by Caisey Quinn
Exclusive Sneak Peek
“Get your filthy fucking hands off of me, Judd. I’m serious.”
Fingers dented the flesh on her bare upper arms when she tried to twist out of his grip so she could back up and return to the safe haven of her dressing room. A man she’d once found attractive—sexy even—gripped her tightly. Ignoring her demands, he yanked her closer to him and sneered low in her ear.
“Did you think I would just forget, Mia? Thought you could just leave me in the past like discarded luggage?”
“I didn’t think about you period. Still don’t. Let me go or I swear I’ll scream.”
The scent of cheap cologne and off brand liquor assaulted her nostrils as her pressed his face to hers. “I like it when you scream, sweetheart. Or did you forget that, too?”
Her stomach roiled, disgust wracked her body causing her to shudder as the scent of him seeped into her skin.
“Please,” she whimpered when he tightened his grip.
A moan escaped the back of his throat and he gave her a lascivious grin. “I love it when you beg, baby. Guess you did remember something after all, huh?”
A wave of nausea slammed into her but she swallowed hard and pushed through it.
“What do you want, Judson? I have to go on stage in like two seconds. You going to drag me out by my hair?”
It wouldn’t be the first time he’d done that. But that was then. When she was just a broken, starving, homeless girl cleaning hotel rooms and barely surviving. Now she was a well-known winner of a national singing competition with a recording contract.
And yet…he’d still gotten into the club in Vegas where she was playing. He’d gotten past security, both the clubs and her private detail.
I’ll never be safe. He’ll always find me.
The truths her subconscious brought to the surface caused her throat to constrict, making it hard to swallow. It wasn’t that she thought he’d murder her—even Judson Randall wasn’t that cold-blooded. Yet she feared for her life all the same. Because he could do things to her that would make her wish she were dead.
“I want what you owe me, sweetheart. I’m a businessman.” His grip tightened, causing an alarming pinch of pain. “You know that. I think, considering the circumstances—”
“Mia? You okay?”
She turned her head, the only part of her body she could move with Judd pinning her the way he was.
Electric blue eyes beneath a shock of messy ink black hair focused a laser stare on her. She didn’t know what he was doing here, but she was happy to see him. Happy and kind of humiliated at the same time.
Judd gave her a warning squeeze before releasing her. “She’s fine. Catching up with an old friend is all.”
Steven Blythe ignored him completely, keeping his focus on her. “Mia?”
She licked her lips to moisten them and nodded. “I’m fine. Thanks.”
His gleaming eyes narrowed, silently calling her out on the lie.
Trapped between her past and future, she could only be certain of one thing.
She was the furthest she could possibly be from fine.
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Song of My Heart
The Gretchen Gibson Story
CAISEY QUINN
“I’m not the heroine of this story—of anyone’s story. I’ll always be the villain—even in my own.”
-Gretchen Gibson
Prologue
“Someone call 911,” a female voice shouted over the sound of guitar solo cutting off abruptly.
“I’m a doctor,” a male voice responded loudly. Feedback sounded in the amplifiers, cutting sharply across the room.
Gretchen was fine. She wanted to tell them that she was fine. There was no need to panic or cause a big fuss.
Well…she was mostly fine. Everything was fuzzy, as if she’d suddenly plunged her head underwater. But there wasn’t a pool anywhere nearby that she could’ve fallen into. One minute she’d been on stage and the next, she was flat on her back trying to swim toward a light on the surface. The more people surrounded her, the smaller that light became.
“Any chance she might be pregnant?” The male voice that had claimed to be a doctor asked no one in particular. “Diabetic?”
Murmured voices answered that they didn’t know. Gretchen wanted to laugh. No, no one would know if she were pregnant or diabetic because she didn’t go around blabbing her business to the free world. Tabloids had speculated plenty enough even without any prompting. One week she was pregnant, then she was getting married, next she was getting dumped, headlines screaming that she was ‘knocked up and alone.’
The truth was she had no idea why she’d passed out in the middle of the benefit concert she was giving for her foundation. She wasn’t pregnant unless it was a miracle of Immaculate Conception. But she knew even before she came completely to that this little episode would provide more fodder for the trash rags.
Great, she thought when she heard paramedics barreling through the crowd and ordering people to move so they could get her loaded onto the stretcher. Just fucking great.
If she’d had the strength, she would’ve at least shielded her face for anyone snapping a quickie photo to sell to the tabloids. But despite her mind working overtime, she had a serious problem when it came to the rest of her body.
She couldn’t move a single part of it.
1
The weeping willow in the front yard hadn’t changed. Neither had the body of water across the street or the two-story house with blue shutters and weathered white siding.
