Smash Into You

by Shelly Crane

  Smash Into You

  a novel

  x

  SHELLY CRANE

  Copyright 2012 Shelly Crane

  All rights reserved

  This publication is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws, and all rights are reserved, including resale rights: you are not allowed to give or sell this book to anyone else.

  Any trademarks, service marks, product names or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if we use one of these terms.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Author and publisher does not have control and does not assume responsibility for third party websites and their content.

  Lyrics, song titles, and references do not belong to me. Hey, Jude is owned by the Beatles. Duh, Duh.

  Cover design by Okay Creations

  Photo, Photo Shoot, and Promo Photos by K Keeton Designs

  Cover models: Taylor Grass and Elizabeth Underwood

  Printed in the USA

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

  More information can be found at the author's website:

  http://shellycrane.blogspot.com

  ISBN-13: 978-1491234518

  ISBN-10: 1491234512

  "No longer a boy who lost it all, I was a man that realized how much I had to lose."

  - Jude

  -What others have to say about Shelly Crane's books-

  "There is a feeling I get before I start one of Crane's books. It’s an intense feeling of anticipation. I know her book is going to contain something beautiful...something that will make my heart ache in a 100 different ways. And I look forward to that feeling, because every time I read one of her books I am never disappointed. Ever."

  - Mandy IreadIndie Book Blog

  "Shelly Crane steps outside of her box with Smash Into You and gives us refreshing, swoon worthy, new characters along with heart-stopping action and breathtaking love. One of her best yet."

  - Lila Felix, author of the Love & Skate Series and Anguish

  "An addicting series!"

  - Abbi Glines, NYT Bestselling Author of Existence and Fallen Too Far

  "Sweet love story that will make you sigh..."

  - Nicole Williams, NYT Bestselling Author of Crash and Eternal Eden

  "It’s the kind of love that we begin dreaming about as little girls and never stop enjoying long after we’ve found our own knight in shining armor."

  - M. Leighton, NYT Bestselling Author of Madly and Down To You

  "Caleb is the sweet, sexy, smart guy every girl dreams about--me included!"

  - Nichole Chase, NYT Bestselling Author of Suddenly Royal

  "Caleb's sweet, fierce about Maggie, valiant, honorable, gentle, noble."

  - BookNerdsAcrossAmerica Book Blog

  "There were gorgeous scenes in which Caleb left me breathless."

  - Misty Provencher, Author of Hale Maree and Cornerstone

  "Shelly Crane is full of talent and this book just became my favorite of all time. I can't even begin to explain what this book did for/to me."

  - Lindsay Paige, Author of the Bold As Love series and Panic

  For my two boys

  May you always know how to treat a girl, how to respect her, how to love her for who she is, focus on the things you love about each other and compromise everything else, make it work, make it last, adore her.

  She's yours. Protect, love, and cherish her.

  One

  It was a case of mistaken identity.

  The kind that ended with appalled, parted lips and evil glares.

  The worst kind.

  The girl was cute. Adorable really. Cute and adorable wasn't the problem or the solution for me. I needed to blend and be invisible in the most plain-as-day way and girls like this, girls who just walked up to guys because they had hope somewhere deep inside them that I would fall for that pretty face, were the opposite of plain-as-day. Those kinds of girls got guys killed. At least the kind of guy that was on the run.

  She had mistaken me for a normal guy.

  And this girl who approached, who could see that I was already surrounded by one already, which was one more than I needed, must've thought I had a hankering for something sweet. Because when she spoke, her words were soft and almost made me want to get to know her instead of sending her packing. But I couldn’t stay in this town. It was better to hurt her now when she wasn't invested than it would be to leave one day without a trace.

  The girl who was currently soaking up my attention—that she thought she had—she'd move on to her next prey and forget I ever existed. But sweet girls like this got attached and asked questions.

  Don't stop running…

  My eyes met hers and a buzz went through my body. The strange sadness in her eyes matched something in mine, meaning that she hadn't had an easy life either. Gah…this girl wasn't just beautiful, she was adorable and sweet and sad all wrapped up in a package that would be so easy to accept. It was way more appealing than the current materialistic succubus in pink attached to my arm right then. I swallowed and stared as bored as I could at the girl as she finally made her way to me from across the hall.

  She tucked her hair behind her ear gently and smiled a little. "Hi, uh, can I just-"

  Showtime. "Honey, that's real sweet, but I'm not interested." I slid my arm around my groupie. I didn't even know her name, but they were always within arm's reach. "As you can see, I have my hands full already, but thanks for offering."

  She scoffed and looked completely shocked. I took her in, head to foot. She was really adorable. She had a great little body on her and her face was almond shaped. Her lips looked…sweet. She was not the kind I wanted within ten feet of me. She was still standing there. I had to send her packing…to save her in the long run.

