Broken Desire

By Emma Grace

For years Mary Stone has lived with a secret. Something she has not even told her best friend Kristin. But when the stress of what she has been through and an added threat of a hit put on her life become too much, Mary finally breaks down and confides in Kristin, Amber, and Olivia. Can her friends and their FBI husbands stop the threats Mary has lived with for the past fifteen years?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Emma Grace
• Release date: Oct 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311927583

Emma Grace

Emma Grace is a small town Southern girl whose love of books has been handed down through the women in her family for many generations. Emma has often sat with her mother or grandmother each reading their own books and enjoying the other's silent company. Emma is the mother of three beautiful children and is married to a loving, devoted husband. It was her husband and children who encouraged her to write her own books for others to enjoy.

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Broken Desire

By Emma Grace

Copyright 2014 Emma Grace

Smashwords Edition

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 your favorite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

♥ Note ♥

Broken Desire is a fictitious work of the author's imagination. Though some of the places mentioned throughout the book are real, the characters and storyline are completely made up. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

♥ 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

Author’s Note

About the Author

♥ Prologue ♥

She tried to open her eyes. They felt so very heavy. Her mouth tasted funny as well. What was wrong with her? Her bed felt strange and hard. Finally managing to open her eyelids halfway, she noticed a dusky looking sky with shades of pinks, purples, and oranges. Dusk or dawn, she wasn't sure.

She must of fallen back to sleep because the next time her eyes opened, she noticed the sun was climbing, not sinking in the sky. Dawn, she thought. But how could she see the sky and sun so well? She tried to sit up, but she hurt so badly. What happened?

Forcing her eyes opened again, she noticed she wasn't in her bed, but lying on the grass outside instead. She tried to turn her head but it felt fuzzy, and badly bruised. She put her hand up to her head and felt something sticky and wet. Pulling her hand back she saw blood.

Panic began to build. She tried to turn over but when she did, her whole body felt as if it were broken. She heard a sound close by and turned her head quickly to locate the noise, but the movement was too much for the broken, battered girl on the ground. She went under again.

Hey, are you alright? a campus security guard asked the girl when he saw her lying in the grass at the edge of the small picnic area. It was an area the college students liked to use to study, talk, or eat a quick snack between classes. No response.

Josh, I've got an unresponsive female lying in the grass over near the picnic area. Looks like she's been badly beaten. Can you send an ambulance?

I'll call them now. Just sit tight, Pete, until they arrive, the walkie-talkie in the security guard's hand crackled back. The girl heard none of it. The guard studied the girl trying to see if he could place who she might be. Auburn hair lay under her head matted with blood and mud. Her face was swollen so badly it was distorted. If he had not seen the slight rise and fall of her chest, he would have thought she was dead. He couldn't make out her features due to the swelling, and now the bruising was starting to set in as well.

One hand was bloody and laying by her head. The other was at an odd angle on the other side of her body. He legs looked strange as well. When he got closer, he could smell alcohol. She must have been drunk, he thought. Maybe she was trying to get home in the dark, and stumbled and fell, causing the bruising and bleeding. But he knew better. His gut told him she had been beaten and left for dead. It would not be the first time it had happened on the campus. He also knew what would follow. It would be quickly quieted and hushed up and the University would go back to normal as if nothing had happened. And whoever had done this would get away with it again.

These thoughts are the reason Pete was not surprised to notice the ambulance slowly making its way down the road with no lights and no siren. It was too early for anyone to be up, so if they were lucky, and they usually were, the girl would be whisked away to the hospital before anyone ever noticed a thing.

Luckily for the girl, when they arrived at the hospital, the doctor who took over her care had no prior association with the University and no knowledge of the cover up that usually took place in a case like this. Doctor Renee Whitman took one look at the battered girl and immediately went to work. She had the OR prepped, ordered blood work, x-rays, and scans, and asked an orderly to take fingerprints and collect a rape kit. She called the police herself.

Luck was still on the side of the girl when the officers who first responded ran the fingerprints and called the girl's family before anyone was ever notified where the battered girl had been found. Her father and mother showed up at the hospital before a full scale cover up could begin on the part of the University.

