Kendall Ryan: Unravel Me

Unravel Me series Book 1

BY KENDALL RYAN

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by Kendall Ryan Books 2014

First published in Great Britain by Harper 2015

Copyright © Kendall Ryan 2014

Cover photograph © Michael Grecco / Gallery Stock

Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2015

Kendall Ryan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9781496174505

Ebook Edition © April 2015 ISBN: 9780008133993

Version 2015-04-13

Contents

Cover

Title Page Unravel Me Unravel Me series Book 1 BY KENDALL RYAN

Copyright Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published by Kendall Ryan Books 2014 First published in Great Britain by Harper 2015 Copyright © Kendall Ryan 2014 Cover photograph © Michael Grecco / Gallery Stock Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2015 Kendall Ryan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 9781496174505 Ebook Edition © April 2015 ISBN: 9780008133993 Version 2015-04-13

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

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Epilogue

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I listened as my best friend, Liz, droned on about her latest fling gone wrong and his deplorable behavior. ‘I’m done with men,’ she declared through the phone.

I choked on my latte, nearly spitting the lukewarm liquid on my computer screen. ‘Sure, Liz.’ She’d yet to understand that taking a guy home from the bar at two in the morning wouldn’t result in a real relationship. I wasn’t about to waste my breath explaining this to her for the umpteenth time. She was a contradiction in every way. Despite being a graduate student, her social life rivaled one of those girls-gone-wild reality shows.

‘I’ll just do what you do. Battery operated boyfriends never let you down, right, Ashlyn?’ She chuckled.

I roughly swallowed my mouthful of coffee. Nice . It was good to know what she really thought of me. ‘I’ll be sure to buy stock in Energizer then,’ I teased her back. If you asked me, Liz’s sexual needs were off the charts. The simple satisfactions of working my way through grad school one crappy lecture at a time and an occasional fling with my vibrator kept me content…for the most part.

A new email in my inbox caught my attention. It was from Professor Clancy, titled Possible Thesis Topic?

I pulled the phone from my ear, cutting off Liz’s rant to read the professionally worded message, inwardly cringing that I’d just been discussing vibrators. The sad thing was, Liz was right. It was the only action I’d had in two years. I just didn’t have time for a relationship and casual sex had never interested me. I needed a connection before I’d get naked and share my body with someone.

‘Liz, I’ve got to go. Call you tonight.’ I hung up without waiting for her response, but could hear her laughter through the line as I ended the call.

I closed my laptop and dialed Professor Clancy’s office number since he could be counted on to be there practically at all hours. Professor Clancy was a legend on campus and in academic circles, and I was lucky to have him as my adviser. He picked up on the third ring.

‘I got an interesting call from Dr. Andrews,’ he said. His calls always began this way--no hello, how are you --just straight to the point. ‘And based on a patient he’s seeing, I might have a lead on a test subject for your amnesia thesis.’

We’d been brainstorming thesis ideas that would also secure me a grant and allow me to work on getting a paper published in behavioral psychology, which was my field of study. Ever since I was a girl, I’d been fascinated by amnesia. Sometimes I fantasized about what it would be like to have amnesia, to forget all the painful memories from growing up. I realized Professor Clancy was still speaking and I listened as he described the man who’d been brought in to Northwestern Memorial Hospital several days before without a single memory..

‘You’re a genius, Professor Clancy. That’s perfect!’ I knew this assignment was meant for me. I could already see it – my name and an amnesia study printed in a medical journal. If that didn’t prove that I’d made something of myself, then nothing ever would.

‘There’s one hitch though.’

‘What’s that?’

‘He’s under arrest for a murder he has no recollection of committing.’

I picked at my nails and waited for him to continue.

‘He was arrested at the scene of a murder, standing over a man who’d been beaten so badly he had to be identified through dental records.’

I shivered involuntarily. ‘Geez.’

‘Yeah… You might want to rethink this, Ash.’

‘No. I want to work with him.’

‘I figured you’d say that. I just wanted to warn you and make sure you understood what you’d be getting into.’

‘Understood. Thanks, Professor. Have they discovered anything else about him?’ I asked, anxious to learn all I could.

‘He recalls nothing of his life before. Not even his name.’

‘That sounds promising.’ We’d been kicking around the idea of studying the effects of amnesia and its psychological impacts, but the access to subjects was limited. I wanted to write about something fresh and cutting edge, not just regurgitate the articles already published in tired old journals.