A small thank you:
First, to my mom, who, without her this book never would have come this far. Second to Hubby, who told me to take the leap and publish it (“what’s the worst that could happen?” he tells me all the time (I shall not write my reply)). And finally, to all who take a chance on this unknown author and reads the book – Thanks to all!
Harley’s Choice
By Shaelin Ferra
Published by Shaelin Ferra at Smashwords
Copyright 2013 Shaelin Ferra
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Harley’s Choice
CHAPTER SELECTION
Chapter one:
Chapter two:
Chapter three:
Chapter four:
Chapter five:
Chapter six:
Chapter seven:
Chapter eight:
Chapter nine:
About the author
…Something different…
PART ONE
Chapter one:
I, Harley “Harry” Shelton spent a brutal six years fighting off bullies and dealing with snobby girls in the private school systems in LA, and then I got out, graduated at sixteen the overly intelligent but skinny girl, got away from it all. There were only two boys that made it all better, Carson Johnston and Kyle Douglas, they were my life line throughout the six years and I never forgot them.
At seventeen I was dragged kicking and screaming into Daddy’s line of work – as an assassin. I was trained relentlessly in all forms of martial arts, close combat and torture. I studied all things killer and excelled at it all. I sucked in the lifestyle and became proficient at it. I realized that Daddy had been training me for this all my life.
At twenty-six I have killed, faced evil in all forms and stared down the faces of men trying to kill me, but I’ve never been more scared.
The threat: a cream colored envelope addressed to me containing the invitation to my ten year high school reunion.
It sat on my dresser, mocking me as I packed my bag. I’ve grown up and filled out, but am I ready to take on those who spent years knocking me down?
An hour later as I sat on Kari’s desk nipping at my nails she asks, “So what’s your cover story?”
“Um…typical homebody, work at a hardware story?” I answered absent-mindedly. I would be leaving in a few short minutes and the butterflies were rampant in my gut.
I hadn’t been this nervous since the long-range air rifle was put into my hands to take my first mock shot.
“Oh. My. God! You haven’t thought of this at all have you?” her eyes were wide and the smile on her lips was pure Kari, evil, and…did I mention evil.
“Honestly? No, but I don’t really care. I’m only going to see Carson and Kyle, say hello and then slip out.”
“Honey I knew you when you were green to the gills in this occupation, lying to me won’t get you anywhere.” She cocked a brow and just stared at me. Her arms folded over her large chest and then she started tapping her foot.
“What?” I faked innocence. She laughed.
“You will be doing no ‘slipping out’, I know you. You’ll probably end up calling and extending your vacation.” I smiled as the thought of seeing those two again flitted across my mind.
“It could be a good weekend.” I said with a smile.
“Have you run a check on them?”
“Nope and I’m not going to.” I folded my arms across my chest I don’t think I wanted to know. I was afraid that they were dead or worse…married.
“Well I certainly can!” Kari slid around the desk and logged in. “Carson Johnston right?”
“Yeah and Kyle Douglas. Don’t you think-” I thought hard about stopping her, but she was Kari and really nothing stopped her, “never mind just tell me that they’re clean.”
Her fingers flew fast across the board. “Ok, ok, just gimme a sec-” she gasped and sucked in a deep breath. “O-M-G!”
“What!” I leaned over the desk but she quickly shut the screen down.
“Yeah they’re clean and they look delicious.” The glimmer in her eye told me something she didn’t voice, but I really couldn’t say what it was at this moment.
I blushed; they’d always been that way to me. A girl who was nothing but knees and elbows needed a protector and they were it. It was a hero crush if anything. Yep that’s it. A hero’s crush, right! I sighed and grabbed my bag. “Ok so I’m leaving, take care; if you need me I’ll have my cell phone.”
“Don’t worry I got it! Go have fun and give Carson and Kyle my love.” I blushed at her use of the word ‘love’.
“Are you ready yet?” I turned to the deep voice that is my father.
“Yes daddy I am.”
“Ten years, baby girl…” the sentence sort of faded off, he actually seemed at a loss of words, which is a first for him. The last ten years has taken their price from his face. His silky light brown hair was now snow white but still buzzed short. His left eye drooping slightly was the only reminder that my immortal father was in fact very mortal. As a child, and even sometimes now I think that he could never die, but then I look into his eyes – I didn’t finish that line of thinking, it always left me feeling cold inside. He still has plenty of life in him so says the crow’s feet in the corner of his eyes and the softening of his chest and stomach.
“I’ll be fine Daddy I’m going for two reasons. It wasn’t as if I actually enjoyed my time in high school. Kari has agreed to be at your beck and call if you need her.”
“Now I never-” Kari started in but I cut her off “you’ll be in good hands daddy.” I leaned up and kissed his cheek and he hugged me tight. His blue eyes seem to moisten as he released me.
“Harry you ready?” my brother peaked in and waved the keys at me.
