Broken Beauty (#1, Broken Beauty Novellas)

By Lizzy Ford

**TRIGGER WARNING. Contains the sensitive topic of rape and its aftermath.**

Just a broken girl trapped in her broken world.
When socialite party girl Mia Abbott-Renou wakes up in a garden she has little recall of the previous night -- except that she is naked...hurt...terrified. Not only has she been raped, but she knows one of her assailants: the son of a wealthy politician who happens to be her own father’s political ally.

Mia wants and needs justice. Except this privileged boy has an alibi and her father forbids her from going to the police. It’s a critical election year, one that his party might lose if his image as a doting father is soured due to Mia being labeled a lush or worse, promiscuous.

Devastated at not having the support of her family, Mia finds herself in a tug-of-war with her conscience over what to do, especially since she can’t remember exactly what happened that night. Worse, the men who attacked her have hurt several other girls, and Mia may be the key to stopping them.

Mia tries to forget, until the unthinkable happens, and she’s left reeling once again, faced with a new challenge that will force her to take more control of her life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lizzy Ford
• Release date: Feb 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9781623783105

Lizzy Ford

I breathe stories. I dream them. If it were possible, I'd eat them, too. (I'm pretty sure they'd taste like cotton candy.) I can't escape them - they're everywhere! Which is why I write! I was born to bring the crazy worlds and people in my mind to life, and I love sharing them with as many people as I can.I'm also the bestselling, award winning, internationally acclaimed author of over sixty ... eighty ... ninety titles and counting. I write speculative fiction in multiple subgenres of romance and fantasy, contemporary fiction, books for both teens and adults, and just about anything else I feel like writing. If I can imagine it, I can write it!I live in the desert of southern Arizona with two dogs and two cats!My books can be found in every major ereader library, to include: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Sony and Smashwords.

Book preview

One

Sirens, shuffling, and the distant sounds of voices interrupt my sleep.

Pain.

I float back towards consciousness. I try to figure out if I left the television on and what I ate that made my belly hurt so much.

Cold.

How could I forget to pull the blankets up before passing out?

Blood.

Have I always had a bed made of concrete that smelled strange, like a combination of trees and something unpleasant?

Alone.

Just before the voices crystalize, I begin to realize I’m not at home in bed. Amidst all the words that come to me, one shouts.

Darkness.

Miss? Can you hear me? A woman’s voice. She pries one of my eyes open. I’m blinded by a light. We’ve got possible head trauma.

Head trauma? Is this real?

Miss! It’s okay! We’re the police!

Police.

I’m about to slide into darkness when she passes smelling salts beneath my nose. The world bursts into painful clarity. Where the hell am I? My eyes are blurry, but I can make out the shapes of hedges just beyond the police who hover over me. The stone beneath me is cold, and someone has draped a blanket over me. It feels heavy; makes me uncomfortable...like someone is...

---

Someone is on top of me. The fireflies nearby light up a face framed by dark hair. His face is blurry. I hear him grunting. He smells like whiskey. He’s holding my hands above my head while I struggle. I feel the pain, tearing me from the inside out, but I can’t move.

This shouldn’t be happening.

---

I scream and try to escape. Someone subdues me, and the memory clears to show two police officers bent over me.

You’re safe, the woman says. I want to keep you awake ‘til the EMTs check you out.

I’m starting to remember, but it’s hazy, like a nightmare. Except this one is real, because I’m here in the garden, where the nightmare happened. Pain is settling in, hot and burning, between my legs, across my back. My head.

I start to cry, confused and terrified.

Oh, god! I’m dying! I sob.

You won’t die, honey.

I found a blanket in the cabana. This voice is male. And her purse.

Calm down…Julie? the woman cop says. She’s reading the driver’s license she pulled from a familiar red snakeskin wristlet, the one I borrowed from my best friend, Ari.

The one I borrowed for tonight’s party at Sven’s. He sent out a text earlier today about the party he was throwing when his ambassador father would be out of town for the weekend. Ari and I are regular attendees in the elite party circuit for kids of the wealthy in DC. She was supposed to come with me tonight…I can’t remember why she didn’t.

God, I hurt!

My tears slow. I’m too tired to cry. I just want to sleep and close my eyes. In the morning, this nightmare will be over.

Julie, I need you to stay awake until I know if you have a concussion, okay? the female cop says.

