by Marni Mann
Steven, I say this after every book, but I honestly don’t know what I would do without you. You go far beyond, always, and you’re such a fantastic friend. Thanks for treating these babies like they’re your own.
Shari, you have once again created a masterpiece that I’m so proud of and love so much. Thank you for always having my back and for everything you do in and out of the book world. Love you, boo.
Jovana, thanks for your incredible insight and guidance and for all that you’ve done to make this book shine. Your talents amaze me, and I’m so grateful for you.
Mike Chabot, you were my inspiration for Trapper, and I’m so honored to have you on my cover. It was an absolute pleasure to work with you.
Tons and tons of love go to my COPA ladies who are the most amazing crew of women I have ever met. More love and thanks goes to TeriLyn Smitsky, Jennifer Porpora, Donna Cooksley Sanderson, Jodie Rae Bradford, Liz Milner, Irene Oust, Jx PinkLady, Deanna PinkLady, Kristi Reads, Rose He, Allie Burke, Tess Thompson, and Melissa Mann..
Mom and Dad, thanks for your unwavering belief in me and your constant encouragement. It means more than you’ll ever know.
Brian, my words could never even dent the amount of love you give me. Trust me when I say, I love you even more.
My Midnighters, you are such an amazing, supportive, and inspiring group. Thank you for being my rock. I truly love you all.
To all the bloggers who read, reviewed, shared, and tweeted—Thank you, thank you, and thank you! I’m so grateful for all of you and what you do for our writing community.
To my readers, I cherish your support and the love you show me and my books. Thank you for sharing this journey with me.
Reviews mean the world to authors, and they are the most powerful way to help other readers learn about my work. If you enjoyed Wild Aces, I would absolutely love it if you left an honest review. Even if it’s short, as little as a few sentences, it can still help so much.
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Bestselling author Marni Mann knew she was going to be a writer since middle school. While other girls her age were daydreaming about teenage pop stars, Marni was fantasizing about penning her first novel. She crafts sexy, titillating stories that weave together her love of darkness, mystery, passion, and human emotions. A New Englander at heart, she now lives in Sarasota, Florida, with her husband and their two dogs, who have been characters in her books. When she’s not nose deep in her laptop, working on her next novel, she’s scouring for chocolate, sipping wine, traveling, or devouring fabulous books.
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Also by Marni Mann
The Unblocked Collection (Erotica)
Episodes 1–5
Derek Block seeks revenge. Frankie Jordan seeks professional dominance. He wants her; she wants him. Lines that can’t cross begin to blur. Things start heating up as real estate gets real…
The Shadows Series (Erotica)
Seductive Shadows
Charlie is a passionate, sensually inspired art student, desperately seeking an escape from the abusive past that haunts her and a tragic accident that emptied her heart. Scarred and unable to love, her yearning for physical pleasure leads her into a tantalizing, dangerous world of power and seduction.
Seductive Secrecy
Can Charlie and Cameron overcome the destruction of their clouded pasts, or will the revelation of more painful, shocking secrets pull them back into the shadows?
The Bar Harbor Series (New Adult)
Pulled Beneath
Drew travels north to settle her grandparents’ estate, but she finds more questions than answers as the truth starts unraveling. What she didn’t expect to find was Saint, whose reputation is as tumultuous as his past. With Saint’s scars so deep and Drew’s so fresh, can the pair heal from their painful wounds, or will they be pulled beneath the darkness of their pasts?
Pulled Within
Rae Ryan has lived in a storm over which she has no control. Plagued by nightmares and a terrible family secret, she carries her scars as much on the inside as she does on the outside. Can she survive the storm and become a part of the light she so desperately desires? Or is she destined to remain pulled within?
The Memoir Series (Dark Fiction)
Memoirs Aren’t Fairytales
Leaving behind a nightmarish college experience, Nicole and her friend, Eric, escape their home of Bangor, Maine, to start a new life in Boston, Massachusetts. Fragile and scared, Nicole desperately seeks a new beginning to help erase her past. But there is something besides freedom waiting for her in the shadows—a drug that will make every day a nightmare.
Scars from a Memoir
Two men love Nicole; one fills a void, and the other gives her hope of a future. Will love find a way to help her sing a lullaby to addiction, or will her scars be her final good-bye?
Preview of Prisoned
Releasing Summer 2016
Garin
Sixteen Years Ago
“Sorry I’m running late, guys.” I unzipped my jacket and tossed it on the bed before I sat on the floor between Kyle and Billy. “Let me see what you all got tonight.”
“It wasn’t a good one for me,” Kyle said.
She was still wearing her jacket, rubbing her arms like she hadn’t warmed up yet. I reached behind me for my jacket and rested it over her lap. She was always cold. I figured that had something to do with her being so skinny.
