Broken (Reapers Reign, #1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Broken (Reapers Reign, #1)

  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

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  Further Reading: A Mafia Christmas

  Also By Aleisha Maree

  About the Author

  About the Publisher

  Reapers Reign

  Book One

  When Broken is all you have left

  Can you ever become anything else?

  To all who have fought battles, big or small.

  This book is for you.

  Cover – Amanda Walker PA & Design Services – Hun no words for how much I love you. Your work is out of this world. You get me, push me and shake your head a lot at the shit I say. We laugh and have fun. Here’s to all the bad ass covers. You had me from the start.

  Published by Susan Horsnell

  T/A Cocky Romance Publishing

  A.B.N. 57 357 599 847

  In accordance with Australian copyright laws (1968) the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property and can incur legal action. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained from the author. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  This book is a work of fiction. References to historical events, real people, or real locals are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2017 by Aleisha Maree

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  All rights reserved.

  This book is intended for mature audiences, not under the age of 18, and contains graphic violence, explicit sexual activity, and disturbing imagery.

  Playlist for Broken

  Adele – Set Fire to The Rain

  Adele – Someone Like You

  Adele – Rolling In the Deep

  Adele – All I Ask

  Breaking Benjamin – The Dairy of Jane

  Breaking Benjamin – So Cold

  Breaking Benjamin – Angels Fall

  Breaking Benjamin – Until the End

  Breaking Benjamin – Ashes of Eden

  Creed – My own prison

  Creed – With Arms Wide Open

  Creed – One Last Breath

  Creed – My Sacrifice

  Creed – One

  Disturbed - Sounds of Silence

  Disturbed – Inside the Fire

  Disturbed – The Vengeful One

  Disturbed – Voices

  Eminem Ft. Slaughterhouse & Yelwolf – Psychopath Killer

  Eminem Ft. Rihanna – Monsters

  Eminem Ft. Rihanna – Love the Way You Lie

  Eminem – Till I Collapse

  Five Finger Death Punch – Wrong Side of Heaven

  Five Finger Death Punch – The Bleeding

  Five Finger Death Punch – Bad Company

  Five Finger Death Punch – Coming Down

  Five Finger Death Punch – I Apologize

  Trapt – Headstrong

  Trapt – Echo

  Trapt – These Walls

  Trapt – Black Rose

  To all my friends who get my crazy mind, for you all that live the life you want without hesitation, no apologies, worries or care. Keep being your bad ass selves, rock the socks of the world, make your mark. Live your dreams, for now, I am living mine after years of sacrifice and worries over what people would think. I’m throwing caution to the wind and showing my kids that dreams come true.

  Also to you, all the ones that doubted me, put me down, bullied me, told me I wouldn’t amount to anything, this is for you.

  I’m a bad ass, sitting here waving hello with my middle finger. Can you see it’s for you?

  Love you all. Keep true. Keep real. Kisses & hugs.

  Prologue

  Life growing up with Nan and Pa was very special for my twin brother, Kash and me. They gave us all we could have ever wanted ...

  They worked damn hard to make sure we wanted for nothing. They showed us just how much love you can hold for somebody else. Pa always said to us and I quote,

  “Boys, to love a woman with all you have is the greatest gift you can ever give. The love of a Beautiful woman knows no bounds and has no ties. You shall never want for love again, once you have the adoration of your soulmate. You shall not feel the cold. You shall not be lonely. You shall not go hungry. A woman is the best asset any man can invest his time, love, and devotion in.”

  I see every day how much love Pa has for Nan, his true soulmate.

  That’s what I want.

  What I strive for.

  What they have.

  A friend that always has your back. Pure love. Pa is a great role model of what a man should be. The funny thing is, I did have just that.

  But, in a heartbeat, it was gone, taken from me by my own hands, in a fight that wasn’t hers to bear. I lost it all.

  She told me to stop, begged me to let it go. “They aren’t worth it,” she had said, like I had a choice. It was me or her, and for all that I was, I was not going to let them hurt her. Not again, so I did what I had to, trying to block the look of disappointment mixed with fear in her eyes from my own as I swung my punches. The last fatal blow landing where it shouldn’t have. Her screams and calling my name will haunt me forever.

  Ending this ride with the harsh reality of dark anger and venom.

  And look now, I’m pulled under, drowning in pain and loss. I have to live with that now, forever. They, them, the dirty wee jock squad get to go on and live their lives the way they always planned after they had sought to destroy not only hers, my sweet Angel but mine and my family’s.

  My life along with theirs is on hold, broken, torn apart. The disappointment and disgrace I have forced upon my family is more than I can bear.

  No longer having her here with me. It’s too much; a toxic stab that never lets up, that sends me to a ledge each night. I wonder, if I took the last step, would she be there to catch me? Would she still want me after all I had taken away from her?

