© 2019 Sheridan Anne.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.
All Rights Reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
Cover Design by: Sheridan Anne
Photograph: Pono Marencko
Editing and Formatting by: Sheridan Anne
Proofreading By: Jessie Lynn
Introduction
Lie to me and I’ll expose you.
Hurt me and I’ll take you down.
Touch my sister and I’ll personally pave your road to hell.
Kelly didn’t know what she was getting herself into when she set her sights on Aria and I didn’t know what I was getting into when I tried to get her back.
What it all comes down to, what it’s always come down to is Anton Mathers. He’s the thorn in my side, the devil creeping in the darkness, and the man who shares my DNA. He’s what nightmares are made of and now he has his sights on me.
As one problem resolves, another arises, and just when I thought I could finally see the end, it all blows up in my face.
I need to save her and I’m more than prepared to pay the ultimate price.
WARNING: The Haven Falls Series is a Young Adult / New Adult Romance filled with LOL moments, teenage angst, and of course, all the swoon worthy moments I know you’re all dying for. This series is recommended for mature readers due to cursing and sexual content. If this offends you, then steer clear of this bad boy romance!
For everyone else, dive in and have fun!
Contents
Introduction
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
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
Unstoppable – Haven Falls (Book 7)
Author Biography
Other Books by Sheridan Anne
Chapter 1
My head spins as I peel my eyes open. I lay in a crumpled heap up against the wall in the middle of my hallway. I struggle to see what’s right in front of me and have to blink a few times, desperately needing the blurriness to fade away.
Something trickles down the side of my face and I press a hand against my temple. “Shit,” I groan, bringing my hand back to find blood smeared over my fingertips. How long was I out?
A heavy pounding makes it near impossible to raise my head off the floor, but I have no choice. I need to get up. I need to help her.
Aria. My little sister. How could I let this happen?
She was relying on me and I let her down. I was supposed to protect her, keep her safe from monsters, but when she needed me the most, right when she needed me to step up, I failed her.
The heavy pounding continues to weigh me down but I have to get up, I have to keep fighting for her. I wipe the back off my arm across my face, ridding myself of as much blood as possible before getting my hands underneath me.
I push up with a cringe and the movement instantly has my head spinning. Dizziness overtakes me and my body slams into the wall beside me. I keep my body against the wall and use it to help me get to my feet.
I make my way down the hallway and it’s clear that I really shouldn’t be up on my feet. Black spots appear in my blurred vision and I quickly realize my body isn’t going to last long. I’m straddling the edge of unconsciousness but I’ve already wasted too much time. Far too much time.
I will not pass out. I have to find my sister.
I stumble down to her bedroom, needing to check this is real. Her door is cracked and I make quick work of throwing it open. The light is off but the light coming from the hallway is enough to showcase her empty bed.
She’s really gone.
My heart shatters as bile rises in my throat. How will I ever get her back? When dad finds out that I’m not his, he’d be right to get rid of me. What kind of big sister allows her sibling to get taken right from under her nose?
I had so many options but I chose to run after Kelly and that man she brought with her. I did this to Aria. I didn’t protect her. I was stupid. Careless.
Dad has guns in every hiding spot throughout the house. I should have gotten one of those and made the problem go away. I should have shot her. Both of them. I would have spent the rest of my life rotting in prison beside Gina, but I’d do it a million times over if it meant keeping Aria safe.
A high-pitched, terrified scream comes from out the front of my home and my back straightens. “HENLEY,” the voice cries. “HELP. HELP. HENLEY.”
Aria.
She’s still here. I mustn’t have been out for long at all.
Hope surges through me as I run as fast as I can. I hear the sound of a struggle before an engine roars to life. Shit. No, no, no. I’m not going to make it.
I consider grabbing a gun but then I risk the car driving off before I have a chance to make it out the door.
The sound of Ari’s screams and tortured cries have me bolting through the house until I’m bounding through the front door with a desperation I’ve never felt before. The man wrestles her into an old brown car and quickly slams the door on her. “NO!” I scream, pounding my feet against the pavement.
The man takes me in as he looks over his shoulder before picking up his pace.
“Hurry up,” Kelly roars from the driver’s seat, hearing the sirens in the distance as she slams her hand against the back of the passenger’s seat.
The man drops down into the car just moments before I make it to Aria. I grab hold of her door handle and rip it open. It swings open with a creak and I reach in, my fingers barely grazing Aria’s when Kelly slams down on the gas, taking off like a bat out of hell.
“ARIA,” I yell out as the trunk of the car fishtails around and slams into my hip, sending me flying back onto the grass with a hard thump. The man hangs out the passenger’s side window, attempting to close Aria’s door as I watch through the back window at how Ari is thrown around like a ragdoll. No carseat, no seatbelt, no regard for her safety in the least.
