by Marie Wathen
all this time
An All series novel
By
Marie Wathen
ALL THIS TIME
Copyright © 2014 Marie Wathen
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the owner. Excerpts for reviews–only when stated as such and quoted–are an exception.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Resemblance to actual person, living or dead, events or locales, are entirely coincidental.
Editor: Toby Joiner
Published by Marie Wathen PO BOX 239 Vincent, AL 35178
Cover Art Design & Formatting: Covert It! Designs
Photographer: Michael Brown Projects Photography
Model: Joshua Sean McCann
Additional Photos: Dreamstime
This story is approximately 126,000 words
**WARNING: This story contains explicit language and erotic scenes, M/F and is intended for adults, 18+ only.
Table of Contents
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
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
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Chapter Seventy
Chapter Seventy-One
Chapter Seventy-Two
Chapter Seventy-Three
Epilogue
More books by Marie
About the Author
Acknowledgements
Dedication
To my very first and best friend, Barbara Summers Gonzalez.
I adore you and I’m so blessed to have you in my life. I can’t name all the things about you that I am grateful for because I already wrote a book and have met my word limit, but I can say that not one day has gone by that I haven’t thanked the big guy above for bringing you to me. I dedicate this book to you my friend because the subject matter for which I write truly affects your life in more ways than any one person should have to endure. There will come a day when all the answers to life’s hardest questions will be given and I hope you’re first in line to hear them. Heartache and pain isn’t something we seek out in life, but it can make us better. Yes, I know you’re rolling your eyes at the last sentence, but if you aren’t a testament to that being the truth then I don’t know who is. You’re daughters are amazing, beautiful, talented, and loving women because you set the example for them. I’m so sorry that your Chelsea wasn’t fortune enough to find an Angel on this earth before it was too late. Thank you for allowing me to share a piece of Ari with the world. I love and miss her each and every day too.
Quote taken from the Facebook page of Ariane Chelsea Gonzalez and used in this story: “Waiting on an angel because I don’t want to go alone.” You will never be alone again, Ari-doodle.
Prologue
Thirteen months ago…
I say goodbye.
Turning around, I walk away from a future with the man I love. I fade away into an angry mob yelling for justice and forcibly guiding me toward the perimeter of the hospital property. These people are hungry for someone to crucify. My heart breaks with the crush of reality and everything I’ve experienced in the last forty-eight hours. Somehow managing to bury my internal meltdown, I steal one last glance over my shoulder. The news crews flash their camera lens toward the front steps of the now empty emergency room. Canton City Chief of Police Jackson Summers and his new sergeant gather for an impromptu press conference. Echoing shouts of the chief’s name by the reporters, demanding his attention, are the only sounds I hear as I reach my car. A melancholy smile slowly spreads across my lips as I slip behind the steering wheel. I punch the gas pedal, heading west and within two hours I cross over the Alabama state line. After six more hours of driving south, I’m on a ferry crossing the Gulf of Mexico, heading back to my family home on Willow Island.
I truly believe in fate, destiny and all the other descriptors that determine ones future. I even buy into the whole superstition of taking a bite from a fortune cookie before reading the tiny piece of wisdom tucked inside. The difference between those little scraps of hope and destiny is sometimes fate doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain and deliver everyone a fairytale ending. That is exactly what happened to me. I got a heavy dose of cruel happenstance. Destiny’s design has a hand in every detail that brings me back to Willow Island today. The course of events that leads me back are just as hopeful and tragic as I have learned to expect from this unpredictable journey we call life.
After growing up in England most of my life, I thought I had a flawless plan laid out for my final destination–return back to the states to attend college, a fabulous career, maybe one day a husband, and oh good lord if I can bear the thought of children. Fortunately for me, I accomplished the first couple early on, but after the current events and a new job offer that I accepted a few hours ago, I adjust my travel plans and purpose, focusing on a course due south.
Willow is where I was born, but I never expected to return for any reasons other than holidays or family gatherings. After graduating high school I accepted an academic scholarship at Jacksonville State University, in Alabama. Their criminal justice program is top notch and being able to attend without depending on my parents to fund it urged me to accept.
