Release Day Blitz: Tortured by Nicole Williams
When he left for a twelve-month
deployment, she knew it would feel like forever before they saw each
other again. She didn’t realize how right she was.
When
Lance Corporal Brecken Connolly gets taken as a POW, Camryn hopes for
the best but steels herself for the worst. In the end, steel was what
she needed to survive when he didn’t. She moves on the only way she
knows how—gilding herself in more steel.
Years go by.
She
builds a new life.
She leaves the old one behind.
Until
one day, she sees the face of a ghost on the news. Brecken seems to
have risen from the dead, but she knows she can’t perform the same
miracle for herself. While Brecken was held in a torture camp for the
past five years, she’s been trapped in her own kind of prison. One
she can’t be freed from.
The man she mourned comes
back to join the living, but the girl he wanted to spend his life
with isn’t the same woman he comes back for. Brecken isn’t the
same person either. The past five years have changed them both. While
he’s determined to put the pieces back together, she’s resolved
to let hers rot where they shattered.
Broken or not, Brecken wants her back.
He’ll do anything to achieve that. Even if it means going against
the warden of Camryn’s personal prison—her husband.
My head lifted. “There is an
explanation.”
“You don’t owe me one.” His head barely
shook. “And it doesn’t change the outcome.”
“What
outcome?”
Brecken did half a turn, motioning at the house behind
me before indicating at me. “You belong to someone else now.”
I
couldn’t deny it.
Yet I couldn’t confirm it either.
“It’s
okay,” he continued, his throat moving. “I’m happy to have you
in my life. In whatever capacity I can. Even if it’s saving my ass
every once in a while when I flambé my scrambled eggs.”
I stood
from my seat and moved beside him. Regardless of everything else, he
was alive. “I’m happy to have you in my life in whatever way too.
Even if it’s saving my ass from something else.”
His shoulder
touched mine. “I’ll save your ass from whatever you need saving
from.”
“Hero complex?” My eyebrow lifted at him.
“Far
less noble,” he replied, his eyes dropping behind me. His mouth
stretched into a grin. “You’ve got a nice ass. Totally worth
saving.”
Elbowing him, I feigned appall, but he saw through the
act.
“I better get going. I don’t want to overstay my
welcome.” He moved down the steps, holding the handrail as he took
them backward. “Let me know what you decide to tell Crew. If you
decide to tell him anything.”
My arms folded as I moved to the
edge of the porch, watching him lower himself one step at a time.
“Things between Crew and I are—”
“Complicated. Yeah. I was
listening. I know that.” Brecken stopped when he stepped onto the
pathway. “I don’t want to make things more complicated for you,
so just let me know how I can do that. Unless you want me to
complicate things for you, then by all means, let me know how I can
do that as well.” He was joking, the glint in his eyes told that,
but he wasn’t entirely. His face told me that.
When I went to
reply, all that came out was a sigh.
“Listen, you’re with him.
I know you’re his wife.” He was staring at me, still holding onto
the handrail. Not able to let go. “If he wants to hear me say that
to his face to make him feel better, I will.”
“You know what
question Crew will follow up with.”
He nodded once. “If I’ll
respect the fact that you’re his wife.”
My silence was a
confirmation.
“Well, that’s simple,” he said, his voice
sounding like the one I remembered. It didn’t waver. It didn’t
rasp. Brecken’s eyes didn’t leave mine as he backed away. “I’d
tell him that I have every intention of showing him the same amount
of respect he showed me when he moved in on my girl weeks after my
fake execution.”
Nicole Williams is the New York Times
and USATODAY bestselling author of contemporary and young adult
romance, including the Crash and Lost & Found series. Her books
have been published by HarperTeen and Simon & Schuster in both
domestic and foreign markets, while she continues to self-publish
additional titles. She is working on a new YA series with Crown Books
(a division of Random House) as well. She loves romance, from the
sweet to the steamy, and writes stories about characters in search of
their happily even after. She grew up surrounded by books and plans
on writing until the day she dies, even if it’s just for her own
personal enjoyment. She still buys paperbacks because she’s all
nostalgic like that, but her kindle never goes neglected for too
long. When not writing, she spends her time with her husband and
daughter, and whatever time’s left over she’s forced to fit too
many hobbies into too little time.
Nicole is represented by Jane Dystel,
of Dystel and Goderich Literary Agency.
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