  I had it all and, in a blink of an eye, it was gone. It’s ok for you to hate me, it is nothing compared to how I feel. The pain I now live in is my own jail, a toxic place where good cannot survive. So, I’m now numb, dark, a Demon feeding not on love anymore but hate. I’ll never seek love again. I’ll never want for the warm embrace of a woman. My soul doesn’t deserve to feel it, when hers sleeps, no longer able to sense; feel or taste. It had been a fairytale. Maybe, there could be one more. But right now, this is me, this is my dark tale. I’m too consumed by hate right now to see past the blurred lines of vengeance.

  Who am I, you ask? Well, let me tell you.

  I’m Knox Ambrose: the MMA fighter better known as Assassin. I will assassinate you in the ring and in the bedroom.

  Women fall at my feet.

  I fuck them hard, raw and unforgiving. I shatter them and leave them on a hotel room floor, to pick up the broken pieces of their soul.

  It
’s who I am: broken. I could never be what they want me to be. I pull them under to save myself. I won’t save you. I can’t save you. Can you save me?

  This is the ride or die story of what happens when a man is pushed beyond all his bounds.

  Chapter One

  Knox

  Kash and I live in New York, where we help out in our grandparents’ store Pop has the hardware shop in the front and Nan well she has the most amazing Italian pastries and coffee shop out back that opens up to a little slice of Italy, Home it’s Home for them both. hardware store, coffee & Italian pastries store. At nineteen now, Kash and I had it rough growing up. If it wasn’t for our Grandparents taking us in, I’d hate to think what would have happened to us.

  Nan and Pa have given us all they could. They showed us just how much enjoyment you can get from a hard day’s work. Respect and love, compassion and loyalty, is what they installed in us.

  We go to a good school. I don’t see why I need it though; I’m not one for learning and being told what to do. I already know everything I need to know. I’m a cocky son of a bitch, and I push all boundaries when it comes to being here.

  Kash, on the other hand, well what can I say about my baby twin? He’s into it. He wants to be a civil engineer. He always has his nose in a book, hiding inside his own head and behind the shadow of me. I don’t mind one bit. I'd lay my life down for him, in an instant. Hiding this way makes it easier for him to be invisible to the world, I think.

  I just want to fight. I eat sleep and breathe MMA. I want to be the next big UFC fighter.

  At least, I did until I laid eyes on the new girl, Sarah-Jane Briggs. That’s where the lines got blurred and my soul was taken. She is stunningly gorgeous and totally out of my league.

  To get a girl like that, a boy needs a plan. She wouldn’t notice a boy like me. I’m not a jock. The crowd she hangs with are all jocks and cheerleaders. Not my crowd. We live on the wrong side of the tracks, the bad company. Let’s face it, my track record is less than stellar. Fighting, cocky behavior, drinking... Shit, the list goes on. My group is all bad boy class. I'll just watch from afar, for now. I'll wait, plan, and take my time.

  Jamie, my brother from another mother, who pretty much takes up residence at my place, catches my eye as he lifts up a cheerleader’s skirt as she walks past him before sitting on the picnic tables in the front yard of our school block. With a smile and a shake of my head, I just laugh as I approach him. “Real smooth there, brother,” I state as I sit down, pulling his smoke from his fingers and taking a long drag.

  “You know they love it, Knox. You should take one for a spin, get her to spell out ya name, while flicking her pom-poms, and riding ya cock.” Fuck, this dick is something else.

  Kash walks over. “You know how Pa feels about you smoking,” he says, sitting down next to us.

  “Put ya nose back in ya book, Kashie, you didn’t see a thing,” I wink at him as Jamie laughs, stretching out in the morning sun. Handing him back his smoke, I mentally try to prepare for the mind-numbing day ahead.

  Sarah-Jane

  I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want to leave my friends. But Dad’s job has once again called us to start at yet another new school. I hate trying to fit in. And because of who my family is, it is expected of me to just fit into the mould of cheerleader, to hang out with the pretty girls, and to date the jocks. So here we go, moving from uptown Seattle to New York.

  My father is Don Briggs and he is a senator.

  My mother, alongside him, has been appointed to oversee a new outreach program preventing juvenile crime. Let’s see how well this will work. They can barely handle being in the same room at home, let alone working together. Father, the great Don Briggs, is not too happy about his wife’s new appointment in the program. What did he expect? It was her idea.

  Just once, I would love for them to see ME, worry about ME, and not put all the focus on America’s teens in trouble. Would they care that I’m over worrying about appearances and what people think? I’m ready to break out of this rich girl mould, get out from under their expectations, and the status that comes with being a senator’s daughter. Would it all come crashing down around us without me? Would the great Mr. and Mrs. Briggs then take notice of their little princess and see that I’m not what they want me to be? I’m not even who I want me to be.

  Day One of Waimea College starts like every other school I have been to. This one is divided into groups— the jocks, the cheerleaders, the nerds and the bad kids. I don’t feel like I fit into any of the categories, but I’m here now. So, I put on my best smile and go find Tammy. My dad is friends with her dad, and she is the cheer captain, go figure. But, she is nice and we seem to get along just fine.

