 by Marie James.jpg)
Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 74078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
It goes by in a blink, literally.
Waking up with no recollection of the last five years is devastating.
The woman I remember loving is with someone else.
The only family I had is gone, and I’m forced to relive those losses all over again.
I’m now a member of Cerberus, and I can’t even recall if I signed on to get Rivet back or if I got over her before joining.
I have no other choice but to cling to the woman hired to help me recover because she’s the only one that knows less about me than I do.
I was afraid of never getting my memory back, but the closer I get to her makes me terrified of what will happen if I do.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
Bishop
“The scowl doesn’t help,” I mutter as I lift the collar on my shirt.
Mom doesn’t meet my eyes in the mirror as she approaches. There’s something about her darting eyes that makes me nervous.
“Are we going to have this conversation again today?”
“I haven’t said a word,” she says in a tone that tells me she has a million things to say but won’t if I don’t want to hear it.
The thing about Mom is that she’s normally always right. I can’t recall a single time she gave an opinion or explained something I couldn’t see myself that didn’t turn out true.
But it’s my wedding day, and the last thing I want to be thinking about before watching Angeline walk down the aisle is that I might be making a mistake.
“I love her,” I remind her.
“I know you do,” she says, swatting my hands away so she can fix my tie. “You’re going to wrinkle it.”
“But what?” I say, looking down at her.
I shouldn’t be so reliant on her advice at my age, but the shadows in her eyes make me apprehensive. I joined the Marine Corps with her blessing right out of high school, and although I’ve experienced many things I wouldn’t wish on anyone else, I’ve also found joy.
Angeline was also in the Corps, so if I hadn’t enlisted, I wouldn’t have found her.
“I just don’t know if she’s the right one for you.”
“She isn’t taking me away. We both have two years left in the Corps and then we’ll be home.”
“Her home,” she clarifies. “Not yours.”
“Is that what all of this is about? She isn’t right for me because we’re considering living in Georgia rather than Oklahoma?”
Tears pool on her lashes as she looks up at me. I lean into her tiny hand as she lifts it to my cheek. “If you’re happy, then I’m happy.”
She clears her throat as she walks toward the closed door.
“Mom.”
A small smile tugs up one side of her lips.
“Ten minutes before the ceremony starts,” she says before leaving the room.
I lower to the chair in the corner, terrified to even think about her concerns. I know Angeline is the one. I’ve known it since the first day I met her. She didn’t get all weird, darting her eyes away as she fluttered her eyelashes. She didn’t giggle and try to act like a damsel in distress. She was a badass. She worked hard, and didn’t take shit from anyone, including me.
I lift my head and see her walking down the aisle in my direction. I’m struck with the thought of how strange she looks in a white dress when I’m used to seeing her in camo.
Just last week she told me she couldn’t walk in heels, but now she’s gliding toward me as if floating, having no trouble with the shoes at all.
Movement to the left of my soon-to-be bride draws my attention, and I feel my brows draw together when a prism of colors flash across the room. It’s as if the light is trying to direct my attention, and somehow it gains easily.
The woman is in a bright red dress, her face hidden somehow, and no matter how hard I rub at my eyes, she never comes into full focus. I can’t decipher any details, but there’s something about her that demands all my attention.
“Brent?”
I look down at the soft hands touching mine.
“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Angeline says, and my heart kicks up, wondering if she’s wanting to back out herself. “No one is going to be upset if we don’t dance.”
Her hand flexes in mine, and the sight of my wedding ring confuses me.
I’m missing blocks of time, very important blocks of time.
The music plays, and my feet start to move. There’s something not quite right about today, but I can’t seem to figure it out.
I swallow, my eyes darting at the flash of red I detect from the corner of my eye.
“Where are you going?” Angeline asks, but I can’t answer as I walk away from her.
The draw is magnetic, but when I make it to the hallway, there’s no one around.
The ache in my chest is bad enough that I have to press my hands there. The loss of something I can’t explain feels like a heart attack.
I reach my arm out to lean against the wall, but there’s nothing there to catch me. The fall is endless, my body tumbling over and over and over as if I’ve somehow been trapped inside of a washing machine.
Everything hurts, but even through all the pain, the loss of the woman in red makes me ache the most.
Chapter 1
Sunshine
Even the stream of light pouring in from outside doesn’t bring a smile to my face. The weather has been nasty the last couple of days, and despite needing the rain, it has only contributed to my foul mood. It seems the clearing of the storms hasn’t helped either.