Breaking the Chain

by Golden Angel

  Breaking the Chain

  Stronghold Book 6

  By G. Angel

  Published by G. Angel

  Copyright 2015 G. Angel

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook 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 recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  A huge thank you to all of my beta readers, who were absolute superstars this time around, really pushing it at the end when I needed their help to get this book out on time! They catch my inconsistencies and grammar, give me advice, and keep me motivated through the entirety of the process and I really couldn’t do it without them at this point =)

  As always, a big thank you to all my fans, for buying and reading my work… if you love it, please leave a review!

  Table of Contents

  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

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  4 pm.

  Leigh stared at her phone. She'd been texting Jared at this time every day for weeks until yesterday. They'd been... not dating exactly, but not not dating. Ugh. Being single was so confusing. They'd been seeing each other. Talking every day. She hadn't realized how much she'd come to rely on sending him a stupid joke at 4 pm, every day, and getting some kind of response from him until yesterday, when it hadn't happened.

  It was like a craving.

  Just text him.

  Friends could still text each other. And Jared had said no matter what happened, he still wanted to be friends. Leigh wanted that too.

  She didn't blame him for needing some space. His ex, Marissa, had turned up on his doorstep, promising him everything he'd ever wanted from her. They had seven years of history together; seven years of effort, of trying to make their relationship work. She and Jared had been seeing each other, sort of, for maybe a couple months?

  Yeah, in a romance novel, Marissa and Jared would be the main story line. The second-chance romance. The woman who realizes everything she's about to lose and goes to make the effort to keep her man. Leigh would be the other woman. The stalker 'date' who wouldn't let go. The bad guy.

  Leigh's own story line was much more depressing. Definitely not a romance. Lately, it kind of felt like a soap opera. She was the girl no one wanted. Not even the guy she'd been trying to make things work with for seven years. Michael, her ex-boyfriend, the man she'd thought was the love of her life, her soulmate, her everything, hadn't been satisfied with just her. He'd wanted to date other women. To know what it was like to have sex with other women. Until this most recent break-up, they'd only ever had sex with each other.

  Since the break-up, Leigh had slept with a couple of guys. Enough to know that, while sex could be fun without emotion, she preferred it with. It was definitely more fun with. Unfortunately, Michael didn't want to get back together, and the only other guy she'd started to feel emotions for... well, they hadn't gotten that far before his ex had shown up on the scene.

  Ugh.

  Lucky bastard.

  It didn't really hurt that much. Compared to having her heart ripped out of her chest and crushed by Michael, this little scratch by Jared was next to nothing. She'd cried a little bit over it, of course. She really did like Jared, and she felt a little bruised, but she also felt happy for him. Jared deserved to be happy, and she was glad his story was getting a fairy-tale ending.

  She might have also cried a little bit because she was envious. Part of her wanted to scream - why him? Why not me?

  What was it about Jared that had brought Marissa back to him that Leigh didn't have? Why didn't Michael want her back?

  Yeah, he'd been pissed about her sleeping with other guys - although she thought that might be because, so far, he hadn't managed to do the same with another woman. But he didn't want her back, even though he didn't want her with other guys. Or, well, he did want her back, he just also wanted to be able to date other women. Asshole wanted to have his cake and eat it too.

  Sometimes she really hated him.

  Yet, she knew if he came back, promising her everything she ever wanted... would she give up Jared?

  The idea of completely giving up on Michael was so foreign to her. They'd been through so much together. She still missed him, as if he was a limb that had suddenly dropped off. Michael hadn't just been her boyfriend, he'd been her best friend. She still found herself wanting to call him when something funny happened to her. Or to pick up a six pack of his favorite seasonal beer when she was at the store. Having an interest in Jared had helped a lot with all of that.

  Was she just sad because Jared was a distraction from Michael and now he was gone?

  No. It might be partly that, but it was so much more complicated. Spending time with Jared had made her happy. He didn't try to change her. He didn't judge anything she said. Michael's job had started to grind away at their relationship; he'd wanted her to look differently, act differently from the person she'd always been, to be the person he thought she needed to be in order to help him advance. She'd tried, she really had, but she'd felt so stifled. So boxed in. Being with Jared made her feel free, especially because he really seemed to like who she was. He liked it when she was silly. It made him laugh, and that made her feel good because she liked to see him laugh...

  Ah, fuck it.

  She was going to text him.

  But what? A joke didn't seem quite right... maybe a quote... or a funny picture...

  Ten minutes later, Leigh was still scrolling almost aimlessly through her phone when she finally saw it. The exact perfect thing to send.

  Her stomach churned with anxiousness as she typed it out, but when she hit the send button, her shoulders felt lighter too. No matter what, at least she'd reached out. At least she'd tried.

  She and Jared could still be friends. They hadn't gone very far with the whole dating thing anyway. Leigh didn't want to just give up, she wanted to keep him as a friend. Not to mention, it could make their whole social group very awkward if they weren't.

