Always You: Out of the Darkness Series

By P. L. Byers

Losing a friend is never easy. But losing a friend and knowing the blame resides entirely on your shoulders is something else entirely.

Tessa Shay had spent her life surrounded by a father and two brothers who loved and protected her. Having lost her mother at a young age, Tessa quickly learned that to survive growing up in an all male household she had to become strong and fiercely independent. It was easy to do, knowing that they always had her back. Then one day her youngest brother came home on leave from the military and brought with him a man she quickly fell in love with.

Having no family of his own, Jack Sanders was more than happy to accept his friends invitation to go home with him between missions. He looked forward to being around a family, even if it couldnt be his own, to recharge and get ready for the next deployment. At least he had been, until he walked into the Shay residence and was introduced to Tessa.

From that moment on he was lost. Not wanting to betray his friend, he heeded the warning to steer clear of Tessa, but watched and protected her from a distance as she grew from an immature adolescent to a beautiful young woman.

But now, as he watched her from across a crowded room, he knew without a doubt that something was terribly wrong.

Tessa tried valiantly to avoid Jack, knowing he would only dig until he learned her secrets. If he knew the truth of what happened to her, she would lose him forever. Tessa didnt want anyone involved with the violence that had touched her. Nor did she want to be responsible for the harm that could come to those she loved most.

Jack, however, had other ideas...

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524620066

P. L. Byers

P. L. Byers is the author of a dozen novels and counting, including her Out of the Darkness Series and Sister’s of the Heart Trilogy. She is a member of RWA (Romance Writers of America), NERW (New England Romance Writers), and PAN (Published Authors Network). Her love for creating her characters and the stories behind them has been an all-consuming ambition. “If any of my readers get a tenth of the enjoyment in reading my books as I do in writing them, then all the time and effort put into this dream will make it all worthwhile,” she writes. P. L. Byers lives in Franklin, Massachusetts with her kind and patient husband and two incredibly spoiled cats. You can contact P. L. Byers through her website at www.plbyers.com or e-mail her at [e-mail]. You can also follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PLByers.

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© 2016 P. L. Byers. All rights reserved.

Author photo taken by Karen Moriarty at www.kemphoto.com

P. L. Byers’ website created and maintained by www.bigpresenceagency.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/25/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-2007-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-2005-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-2006-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016911816

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Titles by P. L. Byers

Divine Intervention

A Life Worth Living

Sisters of My Heart Trilogy

A Reason to Dream

(Book One)

A Reason to Hope

(Book Two)

A Reason to Trust

(Book Three)

Out of the Darkness Series

Love’s True Destiny

Always You

Dedication

T his book is dedicated to anyone who has endured the agony of being in an abusive relationship. To the strong women who bravely fought to break away from their abusers and to the women who still find themselves in a difficult situation and searching for a way out.

I’d also like to dedicate this book to When Georgia Smiled, The Robin McGraw Revelation Foundation. She and her team have developed an innovative tool designed to educate audiences on domestic violence issues, from prevention to safe exit strategies. The Aspire News App is a potentially life-saving smartphone app that allows victims of abuse to call for help at the touch of a button. I encourage anyone who is a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault to download and use this amazing free app. The resources that are available through the Aspire News App could very well save your life.

National Domestic Violence Hotline:

(800) 799-SAFE (7233)

[phone] (TTY)

www.thehotline.org

Acknowledgement

T o be able to follow your passion, which for me is writing, is such a blessing. I’m grateful to my wonderful husband who gives me the support, encouragement and peace to be able to follow my dream. Thank you Mark…you are a most awesome husband!

A very special thank you goes out to my wonderful sister. Lisa, you are the best beta reader a girl could have. The insights you have when you pour through my manuscripts is invaluable. You are well worth the macadamia nuts I pay you for all your hard work! (Seriously…I pay her in nuts!)

I’d also like to thank my editor, Noel. You are so awesome to work with. I appreciate all of your corrections, thoughts and inputs. I know my manuscripts are better for having you combing through my words. You are truly appreciated…even if I do have to delete/rewrite long passages in a chapter. You’re the best!