By the time they arrived, their daughter had been through one surgery and a number of tests. She would need two more surgeries before she would leave the hospital with her parents.

Mr. and Mrs. Stone, my name is Renee Whitman. Come this way and we can talk about what has happened to your daughter. Fear etched the faces of the middle-aged couple staring at her. She could see where the girl got her hair coloring from. She wondered if her eyes also matched her mother's light blue ones or were they the deep green of her father's.

The doctor led the parents to her office where they would have some privacy.

Please, how is our daughter? The officer who called just said she was in the hospital and gave us no other details. This came from the father as he held tightly to the mother's hand fearing the worse.

Your daughter is in bad shape. Blessedly for her, she is in a coma. Truthfully, I hope she stays that way until we can finish with her. She was severely beaten and, I believe, gang raped. She has some head trauma, a broken arm, both legs were broken and she is badly bruised. The doctor let that sink in before she continued.

There is more. The people who raped her did a lot of damage to her breasts and more private areas. She will have to have reconstructive surgery on both areas.

By now the mother was sobbing uncontrollable and the father was swallowing hard as if to keep his tears at bay.

I'm so sorry. Do you want some time or should I continue, she asked the grieving couple.

Please, go on. We will need to know so we can tell her, the father answered.

We have already performed one surgery where we opened her up and repaired as much of the internal damage as we could. I won't go into the specifics, but she will need to know, she will never be able to have children. As a doctor, I don't often offer my opinion as to the intent of others, but in this case you should know I believe the people who did this did not intend for your daughter to live through her ordeal. She is very fortunate to be alive.

The parents were grateful for the doctor's honest, compassionate recitation of the injuries to their daughter. They were thankful she was able to save her life. Both said as much as soon as they were able to get their emotions in check.

Doctor Whitman's tone turned business like now. I've taken the liberty of calling in the best plastic surgeon I know and one that specializes in this type of reconstructive surgery. You are free to research on your own and choose someone else, but I assumed you would want to spend as much time as possible with your daughter. If she were my child, this is who I would use. He will be here at four this afternoon to see the patient.

Thank you, Doctor Whitman, the father said as he rose to shake her hand.

You're welcome. I'll show you to your daughter's room. As I said earlier, she is in a coma, but we believe the patient can still hear you so feel free to talk to her as much as you want.

The parents followed the doctor down a couple of corridors and into the elevator. One floor up and down another long hallway, their daughter was lying in a hospital bed in the ICU. Her mother almost collapsed when they saw her. Her parents could hardly recognize her.

♥ Chapter 1 ♥

Mary sat up in bed quickly, the scream gathered in her throat. She was able to control her reaction though and no sound ever came out. Chest heaving from the nightmare, She sat quietly for a moment trying to still her beating heart.

She knew why the nightmare had returned. It did this time every other year around election season. Just this morning she had seen the demon's face plastered on the front page. He was upping the stakes this time and running for state senate.

Knowing from past experience she would not be able to get back to sleep, she climbed out of bed and walked to her bathroom. Flipping on the light, Mary Stone stared at her reflection in the mirror.

She had aged in the fifteen years since her nightmares had first started. The young, naive college girl, who had had her hopes and dreams stripped from her overnight, had blossomed into a much more knowledgeable woman. She had been pretty as a teen; as a woman, she was stunning.

Mary would not have labeled herself that, but there was no denying, everywhere she went, she turned heads. Her long auburn hair hung down her back and framed her face in tiny ringlets. Her emerald green eyes sparkled as if she hadn't a care in the world. Only her parents knew that to be false.

Mary quit staring at herself and climbed into her shower. It was a couple of hours earlier than normal for her but she would just take her time getting ready and eating breakfast, maybe even stop in, instead of running through a drive thru.

A little over an hour later the phone rang. Only her mother called her this early and she knew why she was calling.

Hi, Momma, she answered her cell.

Hi, Baby. Did you see the paper yesterday?

I did, Momma

Has he contacted you yet?

Not yet, but we both know it won't be long. He always knows where to find me, Mary couldn't quite keep the quiver out of her voice.

