Synopsis
Tortured beyond Endurance…
Kelly Wachowski has no memory of her life before she was five. Despite being one of the ‘found’ children and her uncanny ability to assimilate languages, she’s managed to live a normal life for twenty years until the day she was kidnapped. Tortured beyond endurance she prayed for death while she dreamed of a boy long forgotten—Noah.
A Hero with a Secret…
Samson Noah Kukailimoku is another ‘found’ child. His existence was kept secret by the Polynesian family who adopted him. Now he’s a highly decorated naval officer, and part of an elite unit whose mission is to rescue children like Kelly. The closer he gets to finding her the more he connects to her and shares the pain of her torture and the dreams of their shared past.
A Love That Is More than a Dream…
After her rescue, Kelly is convinced she’s losing her mind as she experiences Noah’s life in a waking dream. Knowing she’s in danger, Noah must save Kelly from herself and those tracking her, moving Heaven and Earth to protect her. Linked by their past, danger and deception follow them everywhere. Together they discover a love and passion surpassing all of their dreams, but before they can have a future together they have to solve the mystery of their past.
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Chapter One
“Tell me
where you came from.”
It always
started this way. First the question,
then the excruciating pain as the electric paddles were held against her temples. The smell of her burning flesh. Then they would take the rubber bit from her
mouth and ask another question. Another
question she couldn’t answer.
“How many
of you are there?”
She prayed
to all the saints her mother taught her that this time she would pass out. It was the only thing to ever stop the
questions. Stop the pain.
“I don’t
know!” she wailed, as the bit was shoved into her mouth. She squeezed her eyes so
tight she saw stars before the shocking red flames took over her very being.
“Where did
you come from? Where are the rest of you
now?” They yanked the bit from her
mouth, making her lip bleed.
“Just tell
me what you want me to say…” her voice didn’t sound like her own. For hours or months, she wasn’t sure how long
she begged them to tell her what they wanted her to answer. The paddles were again placed on her
temples. Fire exploded behind her eyes
and her teeth actually tore into the rubber bit.
****
She wasn’t
strapped down. She stretched and it felt
wonderful, until the pins and needles started.
Where was she? She wanted to see
if they noticed they forgot to buckle the straps. She tried to look
around. She couldn’t. She was blind. They’d blinded her, the shock therapy had
blinded her. Oh God. She trembled in horror for long moments before
realizing it was her eyelids, they were swollen shut. She tried to touch them to make sure it was
the only thing wrong but pain seared her arm.
Moving
slowly to restore some circulation to her limbs, she realized she was lying on
something soft. Rolling just a little so
she wasn’t lying on her arm, she fell on to a hard cement floor. It hurt, it was cold, but at least she could
move. Trying to stand up, she used the
cot as leverage, but her legs wouldn’t support her.
She
crawled and bumped her head against a wall.
Using it as a guide she followed it around the small room with cement
walls, basically a cell. Mostly empty
except for the cot and the toilet, there was a tray with something that felt
and smelled like bread and cheese. She
wolfed down some of the food, but there wasn’t anything to drink. Crawling over to the toilet she flushed it,
then greedily drank handfuls of water.
“Good to
see you’re back with us Kelly.” She
hadn’t heard any door open or anything else to indicate she wasn’t alone.
“Who are
you? What do you want from me?” Cringing at the desperate edge in her voice,
she clamped her lips tight. God, how she
wanted to beg for water that didn’t come from a toilet, for food, or a blanket,
or to go home.
“Who are
we? You don’t get to ask the questions,
we do. We want to know who all of you
are. We know about you and the four
others. You all showed up twenty years
ago. Why did you come here? Where did you come from?” The woman’s voice was calm and soothing. It was like they were having a polite
conversation, but Kelly knew the horror awaiting her at the woman’s command.
“I told
you, I don’t remember anything before waking up in Dad’s police car.” Kelly’s voice was raspy from all the screams,
but at least it was even.
“But
Kelly, Mike Wachowski isn’t really your father now is he?” Again the woman’s speech was calm and
soothing. “You appeared out of thin air
twenty years ago and were adopted into his family, isn’t that right?”
It wasn’t
a question, and Kelly didn’t reply, but suddenly realized what was coming next. She’d forgotten. This wasn’t the first time she’d woken up in
this room and drank from the toilet bowl.
Doubted it was even the tenth time.
It had to be the shock treatments. They were messing with her memory. She didn’t remember when she’d been kidnapped,
but it had to have been well over a month, oh
God, could it have been a year?
She sat
there, turning her head away from the direction of the voice. She waited, and then heard more people
entering the cell, knowing what came next. Holding up her arms she didn’t have long to
wait, they were there, grabbing and dragging her out.