Gretchen took a deep breath as she stepped out of the cab. South Carolina had its own unique scent. Jasmine and magnolias and something else. A bittersweet breeze that blew over the water carrying a potent mixture of innocent childhood and painful adolescent memories.
This house held so many memories. Most of them bad. Screaming, crying, begging. And that was just her mom.
She’d left her small town in South Carolina over ten years ago with a squeal of tires and a cloud of a dust, in a pickup truck owned by Danny Taggert, town hoodlum. She’d been back a few times since then, but arguments and tears usually ushered her in and saw her out.
A dull throb began behind her eyes so she slid her sunglasses down to cover them.
The cab driver retrieved her two suitcases from the trunk and dropped them down in front of her. She handed him several twenties and said thank you. Once he was gone a figure on the porch became visible.
Long raven hair streaked through with gray blew in the breeze. Her mother stood there, wearing the same disapproving expression Gretchen was used to receiving.
“Hi, Mom,” she called out tentatively.
Gretchen lifted a hand in greeting and something hard nailed her in the head.
“Ouch.” She released one of her bags long enough to reach up and touch the tender spot where she’d been pegged. By a wayward football apparently.
“So sorry about that,” a man called out.
Gretchen turned to see where the voice had come from. A dark-haired Adonis with a nearly blinding smile framed jogged toward her. Behind him stood a scowling blonde with curly pigtails sitting low on her shoulders.
“She’s got quite an arm,” Gretchen said, handing over the football and nodding to the little girl, who couldn’t have been more than ten or twelve.
“Yeah, she does,” he agreed. “She’d play on the team if they’d let her. She’s a lot better than the quarterback they have now.”
“Well she’s got my vote.” In spite of herself, Gretchen found that she was smiling at the handsome guy.
“Gretchen, right?” He extended his hand to shake hers. “Your mom mentioned you would be home soon.”
Home. It certainly didn’t feel like him, but then neither did anywhere else.
She reached out as well, startled by the tingles his warmth caused to shoot up her arm.
“Um, yes. Uh… I’m afraid you have me at a, um, disadvantage.” And apparently I’m
sixteen now instead of thirty. Pardon me while I remove this drool from my chin.
“Maxwell Wright. But you can call me—”
“Mr. Right?”
He chuckled lightly, revealing a dimple in his left cheek. “Or Max, whichever you prefer.”
She felt heat creeping up her neck, which made no sense. Gretchen did not blush. She didn’t stammer or get nervous or ruffled. She didn’t look into this guy’s startling blue eyes and think, hey, he could be my soul mate. Mostly because she was fairly certain she didn’t have a soul.
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Caisey Quinn lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, daughter, and other assorted animals. She is the bestselling author of the Kylie Ryans series as well as several New and Young Adult Romance novels featuring country girls finding love in unexpected places. You can find her online at www.caiseyquinnwrites.com.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations for reviews. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet, without the publisher’s permission and is a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines and/or imprisonment.
Story of a Girl: A Kylie Ryans Novel
Copyright © 2013 by Caisey Quinn
Girl with Guitar: A Kylie Ryans Novel
Copyright © 2013 by Caisey Quinn
Girl on Tour: A Kylie Ryans Novel
Copyright © 2013 by Caisey Quinn
Girl in Love: A Kylie Ryans Novel
Extended Edition with Bonus Material
Copyright © 2014 by Caisey Quinn
Preview of The Second Chance Series
Copyright © 2014 Caisey Quinn
Lost in Lyrics (Excerpt)
Copyright © 2015 by Caisey Quinn
Song of My Heart: The Gretchen Gibson Story
(Excerpt)
Copyright © 2015 by Caisey Quinn
Leaving Amarillo: A Neon Dreams Novel
Chapters printed with permission from Avon/William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Copyright © 2015 by Caisey Quinn
*ALL EXCERPTS, SAMPLES, & PREVIEWS ARE FROM UNCORRECTED PROOF COPIES AND MAY OR MAY NOT APPEAR AS THEY ARE SHOWN HERE IN THE FINAL VERSIONS.
This eBook is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or have been used fictiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
eBook ISBN: 978-0-9908475-8-8
Published in the United States of America
First electronic publication of the Kylie Ryan series: May 2013 by Caisey Quinn.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Books by Caisey Quinn
Girl with Guitar
Dedication
In Loving Memory
Prologue
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
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Acknowledgments
Girl on Tour
Dedication
Prologue
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
Thank You
Girl in Love - Deluxe Edition
Dedication
Quote
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Epilogue ~ A Note from Kylie Ryans
Acknowledgements
Story of a Girl
The Second Chance Series by Caisey Quinn
Leaving Amarillo
Lost in Lyrics
Song of My Heart
About the Author
Copyright Notice
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