Shattered Vows Read online

  SHATTERED VOWS

  Crimson Point Series

  Kaylea Cross

  SHATTERED VOWS

  Copyright © 2019 Kaylea Cross

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  Cover Art: Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs

  Developmental edits: Deborah Nemeth

  Line Edits: Joan Nichols

  Digital Formatting: LK Campbell

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  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the author.

  ISBN: 978-1-928044-31-4

  Table of Contents

  About the Book

  Dedication

  Author’s Note

  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

  Epilogue

  Dear reader,

  Excerpt from Rocky Ground

  About the Author

  Complete Booklist

  About the Book

  She’s his best friend’s widow.

  Molly Boyd’s entire world unraveled when tragedy turned the man she loved into her greatest threat. Her ex-husband’s death has left her pregnant and alone, struggling to put her shattered life back together—and her confusing feelings for his best friend aren’t helping matters. For years Jase has been a solid, steady source of comfort and friendship. Now she can’t stop seeing him as something more. And just as she’s wrestling with her shifting feelings, a new danger from her ex’s past threatens everything—including her and her unborn child’s lives.

  But she’s always been the one.

  Jase Weaver is an expert at unrequited love. Years ago, he stood by and watched his best friend marry the woman of his dreams, and he’s endured his suffering in silence ever since. But when Carter’s self-destructive tailspin threatened Molly, Jase stepped in to make her safe. And when Carter died, Jase stepped up to be her rock. Now he can’t stay silent any longer. He’s wanted Molly forever and it’s time she knows it. So, when a new threat against her emerges, Jase will put his own life on the line to protect her, no matter the cost.

  Dedication

  For Deb Nemeth, who helps me bring my visions to life and gives me the confidence to keep chasing my dreams. Thank you for everything you do for my stories.

  Author’s Note

  Here we are at Jase and Molly’s book! I’ve been looking forward to this one since I dreamed up the series and characters. These two have traveled a hard road, and it’s my absolute pleasure to give them a shot at finding happiness together. (Plus, Jase is my favorite hero of the series, so there’s that, too.)

  Happy reading,

  Kaylea

  Prologue

  Molly Boyd clamped her teeth together to keep them from chattering and hunched into a tighter ball in an effort to keep warm, but it didn’t help. She was cold all the way to her bones, her sodden clothes sticking to her skin. A summer rainstorm pounded down outside the shelter of the culvert she huddled in—hiding from her ex-husband.

  Shock kept advancing and retreating, trapping her in an emotional fog. She’d never imagined she would end up like this. Not even after everything she and Carter had been through.

  The left side of her face throbbed. Her cheek was bruised, her eye swelling slightly, and her lip burned where Carter had backhanded her. Her bare feet stung from the scratches she’d sustained in her flight to this lonely culvert at the side of the road.

  All of it was eclipsed by the pain in her heart.

  She closed her eyes, fought to hold off the memory of him breaking into the house and coming at her with that terrifying, predatory expression on his face. The memory of escaping the house, slamming that branch over his back and running for her life through the darkened woods.

  Tears threatened. She shook them off, refusing to give in. If she started crying now, she might never stop, and she had to stay alert because she was still in danger with Carter looking for her.

  What am I going to do?

  She shivered harder, tucked her knees up tight to her chest and leaned her forehead on them as she fought to keep from spiraling into the black pit of despair yawning at the edge of her consciousness. Jase was coming. She’d called him and he was coming. He would find her, help her, and he’d alerted the cops. He would make sure she was safe—even if it was from his former best friend.

  At the faint sound of an approaching vehicle, her insides tightened in fear. She lifted her head, her gaze darting toward the road, dreading the moment the familiar black pickup came into view again. Carter had driven up and down this road earlier, shouting her name through his open window for endless minutes. He would never stop looking for her.

  Headlights cut through the gloom. She turned her face away and squeezed her eyes shut, willing Carter away. The divorce papers had set him off, even though he must have known they were coming.

  She sat perfectly still, heart hammering against her ribs as she waited, hardly daring to breathe lest the slightest motion give her hiding spot away.

  “Moll?”

  She flinched at the male voice all but drowned out by the thundering rain, her heart rocketing into her throat. Shit, she was trapped here. Carter was former Special Forces and the waterlogged ditch was too steep. She’d never be able to climb out and escape him if he found her this time.

  “Moll. It’s Jase.”

  Jase. The fear receded instantly, the cold inside her thawing under a tide of relief as she turned her head toward him. She trusted him. Trusted that he would protect her and keep her safe, no matter what.

  He was wading toward her through the flooded ditch, a tall, strong silhouette, his jeans soaked to the knees. She couldn’t move, couldn’t call out. Her muscles were too weak and shaky to obey her.