Chapter One

T essa stood over the lone grave, the flowers she’d brought clenched so tightly in her hand that the crushed petals fell to the ground, littering the fresh dirt packed around the newly buried casket. Tommy, her childhood friend, was dead and it was all her fault.

Raising her face to the sky, Tessa offered a prayer and an apology in case he was up there listening. I’m so sorry, Tommy, she whispered heavenward. I should never have told you what happened. I should have kept it to myself.

Knowing there would be no absolution coming, she placed what was left of the flowers she’d brought to honor the memory of her friend on his grave and made her way back to her car. Guilt weighed heavily on her as she made the drive back to the small house she owned in St. Augustine, Florida. She’d been so excited the day she moved in. Tommy had helped her carry in her boxes and set up her new home. She remembered the excitement of signing the papers when she bought the house and how having Tommy with her made it that much more special. He’d been the one constant in her life since childhood and the person she ran to when her heart was broken time and again because of her unrequited love for Jack. Now her house was just a reminder of how horribly her life had changed.

Opening her front door, Tessa smiled as Toby, her Bernese Mountain dog, ambled from the bed he’d been sleeping on and made his way to Tessa for the affection he’d come to expect from her.

Toby had been her constant companion since the day she got him some three years before when she bought the house. Because she was a female living alone, she had first gotten Toby so she would feel safer knowing she had a large dog around to protect her. It didn’t take long to learn that while he was a large, intimidating animal, Toby was also the gentlest of souls and would more than likely run from anything scary coming through her front door rather than attack and protect. By the time Tessa realized his fear of everything, including loud noises, she’d fallen hopelessly in love with the mutt and couldn’t bear to part with him for anything more menacing.

Hey, Toby, she whispered, kneeling down and cupping his large face in her hands. How was your nap, big guy? she asked, kissing the top of his head and putting her arms around his neck for a tight squeeze.

Hearing a loud crash from another room, Tessa jumped up, tensing with fear. Breathing heavily, she gave herself a silent lecture to do something other than stand there. Grabbing the bat she’d taken to leaving near the front door for protection, she grasped the handle and tiptoed toward her home office where she thought the noise had come from. Taking a deep breath, she threw the door wide and walked in swinging the weapon in the hope that she would hurt whoever had broken into her house before they could get to her.

It took several seconds before she realized she was alone. Lowering the bat, she looked toward her window and saw that the plant she’d had on the windowsill was on the hardwood floor, the glass pot shattered into pieces with soil spilled all around it. The curtain around her window was billowing in the breeze and must have been the culprit.

Racing over, Tessa slammed the window shut and locked it. Someone had been in her house. She never left her windows open…especially since the rape.

Sitting on the floor next to her broken flowerpot, Tessa wrapped her arms around her knees and gently rocked back and forth. Lowering her head, she rested them on her clasped hands and closed her eyes. She really should check out the rest of the house to see if whoever had broken in was still there but truly, her knees would not allow her to stand. And besides, what more could he do to her? And it was him…she was certain of it. There was never a long period of time when he wouldn’t do something to make sure she knew he was always watching. Breaking into her house was child’s play to him, a simple reminder to let her know that he could get to her anytime he wanted. If killing the one person she’d gone to for help wasn’t reminder enough, the mangled pictures of her family and Jack she’d found spread across her bed one night did the trick. Lesson learned…she was alone. It was her responsibility to make sure that the people she loved most in the world stayed safe. If that meant staying away from them, then she could do that. As long as she knew they were safe.

Shaking off the depression she felt settling on her shoulders, Tessa stood and made her way to the kitchen for a broom and dust pan to clean the mess. When everything was back to normal, she checked her front door once more to ensure it was locked, and then fixed a sandwich for lunch and went into her living room to eat while listening to the news.

Twenty minutes later, Tessa placed the plate with the uneaten sandwich on her coffee table and sat back on the couch. As much as she knew that she should force herself to eat something, she simply couldn’t get anything past her lips. Two months and fifteen lost pounds since the attack and she still felt as helpless and afraid as the day it happened. A day that had started out innocently enough but quickly changed into a nightmare that she hadn’t woken up from since.

Looking back, there may have been a few signs that things weren’t right. Her friend Tommy had set her up on the blind date, but hindsight was a great teacher, just not a great preventer to things that could happen. She should have listened to her instinct that something was off with the man.

