With Kol (Daniels Family Book 2) Read online

  With Kol

  Daniels Family Book 2

  KL Donn

  Contents

  Blurb

  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

  Epilogue One

  Epilogue Two

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by KL Donn

  Copyright © 2019 by KL Donn

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover design & Formatting: Sensual Graphic Designs

  Editor: KA Matthews

  Photographer: Taylor Alexander

  Models: Tabitha & Scott

  Created with Vellum

  Blurb

  Kol Daniels has spent years raising his sister after their parents passed away. Finally gaining the freedom to live his own life, he meets a girl…

  Who runs away.

  Thea Andrews only wants to be normal. She wants to drop the scars of her past and move forward. After finding a friendship with a woman who didn’t demand to know all her secrets, Thea feels comfort in her surroundings.

  When her friends brother, Kol, begins to show an intense interest in her, she runs. Not as far as she should have and for nearly a year, regret and fear hold her hostage from reaching out to the only friend she had.

  After finding Thea, Kol makes it his mission to obtain her trust and eventually her love. Discovering how much agony she tries to hide away from the world, Kol pushes until Thea lets her guard down and starts to open up.

  With Kol…

  Thea begins to believe in love again, but will her secrets haunt them forever, or is there a light at the end of the tunnel leading to a bright future for them both, together?

  Dedication

  For anyone who doesn’t believe in love…

  It can happen to the most unsuspecting souls

  Prologue

  Thea

  “Thea.” I hear the whisper in the dark. “Thea.” I want to scream. “Thea.” I feel like my skin is crawling. He’ll find me any minute now, and I have no fight left in me.

  “Come on out now, Thea.” His voice, once smooth and soft, full of care and love, now makes me want to vomit. It’s pure malice and devious intent.

  This isn’t supposed to be my life. This isn’t how I should end.

  I hate my mother for what she’s done to us, our family. She ruined everything. All so she could have someone take care of her. Finance her jet-setting trips across the globe. Never once did she think about me, what he would do to me.

  She didn’t think about how my life would change.

  Be decimated.

  I’m ruined. Tainted. Broken.

  I should just give myself over to him. Let him end me so I don’t have to suffer forever. Reliving tonight for the rest of my life would be worse than what he’s already inflicted upon me.

  I hate him.

  I hate her.

  “I’m here,” I whisper from my hiding spot.

  The demented smile on his face is the last thing I remember.

  Chapter 1

  Thea

  “Eyes up, princess. On me. Always on me.” There is something different to his voice tonight. Something…new. Not quite right.

  I just turned fifteen and Richard, my step-dad—or so my mom wants to call him—has been looking at me for months. Not in a fatherly way, either. It’s a cross between a sneer and unfettered desire.

  I’ve never really liked him in the four years he’s been with Mom, but we’ve been cordial to one another. We have our disagreements every once in a while, and usually, get over them. He’s never crossed a line before.

  Until now.

  “Wh–what are you doing?” I stutter out in a weak voice.

  “Exactly what your little fuck-me eyes have been begging me to do for months.” His voice is a whisper, but it sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me.

  “I haven’t done anything.” My defense is weak. Not that it’s a lie because I haven’t done a damned thing to encourage this type of touching from him. I don’t dress as provocatively as some of the other girls at my school. I don’t flirt. I get good grades, do my homework. I tutor for crying out loud.

  I’m the good girl!

  So why is he doing this to me?

  Deep down in my gut, I know tonight isn’t going to end well. Tonight is going to ruin everything.

  I watch with terror in my heart as Richard closes my door, turning the lock, and strides towards my double-sized bed. I try to push back farther, to become smaller than my tiny five-foot-two frame allows, but I can’t.

  I can’t move, I can’t breathe, I can’t focus. I can’t…

  “Over here, Thea. Eyes. On. Me.” Each word is punctuated by the unbuttoning of his shirt. “You’re going to be Daddy’s good little princess, aren’t you?” It should have been a question, but it came out a demand. I have no choice.

  “Please don’t do this,” I whisper. I hate how helpless I feel. I hate that I’m about to become a statistic.

  In my own home.

  “You know you want this, Thea. I’ve been waiting a long time. So be good for Daddy.” His knee makes the bed dip at the end as he reaches forward and grabs my ankle, pulling my trembling body down the comforter I’d just gotten. The one of soft silk and satin, the one I saved for six months to buy. Now, it’s going to be soiled. I’ll never be able to touch it again.

  “Please, don’t.” I push his shoulders back, but he’s so much bigger than me, stronger. I don’t stand a chance. I don’t want this. I don’t want him. “Please.” Scorching tears stream down my face as he yanks my shorts from my legs.