  Gathering her courage as he came nearer, she forced her gaze up to meet Jase’s. The instant their eyes connected, she almost lost the battle to keep the tears at bay.

  Frowning in concern, he quickly climbed into the culvert and knelt down beside her. Before she could find her voice, he reached out and gently grasped her chin in his warm fingers. His jaw was tight, his aqua eyes burning with outrage. “Did he do this? Did he hit you?” he demanded, voice vibrating with horror and anger.

  Molly’s fading composure crumbled. All the emotions she’d been holding back crashed over her like a dark wave, taking her under. She leaned toward him just as the dam broke.

  Jase made a low sound and reached for her, wrapping his strong, warm arms around her as she laid her head on his shoulder. He ran a comforting hand up and down her back gently. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

  Just her heart, now shattered into a thousand jagged pieces.

 
She shook her head, her entire body trembling while she choked back the sobs trying to claw their way free of her throat, the humiliation all but strangling her. This was a nightmare. Only she wasn’t dreaming.

  “All right, let’s get you out of here.” Jase slid one arm beneath her knees and lifted her, keeping her close to him as he carried her out of the culvert and through the water-filled ditch.

  Molly ducked her head against the pelting rain and curled into him. She didn’t know what to say. Was ashamed to tell him what had happened.

  “I’m gonna boost you up, then come right behind you.” He lifted her toward the steeply sloping side and helped her scramble over the edge before climbing up the side. Before she could even get to her feet, he scooped her up again, ignoring her mumbled protest as he strode for his truck, parked close by at the edge of the road.

  Molly curled against him, still trying to come to terms with everything that had happened. As well as something…something that was still happening inside her right now.

  Jase opened the front passenger door and carefully placed her on the leather seat. The interior was warm. Almost hot compared to outside.

  “Hang tight.” He disappeared for a moment, opened the rear door to grab something and came back with a jacket. He tucked it around her, did up her seatbelt because her hands were still shaking and shut the door. Once he had climbed into the driver’s seat, he cranked the heat to high and reached over to aim the vents at her.

  Molly sighed in relief as the warm air flowed over her. The numbness was retreating, leaving a sapping exhaustion in its wake.

  Still leaning toward her, Jase reached up to stroke her wet hair away from her face, his eyes worried. “Moll, do you need to go to the hospital?”

  “N-no. I’m okay.” You’re not. And you’ll never be okay again.

  “What happened?” he asked, turning the truck in a tight circle and starting back up the road.

  She huddled beneath his jacket and told him about Carter breaking into the house and attacking her in as few words as possible, her voice hitching due to the little gasps still jarring her lungs.

  Jase was silent as she finished, his stubbled jaw clenched tight. He shook his golden-brown head, and a deep, terrible shame engulfed her, almost worse than the pain of Carter hitting her.

  But there was more to her story. So much more. She didn’t want to hide the rest from him and had intended to tell everyone anyway. Just not like this.

  “And it gets worse,” she added, her voice barely above a whisper.

  He looked over at her sharply.

  She didn’t speak for a long moment, staring out the windshield into the gloom. “I’m pregnant,” she finally said, her voice breaking.

  Jase’s sharply indrawn breath made her cringe inside. He snapped his head back straight to watch the road.

  “I know.” She gave a bitter laugh. “Unreal, isn’t it?” The irony of it might have been funny if it wasn’t so freaking sad. She’d always dreamed of having kids one day. But not like this. And now it was even worse that it was with Carter, because it meant that she and the child would always be tied to him.

  “I thought you said you guys…”

  Hadn’t been intimate in months? They hadn’t. Except for one time. One lapse in judgment that had turned out to be more costly than she could ever have imagined.

  A few beats of thunderous silence passed. Then Jase glanced over at her again, and his expression was so hard it might have been carved out of granite. “Did he force you?” His voice was savage.

  “No,” she answered immediately, though given the shit show of the past few months, she understood why he might wonder that. “No.”

  Sighing, she explained. “It was a stupid, one-time nothing. We hadn’t slept together in months. But he was so damn sad and vulnerable this one night and I didn’t know how to help him. I’ve been on the pill, but for whatever reason it failed.”

  She shouldn’t have slept with him. Her deep-seated need to heal and comfort had overtaken her usual common sense, and now she was paying the price.

  “What am I going to do?” she whispered, feeling utterly lost and alone.

  Jase stopped at an intersection and turned left rather than going straight, to his place. “I’m taking you to Beckett and Sierra’s.”

  Horrified, she jerked her head around to stare at him. “No, don’t.”

  “Yes, Moll. You need to be somewhere safe while Beckett and I deal with Noah. Sierra will take care of you.”