When she’d walked into the restaurant where they were meeting, Lonnie Stanwick stood and shook her hand before helping her into the seat across from him. They’d had a pleasant enough lunch but after thirty minutes, she knew he wasn’t the man for her. Throughout the meal, he spoke mostly about himself and his job as the town treasurer for Hastings. He spent their date regaling her with stories of the power he wielded over the town and how he and his father, the mayor, pretty much ran the entire area. He spoke of their political connections and seemed to relish in dropping the names of celebrities, although Tessa seriously doubted if he truly had ever met them. He came across as a blowhard, which completely turned her off. Why Tommy thought they would be a good match was beyond her.

Tessa had agreed to go out on a date with him, for no other reason than to get Jack Sanders out of her head. She had just returned from a trip to Massachusetts celebrating her brother Ethan’s fiancée’s birthday. Tessa had tried hard to get Jack to see her as more than Ethan’s little sister but, once again, failed miserably. On the flight back she’d finally come to realize that Jack simply wasn’t interested.

Unfortunately, she’d been in love with the man since the day her younger brother, Ethan, had brought him home. They served together as part of an elite unit of the U.S. Army Delta Force, and since both his parents were deceased, typically when they had time off, Jack would come home with Ethan between missions.

From that first meeting, there wasn’t a time when she didn’t fantasize about them being together. Unfortunately, Jack fought against any attempts she made to bring them together. She was never sure exactly how much Ethan had warned Jack away from her, but she always hoped that as they grew older, Jack would make a stand to at least give them a chance to see if a relationship would work between them.

Sadly, he never did. So Tessa’s attempt to get over her infatuation with Jack was to seriously start looking for a man who would make her forget he existed. Hence, the blind date with Lonnie Stanwick.

As Lonnie walked her out of the restaurant that afternoon, he held her arm a little too tightly and brushed against her entirely too much for having just met. When the valet brought her car around, Lonnie opened her door for her, then leaned down to kiss her on the lips. Turning her head aside, his lips fell to her cheek before she pulled away. Seeing the frown on his face, she politely thanked him for the meal, told him it was nice meeting him, then got in her car and drove away.

The first few days after their date, she’d brushed off his many calls, thinking he was just being persistent, but hoped that he would eventually get the hint. After a week of calling, she knew he wasn’t getting the point so she came right out and told him that she didn’t feel a connection between them and said it was best if he just moved on and found someone else who was better suited.

One Friday night, Tessa had gone out to celebrate a coworker’s birthday and had taken a taxi home after consuming too much to drink. When the cab dropped her off and pulled away, it was then she realized what an evil man Lonnie Stanwick actually was.

Tessa had just unlocked her front door when she was shoved into her house from behind, landing on the floor on her hands and knees. Her front door was quickly slammed shut and locked. She had just started to scream when a hand came around her mouth, squeezing so tightly that all she got out was a muffled sound. The sounds of Toby barking frantically from another room only added to the feeling of terror running through her.

When the hand released her mouth, Tessa felt strong arms grip her around the waist, and then she was lifted and turned so her back was slammed on the floor and she was facing the ceiling.

Tessa wasn’t terribly shocked when she looked up into the eyes of her attacker and realized it was Lonnie. You bitch, he screamed at her, spit flying from his mouth and landing on her cheek. Who do you think you are, not taking my calls?

We went out on one date, she had reminded him, only to receive a punch to her head that rendered her unconscious.

When she came around, Tessa had found herself tied to her bed, completely naked. Throughout the night and into the next day, Lonnie tortured her with threats of what he was going to do. After the initial rape, he refused to release her and seemed to enjoy the fear and loathing he saw in her eyes whenever he got close to her. It appeared to her as if he enjoyed watching as she twisted and pulled on the bindings that held her captive as he ran his hands over her body. For hours he walked around her room, ranting on and on about how she belonged to him and that no other man would love her like he did.

During his more lucid moments, Lonnie would hold and caress Tessa as she sobbed, explaining to her in a calm voice that she was his and that no one else would have her. Whenever she tried to reason with him, he would get angry and abusive. Tessa quickly learned that the quieter she was, the better off she was going to be.