JSU is not a mega-size campus like the other more popular, in-state schools, the University of Alabama or Auburn University, but after a campus tour I fell in lo
ve with everything about it and the quaint town in which it resides. It reminds me a lot of Willow, which is exactly what I needed. In the sweet little town everything is close and convenient to the campus and the southern U.S. college isn’t a stuffy old pretentious university like those back in England.
I grew up with two younger brothers, twin brothers actually. Marcus and Morgan are two of my favorite people in this world and we are close. Well, I’m close with them. They are currently suffering through a separation brought on by some skank bitch, which Marcus dated, but Morgan ended up having an affair with.
A floozy like the one they are fighting over is exactly the type of conniving woman that proves my beliefs in only having men as friends. Women are catty bitches and I never wanted that jealousy shit in my life. Until college, I didn’t even have sleepovers with friends from high school. Unfortunately, campus life dictates communal living and the fact that I was attending on an academic scholarship I begrudgingly accepted my fate and a girl roommate.
Sharing space and a few classes together, Kristie Daniels and I got to know each other on a very personal level. With Kris’ friendship, it didn’t take long for me to stop generalizing all women into the category of sister haters.
I earned my four year degree in two years because I took summer, online, and every mini course that the school offered. I wasn’t trying to get away exactly. I just wanted to move on to the next phase of my life. Starting when I was a little girl, becoming a police officer was my life’s dream. I remember sitting on my Gran’s lap watching her favorite television show and there was a woman police officer on who was a total bad ass. She did this swinging leg, high-kick move disabling a bad guy and saving some people during a bank robbery. I was in complete awe of her skills and instantly inspired to help others. Plus, Gran told me that I could do anything that I wanted.
My family owns a private business which my grandfather Mac Walker has guided to the top of Forbes Fortune Five Hundred. Granddad set up positions for his sons, my father Barret Walker, and my uncle Beck Walker, after he provided them with the means to earn their graduate’s degree from Stanford. He has thoughts of grandeur and hopes of a distinguished legacy which includes his grandchildren following the same path.
Being the natural born rebel, I opted out of Granddad’s offer and chose a career in law enforcement instead. Looking back now, I realize I was always at a crossroads, but I never even thought about the intersection.
My grandparents offered to pay for my higher education, but I knew better than to allow it. Not that they would ever hold it over my head. Hell, they are the most loving and giving people I have ever known and they always support my dreams. No, if I had accepted Granddad’s offer it would have been my father who would see it as a slap in the face. According to him, I turned my back on the family when I passed on coming aboard.
Honestly, I don’t really believe that my father wanted me following in the family business. After moving our family to England when I was a child, he would spend time with my brothers drilling the ins and outs of Walker Corporation, but he never once asked me to join them. At the tender age of twelve Morgan was working on project ideas that could rival some of dad’s senior staff members. He is a true chip off the old block, in more ways than one. Marcus did not share in Morgan’s enthusiasm and is following me into law enforcement. Oh, I’m jumping too far ahead now. Let’s back up just a little.
After graduating from JSU with honors and subsequently the police academy, I was offered a coveted position on the Atlanta Police Departments Drug Task Force Unit. Because I look much younger than my chronological age, I was easily immersed into the drug scene and accepted as just another addict. At that point, my sweet grandparents insisted on providing a safe place for me to live locked behind the secured walls inside a gated community. Being a newly graduated student and too proud to ask my parents for access to my trust fund, I certainly couldn’t afford a place on my own until after I started earning a salary. Needless to say my grandparents refused to accept any compensation so I sullenly accepted their generous offer and moved into a lavish country home in Canton Georgia, a charming little city north of Atlanta.
Coincidentally, my best friend Kris was from the area so she moved in with me. Kris received her nursing degree from JSU and worked for a small family practitioner in town, but all along she had aspirations of landing her dream job at Canton General Children’s Hospital. Her desire to help others inspires me daily. Although we are as different as night and day, Kris is my soul sister and ours is a friendship that transcends eternity.
Since becoming friends with her, my good opinion of this shitty world greatly increased. She sees everything through rose-colored glasses and finds only the good in everyone. Kris tried to mesh some of her idealist ways into my realist heart. She failed. There isn’t a romantic bone in my body and I do not have time in my life for love. That is until my eyes landed on the deep haunting essence of Blues for the first time. All I know is those amazing sapphire tinted eyes look like coming home and destiny is proving her worth as a cruel manipulator by making my soul mate the one person I could never have.
