by Chloe Walsh
Thorn
Carter Kids #2
Published by Chloe Walsh
Copyright 2016 by Chloe Walsh
All rights reserved. ©
The right of Chloe Walsh to be identified as the Author of the work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form or binding or cover than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Thorn,
First published, February 2016
All rights reserved. ©
Cover Designed by C&K Creations.
Edited by Nouvelle Author Services
Formatting by Elaine York/Allusion Graphics, LLC/Publishing & Book Formatting
www.allusiongraphics.com
Disclaimer: This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
The author acknowledges all songs titles, song lyrics, film titles, film characters, trademarked statuses, brands, mentioned in this book are the property of, and belong to, their respective owners.
Chloe Walsh is in no way affiliated with any of the brands, songs, musicians or artists mentioned in this book.
Thorn is the third novel from the Carter kids series, though many of the characters are from the broken series and some readers may enjoy reading the full story.
All previous books are available on most online platforms.
Chloe
xox
This book is dedicated to Julie Phelan – aka Aunty.
For her lifelong support, friendship,
And infallible belief that I could be whatever I desired to be.
And of course, for her sheer love of all things Kyle Carter.
I love you, Aunty.
Preface
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
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Next Book
Other Books by Chloe Walsh
About the Author
Playlist
Acknowledgments
Upcoming Titles by Chloe Walsh
The man who loved me was a fighter.
He had blood on his hands.
He was dangerous, treacherous, and he called me his Thorn.
I was his strength and his weakness all rolled into one.
He was trained – bred – to play a pivotal part in an underworld concocted of violence and destruction.
The question was could I love him in spite of the danger he represented to my life?
Could I love him in spite of the danger he represented to my soul?
Seven Years Ago - February
TEAGAN WAS SAFE.
I could handle the whole damn world falling down around me just as long as she was safe – alive and breathing. My little Thorn was okay, and that made this whole damn mess worth it.
I knew I was facing prison time because of my role in the quarry. I knew I was going away for a while – up to five years for GBH.
Three if I didn’t fuck up again, Kyle’s suit had assured me at the station tonight. That didn’t sound too fucking bad to me. Hell, three square meals a day, and a long assed rest sounded like heaven to my body. I might even get lucky and score a cell of my own.
To be perfectly honest, the only reason I was handling this so calmly was because I had Teagan. I didn’t think she realized just how much I loved her crazy ass. That girl was everything to me and I didn’t say that lightly.
She’d seen the worst of me and she loved me through it.
Fuck, she was prepared to keep me even when we thought I’d killed Gerome Javi.
Jesus Christ, what that girl did for me tonight – running into the Hub all guns a-blazing.
I never realized a man’s heart could love as hard as this.
This was an insane kind of love.
One I never thought I would have.
Fuck, my whole world had pretty much burnt to dust tonight. I knew shit was going to be a hell of a lot different in the morning.
I had a family now.
Kyle was my brother, Lee was my sister-in-law, and the triplets and Hope were my niece and nephews.
Kyle had bailed me out. I was back in Thirteenth Street because of the guy and his big fucking heart. I couldn’t resent that. Besides, I knew what kind of upbringing my older half brother had, and it wasn’t fucking pretty. The man was self-made. I could only aspire to be like him one day. Maybe that’s why I had always felt so damn comfortable in the Carter’s house?
It was because I was one of them.
Well shit…
Just a few short hours ago, I was the only child of a murdered ex-con and a schizophrenic heroin addict. And now? Now I had brothers, and more family than I’d ever dreamed possible.
I should be losing my shit right about now, but the meds flushing their way through my bloodstream kept me highly sedated and extremely drowsy.
My body was in pieces. Everything hurt. My back, my face, my fucking chest; hell, even my dick was throbbing. But I was alive, breathing and I hadn’t killed anyone.
Pain was smothering my senses, my ribs were burning like vinegar seeping into an open wound, but I knew I would sleep easy tonight.
Because I was free.
Free from George Dennis, and free to live my life.
Free to be with Teagan.
Inhaling gingerly, I allowed my eyelids to flutter closed, comforted by the knowledge that my Thorn was safely tucked up in her bed next door.
Fuck it, a bright future was actually attainable for a guy like me.
“Mmm…Yes!” A female voice mewled, startling me awake.
The sudden weight that slammed against my pelvis was fucking fantastic.
“Thorn?” My voice sounded groggy and slurred.
So sweet and soft and warm.