  I grinned as evilly as I could muster and felt a small twinge of guilt at the vulnerable look of her. I looked away quickly. I didn't even want to remember her face. "Run along, darlin'. Go find a tuba player. I'm sure he's more your speed. Like I said, I'm not interested."

  She didn't glare, and that was a first. Most of the girls who approached a guy were confident. I mean that was the reason they thought they had a chance, right? But she looked a little…destroyed. When her lips parted, it was in shock—it was to catch her breath. I continued my bored stance, though at this point, it pained me in my chest.

  But I was doing the best thing for this and any other girl. People who got involved with me were collateral damage when Biloxi came around. He was a ruthless bastard and if he found me and knew someone cared about me, or worse, that I cared about someone, he'd be all over them.

  So when she turned without a word and swiftly made her way down the hall, I was thankful. I probably saved her life, though she had no idea. She thought I was an ass, but I was really looking out for her. That's what I told myself as I watched her go. That I had hurt her feelings for a reason, and that she'd get over it in no time.

  A slender hand crawled over my collar.

  "What's this from?" she asked in a purr and slid her thumb over the long scar from my ear all the way to my chin. She hadn't even acknowledged the girl at all and now, didn't give a flip either. It hadn't even crossed her mind that I might be more interested in that other girl. "Mmm, it's so sexy."

  It followed my jaw line and it was absolutely not sexy. Unfortunately, it wasn't the first time some girl had said as much and it pissed me off to no end that they thought th
at, let alone said it out loud.

  It was my reminder of what happened when I let my guard down and it was anything but sexy.

  I bit down on my retort and sent her a small smile that showed her I was listening, but she had to work for it. "Is that right?"

  "Mmhmm," she said and kissed my jaw. "I have a little scar, too." She pointed to the place between her breasts. "Right here. Wanna see it?"

  I managed a chuckle. "Is there really a scar there?"

  One of her friends, who was also on my arm from time to time, joined her, looping her arm through hers.

  "Pick me up tonight and you can find out," the succubus purred, making her friend giggle.

  "Don't think so, darlin'. Busy."

  "Ahhh, boo." She pouted and let her other hand hook a finger into my waistband. "Well here's something to keep you company tonight."

  She pulled me down by my collar and kissed me. I tried not to cringe away, but her lipgloss was sticky and sweet. When she tried to open my mouth with her tongue, I pushed her away gently with my hands wrapped around her bony arms.

  "Let's keep this PG, honey. Settle down."

  She giggled. I knew she would.

  It was the last week of school. It was my last week to pretend that I was still in high school. The next time I made a move to evade Biloxi, I'd enroll in college because I was getting too old to be a high schooler. I didn't know where I was going. I would have graduated from high school already, but at the rate I was going, I didn't know if I would have actually graduated or not. School was not a place of learning for me, it was a cover, a place to blend in and be normal until Biloxi found me and then I'd be gone to the next place.

  This was my life. No time or want for long-term girls, no fun, no movies, no parents.

  This was my life, but it wasn't a life at all.

  Two

  Two years, eight months, and three lonely birthdays later…

  College towns sucked.

  The big one.

  I had only been here for a few weeks. It was part of my cover. I practically chanted those words in my mind as I trudged everywhere I went and worked my butt off. But one thing remained the same. Desperate girls ran rampant and I still wasn't interested. Every once in a while, they were good for a distraction if need be, but mostly…not interested. Not really, not anymore. My eighteen-year-old self ate up the fact that girls seemed to want me, with no strings attached, but after months of that and a long list of girls I never saw again, it got old real fast.

  And then sometimes they said no strings attached, but didn't mean it. There was this one chick, Kate, who would not take no for an answer. She'd 'found' me over the summer when I was apartment hunting and hadn't 'lost' me yet, no matter how hard I tried. To get her to go away one time, I'd even given her my phone number. I was going to ditch it in a few weeks anyway when I undoubtedly had to move again, so it didn't matter, right?

  Wrong.

  The girl was as annoying as a Chihuahua all hopped up 'cause there's a knock at the door. The texting and come-hithers were nonstop.

  Life wasn't turning out as fun as it had been back when I was eighteen.

  And now, as I stared out into the dark rain to see a POS car sideways in the road, I knew the world hated me, had to, because someone had just smashed their car into my truck.

  I got out and braced myself. It wasn't easy to pay cash for new cars every time I needed to skip town. It was hard living when you couldn't be who you really were. Finding work and people to pay you under the table was almost impossible these days.

  I groaned and glared at the beauty standing at the end of my truck. "Look at that!"

  "I'm so sorry," she began. I could tell she really was, but I was beyond pissed. "I'll call my insurance company right now."

  That stopped me. "No!" I shouted and she jolted at the verbal assault. "No insurance."

  "Well," she pondered, "what do you mean? I have good insurance."

  "But I don't."