I scramble up to my feet with heavy sobs ripping from my throat. I start running down the road after the car, hoping for some kind of miracle that Ari will find the strength to dive out the open car door or put up some sort of fight to slow them down, but it’s useless, my feet on the worn asphalt is nothing compared to the car careening down the road.
I’ve lost her.
My little sister is really gone.
I drop to my knees in the middle of the road, staring after the car as it disappears around the bend, feeling absolutely broken as it drives away with my little sister.
Tears stream down my face and I scream out for her until I physically cannot scream anymore, never more desperate for anything in my life.
My knees are grazed by the hard road but I can’t find the strength to move, not until hands are gripping my upper arms and pulling me up from the ground. I glance around and realize my home is surrounded by cops and the two men standing on either side of me, dragging me to my feet are officers.
I rip my arm free from one of the men and turn into the other, grabbing the front of his shirt and pleading with everything I have as pain tears through my hip.
“Please,” I cry. “You have to find her. Please. I’ll do anything, just find my little sister.”
“Alright, ma’am,” the cop standing before me says as he tries to pry my fingers free of his uniform. He looks back over his shoulder and yells out. “We need a paramedic over here.” The cop looks back to me as though I’m some terrified animal, scared of being caught. “You need to calm down, you’ve been hurt. What’s your name?”
“That’s not important,” I rush out, yanking on his shirt, not understanding why he hasn’t taken off after Kelly. “They’re getting away. They took her. You need to do something. You need to go.”
The cop leans in a little closer, focusing on my face. “Who took her? What’s going on here? We got a call to come and check out a disturbance.”
“My sister was taken,” I cry. “She was abandoned here seven months ago by her mother who was fleeing court ordered drug rehabilitation. Please, you have to do something. She’s only five years old,” the cop’s eyes widen in horror but I continue on. “Her mom showed up here with some guy, claiming she was clean and that she was taking her kid back. I tried to tell them no and said that they had to leave, but they kicked down the door and barged their way in. They took her right from her bed while she was screaming. She was so scared, she…she was crying out for me and I couldn’t get her in time. Please. Please, you have to get her back. They only just left a few minutes ago. Please, I’ll do anything.”
“Alright,” he tells me in a voice that’s way too calm before indicating for a few of his guys to join us. “We’re going to do what we can to locate your little sister. Why don’t you sit down with Officer Dunham? We’re going to need as much information on your sister and her mother as possible.”
“No,” I say. “You’re wasting time. I need to get out there and start searching. Kelly is an awful parent. She neglected her. Didn’t feed her, didn’t take her to school or show her any kind of love. Ari can’t go back to that life. I need to find her.”
He shakes his head. “It’s best for you to stay here in case she shows up or if her mother calls looking for some kind of ransom.”
“Don’t you get it? Kelly doesn’t want anything. She just wanted Aria and now she’s got her. She’s not after a ransom because she knows we don’t have anything she needs. We don’t have money or anything valuable to offer her. She’s got what she wants and now she’ll take off somewhere she knows we won’t find her.”
An officer arrives at the guy’s side and he instantly turns to him. “Put a BOLO out. I want an immediate patrol of the area with every available officer searching.”
“What are we looking for, Chief?”
The guy he called ‘Chief’ turns back to me. “Alright, I know your head is probably hurting and all you want to do is head out to join the search, but I’m going to need you to hang back and tell us everything you know. You need to help us so we can help you.”
I nod my head eagerly before he nods to the other cop who I’d ripped my arm away from. “Good, now I need you to remember what your sister was wearing, the color and make of the car if you can remember them, and anything you know about the people who took her, alright?”
The other officer cuts in. “A recent photo would also be a great help.”
“Um…ok,” I say as I try to piece everything together in my mind. I think back to our night. I’d come home fretting about finding out Anton Rivers was my biological father and I was panicking about telling dad. To be honest, I didn’t even give Aria that much attention.
What kind of an awful person am I?
I block out everything that’s gone down over the past fifteen minutes and try to focus on Ari. She was home with dad when I arrived back from discovering more of my life has been a lie. Dad was pissed off because I was pushing the limits and was late while he was trying to get out the door. He’d said something, but all I could think about was the fact that he wasn’t my father.
Ari was sitting on the floor in the living room, coloring in with the markers that Rivers had gotten her before he left to go back to the Military. Dad kissed her forehead, grabbed his bag, and ran out of the house to his truck which was already idling in his need to get on the road.
I’d made Ari a cheap dinner. I didn’t even bother to make her something nice, but she happily accepted it anyway because she’s so damn grateful for everything she gets due to the life she had before. I stuck her in a shower and then ignored her as she tried to tell me a story about her day.