So damn snug and tight.
A nervous tingle shot up my spine and I heard myself groan in pleasure.
<
br /> “Shh,” was the last thing I heard before unconsciousness claimed me.
WHEN I CAME TO I was alone on my bed, naked, and feeling more satisfied than I had in days.
Even though I couldn’t remember jack shit from the night before, the wet patch on the mattress assured me that a late night visit from my girlfriend was the reason I felt so sated.
Slightly dazed, and feeling like a freight train had mowed me down, I shrugged on a pair of sweat pants, climbed unsteadily to my feet, and made my way over to my bedroom window.
My eyes immediately honed in on Teagan standing on her front porch and my heart flipped inside of my chest.
I needed to get used to looking at her from behind a pane of glass, I thought to myself as I studied her beautiful face. Her face that was crying?
Confused as hell, I watched in a mixture of surprise and anxiety as my girlfriend walked towards a cab with a suitcase.
What the…
I tapped on the windowpane and tried to get her attention, but she didn’t look back.
That caused the anxiety inside of me to multiply rapidly.
“Teagan!”
I could barely breathe from the pain in my side, but the slicing in my chest watching Teagan, followed by Hope, climb into the cab was fifty million times worse.
Fuck, I would rather take a knife than feel this.
“Teagan!”
I rapped my knuckles harder against the window.
“Thorn!”
And then the car pulled away.
Fuck no…
Frantic for answers, I grabbed my phone off my nightstand and swiped my thumb across the screen. Immediately, a message thread opened up.
Noah: Need 2 show u something. Front door’s unlocked. I’m in bed. Come straight up.
Teagan: Be there in 2.
“What the…” Gaping at the screen of my phone in confusion, I slowly worded out the messages under my breath as I tried to make sense of the texts I knew I hadn’t sent.
Forcing my legs to move, I shuffled clumsily out of my bedroom and down the staircase. Leaning against the hallway wall when I reached the bottom step, still woozy from the pain meds, I shook my head and tried to clear my vision.
Raw anxiety was eating at my gut.
What the hell was happening?
“Good morning, sexy.”
My entire frame froze the second my eyes landed on Reese, in the doorway of my kitchen, with a mug of coffee in her hands, dressed in nothing but my blood-stained t-shirt.
“What the fuck.” It wasn’t a question. I already knew the answer – it was smeared all over my dick. No doubt it was the reason Teagan had tore off in that cab quicker than a bat out of hell.
Jesus Christ.
A million different emotions were coursing through me. I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t believe my fucking eyes. “You fucking rapist,” I snarled, feeling violated and furious.
“Calm down,” Reese cooed, holding out the mug for me to take.
I took it from her and plastered it against the opposite wall. She yelped when it shattered and coffee sprayed everywhere.
“You raped me.” Three words I never thought would come out of my mouth, but there they were. “You fucking forced yourself on me, didn’t you?”
When she didn’t deny it, I let out a roar. “You sent Teagan that text from my phone, didn’t you?”
Reese’s eyes welled up with tears as she nodded her head.
My heart sank. “Did she see?” I managed to choke out. “Did my girlfriend see you fucking me?”
“Noah please,” Reese protested. “Let me explain –”
“Don’t you dare goddamn Noah me,” I roared into her face. “You took advantage of me.” My voice sounded strange even to me. “And now Teagan’s gone because of you!” Violent and wholly enraged. “Was shaming her with that CCTV footage not enough for you?” I demanded, “You had to do this?”
“I’m sorry okay?” Reese shook her head in despair. “I didn’t expect you to behave like this. I thought you would –” she started to say, but I cut her off.
“What?” I stalked past her towards the front door. “You didn’t expect me to feel violated?” With the front door open, I glared once more at the girl in my shirt. “You better get suited with a good fucking lawyer,” I warned her. “There’s a special place in the state penitentiary for women like you. Don’t think you’ll get away with this because I’m the one with the dick.”
It was freezing when I stepped outside, wearing only a pair of black sweat pants, but I didn’t let it stop me. I was like a crazed man on a rampage.
I needed to stop Teagan from leaving me.
I needed her, period.
I wouldn’t survive the next few years without her.
Staggering across the yard, I stumbled up her porch steps and thrust my elbow against the panel of glass in her uncle’s front door.
The sound of the house alarm went off, almost deafening me, and I knew I was burying myself under another lawsuit, but I was desperate.
The glass shattered, as I knew it would, and I slipped my hand inside, feeling the nicks of razor sharp shards as they sliced at my skin.
