Scarred Monster

  EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2018 Winter Sloane

  ISBN: 978-1-77339-687-3

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: Karyn White

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  To my amazing readers, I hope you enjoy this story as much as I loved writing it.

  SCARRED MONSTER

  Winter Sloane

  Copyright © 2018

  Prologue

  Ten Years Ago

  Liliana Hurley gripped the current page of her book so tightly, the page ripped. That seemed wrong to her. The characters in her books were her friends. People, she never fully understood, not in her four years of high school either. Noticing she’d been reading upside down, she let out a huff and set it down. She didn’t remember the title, except it was one of her reading assignments, or what chapter she’d been on.

  No surprise. She’d been distracted all day, her thoughts preoccupied by one man. Caleb. In the background, the tumble and whirr of the dryer didn’t calm her nerves as it usually did. Whenever her parents started one of their shouting matches, she’d make an excuse to start doing laundry and hide out here, book in hand.

  She rose to her feet, deciding to check on the dryer. Five minutes more. Liliana paced the tiny laundry room, back and forth, trying not to think so hard about time.

  I’ll wait for you, until it’s time. I know you’ll come.

  Why did she keep hearing Caleb’s voice in her head?

  Liliana sucked in a breath. The memory of Caleb pressing her body against his muscled chest blazed in her mind. It hurt to breathe. Liliana would go to a state college in a few weeks, and Caleb, God knew where he’d be.

  She couldn’t leave things like this.

  Liliana fingered the cross linked to the necklace she wore every day, her grandmother’s memento to her. She’d been close to her grandma, more than she’d ever been to her own mother, but she’d passed away when Liliana had been twelve. She wished she could ask for her grandma’s advice now though. Her nana would understand, would be sympathetic.

  “Damn it, I shouldn’t be hiding in here, hoping he’ll get the message and leave,” she muttered to herself. One look at the time told her she only had fifteen minutes left to reach their special place. She wouldn’t make it, but she’d try.

  Lilian yanked the laundry room open and ran towards the front door. The house always felt huge, daunting to her even when she’d been a kid. Large and lonely. Maybe that was why she spent so much time in her books. It felt good, jumping from one world to the next, too, until that night with Caleb, when he kissed her in front of everyone in school.

  No, he’d claimed her mouth, holding her so tightly to him like she was the best thing on earth.

  She grabbed her car keys, not bothering with a jacket. Liliana got into her car and drove out of the driveway and down the street like a madwoman. Her heart beat so fast, so painfully against her chest like it had wings, like it wanted to burst past bone, muscle, and skin, seeking its other half.

  Her other half?

  Liliana scoffed. Her mother had always accused her of reading too many romance books.

  Wake up, Liliana. Those books aren’t real, her mother liked to say.

  Except they got one thing right. Falling for Caleb hurt like hell.

  Why was she doing this? For more heartache? Liliana gripped the wheel so hard, her knuckles turned white. She silently berated herself for taking so long to figure out the simple answer.

  I want to see him.

  She stepped on the pedal. Liliana had always been a careful driver, but time wasn’t on her side. Liliana sent a silent prayer to the God she never quite believed in.

  Please, let me not be too late.

  ****

  Caleb looked at his wristwatch. Time’s up. He let out a small sound of frustration and balled his hands into fists. Caleb yanked his car door open, then looked over his shoulder again, at the empty dirt road. He blew out a breath, returning his attention to the view in front of him instead.

  Gorgeous, Liliana had whispered while tucked against his body the first time he took her here. Caleb saw the same seemingly endless blue sky, the outline of their shitty little town underneath that and thought differently than she did.

  He’d always known he wanted out of this town ever since he could remember and planned on enlisting in the army after graduation. He only stayed, because someone had to look after Liliana. At least that was the pathetic excuse he told himself.

  Caleb was no saint. Hell, he hardly considered himself a decent man, especially for wanting Liliana.

  Fuck, but he had so many things he wanted to tell her. Unsaid words that would remain that.

  He gritted his teeth. Caleb needed to go soon.

  Liliana wasn’t going to show. Shit. He’d really thought she would. True, she told him it was better if she stayed away, that seeing him one last time would only worsen the pain.

  Still, he hoped she’d change her mind at the last second. The familiar rumble of her car engine made him turn. Caleb blew out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. She parked her car next to his and got out, hesitating by the door.

  Caleb ran a hand through his messy black hair. “I thought you’d never show. You said you don’t deal well with goodbyes.”

  She rubbed at her arms, and he swore. Didn’t she bring a jacket? Why didn’t she come closer? Caleb took off his dad’s leather jacket, the only memento of his old man, eliminated the distance between them, and placed it over her creamy shoulders. The jacket was too big on her, but fuck, did it look good. He liked seeing her in his clothes.

  Familiar possessiveness swept over him, making him aware of his thickening dick. All he wanted to do was sweep her in his arms, hold her, and—and what?