And that had something to do with her mom not having enough money to feed her and her brother. My ma was no different. Billy’s too.
She wrapped the jacket around her legs. “Thanks, Garin.”
I smiled at her. “Tonight was real good for me.” I grabbed the cash and change from my pocket and dropped it on the carpet. “Three-hundred and forty eight dollars.”
“Damn,” Billy said. “I guess you did do good.” He pushed the coins around in the pile. “Lots of panhandlers tonight, huh?”
Panhandlers bought their drugs with change. Most of the time, they’d just give me the cup they used to collect with and I’d hand them a balloon. After a few deals, I’d have to book it to Mario’s store and unload all the cups. The change was too heavy for my pockets and it made my jeans sag too low.
“You shoulda seen all the junkies lined up in the alley,” I said. “It was a steady flow the whole night.”
“Any of the hookers try to give you head?”
I didn’t look at Kyle when I answered. “Not tonight.” I hated when Billy said that kind of shit in front of her. “I wouldn’t let them touch me, anyway. Half of them don’t even have teeth.”
“I hear that means they give better head. All gums and suction, can you imagine?”
“Fuck no. I don’t want to imagine.”
I felt Kyle’s eyes on me, but I still didn’t look at her. “How’d you do tonight?”
“I couldn’t find nothing to pawn besides a CD player that I only got eight bucks for and two drills that were so rusted I only got four. Fucking winter, people keep their shit all locked up cause it’s so goddamn cold.”
“So twelve?” I asked him.
He thre
w a wad of cash onto the floor. “Sixty two. I got fifty bucks for the tires.”
“Tires?” I asked.
“You’re gonna lock your car up so I can’t steal nothing, then I’m going to take your tires so you can’t go no where.”
“Oh my God,” Kyle laughed.
I punched the top of his shoulder. “That’s messed up, you know that, right? I’d beat your ass if you stole my tires.”
Billy would steal anything. Didn’t matter if it was your prized possession or the tires right off your car. He didn’t care and he had no fear.
None of us did who lived in The Heart.
Except for Kyle.
“You mean your ma’s tires since your ass ain’t even old enough to drive,” Billy said.
“Neither are you,” I shot back. “But yeah, whatever.”
“Those fuckers can try to beat me all they want, but they’ll never catch me. I’m way too fast for them.” He grinned with so much confidence…and I believed him.
“Garinnnnn,” Ma yelled from downstairs.
“What?” I shouted back.
“I’m going out. Make sure you get your ass to school in the morning. I better not get another call from them, telling me you’re skipping again. You hear me?”
“Yeah. I hear you.”
Kyle was smiling at me.
The last time I’d skipped school, we’d ditched together. We’d smoked a joint and hopped into a cab and got dropped off at Mario’s house so we could go swimming in his indoor pool. That was after I’d taken her shopping for a bathing suit. Her bikini had a hole right in the middle of the ass so she wasn’t comfortable wearing it. I, on the other hand, would have been real comfortable with her wearing it.
“How much did you make tonight?” I asked her.
Her hair had fallen into her face. As much as I wanted to, I didn’t tuck it behind her ear.
She held out her hand and slowly unfolded her fingers. In the middle of her palm was a few crumpled up dollars.
“I’m not as good as you guys,” she said. “There’s no beach goers this time of year that I can sell bottles of water to, no tourists walking the boardwalk. And when I stand outside the casinos and ask the people coming out for taxi money, they ignore me.”
“Then make ’em look at you, Kyle,” Billy said. “Stick out your tits, hike up your skirt, and show ’em what you’ve got.”
“Shut it, Billy!” The look I gave him told him I was playing around. “You want some dude to grab her off the street and rape her? Because that’s what will happen if she does that.”
“Damn, Garin, you’re right. I wasn’t even thinking. Course I don’t want nothing like that to happen to Kyle.”
She dropped the cash onto my jacket and buried her hands underneath it. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it, Billy.”
“You’ve been trying real hard, Kyle.”
She nodded, agreeing with him. “I don’t know what else to do to make money.” Her voice was so soft. “Garin, you’re so good at dealing and you make a ton doing it. And Billy, you’re the best hustler I know. You could steal a diamond off a woman’s finger and she wouldn’t even know. I can’t do that. I can’t do anything…”
“Bullshit,” Billy barked. “You’re smarter than me and Garin and got more talent than the two of us combined. Those things you create on the computer ain’t like anything I’ve ever seen.”
“You mean my designs?”
“Yeah, those.”
“But they need so much work and I need to practice more. The only time I can work on them is during Mr. Gunther’s second period class. Unless Mom plans on getting me a computer and we all know that isn’t going to happen.”
“Well, whatever, they’re good. Real fucking good.”