How long have you been up? Her mother was so perceptive. It was pretty much the same routine every time. She knew Mary would already be up because of the nightmares that came during this time.

About an hour, she said. How's the weather in Alabama?

Just fine, but don't change the subject on me young Lady. Mary, I know I ask this every time, but why won't you move away. He would leave you alone if he didn't know where you were.

Mary laughed bitterly at that statement. Momma, you and I both know that's not true. That family has connections all across the country and what happens when he tires of local government and begins the big campaign for his true calling. He would track me down. Besides, I have a great job here and friends I love. I'm safe as long as he believes it is more beneficial to him for me to remain alive.

She could hear her mother's sigh on the other end. I'll be okay, Momma, I promise. Besides, if I ever really feel threatened, I'll talk to Kristin's husband. You remember Matt from the wedding, right?

Oh, yes, the FBI agent. Why haven't you done that already? her mother asked with a slight rise in her voice.

Because, Momma, I'm safe as long as I keep my mouth shut, Mary reminded her. Thanks for the call. I appreciate you and Dad checking up on me, but I have to finish getting ready for work. I love you. Tell Dad hello for me.

I will, honey. Please be careful, Mary. This is a bigger race.

I know. Mary hung up the phone and immediately went to the toilet to gag. She had never told her mother that just talking about this with her always brought on this reaction. She simply could not think about what she had been through, much less talk about it, without anything and everything on her stomach coming up.

Her mother would be devastated to know Mary went through this. She wouldn't tell her because her mother needed to be able to comfort her. She had no way of knowing it was torture for Mary.

As she sat back on the floor of the bathroom to gather her composure, Mary thought about what her mother said. Why had she not simply moved away? If the demon didn't know where she was, would he have the need to hunt her down every other year and remind her of the power he holds over her? Would she have continued to be tortured by the nightmares and memories of what she had been through?

What she had said to her mother was true. She loved her job. Her best friend from high school had called her out of the blue one day and asked her to help open her practice. Doctor Kristin Young, a pediatrician, was ready to go out on her own and start a solo practice. Mary was ecstatic. She had been working in an office, but didn't really fit in. The other ladies didn't like her; the men were put off by her stand offish attitude. None of them had any idea of the torture she had endured just a few years previous.

It was a blessing when Kristin called. Mary agreed to take the job, never dreaming it would lead to future close friendships. At first, Kristin's practice grew steadily, requiring more staff. In a few short years, Mary's friend had hired an office manager, a nurse, and an insurance specialist.

The staff got along great and Mary was happy in her job. Then, a few years later, Kristin was kidnapped by a serial killer. Mary was introduced to Amber Stevenson during the investigation. Amber recognized the doctor when she was brought into the hospital by her brother-in-law, an FBI agent on the case of the serial killer.

Kristin fell in love with the FBI agent and became good friends with Amber. When Kristin's nurse moved away, Kristin hired Amber to work with them. As Kristin's practice continued to grow, Kristin also added Amber's best friend, Olivia, to her staff. The four girls had formed a tight bond over the past couple of years. Mary would not give that up now. She would not let the demon chase her away from her family, friends, and a job she enjoyed.

Mary pulled herself off the bathroom floor. Finishing her morning routine, she grabbed her purse and headed out the door. She drove slowly through the streets of Atlanta until she found a restaurant close to her office where she wanted to eat. Mary ordered her meal and sat at a booth to drink her coffee. She couldn't help but think back to the reason for her nightmares and why she still had them, even after so much time had passed.

~

Mary was twenty when the superstar captain of the football team started paying attention to her. She was flattered, naturally. He was every college girl's dream. Tall and muscular from regular football workouts and practice schedules, the blond quarterback caused heads to turn. But Mary wasn't interested.

Not only was he the star of the football team, he was wealthy and influential. George Robert Deveraux Winthrop III, of the Georgia Winthrop's, was a womanizer of the worst sort. He could ruin a girl's reputation in a matter of days, yet several of the college girls still fell for him if he so much as looked in her direction.

Mary was smarter than