When she got out, she had a pink towel wrapped around her and she wanted my help picking something to wear to bed. I’d told her I wasn’t in a great mood and to wear whatever the hell she wanted. Ari then ran into my room, grabbed one of my t-shirts and pulled it over her little head. It fell to her knees but she laughed and announced that she was just like me.
She didn’t even bother putting a pair of sleep shorts on because my shirt was like a dress on her and now she’s out there in the world in a top that falls off her shoulder and no fucking pants.
I become increasingly agitated and do my best to focus on the police officer standing before me as I give him the run down. “Her name is Aria and she’s about this tall,” I say, holding my hand around my waist, just above my belly button. “She responds to Aria, Ari, or Squirt and she’s five years old. She has blonde hair, a little lighter than mine and crystal blue eyes. She was wearing an adult-sized, peach colored t-shit which comes down to her knees.”
I then go on to describe everything I know about Kelly, what she was wearing and how she appeared before moving onto the douchebag guy and then describing the car.
“Is that everything?” the officer asks me.
“I have a picture inside and…and lots on my phone.”
“Would you mind getting them? That way I can circle them around my men and get this search underway.”
I nod and take off towards the house, ignoring the way my hip continues to scream out in pain. I need that pain. It’s like my own form of punishment for allowing this to happen. I haul my phone off the floor of the entryway, spying the cops who are already starting the investigation and searching my home for any sort of clues.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a slip of fabric that I’d torn off Kelly’s clothes while trying to save my sister and I scoop it up before grabbing a shirt of Aria’s out of the washing pile.
I head back out and hand it all over, hoping that maybe the cops have a K9 unit which could help locate her, or if anything, could track down Kelly and tear her to shreds.
The officer thanks me and I nod again before he turns away and gets on with business. “Right, guys let’s move out. We’re looking for a five year old girl. Peach shirt down to her knees. Brown car, banged up, roughly from the late eighties or early nineties. Move out.”
With that, a group of cop cars takes off while others stay back, checking my home and questioning the neighbors.
My fingers itch for my car keys and just as I convince myself that I need to be out there searching, a white Camaro comes to a screeching halt. “Henley,” Noah roars, diving out of his car and racing towards me in a panic. “What the fuck is going on? What happened?”
I stare at him in confusion. What is he doing here? I don’t remember calling him and telling him that I needed his help.
“What…what are you doing here?” I question as he takes in the blood over my face, my scrapped knees, and the way I can’t seem to put weight on my left foot.
Noah hauls me into his arms, being gentle while also giving me the firmness I need. “You weren’t answering my calls or texts. I was worried,” he breathes. “Now, please, tell me what the hell is going on here? Why are there cops raiding your house and covering the street? Don’t tell me Anton came back.”
I shake my head into his chest as the emotions becomes too much and I break. “They took Ari.”
Noah steps back, searching my face to make sure he heard me correctly. “What the fuck are you talking about? Who took Ari? Where is
she?”
I shake my head and it almost seems impossible to get the words out. “I don’t know,” I tell him. “Kelly showed up with some guy and they barged in. I tried to fight them off but he was too big. They took her. She’s gone.”
“Fuck,” Noah roars, stepping back from me as the anger and frustration overwhelm him. “How long ago?”
“She drove off maybe fifteen minutes ago now. I don’t know. It all seems a blur to me. Could be more, maybe less.”
“It’s ok,” Noah says, trying to remain positive as he pulls his phone from his pocket. “We’ll get her back even if I have to raid every fucking house in the country.”
Noah presses the phone to his ear and two seconds later, he’s talking through the line. “Tullz. Bring mom and dad to Henley’s place. Everyone in their own car. Ari’s been taken by her mom so we need everyone out searching. Call Aiden and Spencer too.”
He doesn’t wait for a response, just ends the call and pulls me into his arms. Noah presses his lips to my forehead. “I promise you, we will get her back.”
I nod against him as the tears continue to fall. His words are reassuring, but they also sound like a promise to himself and despite how fucking incredible Noah is and that he’s generally capable of the impossible, I know there’s a possibility that we’ll never see her again.
Kelly is going to do everything she can to keep Aria hidden away. She knows that dad and I will do everything we can to find her and she’ll stop at nothing. The woman I saw on the doorstep seven months ago and the one I saw tonight was not that same woman who raised me. This new version of Kelly is a monster and I’m terrified of how Aria is going to be treated.
One thing’s for sure. I will never stop searching for her. Kelly will slip up one day and that’s when we will scoop in and get her back.
“Miss?” a voice says from behind Noah. I peer over his shoulder to find a paramedic looking me over. "I really need you to come with me. You have substantial injuries which need to be cared for.”
Unbreakable: Haven Falls (Book 6) Page 1