  Gasping for breath, I can feel my lungs seizing as I curl into a ball on the couch. I hate them so much. Everything is in shambles. Because of one night followed by lies piled on top of lies. No one ever cared about me, what I said, or the proof my body carried that night.

  I was called a liar, a whore, attention grabber. I had to leave. To disappear. At sixteen years old, I became a runaway. I was smart about it, too. I didn’t go to a friend or hide in the high school gym.

  I left. Town. The state. My mother. Everything.

  Thea Andrews, naïve girl of Joplin, Missouri, daughter of Alexandra Andrews, a fatherless child, was declared missing. Presumed dead at the bottom of the Grand Falls River after I tossed my bag and sweater off a bridge.

  I wanted them to think I was gone. To never know if I was dead or alive. It was the only retribution, revenge, or peace I was going to find.

  I can still picture my mom’s beautifully made-up face, not a hair out of place, as she begged for information about me. Mascara was perfect, lips stained a deep red. If not for the press conference and law enforcement, you’d never know her only child was missing. Likely dead. She didn’t care. And Richard Dane only cared about the image I nearly tarnished. My disappearance was the best thing to happen to them.

  They just won’t admit it to anyone but themselves.

  I went back once, about a year ago. Two years after I disappeared. Nothing had changed for them. They were still together, happy as could be, only without the burden of me. It was like it never happened. Peo
ple acted as though I was never violated. Wrecked. Ruined.

  I left in tears that day. The hate I harbor for them has settled so deeply into my bones that I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to move forward. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get past the pain and humiliation.

  I don’t know if I’ll be able to look in the mirror, see the scars, both physically and mentally, and not think of that night.

  On nights like tonight, where it’s quiet and calm, not a rustle from a branch in the breeze, I almost believe I can make it through.

  Until I look down… The couch. Not my bed. Never a bed. I remember all he took from me, and I wonder…

  Is it even worth living?

  Chapter 2

  Kol

  Pop. Pop. Pop.

  “What the–?” So help me fucking god, if these little punks have egged my damn truck again, I’m kicking ass and saying fuck their names!

  Three times now some punk ass little shits have egged or teepeed my truck since I moved onto the block six months ago. My oldest brother Arsen and I thought letting our little sister, Ember, live in the house we grew up in while she finished school was a good idea. She wouldn’t have to worry about rent, and her bills would be minimal. She also wouldn’t have to concern herself with pain in the ass kids with nothing better to do than piss off the new neighbor, either.

  Ember wanted freedom, and honestly, as selfish as it sounds, I wanted out. When our folks died a few years ago, Arsen was already in Nashville, his career was taking off, and I didn’t think it fair that he leave that behind to take care of our little sister.

  I ended up moving back home to make sure she graduated high school and went off to college. Only she didn’t want to leave. She loves Knoxville, always has, probably always will. So we stayed. And now, after just rounding out her second year of college and Arsen and Marina having adopted an adorable little boy, I’m ready to work on my life.

  Hence the purchase of a fixer-upper house in a middle-class neighborhood with these little shithead delinquents I probably shouldn’t be cursing at—in my mind, or out loud.

  “Hey, Kol!” One of the aforementioned kids comes running over, eggs in his damn hands. “It was an accident.” He looks sheepish enough, but I’m no fool. At thirty-three, I’ve been on the job for just over ten years and a detective for seven of them. I know bullshit when I see it.

  “These eggs,” I grab one from his hand as him mom—a widow working two jobs—comes out on the front porch of their house across the street. “They what? Just sailed through the air all on their own, hitting my windshield by mistake?” He stares down at his shoes, and I hold the egg over his head, looking at his mom trying to hide her giggling as she nods her head. “Like this?” I drop the egg, and it cracks over his head, running through his hair and down his face.

  “Kol!” he screams, and I walk away chuckling. “Make sure these eggs find their way off my truck before I’m back in an hour!”

  Having a rare Saturday off, I’m on a mission to get better trained for an upcoming children’s charity marathon in three months.

  My first stop is always a little health café about two blocks away for a disgusting energy-boosting protein smoothie. It helps work off the burn I get in my legs when I push myself too far. The walk there is a quick warm up to the five-mile jog that follows.

  Entering the store, I see a new girl standing behind the counter. Her head is down, but her long light blonde hair looks soft as silk. Perfect for running my fingers through while making sweet love.

  Hold up. I haven’t so much as looked at another woman since meeting Thea Matthews at Ember’s recital for the shelter almost a year ago. I haven’t seen her since, and Em won’t spill any details which is driving me fucking nuts.

  Thea is broken on so many damn levels that I should cut my losses and run, but my heart won’t let me. I’ve been captivated by her since the first moment our eyes met. Her pale blue eyes expressed more hurt than I’ve ever seen on the job before.