  She turned her head a bit in thought and then her mouth fell open as she realized what I was saying. "You don’t have any insurance, do you?"

  "No," I answered. "Look. Whatever, we'll just call this even-steven, because you did hit me."

  "Even-steven my butt!" she yelled and scurried to jump in front of me, blocking my way.

  "And what a cute butt it is."

  Even through the noise of water hitting metal, I heard her intake of breath. The rain pelted us in the dark. I hoped no one came around the corner. It would be hard for them to see us here in the middle of the road. She might get hurt. Then I wondered why I cared.

  "Look, buddy," she replied and crossed her arms. It drew my eyes to her shirt. My eyes bulged 'cause that shirt…well, it was see-through now. She caught on and jerked her crossed arms higher. "How dare you! You're on a roll in the jerkface department, you know that!"

  "My specialty," I said, saluting as I climbed in my truck. "Get your pretty butt in your car and let's pretend this never happened, shall we?"

  Because if cops and insurance were brought into this, I'd be on the run sooner than I thought.

  She huffed. "Excuse me-"

  "Darling. Car. Now." She glared. "Like right now."

  She threw her hands up in the air and yelled, "I knew chivalry was dead!" before climbing in her car and driving away. She didn't know it, but I was being as chivalrous as they came. I made sure she got out of the rain and back into her car, even though she didn't like the way I did it, and I got her as far away from me as I could.

  In my book, I deserved a freaking medal for being so chivalrous. Because people that stuck with me didn't live long.

  Just ask my mom.

  Oh, wait, you can't. She died a long, long time ago saving my life. I refused to bring anyone onto this sinking ship with me. If it finally did go down, I was going down alone.

  I made my way back to my place and parked in the lot. I took the stairs two at a time to my crappy apartment and plopped myself on my bed, feeling a sudden exhaustion settle over me…the facade, the lies, the daily life of me, wore down on me like rubber sneakers on pavement. I felt raw and ground up. I wondered how long I could actually live like this before I collapsed in on myself.

  The tune of Bohemian Rhapsody alerted me that I had a message. I jerked it from my front pocket and looked at the text from Zander. He was the school's resident party boy and he was definitely the kind of guy that I always found when I went to a new town. Because a guy that threw parties on the fly could get things, and for a guy on the run, I needed someone like that. In fact the fake ID I was currently sporting with a different last name was from him. I texted him back that, yeah, I'd come to the anti-frat party he was throwing tomorrow night. I had no classes. I only took one elective night class, which was only in session two nights a week, just so I could say that I was a college student there, but I really wasn't. And the class? Freaking Spanish.

  Odio españoles.

  x

  I showed up to work with exactly thirty-seven seconds to spare. I blamed gorgeous-smash-into-me-girl. I swore my truck was acting funny and I had no cash to fix it.

  I nodded to Pepe, the owner, and winked at Mesha, the wife of the owner. She giggled behind her hand, and so our day began just like every other day. Pepe owned a feed store and the guy had muscles the size of tangerines. So, that was my job description. In fact, on occasion, he even called me that instead of-

  "Hey, we need muscle up here!"

  I shook my head. "Yep!"

  I trotted up front to help the dude in duds load thirteen bags of chicken feed. It wasn't a glamorous job by any means, and the pay was caca, but it kept me fit and busy. That was what I needed. If I had to up and leave, I wouldn't be leaving the guy in a jam because guys like me were a dime a dozen.

  The day wore on and at punch-out time, I felt a familiar hand reach across my back. Slither was more like it. "Hey, Jude."

  "Mesha," I mumbled back without turning and rolled my annoyed eyes. Were all women
the same? They never wanted me for anything but a good time and then see ya later. Which was great for my life, but dang did it get old. Especially since the tune never changed.

  "Pepe's playing cards tonight." The insinuation hissed from her lips in what I'm sure she thought was a sexy whisper. It made my skin crawl.

  "That's great for him." I grabbed my metal lunchbox and turned the other way, the long way around the back, but it was worth it to evade her.

  "That's it?" she practically yelled. "I thought you'd jump on it?"

  I stopped. Dang. She just caught me on a wrong day. I turned. "Why? Because of what you've got between your legs? Darlin', there are a hundred girls on speed dial. Sorry. I'm a busy guy."

  And wait for it..."You're such an ass, Jude! I was just testing you anyway!"

  I waved above my head and kept going. Women. Typical.

  I threw my lunchbox through the open truck window and prayed it would start as I climbed in. She sputtered, but held out, I'll give her that. I tapped and rubbed the dash. "Come on, girl. Come on."

  She cranked and I drove straight to the auto parts place. I popped the hood and waved away the heated smoke. Sighing, I closed my eyes. Mother...this was going to cost a paycheck to fix, which I didn't have to spare. I went inside and priced a radiator. I almost punched the man in his teeth when he told me the price. "Are they made with titanium now and I'm just out of the loop?"