  Caleb couldn’t make her any promises. Both of them stood at a crossroads in their lives. The army was his future, and hers lay in that university all the way at the edge of the state. She was almost eighteen, free to make her decisions, but she was no adult. If he pushed, she’d abandon her bright future to be with him.

  Caleb was many things but bastard wasn’t one of them.

  Liliana was smart as hell, different from everyone else at school. Special. This girl, his girl, would go the distance. She deserved much more than being tied down to a loser who had a drunk for a father and a drug addict for a mother.

  Liliana whispered one word. “Caleb.”

  She grabbed a handful of his plain white shirt, rested her head against his left pectoral, and wrapped her arms around him. Reaching out, he stroked her hair. He’d miss this, the feel of her silken dark brown curls against his fingers. Caleb dreamed of fisting her hair, the way he did now, savoring the way her pupils dilated and her lips parted.

  Unable to help himself, he took her lips, despite knowing this would make their parting even harder. Since he'd gotten his first taste of her he’d been hooked. Caleb ran his hands down her curves, seeking the hem of her shirt, but halted. If they kept this going, he’d have Liliana in the back seat of his car, under him, pleading him for more.

  He sucked on her bottom lip instead, taking his time to commit her taste to memory. Caleb deepened the kiss, further aroused when she sucked down hard on his tongue. He’d been the first man ins
ide her, and wanted to be the only man for her.

  Even now, he remembered that night clearly. He’d blown everything he’d earned that week at the car repair shop to take her to the fanciest place in town, and he didn’t give a rat’s ass how the guy at the desk looked at him. Caleb never thought he’d have the patience to strip that prom dress off her carefully, slowly, like he was unwrapping a present, but she deserved to be treated like a queen.

  Caleb pulled his mouth away and wrestled his mind from those memories, resting his forehead against hers. She panted against him. If he slipped his hand past the waistband of her jeans, Caleb had a feeling he’d find her wet. She was always ready for him, but he didn’t dare, even though those big green eyes of hers seemed to have a silent plea in them.

  Take me.

  He couldn’t, as much as he wanted to.

  “I better be going,” he said, voice hoarse. Caleb felt like the world’s biggest asshole.

  “Yeah,” she said, fingers still on his chest.

  God, what would he give for her to pet him like that, like he was some kind of big and dangerous predatory animal? Caleb took control when it came to the bedroom, but he didn’t mind her touches. They were as proprietary as his were somehow.

  Caleb took her fingers in his, lifting them to his lips, aware of the contrast of the black ink on his knuckles and her clean, smooth fingers. They came from such different worlds. How did a girl from the best part of town, the daughter of a former senator, end up with a fucker like him?

  “We’ll keep in touch,” she said quickly, taking off the chain around her neck, the one she always wore.

  The cross had belonged to her grandmother, he remembered. Even though she went to Sunday Mass because her parents expected to, she was no believer, but the necklace was one of her most important possessions, because it belonged to her grandmother.

  She pressed it to his fingers.

  “I can’t. This was your Nana’s,” he began, but she shook her head.

  “Please, it’s a little thing. I want you to have something that reminds you of me.”

  Caleb put it on. It felt like he had a piece of her heart with him.

  The load in his chest worsened. Everyone knew long-distance relationships never worked. She’d find some nice guy in college, someone from the same world as she was. Fuck. Unwarranted jealousy took root inside of him, and he clenched his jaw. Caleb saw red for a few seconds. Seeing her with another man would drive him mad. No way in hell would he act petty. Not now.

  “What we have is special, Caleb. I’ll never forget you, and you’ll—”

  Caleb rested her hand over his heart, interrupting her. He had nothing to give her, except this. “This belongs to you, Liliana. Always.”

  Tears welled in her eyes.

  “Fuck, I didn’t mean to make you cry. It’s going to be okay, sweetheart. Like you said, we’ll write to each other, text and call each other.” Caleb had always been a good liar his entire life.

  He lied to the concerned teachers at school about his shitty family life, wanting everyone to see he was this tough guy who didn’t take crap from anyone. Only Liliana saw the real him, how he barely kept things together when his mother overdosed and his father followed soon after. Caleb never wanted to use those skills on her, but he did.

  He cupped her cheek, kissed her again, because he still could.

  “Okay, you’re right,” she said, nodding. “I’m glad I came out here to meet you, even if it’s hard and it hurts knowing I won’t see you tomorrow or the day after that.”

  “Be strong, Liliana. We’ll meet again soon.” Caleb brushed his lips over her trembling ones and did the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life. He walked away from her for the last time.

  Chapter One

  Liliana’s phone beeped while she started to get ready for the day. Not her official one, but the one she kept from her fake fiancé. She froze from applying her mascara, set it down, and gazed at her reflection in the mirror. Ten years had changed her in some ways, but some parts of her remained the same. The same brown-haired and awkward girl stared back at her, the one who’d been called “chubby” and “fat”, and other worse names at school.

