One Fine Morning, In a Town All Its Own

By Athinia Tandino

After seeing her husband kill her only friend, Athinia picks up and moves to the mountains of Montana.
Athinia and Doc were sitting in the back of the Doc's pick-up truck as they made their way to the warehouse where they planned to open a strip club.
Athinia knows that she needs to bring in more money if she is going to be able to open the club she has been dreaming of since she first started reading all those racy novels.
Athinia knows she could go to her coffee shop/book store and get some inspiration for her new book. So maybe that is where she should start?
The February night was more fantastic than usual for this time of year.
Athinia cannot keep letting her mind wander and not think about how she wants to set up the yard for her new home.
Phil knows if his ex-wife does not die soon, the insurance policy that he and his best friend and son would never be free to claim and start their new life in Canada.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Athinia Tandino
• Release date: Jun 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201578664

Athinia Tandino

I was born in Canon City, Colorado, to Irish/Scottish parents, grew up in Canon City and Texas, now living in Florida for the last eleven years. My first book, "Arkadia a Druid's Tale," was published on March 1st, 2010. I love to write since I was 14 years of age but never thought myself good enough. When I met a man that encouraged me to fulfill my dreams at the age of 32 and still encourages me to move forward with my new works of art. Now I have the sequel to Arkadia and two others published. I hope you all will enjoy them. When I'm asked if I write about myself, I have to sit back and try not to laugh. I was told that since my characters carry my pen name that my readers think it is about me. The truth is, I write under my characters' name since she is the one who is really writing the book. I'm just her instrument of use. The one that allows her to write through me. Now you might think I'm crazy, but I can assure you, I'm just as sane as everyone else. I don't want people to know my real name. Those who do already think I have lost my ever-loving mind. My family seems to think I should write successful conclusions, where the hero or heroine lives happily ever after. Yet that is not me. I want to write about good/evil, happiness/devastation. I want it where my readers are crying with the characters when they are happy or sad. I want them to want to do murder when the bad guy is out to harm another. I want my readers to cheer when the characters finally have a happy time and things have gone their way. That is who I am. The kind of writer I want to be. So yes I hide behind my main character. I use her to keep me safe.

Book preview

Chapter 1:  A New Beginning

Chapter 2:  The Watchers

Chapter 3:  The Change that is Coming

Chapter 4: The Neighbor's Visit

Chapter 5: The Garden

Chapter 6: The Kidnapping

Chapter 7: Doc.

Chapter 8: Club Arkadia

Chapter 9: The Collaring Ceremony

Warning:

Chapter 1:  A New Beginning

The February night was cooler than usual for this time of year. As a result, it is more like the December winter than the late February days in the mountains of Montana.

Athinia decided to sit and try to write a new novel to put on the market, but the words just will not come. So maybe she will write one that has all her favorite subjects? She knows there are a lot of romance novels out there about motorcycle clubs and BDSM; there are even a lot on ménage. However, she has not yet found one of those romance novels where they have them together. So maybe that is where she should start?

Athinia knows she could go to her coffee shop/book store and get some inspiration there. However, she cannot bring herself to go. Maybe it is because Athinia knows that if she went in, she would never write her next novel and do the mountain of paperwork that is there to be done instead of doing what her heart wants, and that is to write a bestselling novel like her favorite author Kresley Cole or C.L. Wilson.

Athinia is a writer, not a shop owner. Athinia knows that she needs to bring in more money if she is going to be able to open the club she has been dreaming of since she first started reading all those racy novels.

Her love for books and coffee inspired her to buy the run-down old jewelry store and make it into a place where those like her can go and drink their favorite beverage and read the latest novel. However, she also loves to dance and have a quiet drink and does not feel like hitting the clubs or bars in the small rural community of Reddington. So she feels that to complete her life of having all the things that make her happy, she will add to her business adventures and open a club that caters to those that like a particular lifestyle.

She could not help but think that no matter what time of year it was, she always had an over compelling need to light a fire in a river rock fireplace. Then curl up in one of her favorite overstuffed hand-carved chairs to read one of her many favorite ménage, paranormal, motorcycle club, and BDSM romance novels.