My name is Samantha Walker, and this is my serendipitous story.
Chapter One
December
“Hey Kris, if I give you an extra two hundred dollars towards the utilities will you do all of the housework while I’m gone?” Leaning across the kitchen table I attempt to make eye contact with my best friend who is doing her best to ignore me. Hooking my foot under the chair next to me, I tip it backward slightly finally gaining her attention. Her eyebrows pinch down in annoyance and I flash my pearly whites in return. I’m annoying as hell, but she loves me.
“Uh no, Sherri’s still on vacation so I’m working overtime and then I’m going to my parents this weekend to ring in the New Year. You’ll just have to do your part when you’re home, Princess.” Kris hovers over a stack of bills that she has been fussing over for the past hour. Eyes glued on her task she smirks. “Besides, I thought you preferred dirty clothes for work.”
I feign disgust. “Eeewww, gross! I don’t wear dirty clothes. I wear grungy clothes. There’s a major difference in the two.” She bobs her head, but continues focusing on the paperwork diligently.
“If you say so, but I don’t see the difference.” She grabs up her hair pulling it all into a loose bun. Kris is a cute blonde with striking green eyes. Just a couple of inches over five feet, she’s much more petite than my five foot eight inches. Plus, my ridiculously large boobs are nearly twice her size so we rarely swap clothes. She lowers her voice and her eyes fill with seriousness. “Sam, I don’t know how I feel about you starting this new job while I’m away. How about I talk to Russ and see if he’ll postpone it until after the holiday?”
Sergeant Russell Daniels is my direct supervisor in the drug task force and Kris’ older brother. A coincidence? I think not.
“Can’t do it honey, this one is a deep cover job. There may be days or weeks I won’t be able to call and it could be months before I can come home. Even then it will only be for a quick visit.”
Huffing, she gives me her sad puppy dog eyes. “God, I hate when you take on those. I swear one day I’m going to get an ulcer from your damn job.” She stresses over the gravity of my job and that stresses me.
“I know you hate it, but you don’t have to worry. Russ is going in with me this time. He’s actually been on the inside of this drug ring for over a year and I’m coming in as his new babe.” I grimace at the thought and add, “Can I just say, being your brother’s girlfriend, even just pretending, gives me the heebie jeebies. I love him like my own brother and he is gorgeous, but the thought of kissing him for show is going to be like pulling my own toenails out by hand.”
At this visual, either me kissing her brother or me snatching out my hot pink painted toenails, she busts into a full belly laugh. Of course her laugh is super cute and extremely contagious so I join in.
“I am going to have to do some se
rious acting.” My eyes bug out pinning her with a look of fear a moment before I erupt into giggles again. Her laughter is so out of control that she’s gasping for air. Damn, I love this girl.
“My brother is absolutely going to kiss you in front of people on purpose. You know he’s had a crush on you since the first time you came home with me back in college.” She pauses, all laughter sucked out of the room. “Is it unethical or against some kind of nepotism policy for you to take on roles like this with someone you know so intimately?”
I roll my eyes and clarify our department policy. “He’s not really my brother and we aren’t dating. There’s no policy against friends working together, silly girl.”
“Whatever. Just don’t blame me when you have to break out the hose and spray him down with a blast of cold water like a dog in heat, just to keep him off of you.” She laughs, but something tells me that she’s totally serious about her brother’s feelings for me being more than those of work associates or good friends.
“Oh jeez Kris, we are professionals. Russ would never take advantage of the situation like that.” I believe my words.
Grunting out her disagreement, she returns to working out a budget for the neglected bills and I think seriously about what she just said. Russ is my boss and he really is like a big brother so I don’t know why she thinks he would allow that bullshit.
He wouldn’t, I reassure myself again.
I leave Kris pinching pennies and bitching about needing more overtime to pay for the hefty bills that our massive house accrues. Stuffing the last of my grunge attire into my suitcase, I send a text to Russ and let him know that I’m ready whenever he is to get the party started. His quick reply is short with just one digit letting me know he will be here at seven in the morning. Checking the time, I decide a quick shower and crashing for six hours will clear my mind of Kris’ concerns so that I am ready for my new role as Russ’ girlfriend. A shiver runs down my spine just thinking about him kissing me. Talk about awkward. Why do I get the feeling that this is going to be the toughest job I’ve ever done?