“He’s right,” I said once Billy had redeemed himself. “You’re too good to be hustling on the streets and definitely too good to be dealing. You just figure out how to make some legit cash and leave this kind of stuff up to us.”
She finally tucked her hair behind her ear. “But it’s not fair that you guys pay for everything. I’ve got to help out some how.”
We didn’t give her all that much. Food mostly, some clothes, a few bus rides around the city. I was happy to do it all. I’d buy her food every day if she’d let me.
“You do help,” I said.
“How?”
“Yeah, how?” Billy asked.
I gave him another nasty look to shut him up. “Just trust me, Kyle. You do.”
“How ’bout you take good care of us when we’re still living in The Heart and you’re out there doing something real important with your life.”
“Maybe you’ll still be here,” I said to Billy, “but I won’t. Once I turn eighteen, I’m getting the hell out of Atlantic City. Mario is going to let me work in Vegas.”
“And I’m going to college,” Kyle said.
Both our heads jerked toward her.
The kids from The Heart didn’t make it to college. Most didn’t make it to their junior year of high school.
“That’s…”
“A good goal to have,” I finished for him.
“Well, I’m going to try to get there, at least. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. Somehow, I have to make it happen.”
“We’ll make sure it happens. Won’t we, Billy?” When he didn’t respond, I kicked him.
“Yeah, yeah. College. Your goal. Right.”
“Maybe I could help you deal down at the boardwalk,” she said, then she looked over at Billy. “Or maybe I could help you hustle on the streets—”
“Not gonna happen, Kyle,” I said.
I grabbed the money off the floor and shoved it back into my pocket. I usually took around twenty from whatever I earned each night and used it to buy food and saved the rest. But tonight, I was going to spend all of it.
“Come on, guys,” I said.
“Where we going?” Billy asked. “I’ve been running all night and my feet hurt. You better not be taking us too far.”
“It’s not far.”
“Should I grab a sweater or something?”
A softness in Kyle’s voice made me stop in the doorway and turn around to face her. She only had a T-shirt on underneath her coat. I knew the shirt; I’d bought it for her. Her jacket really wasn’t thick enough to keep her warm, so I grabbed a sweatshirt from my closet and handed it to her. “This is warmer than the sweater you have at home.”
She put it on, then wrapped her jacket over it. Before she looked up, she lifted the collar of the sweatshirt and tucked half her face inside it. “It smells like you.”
“I wear it a lot. It’s my favorite one.”
“I know.”
“Are we gonna talk about your stank all night or are we gonna get going?”
I rolled my eyes at Billy. “Yeah. Come on.”
“Where are we going, Garin?” Kyle asked.
She walked just a little bit behind me, following me down the stairs and out the front door and Billy was behind her. His apartment was right next door and Kyle’s was three doors down. We passed both of their places on our way out of The Heart. That was what everyone called our neighborhood—four streets that made a giant square with over two hundred apartments inside. It sounded like a nice place, named after an organ that gave us all life. Funny thing was, The Heart sucked the fucking life right out of everyone who lived there.
That was why we had to get out.
“I’m taking you guys to the diner ’cause we could all use something to eat. Then we’re going to a place where we can have some fun.”
I needed to call Mario from the diner and see if it was okay to bring Billy and Kyle to his house tonight. He let me use his indoor pool and the arcade that was in his basement whenever I wanted, but I needed permission to bring them. And I also needed to have a talk with Billy. I’d never brought him to Mario’s because I was afraid he’d steal something. I needed Billy to promise that he wouldn’t. Billy wouldn’t break a promise—not to me.
“I’m down for some fun,” Billy said.
I waited for Kyle to agree. When she still didn’t say anything, I turned around and waited for her to catch up, “What about you?”
She was shivering, but her smile was so big. “Of course I’m up for it.”
“Good.” I had to get her out of this cold. “You sure you can’t run?” I asked Billy.
“Ahhh, fuck. I can always run if I have to.”
I grabbed Kyle’s hand and we took off.
“Then start running,” I yelled at him over my shoulder.
Kyle stopped shaking once we got to the diner and I could tell she was nice and full after her bacon cheeseburger. And I knew she had a hell of a time at Mario’s arcade because she didn’t stop grinning and laughing the whole night. Mario even let us make eggs for breakfast and gave us a ride to school.
Kyle fell asleep on my shoulder during the drive. I didn’t want to wake her when he pulled up to the front of the building. But I liked the way her eyes looked when she slowly opened them and how she used her small fingers to rub the corners.
Shit.
There weren’t many days like that one—all of us together, sober, earning on the streets and celebrating with the profits. Those really were the days. Because the ones that followed, weren’t so great at all. They were tragic. They were devastating.
And they were really fucking dark…