After nearly fifteen hours of being held captive by him, she’d been willing to promise him anything, just so he would leave her alone. Including a promise that she wouldn’t tell anyone what he had done to her. After reminding her that he had friends in the police department who would back him up, he untied her arms and legs and walked downstairs after promising that he would be watching her.

Hearing her front door slam shut, Tessa had continued to lie on the bed, curled into a ball, heaving sobs wracking her small body. When she had no tears left, she’d sat up and forced her aching body into her bathroom.

When she first saw her reflection in the mirror, she was shocked at how unrecognizable her features were. Between the black and blue eyes and the swelling and blood around her nose and lips, she looked like a character from a zombie apocalypse movie. Anger quickly surfaced, replacing the fear she’d lived with the past fifteen hours. Leaving her bathroom, she ran to the phone by her bedside and picked it up to dial 911. When she didn’t hear a dial tone, she threw it down and ran downstairs to grab her cell phone from her purse, which she assumed would still be near the entryway where she dropped it when she was attacked.

When she’d reached the bottom step, she came up short when she saw Lonnie standing by her front door, her cell phone in his hand. He approached her quickly and raised his hand to slap her across the face, the blow so hard that it caused her to fall to the floor.

Towering over her, he tossed her phone next to her. I told you not to contact anybody. Did you not think I was serious? he asked. This is my last warning. I’m watching and monitoring your cell phone. You make one call and I’ll be on you so fast, your head will spin. Don’t test me on this, Tessa. You won’t like what happens.

With that he had slammed out the door. Tessa lay on the floor, taking deep breaths trying to get her thoughts together.

Eventually she’d picked herself up and made her way back upstairs, stepping into the shower, letting the hot water beat down on her body. She stayed in the shower until the water turned cold before she turned the faucet off and wrapped herself in a towel. Stripping her bed of the soiled sheets, she put new ones on and crawled in her bed to block out what had happened. It didn’t take long before the memories of what occurred on her bed were too much to handle, so she got up and made her way into the spare bedroom she kept for guests. Grabbing the comforter and a pillow from the bed, she walked back to the door and shut it firmly, twisting the lock before arranging a small bed on the floor in front of the door to block anyone from coming in without her knowing it. Only the sound of Toby barking brought her out of the room long enough to release him from where he’d been locked up. Back in the spare room, she snuggled him close to her as she settled on the covers in front of the door, falling into an exhausted sleep.

Tessa slept on the floor for days, only leaving the room to go to the bathroom and shower or to feed Toby and let him outside for a few quick minutes while she stood shivering by the back door. Her cell phone lay beside her but every time it rang, she looked to see who was calling before setting it down, not bothering to answer. Most times it was her father calling to check in on her as he typically did. Other times it was one of her brothers, Ben or Ethan. A few times Ethan’s new fiancée, Isabella, called, but she let each call go to voicemail, knowing that she couldn’t speak to them. She was just starting to be able to bear hearing their concerned voices without falling apart when Jack Sanders called and the mere sound of his voice sent her into hysteria. Who could possibly want her now…especially him? She was irreparably damaged and she knew it.

It was another day or so before the numbness started to leave Tessa and she was thinking clearly enough to know that she needed to get help. She’d never been the type of person to stand by and just accept things before…why start now? She was made of sterner stuff than that. There had to be a way to handle this. Certainly Lonnie had already had his fun with her and would move on…and quite possibly already had.

Knowing she needed to do something, Tessa called her friend Tommy and asked him to meet her at the house. She knew her dad or her brothers would do anything to help her, but she was afraid to get them involved after Lonnie’s threats.

When she’d answered her front door and let Tommy in, he had been shocked at her appearance. When she explained what the man he had set her up with had done to her and that she was afraid, he paced her small living room for a short time before punching his fist through one of her walls. It took some talking before she was able to convince him not to call the police. He only agreed not to as long as she moved in with him for a short time while until they figured out what to do.

Tommy had urged her to pack what she needed for a few days while he ran to a meeting he had to attend. Promising she’d be ready by the time he got back, she kissed him on the cheek and waved goodbye.

It was later that afternoon, as she was waiting patiently in her living room for Tommy to return, that she received a phone call from Tommy’s distraught mother saying that Tommy