Alternatively, to think about how she bought her small piece of heaven of land in the mountains about four years ago, after her ex-husband Phil tried to kill her.

She had to watch as her husband killed her only friend Coleen. Coleen only wanted to help Athinia see that she did not have to live a life under a man's thumb.

Coleen helped Athinia see that she can live a life with pleasure and not pain and be independent in certain places, outside the world, and in her own home. Athinia can still be the submissive she was raised to be and still want other things in life.

Coleen told Athinia that being submissive in her home is ok, but in the world outside her sanctuary, she can have a voice where she does not have to cow down to a male influence but be the woman she knows Athinia is at heart.

Coleen saw what Phil was doing to Athinia, and she seemed to think that it was in Athinia’s best interest that she helps her be the woman she could see Athinia had always wanted to be.

Coleen had helped Athinia talk to one of her judge friends into helping Athinia to obtain a divorce after she had seen the many bruises and other marks on Athinia’s body. The marks her husband had left on her back after he had whipped her. Coleen knew that Athinia would wear those marks for the rest of her life.

Athinia and Coleen had to do it all in secrete to keep Athinia safe. After the judge saw all the pictures of the bruises and cuts from the whips on Athinia’s body, her husband left. The judge was worried that Athinia’s husband would cause more damage or kill her if he knew what she was doing.

It took three months for the divorce to go through, and Athinia had to wait and hide her divorce from her husband and still live in the same house. In addition, she had to take the beatings he claimed were to train her to be a good submissive wife even after he had the doctor give her a hysterectomy to keep her from getting pregnant again. The day she left the hospital, Athinia still had to endure the pain from the surgery and the beating she obtained when returning to his house.

However, somehow, Phil found out, and he invited Coleen over for dinner that night. Still, dinner never came because Phil was livid that Coleen had shown Athinia a different world outside of her home life and then helped Athinia acquire the papers so she could leave him for good.

Phil made Athinia watch as he tortured Coleen. He beat her so bad that her face was nothing but a black mess. Her eyes were so swollen shut that they disappeared. Her body was a bloody mess with what he had done to it with his bullwhip. There was not a place where blood did not pour from. Her mouth was cut so bad she was unable to make a sound. The flashes of what Phil had done to her friend still wake Athinia at night. The screams from Coleen that night still haunt her dreams and even sometimes her waking hours.

They have not found Coleen’s body to this day, so Phil still walks free. Even with Athinia’s testimony, the jury came back not convicting him due to not having a body to prove that he, his friend, and his son had somehow hidden her body. So, therefore, no justice will ever come for Coleen. So the day her divorce was finalized, Athinia decided she needed to get back to being one with nature and away from people and their deceitful ways.

Athinia never thought to hide where she was going or what she was doing. Coleen never taught her that she would need to stay hidden from the man that still wants her dead. So here, she is in her home of the sanctuary, and behind a security system that supposedly cannot be hacked to give him access to her, the guy from the main office of Securities Taken had promised.

Athinia has never felt comfortable being around the humankind. She always felt as if anyone she came across would do nothing but lie, hurt others out of spite, and try to outdo those around them, even those they had given their trust.

Yet even as a child, she could never find or feel that she could trust anyone. If she tried, she always got hurt, even by those supposed to protect and love her.

Athinia could not wait until her country cottage loft was completed so that she could move in.

Athinia had moved in a week before it was finished and started setting up her home as a place of security. A safe haven.

Athinia had it built by design she had envisioned and drew up. So her cottage loft has a look that had been so ingrained into her mind since she was young, with the thatched roof to give it that medieval look.

Athinia saved every penny she made from the money made from the sales of her first two books. The ones that Coleen helped her get published.

Coleen helped Athinia set up an account hidden from Phil so that when the day came, and Athinia could move out on her own, she would not have to depend on anyone but herself. Athinia needed this place to be free.

The outside looks like a two-story cottage cabin, with the thatch roof and Dutch oven fireplace stacks in the kitchen. The fireplace stands off the floor with a rounded face front and a bar