Twisting the doorknob, I let myself inside and grabbed Teagan’s car keys from the desk table in the foyer.
Racing outside, I didn’t think twice about unlocking her little red Honda Civic and climbing inside, ignoring Reese’s screaming protests that I was on house arrest and couldn’t leave. With my foot to the floor, I tore out of the driveway in the direction the cab had gone.
I was less than a mile from The Hill when red and blue sirens alerted me to the fact that I had company.
Cursing like a sailor, I threw the car into fifth and gunned it. Praying for a miracle but preparing for the worst, I continued driving like a madman; driven by desperation – by fucking love.
In the end, I wasn’t sure if it was the meds, or the actual pain that caused me to veer off the road, but for the life of me I couldn’t keep control of the car.
I took the corner too sharply and stuck the nearby ditch.
The car flipped twice before settling on its roof.
Game over.
I HAD TO ADMIT that it wasn’t my brightest idea, running home to Ireland with nowhere to go, but my ex-boyfriend’s family had taken us in when we arrived at their door at the crack of dawn last Saturday. They had been more than hospitable, all things considered.
“Are you okay, pet?” Sheila Harte asked me for the twelfth time in the past hour through the door of the toilet, and for the twelfth time I had to repeat the words ‘I’m grand, Sheila,’ as I clung to the toilet bowl in her downstairs bathroom like it was my very own personal lifeline.
The whole flight all I could do was cry, puke, scream, and die inside. I was fairly certain I wouldn’t be welcome back on an Aer Lingus flight anytime in the foreseeable future. And even though we had arrived at the Harte’s home almost a week ago, I was still vomiting and seriously considering taking the valium Liam’s mother had offered me last night.
Noah had never been mine.
I knew that now.
How could I even be sure that he was ever faithful to me?
I couldn’t be sure.
I couldn’t believe anything.
Our whole relationship had been a lie.
I had wasted my heart and my virginity on a gangster whore.
Goddammit.
This was the worst pain I had ever felt in my eighteen years.
I was dying.
I was sure of it.
And there was nothing anyone could do to take it away for me.
Angry was an understatement. Fury wouldn’t hold my coat. I was pissed off and heartbroken. An ugly combination for an emotionally unbalanced teenager.
Hope was in the sitting room with her phone glued to her hands when I finally finished dry heaving and rinsed my mouth out. Liam sat in the armchair opposite her, looking uncomfortable but curious.
“I’m sorr
y about this,” I repeated when I reached them, sinking down on the arm of the chair Hope was occupying. “If we had anywhere else to go we would be there,” I added. Trust me.
“It’s fine, Teegs,” Liam replied. Rising from his chair, he moved towards me with his arms outstretched. “I’m glad you came to me.”
Actually I had come to his mother, but I decided not to correct him. It seemed to be a rude thing to do. “Right,” I mumbled, embracing him in an awkward half-hug. “Uh, thanks again.”
Hope’s phone continued to vibrate in her hands as she stared blankly at the lit up screen. Mine on the other hand was void of messages and calls.
I wasn’t being chased after or worried about because I had made the foolish decision to put all of my eggs in Noah Messina’s basket and the bastard had betrayed me in the worst way.
I burned my bridges with Uncle Max.
I didn’t think he would ever forgive me.
And I didn’t blame him.
I chose Noah over him, over my own flesh and blood.
I was a shitty niece.
All I had was Hope and I was secretly terrified her father was going to arrive at any moment and sweep her back to Colorado with him. And then I would be totally alone, because there was no way in hell that I was ever facing Thirteenth Street again.
“Are you going to answer that?” Liam asked Hope, releasing me from his grasp. “Could be important.”
“It’s not,” Hope replied coldly, not taking her eyes off the screen of her phone.
“You should just answer him and get it over with, Hope,” I said wearily. I knew it was her dad. He wasn’t going to lie down over this. “He won’t stop calling until you speak to him,” I added after a pause.
I watched Hope deliberate with herself before finally swiping her thumb across the screen and putting the phone to her ear. “Dad,” she acknowledged in a tone void of any emotion. “What’s up?”
Taking a few steps back from us, Liam hovered awkwardly by the sitting room door. When our eyes met, he inclined his head, gesturing for me to follow him, before stepping out of the room.
I didn’t want to know a damn thing about Thirteenth Street, I couldn’t cope with it, so I was glad for the escape Liam was offering me.