  She was no catch. Roger made that clear on the day their engagement was announced.

  Only one man ever called her difference special. Liliana rose to her feet, grabbing her secret cell in her handbag. She opened the message. An address and time. Nothing else. Words could be said when they met face-to-face. It was for her safety and his. A necessary precaution, but sometimes, she wished she could break that rule.

  Her heart raced so fast, like it wanted to tear itself out of her chest. Liliana could still remember the taste of him, his hands on her body, even if that had been a lifetime ago.

  Liliana: I’ll see you tonight.

  She tucked her phone away, hands trembling. An engaged woman shouldn’t be doing this. This was wrong, except was keeping in touch with a man she hadn’t seen since high school truly wrong?

  Was this cheating, if all they ever traded were messages while Roger fucked anything attractive on two legs? Besides, it wasn’t like Roger and she were married yet.

  Liliana finished up, taking her bag with her. On her way downstairs, she paused by Roger’s room. A year ago, Roger left the door locked all the time, but not anymore.

  He no longer cared, but neither did she. Curiosity made her look in, but only for a moment. A pink bra and matching panties lay on the rug below the bed. Not hers. Liliana curled her lip in distaste.

  Typical bastard.

  “Ms. Hurley,” a voice said behind her.

  She turned, seeing Maria, the head housekeeper.

  “Breakfast is ready,” Maria said, not looking at Roger’s room, but her pursed lips said it all.

  The forty-something housekeeper came with the enormous house, along with the rest of the staff. The same staff had heard Roger’s and her shouting matches, probably seen the different women Roger snuck in through the kitchen door.

  The big house, large grounds, and the staff were engagement presents, her parents said. Only when Liliana completed the moving arrangements did she wonder why she let her parents pull her into this mess. Had she been always that foolish?

  No, they’d swooped in at an incredibly lonely and depressed period of her life, like vultures waiting to strike.

  It’s time you stop escaping to those silly, trashy books of yours and live in the real world like everyone else, her mother told her after Roger’s proposal.

  Liliana didn’t who she was more angry at, her mother, who’d made deprecating comments about her weight her entire life, or herself, for giving in when she came to the conclusion that she’d lost Caleb to the military.

  Realizing Maria still waited for her answer, she nodded.

  “Thank you, Maria,” she answered.

  “I might be speaking out of turn, but why are you still with him?” Maria asked, point blank.

  Liliana blinked, not expecting that. Maria and the others were professionals, and part of her suspected some of them were spies for her parents. She flashed Maria a warm smile, because she didn’t need to go through the same everyday motions today. Tonight, tonight would change things.

  “I won’t be, for long.” Liliana went downstairs, her good mood dissipating when she noticed Roger hadn’t left.

  Before the announcement of their engagement, the press had called him one of the nation’s most eligible bachelors. He certainly had no trouble roping giggling, twenty-something interns into his bed. Roger had the wealth, and Liliana’s parents had the connections. A match made in heaven, the newspapers called it.

  “Morning,” Roger said, not looking up from the morning paper.

  The massive mahogany table seated eight. Roger sat at the head, and she chose to sit farthest away from him. God, she hated this table, every piece of furniture in her house her mother picked. Five years ago, she’d still been reeling from the heart-wrenching news. When she wrote to Caleb aski
ng when he’d be returning home, he had no answers for her.

  When her mother stepped back into her life and started spending more time with her, Liliana thought they were finally building that mother-daughter relationship she always wanted. Instinct had told her to keep Caleb a secret. Liliana knew that someday her mother could somehow use her love for Caleb against her.

  Roger set the paper down. A maid appeared by her side, setting her plate in front of her, along with a steaming mug of coffee.

  “Women with your figure shouldn’t be eating that much bacon.”

  Those little, seemingly harmless remarks used to sting, but over the years, Liliana had learned to build a wall so those little comments harmlessly bounced off. She picked up her fork, slowly chewed on one end of the bacon, and smiled. He narrowed his eyes, as if he knew she had a retort ready.

  Build an armor so thick, so impenetrable that words won’t touch you.

  Living with a viper for five years had taught her to become one, too.

  “What does it matter? I’m sick of this arrangement, and you’re probably the same. Roger, I hate to break it to you, but you’re too sloppy with your hookers. The press always manages to dig up something on you. You’ll never get anywhere in the political sphere this way.” Liliana took a sip of her coffee, watching her fiancé bristle.

  Roger clenched his fists. Sometimes, Liliana wondered if he’d have the balls to raise a hand against her. Roger certainly had a nasty temper and frequently yelled at the staff when things didn’t go his way. Plenty of furniture and other items in the house had had to be replaced over the years.

  Liliana set her coffee down when he grabbed his coffee cup and threw it at the wall left of him, scattering splashes of black liquid over framed photographs of his family and hers, and the two of them. Everyone plastered easy smiles in those photos. Fakes.