“Yes I’m ready and please quit calling me that…” I rolled my eyes, he’s called me Harry my entire life, and I always ask him to stop – he never does.
“Never! It is my privilege, nay, my duty to call you Harry. Besides I’m the only who can do it without you putting a bullet in their head.” His smile was such a shit eating grin that I couldn’t help but laugh as I walked toward him.
I pulled the sharpie out of the pen holder and removed the lid as I advanced on him; still laughing I wrapped my arms around him and kissed his cheek then whispered in his ear. “You think so huh?” then stuck him right between the eyes with the black sharpie. The office exploded into laughter as Bryant tried to grab me and I ran around the desk to escape a fate I knew involved tickling.
“Oh! I’m going to get you for that!” he jumped the desk and pinned me against the wall and started tickling my side without mercy.
“You – do not – want – to – go – there!” I said between laughter. Finally I was able to catch his hand and twist out of his hold. Then it was my turn back I spun around him and pinned him to the wall with his arm stretched up behind his back and gave as good as I got.
His other hand pounded the wall. “That’s it little sister! You are going down!” He pushed back from the wall, using his weight to throw me off balance. It wasn’t hard, he had to outweigh me by a good hundred pounds. He stood at an astounding six foot three and I at a measly five foot two was nothing to him, if he really forced it, and he did.
I released him and spun and ran, “daddy!” I threw my arms around him and hid behind him. I peeked
out to Bryant and stuck my tongue out at him. This was a familiar song and dance with us. My dad reached behind me and pulled me into a hug and then tickled me too and I spun away from him into the open. Bryant used this moment to catch and lift me over his shoulder then bending slightly to grab my luggage and my purse.
“Love you baby girl have fun.”
“By daddy, see you in a couple of days!” Bryant walked out of the office and down the hall and toward the elevator. “Ok you big lug you can put me down now.”
He did as requested and pulled me into a hug. “Love you baby sis! Don’t let those bitches get the best of you.” He tapped my chin with his fist and kissed my cheek.
“I won’t I promise!” We rode the elevator in silence to the garage. As I walked to where I parked my car I went over the check list in my head: luggage, check; e-reader and MP3 player, check; convertible Camaro, check- “Wait, WHAT!” My brother’s laughter had me looking at him. “What is that?”
“You should see your face!”
“Never mind my face. That car is parked in my spot. Where’s my jeep?”
“Sis, did you forget what today is?”
“No, today is the day I drive to California.”
He rolled his eyes. “No little sis it’s June twenty-third”
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” my father and Kari stepped out from around the corner.
“Aww, you guys!” We all gathered into a group hug and I gave each one a kiss. “Wait, are you saying this is mine?” I looked back to the car. It was grey and beautiful. I walked closer to it. The interior was two toned with black and light grey leather seats. The dash was lit up with a bunch of lights. I couldn’t wait to hit the road.
“Yep, all yours.” my father stepped up next to me. “Bryant told us a couple of months ago that you had your eye on one and since this birthday will be spent facing old foes I figured you could use something to arrive in style with.”
“Thanks daddy!” I gave him a hug and felt the weight of the keys in my hand.
“Go, get outta here.” He huffed. Not one for emotions, my father.
I ran to Bryant and gave him a hug. “Love you baby sis.” He said into my hair.
I ran to the car and opened the door and sat down. The smell and feel of leather was euphoric and I was elated. “Oh, this is heaven guys! By the way what did happen to my Jeep?”
“I took it to your house and it’ll be there when you get home,” my brother said as he leaned into the car. He started technical car talk, but I started the engine and drowned him out.
“I’M SORRY I CAN’T HERE YOU!” I pointed to my ear and laughed. He shook his head and backed away, he made the universal sign for ‘call me’ I nodded and drove off.
The Phoenix sun was blaring down on me so I decided to stop and put the top up. While I did that I played with the radio and realized I could connect my mp3 player. Oh I was in heaven now! I plugged it in, turned it on, turned it up and headed for the I-10 and straight through to LA.
Three hours later I rolled into Blythe, California and called my brother. “Hey Bryant I made it to Blythe.”
“Took you long enough.”
“Shut up I had to get out of Phoenix, remember?”
“How’s the car?”
“Oh it’s amazing, when I get back I might let you drive it.” We laughed, like I could stop him if he wanted to take it. My brother was efficient at burglary, breaking and entering and vehicle tampering. He could do it all without leaving a trace of him ever being there.
“I’m going to run through a place and get a bite to eat and head on.”
“Ok, just be careful and call me when you get there.”
“Yes dad!” I giggled, but stopped when I realized he wasn’t laughing too. “What’s up Chuck?”
“I worry is all.” He let out a huge sigh.
“You don’t act this when I leave for a job…” the question underlining the words I spoke.
