Title: Stolen Course (Wrecked and Ruined #2)
Author: Aly Martinez
Release Date: May 21, 2014
Genre: New Adult Romance
Cover Design: Book Covers by Ashbee Designs
I fell in love with Manda Baker eight years ago, and I loved her
to the core of her soul. We were supposed to have that elusive happily ever
after and spend a lifetime together. But that was all before she was STOLEN
from me. Her best friend, Sarah Erickson, killed her. It wasn’t intentional. It
was far worse. Everyone claims it was just an accident, but I can see through
the lies. Even if it’s with my dying breath, I will make her pay for what she
did. Fate hates me. It robbed me of my first love and left me to navigate
through this world emotionless and numb. Then, one day, spiteful fate gave me a
woman to fill my shattered soul and make me feel again. It gave me Emma Jane
Erickson. Now I spend my days searching for the answers that will ruin Sarah and
my nights falling in love with her sister—the one person who is bound and
determined to save her. But what happens when everything you know to be true
explodes around you? Who will be left to pick up the pieces, and who will need
to be saved from the wreckage?
Prologue
“It’s not fucking them!” I punch the dashboard and scream at my
partner, Brett, as he weaves through traffic. Just moments ago, we received a
page that will destroy one of us forever. It said a bunch of words, but the
only four I can remember are “One fatality, one injury.” I reject the very
possibility that this has anything to do with my Manda, but the vise currently
holding my heart still twists even tighter. I drop my head to my hands as I
wage war with reality. If that message is accurate, I have a fifty-fifty chance
that my life is over. Done. Finished. I’ll never survive losing Manda. Never.
It can’t be her. We haven’t even gotten married yet. We are
supposed to get married and have a life together. We have a plan. A knife lands
hard in my stomach as I try to reason my way out of this mess. It can’t be
her. Manda is strong and healthy. No accident in the world could steal her
from me. Yeah, she’s tough. She’s got to be the one who’s injured. Something
simple, maybe a broken arm. We can fix that. I just need her to be alive,
anything else we can deal with together.
The car barely slows before I’m out and sprinting toward the
twisted metal on the side of the highway. Every hope I have of this being a big
misunderstanding vanishes into the night when I recognize Sarah’s car. Reality
slices me open, but the promise of only an injury keeps my legs moving forward.
“Detective Jones!” I hear shouted, but I continue to run. I slow
only when I get to a group of officers.
“Where is she?” I demand, but deep down I’m terrified to hear the
answer.
“Caleb, take a second and catch your breath.”
“Where the fuck is she!” My eyes scan the faces lining the road,
desperately searching for Manda’s fiery red hair and green eyes. But instead,
they land on a white sheet covering what I know to be a body. My heart begins
to race as I once again try to fight all rational thinking that tells me it’s
her.
“That’s not her,” I say, desperately trying to catch my breath,
but the panic that has lodged itself in my system prevents it. “Oh God, someone
please tell me that’s not her.” Tears well in my eyes as I glance up to see my
good friends, Stephens and Perez, step up beside me. From the look on
Stephens’s face, I know I don’t want to hear whatever he has to say.
“She didn’t make it, Jones.” With one sentence, the little breath
I have left is stolen. My legs buckle, forcing me helplessly to my knees.
“No.” I refuse to accept that my Manda no longer exists.
The earth starts to tremble as my world begins to crumble around
me. It only takes a minute to realize that my body is violently shaking as the
physical pain of reality courses through my veins. This is not
happening. “That’s not her,” I begin to repeat. She can’t be gone. My eyes never leave the body
that used to house my soul mate. This isn’t real, and any minute I’m going to
wake from this horrible nightmare. I’ll roll over in bed and pull Manda hard
against my chest. I close my eyes, willing myself to wake up, but it never
comes.
I rise to my feet and take a step towards her. “Manda!” I yell. I
need to see her. To touch her. It’s fucking cold tonight and she’s just lying
there under a sheet. Oh, fuck. That’s not her.
Perez grabs my arm, effectively halting me. “Don’t do this to
yourself. You don’t need to see her like that.”
“Get your fucking hands off me. If that’s Manda, I need to see
her.”
“Not now you don’t. Let them get her to the hospital and clean her
up a bit.”
The pain in my chest is quickly being replaced with anger.
“Get off me, Perez,” I say calmly while leveling him with a
menacing glare.
“Not happening. I won’t let you do this to yourself.” He pulls me
back a step, and that is all it takes for me to lose it. My rage needs
somewhere to go, and it just so happens that it chooses Perez’s face. My hands
fly, landing directly on his jaw.
“I need to see her!” I scream, landing punch after punch. Stephens
jumps in, tackling me from behind. He uses his weight to pin me to the ground.
“Goddamn it, Jones. Stop fighting. We’re trying to help you.”
“She’s not fucking gone!”
“She is, and you don’t need to see her.”
An image of her laughing at dinner flashes behind my eyes as once
again reality takes hold. This is not happening. The temporary shield of
anger fades away as devastation settles in. As I’m lying facedown on the side of
a highway, gut wrenching sobs spring from my chest.
“Oh, God. Please, not Manda.”
Changing Course (Wrecked and Ruined #1)
I met Sarah Kate Erickson when I was twenty-one years old. I was lucky enough to keep her for seven years before a tragic accident stole her from me. She didn’t die, but sometimes I think it would have been easier if she had. I lived in a haze for those four years after the accident. Catering to her every need, even though she hated the very sight of my face. I tried to hold on to her and the future that we were supposed to build together. But you can’t hold on to someone that doesn’t exist anymore. It wasn’t until I met Jesse Addison, a barista at the local coffee shop, that I realized I didn’t just lose Sarah that tragic night, I lost myself as well. Jesse taught me how to let go of the past and learn to love again. But what happens when your past haunts your present, and the woman you used to love refuses to accept the woman you can’t live without? *Intended for readers 18+. Each book in this series can be read as a standalone.*
Born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, Aly Martinez is a stay-at-home mom to four crazy kids under the age of five, including a set of twins. Currently living in Chicago, she passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a glass of wine at her side. After some encouragement from her friends, Aly decided to add “Author” to her ever-growing list of job titles. So grab a glass of Chardonnay, or a bottle if you’re hanging out with Aly, and join her aboard the crazy train she calls life.
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