“Grandpa, we don’t live in the Depression anymore. I don’t need to go hiding money under my mattress or in my pillowcase.”
He narrowed his eyes and laughed. “Just keep it safe.”
I hugged Grandpa one last time. He sighed heavily into my shoulder. “Be safe, Grandpa. Don’t let the cows out and keep milking the goats. I really will miss you.”
“And I you… Just, do me a favor.” He pulled away and looked into my eyes as I nodded. “Be careful. There are people out there who…” He cursed. Grandpa rarely cursed.
“What is it?” Okay, he was starting to scare me.
He looked behind me and pressed his lips together in frustration. “Nothing. Never mind. Just be careful, okay, sweetheart?”
“Okay.” I kissed his cheek.
Grandpa grinned and got into the car. I waved as he drove off, then turned back toward the girl with the clipboard.
“Okay.” I took a soothing breath and faced my future. “So where to?”
“Name?” she asked, sounding bored.
“Trace Rooks.”
The girl smirked and shook her head as if my name was the most amusing thing she’d heard all day. Was everyone rude here?
“It’s your lucky day,” she announced, motioning toward the building. “You are in the United States.”
I looked around just to make sure I wasn’t getting punked. “Um, yeah, I know. I’m American.”
“Gee.” She put the pen in her mouth and sighed heavily. “I didn’t know that. You seemed foreign to me. Where did you say you were from? Wyoming? Do they even have electricity there?”
I opened my mouth to defend myself, but she interrupted me… again.
“I know where we are, New Girl. Rooms are themed based on countries. Don’t ask me why; it’s just how it’s done. Your room is the United States Room. Go make yourself at home. Oh, and welcome to Elite.” She eyed me from head to toe twice before finally spinning around and returning to the building.
How was I supposed to get all my stuff in the building? Wasn’t there some sort of welcome packet or directions or something?
I vaguely remembered some information that had come in the mail the week before. It had my student ID card, amongst other things. I rummaged through my purse and found the packet and quickly began scanning it for the schedule.
“Are you lost?” a deep voice asked from behind me. I turned around and quickly came face to face with the same guy I’d seen before. Only this time he had three friends with him, not one. Lucky me.
“Nope. Apparently I live in the United States.” I gave him my best smile and tried to lift my heavy suitcase with my free hand. It didn’t budge and I almost fell over. Awesome.
“I’m Nixon.” He moved to stand in front of me. His icy stare did weird things to my body. I’m pretty sure what I was experiencing was called a panic attack. Every part of my body felt hot and then cold, as if I was going to explode any minute.
“Tracey, but everyone calls me Trace.” I held out my hand.
He stared at it like I was diseased.
I quickly pulled it back and wiped it on my jeans.
“Rules.”
“What?” I took a step back.
The guy from before named Chase left the waiting group and approached us. “He’s right. As cute as you are, Farm Girl, someone needs to tell you the rules.”
“Can it be fast?” I asked with an overwhelming sense of irritation. I was tired, jet-lagged, and about five seconds away from crying again. I’d never done public school, let alone a private Elite school where the guys were tattooed, pierced, and better looking than Abercrombie models.
“You hear that, Chase?” Nixon laughed. “She likes it fast.”
“Pity.” Chase winked. “I’d love to give it to her slow.”
I gulped. The two guys behind them laughed hysterically and high-fived one another.
“The rules.” Chase began circling me slowly, making me feel like one of those carcasses vultures feed on. Fantastic.
“No speaking to the Elect, unless you’ve been asked to speak to them.”
“Who are the—”
“Nope. You’ve already broken a rule. I’m speaking, New Girl.” Chase smirked. “Geez, Nixon, this one’s going to be hard to break in.”
“They always are,” Nixon replied, lifting my chin with his hand. “But I think I’ll enjoy this one.”
Okay. It was clear someone had just dropped me into a horror movie where I was going to be offed at any minute.
“If an Elect talks to you, never make eye contact. Because, technically, you don’t exist. You’re just a pathetic excuse for a human being, and at this school, you’re a real tragedy. You see, while one of the Elect is out running for president and basically ruling the free world, you’ll be lucky to be working for one of our companies. You follow the rules, and maybe we’ll throw you a bone.”
