Chance

By Monica D. Pitts-Lack

Haunted by a bloody past, Claire Devereux finds herself running for her life the summer after her high school graduation.

Four years later, things are starting to look up for Claire. She has a new job, new friends, and an undeniable interest in a Navy Pilot.

That is, until her past catches up with her. This time, there is no running. Embracing the life she has tried to forget, Claire is ready to fight for survival. Armed with a new found confidence, it is time to take back what is hers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Monica D. Pitts-Lack
• Release date: May 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481155946

Monica D. Pitts-Lack

Born in Evanston, WY, Monica D. Pitts-Lack and her family traveled much of the West, United States as her dad worked in the oil field. Eventually, she and her family found home in Laurel, MS. A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Monica earned a degree in child and family studies. In her spare time, she enjoys coffee, reading, music and the Summer. Monica currently lives in Laurel with her husband and two daughters

Book preview

Chance

Monica D. Pitts-Lack

Copyright © 2012 Monica D. Pitts-Lack at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1481155946

ISBN-13: 978-1481155946

This book is available in print at most online retailers.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

To Adam, who said a first book should always be dedicated to your husband.

Love you!

Acknowledgement

To my mother, Rebecca, who always said that I would do something special with my life. You are my best friend and I’m thankful to have someone to laugh, cry, and share stories with each day.

To my father, Daron, who not only gave me an appreciation for good music, but taught me tough love and that life is about the memories you make. My Wish is coming true, Daddy. Thank you!

To my sister, Heather, I’m thankful that I share such a unique sense of humor with someone. No matter where we are in our day-to-day lives, we can call each other and laugh about things that happened years ago as if they happened yesterday. My One True Friend.

To my husband, Adam, who finally told me to get off my ass and write. Who, toward the end of this book, would take our daughters out on Saturday to give me time alone to complete Chance. You never lost faith in me, and you’ll never know how much that means to me.

To my daughters, Harper and Scarlet, I love you very much. One day I want you to be able to look at this and know that you can make your dreams come true, too. Don’t let anyone tell you that you aren’t good enough, because you are. There are no boundaries to what you want to do in life; you just have to want it bad enough to make it happen.

A big thank you to Audrey Welch, R.K. Ryals, and Laura Wright LaRoche & LLPix Design! Audrey, you were my personal cheerleader and would send me messages of encouragement at just the time I needed them and also for introducing me to R.K. Ryals. R.K., you were so incredibly patient with answering my questions about self-publishing and doing a tremendous job of editing my material, even until the last few days. I will never be able to thank you enough. Laura, you did an amazing job on the book cover! You took the ideas I had for the cover and exceeded my expectations. I can’t wait to work with you again!

To all my friends and family who have supported me along the way. Thank you! Throughout these last few months, you guys have encouraged me more than you will ever know. I appreciate each and every one of you and I’m proud to have you in my life.

Table of Contents

Prologue

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

Soundtrack for Chance

About the Author

Prologue

Six Months Earlier …

I can’t believe I let you talk me into this, Sarah! I growled through the phone.

Come on, Claire. The guy has been trying to ask you out for weeks now. The least you could do was take him up on his offer and see where things go, she huffed. Besides, you are crazy about him. I can tell.

Good-bye, Sarah.

Don’t do anything I—

Hanging up the phone, I looked at my watch for the fifth time. He’s late. I sigh heavily, becoming increasingly more irritated with the entire situation. I’ll give him another five minutes, then I’m gone.

Collapsing in a chair on the patio of Sully’s, I throw my legs into the opposite chair, crossing my legs at the ankle. Pierce wasn’t a bad guy. As a matter of fact, he was the complete opposite. His eyes were amazingly blue and his body … Holy Moses, his body.

I shake the thoughts from my head and release my bottom lip from my teeth. Get it together, Claire. Shifting forward, I adjust the Ray-Bans in my hair and pull my legs from the chair to the ground. As my right leg starts to bounce, I pinch the bridge of my nose, willing my nerves to settle down. Standing abruptly, I slide my sweaty palms down the front of my khaki shorts and frown critically at my outfit. Sarah insisted that I dress up, which to her meant wearing anything that wasn’t in my closet. So, here I stand in khaki shorts, a white, cotton V-neck, and a navy blue cardigan. Gag! I almost escaped before she made me change out of my Chucks to a red pair of Toms, and she draped a long necklace around my neck embellished with an anchor at the end.

Pulling up the sleeves on the cardigan, again, I check my watch. Times up. Stomping over to the wall, I turn off the light switch for the icicle lights that hang on the canopy over the patio.

Hello, Claire.

My head snaps around at the sound of a deep voice that I don’t recognize. Beyond the patio stands a large man. Very large.

I’m sorry, but we’re closed.

He chuckles and inwardly I cringe. Taking a deep breath, I remain expressionless and try to push past him into the alley, but he grabs my bicep. Confidently, I raise my chin and look into cold, dark eyes.

I said we’re closed, I hissed through gritted teeth.

Tightening his grip on my arm, he leans into my ear. His breath is hot and sticky on my neck.

I think you know why I’m here.

Yanking my arm from him, I take a few faltered steps back, putting some distance between us. He cracks his neck and folds his arms across his chest. Suddenly, my heart is racing double time.

James sends his love, he said, a wicked smile spreading across his face.

The blood instantly drained from my face and I know he noticed.

How did you find me?

It wasn’t hard. One thing led to another and well, here I am.

All of a sudden, he lunges at me and I swiftly dodge his massive hands. Grabbing me by the hair, he shoves me against a building in the alley.

Shit!

