Description:
Cover by: Jada D'Lee Designs
Publication Date: June 7th, 2015
With Jared Corbit and Savannah Martin's wedding day quickly approaching, everything should be golden for the two, but their trouble has only just begun. When the media learns of the damage Stewart Paulson has inflicted on the Talbot family, Savannah and Jared get caught in the cross-hairs.
Even worse, the past has caught up with Savannah in a big way, and nothing will prepare her or Jared for the danger headed their way or the devastating decisions they'll be forced to make as a result.
Jared's determined to protect his fiancée from the people milling in the shadows, but good intentions only go so far. When Savannah learns the truth he's desperately trying to keep from her, their future together begins to unravel. How can she trust him when he's lying to her? And just how far is he willing to go to protect the woman he loves from her past?
All Cried Out, told exclusively from Jared's POV, is the exciting follow up to Ayden K. Morgen's All Falls Down.
When Savannah Martin walks in on her abusive boyfriend and her best friend in bed together, she thinks life can't possibly get any worse. And then she wakes up in a hospital in Italy, scared and alone. With nowhere left to go, Savannah runs to the family who took her in when her mother abandoned her as a teenager.
When Savannah Martin walks in on her abusive boyfriend and her best friend in bed together, she thinks life can't possibly get any worse. And then she wakes up in a hospital in Italy, scared and alone. With nowhere left to go, Savannah runs to the family who took her in when her mother abandoned her as a teenager.
But things aren't as simple as they were then.
For starters, two years of constant emotional abuse has broken Savannah in ways she's not sure can be repaired. And patriarch Matthew Talbot has been murdered, leaving his eldest daughter, Lexi, in charge of a global non-profit and her younger sisters.
Jared Corbit, Lexi's gorgeous boyfriend, is the only thing standing between her and whoever murdered her father. That doesn't stop Savannah from falling in love with him. She knows it's wrong, but she just can't stay away from him when he makes he feel like no one else ever has before.
Finding out his relationship with Lexi is a ruse should make things easier, but when the truth is finally revealed, Savannah's fragile world threatens to fall apart. There's a murderer on the loose, and he's gunning for the only family she has. To save their lives, she and Jared will be forced to make a decision that just might destroy her completely.
How is she supposed to let the man she loves marry another woman?
EXCERPT
I'm dead asleep when the alarm
begins blaring through the apartment. Savannah cries out my name, her voice
full of fear. I jerk upright, my mind instantly on alert, and reach for her.
She's not in bed with me.
"Savannah!" Pure terror
rips through me. Leaping from the bed, I grab my gun out of the nightstand
drawer and flip the safety off. I race out of the bedroom, bare-ass naked, fear
for my girl driving me. I don't know what the fuck is going on, but the alarm
is screaming and Savannah's not in bed.
Memories gnaw at me, tearing
through me as I sprint into the living room.
"Where
the fuck is she?" I yell, pacing up and down, my hand clutched into my
hair. Paulson's note rests on the kitchen table beside Savannah's purse with her
house keys inside. Her car is still in the driveway, and she and Paulson are
nowhere to be found. No one has seen or heard from either of them in over four
hours.
Madeline
and Katrina cry quietly in the background, but I can't focus on them. All I can
think about – all I see – is Savannah and that broken look on her face when she
fled from the ballroom.
"I
don't know, man," Chris says.
He doesn't
know. No one does.
Dear God,
if he hurts her….
"Fuck!"
I roar, slamming my hands against the wall at the thought of Paulson hurting
her. She's been through so much already. If he touches her, puts so much as a
mark on her, I'll blow his fucking head off.
"Jared,"
Lexi says when Madeline begins to cry harder, "calm down. You're scaring
Maddi."
I spin to
face her, fury pumping through me. "Do you think Savannah's not afraid
right now?" I demand. "He took her and we let it happen! I let it happen." Oh God, that
realization hurts. This is my fault. Had I not told her to go with him so I
could deal with Toby McKee, none of this would have happened. She'd be with me
right now, and the past two months of hell would be behind us. She'd be mine
again.