Furious, I glared at him, ignoring their second rule. “Is that all?”
“No,” Nixon answered for Chase. This time his touch was smooth as he caressed my arm. I tried to jerk away. His face lit up with a smile, and honestly, it was like staring at a fallen angel. Nixon was gorgeous. He was an ass, but he was a gorgeous ass. “You feel this?” His hand continued moving up my arm until he reached my shoulder, and then his hand moved to my neck and his thumb grazed my trembling lips. “Memorize it now, because as of this moment, you can’t touch us. We are untouchable. If you as much as sneeze in our direction, if you as much as breathe the same air in my atmosphere, I will make your life hell. This touch, what you feel against your skin, will be the only time you feel another human being as powerful as me near you. So like I said, feel it, remember it, and maybe one day, your brain will do you the supreme favor of forgetting what it felt like to have someone like me touching you. Then, and only then, will you be able to be happy with some mediocre boyfriend and pathetic life.”
A few tears slipped down my cheek before I could stop them. I knew I needed to appear strong in front of Nixon and Chase. I just… I didn’t have it in me, not when he would say such cruel things. I choked back a sob and stared them down, willing the rest of the tears to stay in. I didn’t care who these guys were. They had no right to treat me like this, though it still stung. I so desperately wanted to fit in.
He jerked his hand away from my face. “Pathetic. Are you going to cry? Really?” Nixon scowled and held out his hand to Chase. Chase handed him some Purell.
“Don’t want to get farm on my hands, you understand.” Nixon smiled such a mean smile that I literally had to clench my hands at my sides to keep from punching him in the face and getting expelled.
“Don’t even think about it, New Girl. You touch me, I tell the dean, who just so happens to be Phoenix’s dad. We control the teachers because, guess what? My dad pays for everything. Now, if you have any questions about what we talked about here, please direct them to Tex and Phoenix, ‘kay?”
The two guys who had been standing back from us waved and then flipped me off.
“That’s how they say hello,” Nixon explained. “All right, Chase, it seems our job here is done. Oh, and Farm Girl, don’t forget. Classes start tomorrow. Welcome to Hell.”
Buy Links
Amazon
Nook
iBooks
Eagle Elite Series Reading Order and Release Dates
Elite
Elect
Entice
Elicit
Bang Bang
Enforce (Elite from Nixon and Chase’s POV, December)
Ember (Phoenix’s story 2015)
Elude (July 2015)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rachel Van Dyken is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of over 29 books. She is obsessed with all things Starbucks and makes her home in Idaho with her husband and two snoring boxers.
OTHER BOOKS BY RACHEL VAN DYKEN
The Bet Series
The Bet (Forever Romance)
The Wager (Forever Romance)
The Dare
Eagle Elite
Elite (Forever Romance)
Elect (Forever Romance)
Entice
Elicit
Seaside Series
Tear
Pull
Shatter
Forever
Fall
Strung
Wallflower Trilogy
Waltzing with the Wallflower
Beguiling Bridget
Taming Wilde
London Fairy Tales
Upon a Midnight Dream
Whispered Music
The Wolf’s Pursuit
Renwick House
The Ugly Duckling Debutante
The Seduction of Sebastian St. James
The Redemption of Lord Rawlings
An Unlikely Alliance
The Devil Duke Takes a Bride
Ruin Series
Ruin
Toxic
Fearless
Shame (October 6, 2014)
Other Titles
The Parting Gift
Compromising Kessen
Savage Winter
Divine Uprising
Every Girl Does It
Contemporary Western
LIFELINE ECHOES
by Kay Springsteen
The day the earth tried to swallow LA, Alexandra “Sandy” Wheaton dropped her iced mocha in the parking lot of the emergency services dispatch office. Her day went downhill from there. Seven years later, hidden away in a small mountain town in Wyoming, Sandy is still haunted by the day that changed her life forever.
