avalon suddenly ceased to have legal issues.

To add to Aiden’s tension, Betty had been uncharacteristically late that morning. When he pulled up outside the office and stepped out into the bright morning sun he’d actually needed to do a double-take of the vacant entrance. Betty was nowhere to be seen. Aiden opened up, bought the usual breakfast order from across the street and then hid in the comfort of his own office. He was about to call Betty to check she was alright when he heard the soft chime of the main door announcing her entrance.