  My attraction to her runs deeper than physical. It’s like kinetic energy fused our souls together that first time.

  As the line moves forward and I get a better look at the girl behind the counter, our eyes meet just like they did a year ago, and I’m lost in her pain-filled aura.

  “Thea?” I keep my voice low so as not to scare her. As soon as I say her name, I detect recognition in her gaze.

  “Ho–how can I help you today?” she asks instead of acknowledging who I am.

  “How are you?” Her stare strays behind me to what is likely a long line for the popular place, but I need her focus, so I move with her, forcing her to meet my gaze.

  “Fine, thank you.” She blushes sweetly, and when she goes to push a stray strand of hair behind her ear, I notice two things: a small scar on her jawline and her trembling fingers. I’m making her nervous.

  Cutting her some slack, I place my order, but I don’t stop admiring her. Sitting at an empty table, I observe her with each new customer. I’m amused at her trying to ignore me. More than once her curiosity wins out, and I catch her staring. I flash her an easy grin each time, so she knows I’m aware.

  The phone buzzing in my pocket interrupts my new fascination, and as I glance at the text, I’ve never been more annoyed with my job. A robbery turned homicide has caught my department’s attention, and I’m the go-to guy. Which means I have to leave her.

  Walking to the counter, I’m glad for the small break in customers as I say to her, “Gimme your cell phone.”

  “What?” She looks up startled.

  “Your phone, give it here.”

  As if on autopilot, she hands it to me. Quickly punching in my number, I hit call, so our two lines connect, and then I create a new contact so she doesn’t forget. “I’m gonna call you later, blue eyes. Answer it.”

  Leaning forward, I kiss her cheek and get a whiff of her sweet peach scent, and I’m gone after pressing the device back into her palm.

  More settled than I have been in a long time, I run back home, knowing I didn’t get my full workout in for the day but seeing that the egg is washed off my truck.

  With a salute to the grumbling kid across the street and his still-laughing mother, I head inside to get changed and ready for a case I have no desire working.

  Thea

  * * *

  It’s not like I ever expected to see him again. I shouldn’t even be thinking about him. Not like that. Ember was a safe place for me for so long that I got complacent. Until I saw one of his men, and I had to leave almost a year ago.

  I was smart this time. I didn’t leave Knoxville like I had the other places. I just moved to another side of the city, dropped all my GED courses, and essentially, started over new, thirty minutes away.

  I don’t know how these people keep finding me, or why they even look at all. It’s not like they care what happens to me. I’m nothing to them, never have been. But I live in constant fear of what will happen should I get caught.

  Cutting ties with Ember was for the best, even if it broke my heart.

  Ember may not have known my story, and she may not have been privy to who I really am, but she was a genuine friend to me. One like I never had before. I’ll always regret disappearing on her the way I did, but it was for the best.

  Except, now, Kol knows where I am. He has my number and wants to see me. I know it won’t be long before Ember finds out. She’ll be upset, hurt. Rightfully so. I threw our friendship in her face and left without a word.

  Pacing back and forth in my apartment, I debate tossing my phone, packing up, and hightailing it again. I should go. It would be the right thing to do. I’m only going to get others hurt when he finds me this time.

  I check the news about once a month for anything on Mom and Richard, and none of it pertains to the possibility of me being alive, or that they’ve picked up the search for my missing body. I often wonder what our life would have been like if my mother’d never met Richard. He’s an evil, vile man, and I’d alw
ays seen it. I don’t know how she didn’t. Maybe she had and ignored the signs of his predilections, but she could have made so many choices to protect me, and that’s something I’ve never understood.

  I want a life of peace. To not live in fear every night before I go to sleep. I want to be able to crawl up in a bed without fighting off the urge to vomit. I want to be able to walk outside, close my eyes, and let the breeze carry me away with its calming presence.

  Until Richard is behind bars, I know I’ll never have that.

  The sounds of my neighbors fighting on any and all sides can be heard through the paper-thin walls of the dilapidated building I live in. It’s the worst of the worst, and as much as I hate it, I know I must stay for now.

  The ringing of my pre-paid cell phone in my hand startles me, and I drop it to the floor. I see Kol’s name flash on the screen, and as much as I want to send the call to voicemail, I need to set him straight. Tell him this can’t come to anything.

  “Hello?” With the noises around me, my voice can barely be heard.

  “What is going on there?” He sounds mad.

  “Paper-thin walls and fighting neighbors on all sides it seems.”

  “I want to see you. Take you for dinner tomorrow night. Will you text me your address?” I think it’s a demand.

  “Listen, Kol–”

  “Damn does that sound good.”

  “What?” I don’t understand.