The bricks scraped at my cheek as tears threaten my eyes. I claw at his hand that was still twisted in my hair at the nape of my neck. Taking his free hand, he placed it on my left hip and started to glide it up my waist and stopped just below my breast. Bile rises in my throat, and it takes all of my willpower to choke it down. I squeeze my eyes shut as he leans his body into mine.

It’s a shame I have to kill you.

Fuck you!

Reviews for Chance

[lerigby · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although in many ways this is a complex narrative, the story in essence is quite straight forward. I will give this in outline without giving too much away.Flora de Barral is the only child of a rising star in the world of London finance, the founder of a new investment bank that soon crashes after as string of bad investments, taking the savings of the great and the good along with it. The great de Barral is subsequently arrested, tried and locked up in prison. Flora, whose Mother is deceased, is left effectively orphaned by this catastrophe and left at the mercy of an unforgiving world.Enter the Fynes who are neighbours of Flora and witness her practically instantaneous ruin. One minute she is the heiress of an apparent vast fortune, the next completely pauperized. Ultimately Flora is taken under Mrs. Fynes wing, who is apparently sympathetic to her plight but in whom she also finds in her, and other lost young female souls, a useful sponge to expound her early feminist thought. It is while Flora is staying with the Fynes in the countryside that she is introduced to Mrs. Fynes emotionally repressed brother Anthony, a lonely thirty-something Captain in the merchant marine. Through Flora Anthony's repressed sexual and emotional fervour find full force, however the motives behind Flora's acceptance and marriage to Anthony are from the first questioned.Whilst the basic plot is simple, the novel's complexity arises from Conrad's exploration of the psychological motives behind the actions of the various characters. The story also provides a vehicle for Conrad, through his narrator Marlow, to muse on various philosophical points concerning human nature and the motives of men. The prose style is rich, complex and subtle; it is a book that most readers will need to read with great care (as I did) as it is quite easy to get lost in the complexity of the narrative. It is however worth the effort as Conrad slowly draws you into this strange intrigue and also transports the reader into the lonely scenes of Conrad's late Victorian/ Edwardian England; the bleak Thames estuary, lonely dockyards, grey East End Street's and its underclass in the shadows.The climax of the plot (which I won't divulge for obvious reasons) was no doubt a concession to commerciality and sits a little strangely with the rest of the books tone. However the book is hugely rewarding and won't disappoint fans of Conrad.

[rocketjk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Chance is not considered to be one of Conrad's great works, a judgement with which I concur, although somewhat ironically the book provided Conrad's first major commercial success. I have, and have read, a collection of Conrad's letters to Edward Garnett. Garnett was one of Conrad's first champions within the publishing world, Conrad's editor early in his career, and good friend through his life. I thumbed through the brief biographical sketch Garnett offers at the beginning of the volume. Garnett comments that he believed that the commercial success and public renown that finally came Conrad's way with Chance, despite the generally positive critical reaction to his earlier (and better) works, may have had as much to do with the fact that there was a woman's portrait on the cover as anything else.Personally, I cannot stress enough that if anyone is looking to explore Conrad's fiction for the first time, this book is most emphatically not the place to start. Please.All that said, Chance is still Conrad, even if it's not Conrad in top form. For a Conrad lover like me, happy to dig into one of the author's few novels that I hadn't read yet, this still meant a mostly happy reading experience. The story is a romance at its heart, but to say much more than that would already present a plot spoiler. The best part of the book is its first half, in which the background of the story's female protagonist is described by our old pal, Marlow. The conflict of the second half revolves around a plot twist, the kind of misunderstanding perpetuated only by the sort of reticence between two people that one rarely finds outside of fiction, that made me impatient for quite for about 50 or 60 pages. But, the whole time, I did want to know how the whole thing was going to be developed and what would happen to the characters, and that, in addition to my loyalty to Conrad, kept me going.And, especially in the book's first half, we are treated to many a wonderful Conrad-esque observation and/or description, and to Conrad's often puckish humor, especially where the relations between men and women are concerned. To wit:" . . . I could not tell what sort of sustenance she would look for from my sagacity. And as to taking stock of the wares of my mind, no one, I imagine, is anxious to do that sort of thing if it can be avoided. A vaguely grandiose state of mental self-confidence is much too agreeable to be disturbed recklessly by such a delicate investigation. Perhaps if I had had a helpful woman at my elbow, a dear, flattering, acute devoted woman . . . There are in life moments in life when one positively regrets not being married."Also of interest, to me at least, were some of the comments Conrad makes in his Author's Note, written in 1920, seven years after Chance's original publication:"A critic had remarked that if I had selected another method of composition and taken a little more trouble the tale could have been told in about two hundred pages {or about 170 pages shorter, in other words - rjk}. I confess I do not perceive exactly the bearings of such criticism or even the use of such a remark. No doubt that by selecting a certain method and taking great pains, the whole story might have been written out on a cigarette paper. For that matter, the whole history of mankind could be written thus if only approached with sufficient detachment. The history of men on this earth since the beginning of time may be resumed in one phrase of infinite poignancy: They were born, they suffered, they died . . . Yet it is a great tale! But in the infinitely minute stories about men and women it is my lot on earth to narrate I am not capable of such detachment."In speaking of the book's successful reception, Conrad remarks:"It {the art of writing fiction} is indeed too arduous in the sense that the effort must be invariably so much greater than the possible achievement. In that sort of foredoomed task which is in its nature very lonely also, sympathy is is a precious thing. It can make the most severe criticism welcome. To be told that better things have been expected of one may be soothing in view of how much better things one had expected from oneself . . ."

[porius_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sailors are sticklers for detail.