Deadly Infatuation

By Reed Katherine

“This time she will never leave me. She can’t, I told her she would be mine forever, and forever it shall be. The cabin is now ready, prepared for her. The deep forest will give us the privacy we need. With nowhere to run, she will have to stay with me forever. The man inside of me loves her and wants to make a life with her. She is the only person he has ever wanted or even seen a life with. The monster, on the other hand, wants her chained in the basement, begging him to stop. He wants her to beg for her life. I don’t know which side will win, but both sides want her. So I will have her, at all costs.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Nov 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781645369066

Book preview

Acknowledgment

About the Author

Katherine Reed lives in Lubbock, Texas, with her three dogs, and her husband, Mark. She is currently attending Texas Tech University in hopes to attain her degree in English. She is surrounded by amazing family members who always push her to succeed. Music and writing keep her sane. Her favorite bands are Black Veil Brides and Dance Gavin Dance and she loves coaching volleyball. You will find her surrounded by loving friends and family all the time.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my friends and family that became my characters. To my lovely husband, Mark, for being my Cameron forever, and to Andy Biersack for being the Lucas in my mind. More importantly, I wrote this book for me; I told you so.

Copyright Information ©

Katherine Reed (2020)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Reed, Katherine

Deadly Infatuation

ISBN 9781645369035 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781645369042 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781645369066 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020912294

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published (2020)

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 28th Floor

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

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Chapter 1

Lillian! exclaimed a voice I was all too familiar with.

Emma, I swear if you call me Lillian one more time, I will end you! I said to her through clenched teeth.

Yeah, Emma, she’s going by Lily now, chimed Lexi, joining in my torment.

I just ignored them like I have done for as long as I can remember. Emma and Lexi, the dynamic redheads I call Satan’s spawn, or otherwise known as my two younger sisters. My mom got pregnant with them when I was eight years old. Twins! Some people said they would be a blessing, but now I know they were just being nice. Don’t get me wrong I love my sisters, they are all I could ask for and more; but I don’t know if I can handle being in the car with them any longer.

My family was going through a rough patch when the twins were born, my parents were shocked and stressing out about paying for not only three kids but four. My parents both worked around the clock to make ends meet. There was one summer when the girls were about three years old which was the hardest we had. I couldn’t drive so I watched them all day every day. I had to find creative ways to make Ramen noodles to appease two three-year-olds, that alone was a difficult task.

Keeping them preoccupied throughout the day was an even harder one. There were lots of days where we would stay outside in the Texas heat and I would spray them with the water hose, which of course meant that their diapers got heavy and saggy. They would strip off their diapers and run around our backyard butt naked, squealing with joy when they ran under the cold water, but continued to do it again and again. When they would finally got tired of being outside, I would bring them in and give them a bath (which was an adventure in itself) and put them in my bed with me and we would watch Wallace and Gromit until they fell asleep.

Right now though, I wish they hadn’t taken after me in their feisty attitudes. I have always been close to all my siblings though; to add on to my little red twins, I have a younger brother. James Jr. or J.J. is 16 and everything I wasn’t in high school. He’s popular, is in all clubs, and on the varsity baseball team. Recently he’s become elusive when it comes to family matters, but every now and then the all-popular, brown-eyed, and curly brown-haired little brother of mine will actually sit at home on a Saturday night. He would even watch movies with me, that is until today, it’s move-in day, the day my family was going to move me into an on-campus apartment for college and my life would change forever.

My parent’s minivan was stocked with all my belongings, with a trailer in the back pulling the rest of it. Sitting in the bucket seat of the minivan I looked at my parents. My dad is 6 feet tall with black hair and brown eyes. When he puts on a baseball hat, he looks 18 again. My mom is shorter than I am but other than the height difference she could be my sister. My mom has been my best friend my whole life, that is until the twins came into the picture and gave me two more best friends.

After a few minutes went by without a word from the girls, I turned in my seat to look toward the back of the van where the girls were sitting. What’s going on guys? I asked them, worried that they might need to go to the bathroom for the fifth time this trip.

They looked at each other and then back at me. Well, Lily, we are going to miss you I guess, Lexi said with tears in her eyes.

I looked back at Emma and saw that she was crying silent tears. I knew why they are crying; I had been there for them since birth, I was their go-to person when they needed things. I was the one whose bed they ran to after a nightmare. I felt like I was abandoning them, but I knew that I had to grow up, that this was normal.

We pulled into my new home, and I got out and hugged them both, crying a little myself. I turned us toward my new apartment and took in the view.

It was a single-story apartment with two rooms and two bathrooms. The outside of it was a dark gray with black shutters, and two white pillars that looked like they were standing guard by the front door. The apartments were all close together and seemed to have no privacy. The door itself was black to match the shutters; the apartment reminded me of the apartments I saw when I visited Boston during my Junior year of high school. There was a nice porch below the door entrance that was perfect for stoop sitting.