  Nothing she could say or do would change the inevitable, and she desperately needed to be with someone she trusted. Sierra was her best friend.

  “Okay,” she finally agreed, dreading Sierra and Beckett’s reaction. At least she was warming up now, her teeth no longer chattering.

  The few minutes’ drive to Beckett and Sierra’s house passed quickly. Jase turned down Salt Spray Lane and at the top of the hill stood the grand Victorian, its lighted windows glowing warm against the gray backdrop. Beckett and Sierra met them at the door.

  Sierra immediately engulfed Molly in a big hug and ushered her inside and took her upstairs to give her dry clothes to change into. “My brother’s on the way,” Sierra said to her. Noah, the town sheriff.

  Time passed in a blur for Molly as she changed and told Sierra everything. Including that she was pregnant. Finally dry and wearing a sweater and jeans that were too big for her, she followed Sierra back downstairs to where Jase and Beckett waited.

  She glanced at Jase, standing by the kitchen doorway. His powerful arms were folded across his wide chest, his expression unreadable, but to her it was full of disapproval and a silent judgment that made her squirm inside.

  “Thanks for coming to get me,” she told him softly. From the beginning, he’d always been there for her and Carter. He was still here for her now.

  That clear aqua gaze never wavering from hers, he shook his head once. “I’d do anything for you. You know that.”

  She did.

  Molly looked down at the floor, his words hitting her in the center of her battered heart. She’d had a chance with him years ago on the night they’d met at the bar just off base. He was good looking and funny, and she’d been interested in him for those first few minutes. But then Carter had walked in and the rest of the world had ceased to exist. How different might her life have turned out if she’d chosen Jase instead?

  She shook the useless thought away. Playing the “what if” game at this point was stupid. Just as she’d been stupid to sleep with Carter almost three months ago. But she wanted this baby, was already fiercely protective of it.

  Sierra’s sheriff brother Noah arrived to talk to her. Molly begged him not to arrest Carter and take him to jail, but to send him to a psych facility instead. He was mentally ill and needed help, and he wouldn’t find it in prison.

  Except they’d already tried every type of therapy and meds after his brain injury and still his mental state had deteriorated to this extent.

  Noah explained that it wasn’t his call. It was up to the judge who handled the case, once Carter was located and taken into custody.

  Beckett and Jase left to look for Carter and she immediately felt on edge, wishing Jase had stayed. He calmed her, made her feel safe.

  Anxiety continued to churn in her belly as she answered Noah’s questions, struggling to mentally process everything that had happened. It was still surreal. As an ER nurse she’d seen domestic abuse victims countless times over the course of her career. But it had always happened to someone else. She’d never dreamed she would wind up a victim of it herself one day.

  Noah left. The storm continued to rage outside. Beckett and Jase hadn’t returned, and they hadn’t called. Had they found Carter?

  Sierra’s phone rang. “It’s my brother,” she said before answering it. A moment later her gaze shot to Molly. “Yes. Hang on.” She held the phone out. “He wants to talk to you.”

  A cold knot of dread formed in the pit of Molly’s stomach. Sit
ting up, she took the phone, her heart thudding. “Hello?”

  “Molly. I…” He heaved a sigh and her insides clenched tighter. “There’s been an accident.”

  Her lungs seized.

  Carter. She knew it was.

  “What happened?” she rasped out.

  “His truck went through a barricade and over the cliff a few miles south of town.”

  She swallowed. “Is he…” She let the question dangle there, unable to voice it aloud.

  “I’m sorry. He’s gone.”

  She closed her eyes, put a protective hand to her belly as tears burned the backs of her eyelids, loss and guilt all but smothering her.

  Carter was dead. Leaving her to grieve for the man he’d been, as well as the tortured soul he’d become. And most painful of all…

  He’d just left behind a child he hadn’t even known about.

  Chapter One

  Five weeks later

  “You look like shit.”

  Jase took the box of tile from Beckett with a grunt. “Gee, thanks, Cap. Feel like it, too.” It was Friday afternoon and whatever his system had been fighting the past week had lost the battle. He was freezing and hurt all over.

  “Go home, Sergeant.” It was definitely an order. Jase had been the Assistant Operations and Intel Sergeant of their A-team for years. They might not be in the Army anymore, but Beckett hadn’t lost his commanding officer’s authoritative edge one bit.

  Jase set the box of tile on the covered shower floor. “I will once I get this tile up.” He wanted to at least finish the master bedroom shower so he could come back and do the grouting tomorrow. The master suite was the last thing to finish, and with the funeral next week he wouldn’t have much time to put in here.

  Beckett sighed and shook his head. “Leave it. I’ll do it. Just go home to bed.”