  I finally spot her with a group of cheerleaders in front of her locker and watch while she applies her berry kiss lipstick and runs her fingers through her long brown hair.

  “Better get this over with,” I mumble as I trudge over to the group of girls.

  It takes all of thirty seconds for Tammy to notice me standing behind her group, through her compact mirror.

  “Oh, hi S.J.” Tammy scowls while the other girls turned to see who has distracted Tammy from her primping.

  “Hey,” I reply.

  “Girls, this is S.J,” Tammy says. Her over bubbly self-oozing out. My skin shudders as I roll my eyes. These girl eye ball me and flick their hair over their shoulders with over manicured fingers, so not my scene.

  “Sarah Jane,” I correct her, while giving a small wave.

  “What’s up?” Tammy asks me, while flipping one of her perfect curls over her shoulder.

  “Just headed to class,” I sigh, feeling awkward while the girls giggle and roll their eyes like I’ve said something totally out of left field, like a goodie-two-shoes or something. They make me feel alien to their over high placement in high school society. What is it with girls that make them total bitch at the thought of a new girl coming in.

  “Please I will not step on your toes and I shall not take from your spot light. Shit I don’t even wanna be.” I slowly hiss out really sounding out all my words just so they all realize this is not where I want to be. “Alright, let’s go ladies,” Tammy announces not even losing a beat and not even commenting on the fact that I just not so politely pulled her bitch squad into line.

  In one movement, all the girls turn and start walking to class like they have just been commanded by their fearless leader But not before they send me they stare of death and warning that they are the cool kids here. Please feel free to stay that shallow and transparent.

  As we head to English class, I find I’m in a world of my own, thinking about how I can possibly survive it here for one day, let alone the whole school year. New York’s not for me. Come to think of it, since Brad died, and my parents have been on a quest to fix Middle America, I haven’t really wanted to be anywhere but with Brad. The day we lost him not only did my world end but theirs did too. It broke my mother in a way I’ve never seen one person break before and my father, well, he’s just worse. More controlling, more irrational and unbearable than ever. He’s the main reason that Brad did what he did and left us all in a world of pain, shattering Mom’s whole world, beyond what any Band-Aid can heal.

  And then, with a bang, I walk straight into what I can only describe as a tall glass of pure hotness. “I’m so sorry!” I try to act like a human and mumble something unrecognizable, while trying to pick up both arm loads of books. I fail miserably and end up on my hands and knees in the middle of the hall. Clumsily, I struggle to my feet head-butting him in the process. “Oh God,” I glance around to avoid making eye contact. Watery eyes and a throbbing head is nothing compared to this humiliation.

  I look up at him from under my eyelashes, feeling my cheeks burn, and try again to say something coherent. All thoughts of being gracious and articulate go out the window as I’m greeted by a chiseled strong jaw and large shoulders that run down to the most muscled arms I’ve ever laid my eyes
on. My heartrate picks up and my blood pressure spikes to a new found high as I feel my breathing quicken. Reaching my hand out, I touch the dark olive skin of this god before me as a shock of electricity zaps through me. Snapping my hand back, I stare into his eyes, mesmerized by his stunning looks and the air of calm he has around him, with just a chill of a bad boy.

  Tammy takes over, thank God, and grabs my books. “We are late, let’s go,” she says, rather bluntly. Too bluntly, I’d say. I notice her glaring at the tall, fiercely handsome wall of clear cut muscle, made obvious by the shirt he’s wearing. But before I get a chance to dwell on that, I manage to apologize to the god kneeling in front of me.

  “Don’t sweat it babe” he replies and gives me a wink that turns my stomach to liquid. God, could he be any hotter?

  His eyes occupy my thoughts for the rest of the day. Steel gray pools of pure darkness that I could drown in, and before I know it, I’m sinking into their depths. I don’t think that I have heard any of my classes or even taken in what Tammy has told me or shown me, this whole first day. Walking the halls, I think over his gray eyes and the chill I got from him. The feeling of calm mixed with bad that I could get lost in. Tammy’s reaction though, that was weird. Maybe, there is some underlying history there but geez someone as bad as him surely wouldn’t be up Tammy’s alley. She’s all prissy and team jock. The boys I can’t stand, the ones with their heads up each other’s asses. Mind my figure of speech but hell, they really grate on me. Not even Brad and his gay boys pissed me off as much as Jocks do. A small smile forms but doesn’t reach my sad eyes as I think of my brother; a life lost to the ever-cruel world and its views on people’s beliefs and sexual preferences. How can people be so single minded? Don’t we live in a world where freedom is a God given human right? It confuses me just how prejudiced some people can be, without even batting an eyelid. I’m sure their own backyards aren’t that fancy either, if you were to dig. We all have skeletons. Some are just bigger than others, but they are all still there, hiding in the dark depths of your closet, where you try to keep them firmly locked away. One day, though, they will come out alive and seek vengeance.