I don’t want to. I don’t care. I want to die.

We need to call your…someone in your family. Can I look at your phone contacts?

Ari, I say. Call Ari. Please.

Who’s Ari? the male cop asks.

My friend.

Any family members? Mother, father, siblings? the female asks.

I close my eyes.

Stay with me, honey.

Just call Ari, I say. I just want to sleep and wake up when this is over.

---

I shove the blond man and run. The dark-haired one grabs me, lifts me and throws me down. I scramble up. He kicks me hard then kneels over me and hits me in the face again. I go to an in-between place, where I’m aware of the world, but can’t react to it. I feel the pain, between my legs, like he’s tearing me apart.

The blond man takes his place. I try to move, to push him away, but I can’t get my body to respond. He hurts me, too, then flips me over and steps away. Sobbing, I can’t do any more than gather the strength to scream.

---

Who are these people? Did this really happen?

Open those eyes, or I get the smelling salts. The female cop is trying to be funny, but she sounds too tense.

I open my eyes, more afraid of what I’ll see if I sleep than what’s around me when I’m awake. I’m crying again.

She’s gazing skeptically at my driver’s license. You don’t look like you’re twenty-nine. She pauses. Your name’s not Julie, is it?

I shake my head. I hear another siren. They’re coming to take me to prison for the fake ID I got from a kid at school who specializes in them for those of us in the circuit. The light in my face leaves, and I see the woman move away.

New fear slams into me. They’re going to leave me here. Alone. To be hurt again. My arms feel heavy and don’t move right, but I throw them at the blue uniform I see.

Don’t! Don’t leave me! I scream. They’ll come back! Don’t go!

The woman gasps, and the light is back in my face. She’s standing a few feet away while I cling to the other cop.

It’s okay, sweetie, the woman says soothingly. I won’t be far.

We have to meet the EMTs, the male voice said. He sounds uncertain, and I blink until I can see him. He’s a few years older than me, with olive skin and dark eyebrows. I’m struck by a thought that makes no sense: he looks like a younger version of my dear, sweet grandpa. The same brown eyes, the same low, gravelly voice. Grandpa would never leave me.

Miss, this garden is literally a maze. We don’t want them wasting time wandering through it, the woman explains.

Don’t leave me! I beg.

My pain intensifies, and I gasp, but refuse to let go of the cop. He lifts me. His badge is cold, nice, against my burning cheek.

Protocol states we shouldn’t move someone with possible head trauma, the woman reminds him.

I’m not gonna leave her like this, he says in his husky voice. It took us fifteen minutes to find our way through this garden. Write me up. I don’t give a shit.

He sounds like a New York taxi driver, and his smile is tight, but quick when I look at him. His eyes are dark brown. While his voice is like Grandpa Abbot’s, he’s young like Ari’s brother, who taught us both to play sports and used to babysit. Cory was my first crush - strong, funny and patient with Ari and me. I know he wouldn’t leave me lying in the garden, either.

The pain starts to fade as I close my eyes, and suddenly, I’m sitting on the porch with my favorite grandpa. Before his death, he and I talked every week about my crazy family.

He looks older than I remember. We’re on the back porch overlooking the rocky beach of our Tybee Island summer retreat, protected from the summer insects by the screening. We don’t talk, just sit and watch the ocean. Before his death, I lived with him for three years. I used to sit with him every day on the porch, like we are now. He never talks on the porch. He stares. I think he’s waiting for my grandmother to bring him tea. Tea sounds good right now. I’m so thirsty.

Some boat’s horn is making a buzzing sound. The sun is too bright. I feel like someone is trying to take me away from the porch.

The buzzing and light wrench me from the dream, and I wake up to see lights flashing by. I’m on my back. The world freaks me out: the lights are too bright, the voices too loud. We’re moving so fast, I feel nauseous. I can’t make sense of it. I don’t recognize anyone or anything – but the brown eyes and blue uniform. I tighten my grip on the blue uniform. I won’t let go. I can’t let go, not until my mind is right again.

Finally, the world stops, and the lights are dimmed. I’m in a small room with three people.

Miss? Can you hear me? The female cop is there. We need to take pictures of what happened to you. Can you let go of Dom? She takes my hand and starts to pry away my fingers.

Confused, I look at what I’m clutching and realize it’s the other cop she calls Dom. His eyes are like my grandfather’s, and I