“I know, it’s just that I know school was hard for you, and-”
“And I’m ten years old and wiser. I’m not giving them an inch this time around. I’m a better person then they are! I have always been so!”
“Well, tell Carson and Kyle hello for all of us.”
I blushed, “does everyone know why I’m going back?”
“Well considering they are the only ones you ever hung around during school and all you talked about for those six years, it’s no educated guess.” He laughed and I blushed. “I love you sis.”
“Love you too bro.” I disconnected and found something with a drive-thru, then reconsidered greasy food in my new car so I parked and went in to eat. Fifteen minutes later I was back on the road.
Eating’s no joke to me. Those commercials that say ‘Don’t bother me, I’m eating’ fits me to a ‘T’. Kari laughs at me all the time when we order in at the office. My meals are huge and I eat fast. I had to learn to eat and eat quickly when going through basic training – I just never stopped eating like that, now, of course, that my body’s been trained for food and rigorous workouts it all seems to even out.
Of course when I was away from the hell of school I actually found out I had an appetite. Stress and nerves cause my stomach to shut down.
As I got back onto the open road I realize that my meal was now sitting in my stomach like a brick and I had fear coursing thru me. I hadn’t felt like this since I went out on my first solo job.
I flashed back to the first day of sixth grade:
I sat next to Rebecca Stanley and I was so envious of her hair. It was blonde and straight as a pin, not a hair out of place. Unlike my own which was brown, frizzy, and curly. So after class I walked up to her and said. “Hello my name is Harley Shelton and I’d just like to say I love your hair.”
To which she replied. “Yes I know I have beautiful hair, now get away from me you hairy skeleton.” The giggling of five other girls echoed down the hallway.
“No I’m sorry I think you misheard me my name is Harley, Harley Shelton not Hairy Skeleton.” Had I been older I might have realized the insult sooner but I was young, even for a sixth grader, so when she delivered the next line I was hurt.
“No I didn’t mishear you.” And she turned her back on me and the name stuck. The other five girls started chanting Hairy Skeleton over and over. With only 150 kids in our grade the name spread like wildfire I walked away with my shield of books and my head down.
My anger festered from one class to the next and I knew I had her in the last class of the day and was planning on sitting on her and plucking out her hair one by one till she was bald. But at the end of fifth period I was pulled aside and pushed into a closet by Carson and there was where I first met them. Kyle and Carson stood side by side and Carson leaned down and spoke “don’t pay her no mind…you stick with us and we’ll go farther than she ever dreamed.”
And just like that I was hooked. We three did everything together. They were my knights and I was constantly the damsel in distress. There was that time I was cornered by some football players and was insulted to the point of tears. By the time Kyle and Carson showed up I was straddling the biggest one pounding on him. They pulled me off of him, with the threat that if anyone told they had proof that they all had cheated on the last science test. Kyle and Carson never left my side much after that. The teasing didn’t stop, but no one touched me again either.
Being five foot and sixty pounds in sixth grade was hard, it didn’t get much better, and by ninth grade I had only gained twenty pounds. My knights called me their little kitten. We would walk to school and back again. I grew but they grew more. One summer, it seemed, was to be my year to bloom, and the little buds I had leaving school blossomed into a full C cup overnight – well not overnight, but close enough. When we went back to school, I’d had hoped the teasing would have stopped, but weight was not my friend, I may have had boobs but I was still knees and elbows with not much in between.
When graduation came my knights were over six feet and I had grown
only two inches more. I had learned to control my hair but Rebecca and her Pussy Posse still tormented me, guys never paid me any attention and I was never on anyone’s party list but I had Carson and Kyle and they stuck to me like glue and we made it through, finally graduating.
Carson being the oldest kid in class being nineteen at graduation, Kyle being a scholarship child and me being the youngest made us outcasts of types. That’s what got us through, that we three needed each other to beat off the rest. Of course back then I wasn’t a threat to an ant much less any kid in my class.
Now of course I could kill them all and no one would see me coming, of course I don’t hold a grudge, it’s not good in my line of work.
Then on my seventeenth birthday I was told we would be moving. I spent the rest of the evening switching from Kyle’s shoulder to Carson’s as I cried out my goodbyes. The goodbye was horrible and horribly botched. We all confessed the love we knew was there, but in the next breath we knew we could do nothing about it. Carson, Kyle and I made a pact to meet here at the ten year reunion and see where it led.
We never spoke again. My fault really, but I couldn’t tell them much about my life. I mean how does one tell someone they are in training to be an assassin? You don’t.
So I just had to hope they would be here. To protect me and to, I hope, still love me. I may never have spoken with them, but I never forgot them.
I wondered how they looked and how they must have changed. I wondered if they would recognize me. I hoped so. Would I be able to recognize them? I hoped so. I never looked in on them, I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to know what they were doing; I didn’t want to know if they were married or if they were dead; I just simply didn’t want to know.
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