  Still, she vowed to herself that if he didn't text back, or if he didn't seem that enthused about her texting him, she would let it go. Not cling. Not try to hold onto something that wasn't there. She wasn't going to be the villainess in his story.

  ******

  Whole new year, same damn problems. Jared sighed, rubbing his forehead. He'd come in to work at Stronghold in order to get away from his apartment for a bit. Marissa hadn't had anywhere to stay, so she'd spent the past two nights in his bed.

  Alone.

  He'd taken the couch.

  Things were too complicated as it was.

  Last night she'd tried to get him to join her and he'd put his foot down. He hadn't committed to getting back together. So far, he hadn't touched her in any kind of romantic manner. No holding hands. No arm around her shoulders. And definitely no kissing.

  Surprisingly, it hadn't been that hard. She'd never been much for physical affection anyway. She wasn't cuddly like Leigh.

  And that was the real problem, wasn't it? Everything kept coming back to Leigh. H
e couldn't stop thinking about her, couldn't stop comparing Marissa to her. On one level, it made him feel guilty as hell. He'd loved and cared for Marissa for years; in comparison, he barely knew Leigh, had barely spent any time with her, and yet she was on his mind just as much as Marissa was.

  This should have been an easy choice. Marissa was offering him everything he'd ever wanted with her. A chance to validate why he'd stayed with her for so long. Redemption for his pain. Reward for his struggle.

  So why did it feel like he was losing?

  Because of Leigh.

  Sweet, definitely submissive, adorable, silly Leigh, who had brought sunshine back into his life. Marissa felt more like a black hole, trying to suck that light away from him. And just thinking that made him feel like such an asshole, because he knew Marissa had problems. Her mother was a narcissist who never had time for her unless she needed Marissa for something, her father was a politician who didn't care what his children did as long as they didn't "ruin" anything for him, and Marissa had grown up wealthy, not knowing how to do much of anything for herself. She was the epitome of a poor little rich girl, and while she was also a drama queen, self-centered, and self-involved, it wasn't entirely her fault. So he felt like shit for judging her for it.

  His emotions jumped back and forth between wanting to take another chance with her and wanting to wash his hands of her entirely. If the latter would even be that easy. What Marissa wanted, she usually got. He didn't want Leigh to be exposed to Marissa's particular brand of viperish manipulations, and he didn't think Marissa would let go of him easily.

  He wasn't being conceited, it was just that Marissa didn't lightly let go of things she considered hers. Which was why she always came back to him. She loved him. He was pretty sure she did at least. More than she loved anyone else.

  Why was this shit never easy?

  His phone vibrated in his pocket, and his heart jumped. Which was weird, because that hadn't happened before. When he pulled it out and looked at it, he realized it was 4:15 pm. His heart had jumped because he wanted it to be Leigh. Because this was the time of day Leigh had been texting him. He was like a junkie needing a fix, and he felt a definite rush when he saw that the text actually was from her.

  Opening it, he stared blankly for a moment. And then he laughed.

  And laughed.

  And laughed.

  From behind Stronghold's reception desk, Freddy perked up, but Jared barely noticed him. He couldn't stop grinning. That girl...

  Love is a snow mobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.

  It was perfect. It was everything he'd been feeling and somehow, she knew. She got it. Completely.

  Those goddamn ice weasels lol. Where'd you get that one from?

  A few seconds later, as if she'd been waiting eagerly for his response - and he couldn't help but hope that she had - his phone buzzed again.

  Matt Groening, if you can believe. The Simpsons are deep.

  I believe it. Thank you, I needed that.

  Any time ;)

  As much as he wanted to text her back again, he had no idea what to say. Was he being selfish? Wanting to continue the conversation when he didn't really have an answer for her on where things stood between him and Marissa? Not that she'd asked. Somehow, Jared didn't think she would.

  God she deserved so much better than him.

  ******

  "What are you grinning about?" Angel asked, suddenly appearing in the doorway to the bedroom Leigh had been using. Adam and Angel had opened their house to her. Adam had offered immediately, otherwise Leigh probably would’ve been sleeping on the couch of Angel’s old roommates. Or someone else’s couch. She’d just needed out. Her parents would have taken her in, but she would have had to get a different job; there would have been no way to commute. She'd left Michael with the apartment they'd shared. The idea of being there without him had made her feel like she couldn't breathe. In the beginning, she'd hoped that the empty space they'd lived in together for so long would make him miss her. That he'd see little reminders of her everywhere and realize what a colossal idiot he was. That he'd realize he couldn't live without her and come chasing after her.

  Obviously she'd been wrong on all counts.

  She wasn't doing much better on this, her second romantic venture in life. Well, sort of romantic. And she didn't really count the other guys she'd had sex with. There hadn't been any emotion there.

  "Um..." Leigh almost tried to hide the phone as Angel scowled, but her best friend had already seen it, so that was useless.

  "You aren't texting him are you?"

  "Him who?"

  "Either him." Angel's voice was flat as she crossed her arms over her chest. "At this point, they might as well be one and the same."