When Ryan McGee left home in a storm of controversy sixteen years earlier, he never expected to return to the land he loved. But an old grudge between his family and the MacKays has escalated to a fever pitch, and he answers his brother’s call, putting his quest to find someone who once saved his life on hold.
Sandy and Ryan nearly collide on a mountain road. Instant chemistry draws them to one another, a powerful force neither one can deny. They both have a history with a lost love they haven’t let go of, both have stories neither wants to fully share with the other. If they can’t let go of their pasts, how can their new attraction survive?
Re-released with some mature language.
****
The lead singer held out his hand to give Sandy a boost onto the stage just as the band shot into a sultry opening with a heavy beat. Her foot, strapped into a gold sandal with an impossibly high heel, began to tap and she closed her eyes, as though feeling out the rhythm. When she popped them open again and her hips swung into the beat, an explosion of lust swamped Ryan’s system and his libido kicked itself into overdrive.
Her voice was throaty and full. Sexy as fire. Interested in spite of himself, Ryan unashamedly ran his eyes over the whole package in the same way as probably every other man in the place and maybe a few of the women.
She wore a scrap of lavender silk, which slid over her body with the smallest of movements, taking a path his hands ached to travel. Faded blue jeans looked like they’d been painted on over nicely rounded hips and what details he couldn’t make out, his mind had no trouble filling in. An amber-colored gem in her bellybutton played peek-a-boo whenever the lavender silk slipped upward. But when his gaze moved to her face, it was her eyes that held his fascination.
She sang in graphic detail about the destruction of a cheating lover’s four-wheel drive, miming each action as she sang the words. Her hips rocking in time, she glided across the stage, openly flirting with everyone close enough to make eye contact. Every man there was probably considering the prospects for getting lucky that night, and about half of them would want to run out and check on their rides when she finished singing.
“Wow!” wheezed the overweight, balding gentleman seated next to him. One look at his excitement-reddened face had Ryan calling up the steps for emergency treatment of a stroke from his memory. The guy was breathing so heavily he could barely speak. “Wouldn’t want to get caught cheating on that one.”
Ryan mumbled something he hoped sounded halfway coherent and sipped the beer Melanie set in front of him. Chicory moved into another high-energy number with a heavier, even sexier beat. He didn’t think cheating on her would be a problem. At least he couldn’t imagine himself ever wanting to cheat on her if they were together.
She left the stage and worked the crowd, moving among them, touching arms and hands and faces, openly flirting with a few of the men as she sang about loving a good-time cowboy. The sexual energy in the room became even more tangible, yet somehow the atmosphere didn’t flash over to raunchy.
Her eyes locked with his and Ryan lost his ability to think. Unexpectedly, she had become predator and he very much the prey in her sights. Without taking her eyes from him, she approached with a sultry cat-like walk, the embodiment of temptation. She stopped mere inches away, and her body heat assaulted him like a five-alarm blaze.
While she rocked in rhythm with the thumping music and sang about a devil in disguise, Ryan forced himself to remain completely still. Sending him a cheeky grin of appreciation, the sexy singer reached up, plucked the hat off his head, and set it on her own. His gaze was imprisoned by luscious red lips singing about being addicted to love. Breath backed up in his lungs when she walked two red-tipped fingers in tempo from his belly up to his throat. All sense of his surroundings became lost in the steamy regard of those chicory-colored eyes.
She ran the tip of her tongue along her upper lip in slow motion. Then with a wink, she whirled around and presented her back to him while she flirted outrageously with Sean. Feeling needy, with a distinct sense of unfinished business, Ryan contented himself with watching the rhythmic sway of her behind. She was so close he jammed his hands in his pockets to restrain himself from doing anything to earn a boot of his sorry tail out into the parking lot.
http://www.amazon.com/Lifeline-Echoes-Orsons-Folly-Volume/dp/1940520142/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8qid=1408753800sr=8-1keywords=lifeline+echoes
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/lifeline-echoes?store=allproductskeyword=lifeline+echoes
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Table of Contents
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
Elite
CHAPTER ONE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
OTHER BOOKS BY RACHEL VAN DYKEN
Bang Bang Page 13