Yay, you’re finally here. Your room is right by the kitchen! my new roommate Laney Hartwell was explaining to me. I had one roommate that I’d grown up with that came to the same college as I did. Laney was almost as tall as I was; she was willowy with short hair as black as coal in contrast to my curves and long blonde hair. We met in the fourth grade, she was the new kid who wasn’t scared of anything, and I was the quiet girl who was always reading. When a girl in my class started to harass me the way kids do when someone’s different, it made my life hell. I loved to read at such a young age, and I was one of the only kids that would sit on the wall at recess and read instead of play with the other kids.

One day, one of the more popular little girls decided to take my Nancy Drew book away from me. She taunted me, making fun of my glasses and braces, calling me a loser. My parents always taught me to be kind to others, so I didn’t understand what I had done to this little girl for her to hate me this much. I ran away from her into the girl’s bathroom to cry my eyes out. About ten minutes later my Nancy Drew book was slid under my bathroom stall. I emerged from the stall with my book in hand to see that Laney had gotten it back for me.

It turned out Laney punched the little girl square in the nose to get my book back for me. I asked her how she knew how to punch someone, and she then went to explain how she had three older brothers. From that moment on she became my partner in crime and the only person to have my back no matter what. That’s how we survived high school, we had each other, and everyone knew that Laney knew how to throw a good punch, so they left us alone.

Can we go now? I’m bored and hungry.

Of course, you are, James, it’s our last moment with your sister and you can’t just let us enjoy it. You know you won’t see your sister until Thanksgiving break J.J., that’s a long time, my mom told my brother.

I could hear the longing in her voice, I knew leaving me was hard for her.

Whatever, Mom, this blows, I heard James tell my mother as he stalked out of my new apartment. I emerged acting like I hadn’t heard the whole conversation that had just happened between them.

Clearing my throat, I walked over to where they’d been standing. Okay, Mom, I think I have everything settled; you guys should probably head home. I know the girls are tried and Dad looks like he hasn’t slept in a few days, I said to her, trying to make it easier for them to leave without hurting my feelings.

Are you trying to hurry us out? my mom asked, looking defeated.

Of course not, I’m just going to go to dinner with Laney and it’s a long drive home for you guys. I paused and really looked at my mom for a second, reflecting on how much my mom had to go through to get me here.

Thank you for everything, Mom.

Driving five hours was not a simple task when you have an annoyed 16-year-old and two antsy 10-year-olds in one car.

She smiled sadly at me before she replied, You’re right, Lily, we just love you so much and are so proud of you, Mom said with tears in her eyes. I understood why she was sad; she got pregnant with me at 17. I had been her go-to person my whole life, and she had been mine. She and my dad had done a lot to get me here. My dad James the first had always worked at least four jobs to make sure my family had had all we could ever ask for and more in life.

Thank you, Mom, and I love you guys, I said while hugging her outside of our family car.

I stood there waving away my family of crazies, watching my sisters cry with their faces up against one of the car windows. Then it dawned on me, I won’t see my family again until Thanksgiving, which was three-ish long months away. I had never been away from them for more than a few days at a time, how was I going to manage it for months. I could feel my heart being torn between joy for this new adventure and sadness for the life I was leaving behind. I struggled to keep the tears at bay as I carried my stuff into Laney and my new home.

Walking through the front door I took a moment to take in our apartment. It had two bedrooms and two bathrooms separated by an open kitchen and living room area. It was ours and that fact alone was what made it so perfect. Through the front door, it led to the living room, which was closest to Laney’s bedroom. The living room was completely furnished and had a giant TV already hooked up. The living room merged with part of the kitchen; from the sink you could see the TV in the living room which would make doing dishes less agonizing. Behind the kitchen/dining room led to my room. Walking in, I set the rest of my stuff down and started planning how my room was going to be decorated.

After finally figuring out in my head where I wanted everything to go, I went to work. My room had a bed already for me in the center of the room, with a desk on the opposite side of my bathroom, so now I had a lot of wall space to work with, which was great because I brought all of my posters from home. Thankfully, my parents brought both of my bookcases from home, so I decided to put my bookcases next to my desk. All this moving was making me sweat so I walked over to my only window in the room. Since it led to a tiny backyard, I wasn’t worried about leaving it open. The breeze felt nice and with a few familiar items, this room was already starting to feel like home.

I had been working in my room for hours, getting everything just right. I shifted through my bands posters and found my Black Veil Brides poster and hung it first. I hung this poster above my desk so that way I could see it from my bed. It felt like the lead singer Andy Black was staring right at me, and I loved it. I thought my crush on him would have faded as I got older, but yet here I was still admiring and blasting his music.

Walking over to my bookshelf I started organizing my books, I almost needed a third bookcase with how many I have. I had to leave most of them at home, which broke my heart. I picked up my tattered copy of The Forbidden Game by L.J. Smith and turned it over in my hands. This story made me yearn for love and for danger. It was my favorite book even though it broke my heart at the end every time I read it.

The book made me want to be loved in the way Julian loved Jenny, he needed her. He was dangerous and evil but so in love with her that even though he was the king of darkness, he was willing to give it all up to save her. He said that she saved him when actually he saved her and loved her so much that he gave up his own life so that she could be happy. It made me develop cravings so deep that sometimes it overwhelmed me.

I wanted a love like that, one that consumes you. In high school, a love like that was hard to come by and never lasted long. I dated a few