  "Jared isn't nearly as bad as Michael," Leigh retorted immediately. She blinked in surprise, realizing her first instinct had been to defend Jared, not Michael. Which was a big change. She was used to defending Michael constantly. Unfortunately, the switch up didn't seem to reassure Angel at all.

  "They're both bad news, because, apparently, neither of them knows what he wants." Angel scowled, and Leigh just sighed. When it came to people she cared about, Angel's protective mode could become violently intense. Like, seriously. Violently.

  "Jared does; he wants the woman he was in a seven-year relationship with, and I don't blame him." Not that he'd come out and said that specifically, but Leigh could read between the lines. And she really didn't blame him. "But I want us to be friends, and I don't want things to get awkward in the group." She gave Angel a hard look.

  Putting up her hands in front of her, in a mock-placating manner, Angel nodded. "No awkwardness here, I swear. Anyway, that's not the reason I came up. Adam's on Dungeon Monitor duty at Stronghold tonight. We're having a date night."

  Immediately, Leigh perked up. She loved girls’ nights with all the ladies of Stronghold, she really did, but date nights were just her and Angel time. "Just let me put on pajamas."

  A few minutes later, she was heading down the stairs to join Angel, who was kissing Adam goodbye at the front door. The two of them were a really cute couple. Adam was a big, blond, blue-eyed, kind of pirate-y looking guy with a neatly trimmed mustache and goatee; dressed in black leather pants and a button-down shirt (Leigh had rarely seen him in anything but a button-down, despite the fact that they lived together... the few times she'd seen him in a t-shirt, it had just looked weird). Coming up to his chin, Angel's curly brown hair tended to end up in his mouth when they cuddled, which was hilarious because Adam would sometimes pretend to chew on it, which drove Angel nuts. Leigh envied Angel's generous curves on both top and bottom, as well as the slightly slanted eyes her half-Asian heritage gave her. She was just a touch exotic looking, especially compared to Leigh's 'girl-next-door' looks.

  Looking down at Angel's chest, Adam scowled, and Leigh covered up a giggle with a cough.

  "Is that a new one?" he asked, squinting suspiciously.

  "No,” Angel lied blithely. Leigh knew immediately that Angel was lying, she wasn't even trying to hide it, which meant Adam definitely knew. He could be kind of scary accurate when it came to reading body language.

  Lately, Angel had been on a bit of a spending spree... nerdy t-shirts with funny sayings were taking off in a big way, and Angel fell in love with a lot of them. In fact, it was all she wore lately unless she was going to Stronghold, and Leigh was pretty sure that if anyone could find a reason to wear a nerd shirt to Stronghold, it would be Angel.

  "I don't remember seeing that one before."

  "Do you want to keep asking me about my shirt, which is totally not new, or do you want to be on time for your shift tonight?" Angel asked cheerfully, knowing very well which one Adam would choose. He was a control freak about everything and he hated to be late to anything.

  "We'll talk about this later." The look he gave her promised a spanking, and Leigh felt her insi
des squeeze tight with envy as Adam gave Angel a deeply controlling kiss, his hand on the back of her neck. It wasn't just the kiss though, and Adam's obvious love for Angel, it was the domination and the fact that Angel was going to love getting spanked.

  In fact, Angel was a lot brattier to Adam than she'd ever been to any of her other boyfriends, because they both liked it when he spanked her for it. Of course, sometimes she took it too far, and then she'd be punished in ways she didn't like nearly as much, but Leigh figured that was worth the trade-off. It wasn't until lately that she'd started to realize she wanted that kind of relationship for herself. Michael had been really good about the big romantic gestures, never forgetting an anniversary, and picking out fantastic presents for special occasions, but he hadn't really done day to day caring stuff. He wouldn't pick up her favorite food from the grocery store just because, or bring home flowers for no reason. Leigh would have preferred a higher level of the latter, rather than receiving big, elaborate gestures a few times a year only to be taken for granted the rest of it. That’s how her parents’ relationship was, and her mother had asked on more than one occasion why Michael never did any of those things. Her parents had liked Michael, but they hadn’t seemed entirely surprised when it ended either.

  Turning around, Angel saw Leigh on the stairs and smiled. Angel's shirt proclaimed that she wanted a Muggle in the Street and a Wizard in the Sheets. No wonder Adam didn't like it; there was a good chance Angel was going to ask him to show her his wizard's rod later. Or maybe his magic wand. Just to bug him. Living with the two of them reminded her of when she and Michael had started living together... and what they'd lost along the way. They'd had fun together, in the beginning, but by the end, it had just been a lot of her doing her best to please him while he did his thing and occasionally threw some big, romantic, but usually generic, gesture her way. He always went all out on those, but none of them were personalized to her. They were always the kind of thing that any woman would love… always. Any woman. So after a while, they didn’t feel so special anymore, it just felt like he was going through the motions of what he thought would sound good when he told other people what he’d done for her. Which also made it hard to complain without sounding horribly ungrateful.