Instead,
I'm terrified I may never see her again. He could kill her, and she'll never
know how much I love her. She'll never know that I never intended to marry
Lexi, that I was trying to end this shit so I could bring her back home where
she belongs. My legs buckle and I sink to the floor, agony tearing through me
at the thought of never seeing my girl again.
I have to
find her. If something happens to her, I won't survive it. She owns me, body
and soul.
"Please,"
I pray, tears burning at my eyes, "please don't take her from me."
"Savannah!" I yell again,
shoving hard against the memories, pushing them down so I can focus on the here
and now. The front door stands open, cool night air rushing into the room. I
whip my head from side to side, searching frantically for my girl.
She's standing in the kitchen
doorway in nothing but my shirt, sheer panic painted across her face.
"Jared!" she cries out,
racing toward me as soon as she lays eyes on me.
"Savannah."
She plows into me, her petite body
trembling as I wrap my arms around her, careful of the weapon in my hands. I
bury her face in my neck and hold on tight. My heart races, pounding fiercely.
Her legs wrap around my waist and she clings to me, shaking. Fear gives way to
an overwhelming sense of relief when she takes a shuddering breath against my
skin, whispering my name.
She's safe.
I start across the room toward the
front door and kick it closed before punching in the code to silence the
security alarm. It cuts off mid-blare, leaving complete silence. My heart
hammers in the quiet, seeming far too loud, and then the shrill ring of
Savannah's phone rips through the room. I set my gun down and snatch the phone
from the table where she left it when she got home and swipe to answer.
"Yeah?"
"This is Jackie with All
Secure America. We received an audible panic alarm at your residence. Is
everything okay, sir?" a calm female voice asks.
"Yeah, I think so. Our front
door is standing open, but the apartment is clear."
"Someone tried to get
in," Savannah mumbles into my skin.
"No."
"Son of a bitch."
"Do you need police
dispatched, sir?" the alarm company representative asks.
"Yes, send them." I'm not
taking any chances with Savannah's safety. I learned that lesson the hard way
once. I won't make the same mistake again.
"Another representative is on
the line with them now, sir. I need your name and passcode, please."
"My name is Jared Corbit. The
passcode is You and I," I mumble
into the phone, giving her the phrase Savannah chose when she moved into the
apartment months ago. Even though I wasn't with her, she picked something that
reminded her of me, the John Legend song I sang to her. "You need to
inform San Francisco P.D. that I'm an FBI agent, and I do have my service
weapon in the home." I quickly rattle off my badge number and inform the
representative that we'll be waiting in the living room with my weapon secured.
She repeats the information to
confirm and then we disconnect.
I drop the phone and carry Savannah
to the bedroom before sitting her on the edge of the bed. "We need to get
dressed, beautiful girl," I tell her when she refuses to let me go. I'm
not sure if she hears me or not, but I have to pry her arms from around my
neck. When I tilt her face up to mine, her eyes are wide and watery, full of
terror. "Hey," I whisper, sinking to my knees in front of her.
"It's okay, baby. I've got you."
"I was so scared," she
whispers, her eyes locked on my face. She's still trembling, her body shaking
with fear and adrenaline. "I couldn't sleep so I took our dishes to the
kitchen. Someone rattled the door knob and then the door flew open. I thought…
I thought someone was going to come in, so I hit the panic alarm."
"Did you see anyone?" I
ask her, cupping her face in my hands and stroking her cheekbones.
She shakes her head. "I heard
them though. I-I think someone said my name. I screamed for you and then they
ran down the stairs." She burrows her face into my palm, exhaling shakily.
"I was so scared," she says again.
I want to hit something.
"I know, baby, but I've got
you." I rise from my knees and press my lips to her forehead instead, and
then her eyes and nose, raining kisses all across her face. When I get to her
lips, I brush mine across hers before whispering, "I'll never let anyone
hurt you again, baby, I promise you that."
Ayden lives in the heart of Arkansas with her childhood sweetheart and husband of ten years, and their five furry minions. When not writing, she spends her time hiking, reading, volunteering, causing mischief, and building a Spork army.
Ayden graduated summa cum laude with her Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice and Forensic Psychology in 2009 before going on to complete her graduate degree in CJ and Law. She currently puts her education to use in the social services and CJ field.
Ayden also writes Young and New Adult fiction under the penname A.K. Morgen.
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