****
“Noooooo-aaaahhhhh!”
“Shove the
bit in again. I don’t want her biting through
her tongue. Hopefully this new dosage
will break down the damn barrier.”
Whatever
chemicals they gave her burned as they made their way into her system. She moaned around the rubber bit and
struggled with the restraints as the paddles were placed against her
temples. Maybe they’d finally kill her
and her suffering would end.
First
black, then white, and then the red of fire and pain. Coursing through her like molten fire,
through every molecule, forcing her to lose control of her bodily
functions.
The colors burst in front of her, yellows,
purples, pinks and blues. Ripping the
head off one wildflower she pushed it against her nose and inhaled the
fragrance, and then threw back her head and laughed. The sun was up and warm against her bare
shoulders. Charging forward, she giggled
as the flowers brushed legs, the soft grass squishy between her toes. She soared over the log in her path, and then
she saw him.
Noah was her best friend. She knew he wanted to be alone, but he needed
her. Tiptoeing behind him, she jumped up
to surprise him as he turned around. He
gave her a dark look but she smiled at him and flung her arms wide, watching as
his face suffused with laughter. He
scooped her up and twirled her around.
He was nine and she was five, but their age difference didn’t matter, they
were best friends. Grabbing his silky
black hair as he twirled her, she hugged his neck, and Kali was content. Nothing was better in her world than loving
Noah, he belonged to her.
“Don’t be sad anymore, Noah.”
“I’m not sad, Kali.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I’m leaving with the others.” She’d known.
But she didn’t want him to leave.
“Kalani, you need to understand, let me show you.” He touched their foreheads together.
“No, I don’t want to see.”
“Open up Kali, you need to see. Let me show you.”
Kali relaxed and let him share the other
universe needing their help. He revealed
everything. So many things didn’t make
sense, but the pain and suffering was easy to comprehend, and more, she could
see what it was Noah and the others were supposed to do. It was simple, they were to be themselves and
just help a little.
He was right, he had to go, it was
important. Kali started to cry. She knew it meant she would have to leave
everything she loved, her Nana, the meadow, and everything else, because there
was no way Noah was leaving without her.
Bonus Scene
***Bonus Scene, at the very end of Revealed***
Noah
held Kali in his lap as the sun began to set over the Pacific ocean. As it
began to chill, she burrowed closer, and he remembered her doing the same thing
as a child. He remembered the meadow long ago when she had demanded to leave
with him, she had been his best friend. She was his life, and now she was
giving him the world.
You’re wrong Noah. You’re my life. You
mean everything to me. You’re my rock.
If
I’m the rock, then you’re the sun that I revolve around.
About the Author
I
was born in Seattle Washington, but soon moved to a small town North of there,
which is where I grew up. I’m the oldest of five children, so it was a lively
household, and reading became my way to block out the noise. I am an avid
reader. I love every genre, but romance and happily ever afters have always
been my favorite books. I remember in middle school my biology teacher taking a
Rosemary Rogers book away from me; I didn’t understand why—she was certainly
teaching me aspects of biology!
As I
grew up, I would write stories to entertain myself and my younger siblings. I
often wrote their book reports for them. My brothers were only one year apart
in age. I wrote a report for the oldest his senior year, he turned it in and
got a B+. The next year John turned in the same report to the same teacher and
got an A-, the year after that the youngest turned it in to the same teacher
and got an A. The teacher liked it better each time he read it!
I’ve
worked in corporate America for most of my life, where a lot of creative
writing takes place (and if you don’t believe me, you really don’t know
corporate America). I blogged to all my employees when I spent six weeks in
India—they considered me quite the smartass. My corporate life has allowed me
to live in Washington, Texas, Belgium and California.
I
have been with the same man for seventeen years. He was born and raised in
Texas, and twelve years ago I whisked him, kicking and screaming, to Southern
California. Luckily he loves me and wants to be where I am, but he’s still a
Texan at heart (although he doesn’t miss Texas summers). I’m a very lucky woman
who enjoys swimming, traveling, babysitting her nieces and nephews and doing
lots of “research” with her husband for upcoming books.
After
being such a fan of romance all my life, I was reading Sophie Oak’s Bliss and
Siren in the City series last year, and they weren’t coming out fast enough. I
started thinking about a place up in the Northwest, and characters started
spinning in my head. Then came Chance. Once he was there, he demanded to be put
down on paper. I don’t really write the stories. For real, the stories just
come out of my fingers onto the computer screen. Half the time I’m surprised by
what ends up being typed!
Giveaway
$25 Amazon Gift Card
A.M.
Hargrove resides in the south, dividing her time between the upstate of South
Carolina and the mountains of North Carolina. She truly believes that
chocolate, coffee and ice cream should be added to the USDA food groups.
