Road to Absolution
Read Road to Absolution Online
Authors: Piper Davenport
COPYRIGHT
2015 Piper
Davenport
Copyright © 2015
by Piper Davenport
All rights
reserved.
Published in the
United States
Road to
Absolution
is
a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of
the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual
events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment
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this author.
BACK BLURB
Carter ‘Ace’ Quinn has spent his life
running from the rage caused by a broken heart. After several tours in the Air
Force, and continued missions as a para-jumper, he spends his down time within
the Dogs of Fire Motorcycle Club.
Cassidy Dennis is living with a choice she made years ago that lost her the
love of her life but gained her something more precious. However, she misses
her best friend and longs for the love they’d been building.
When a chance meeting brings the two together, will they put aside their hurts
and forgive each other?
Will the jealousies of outsiders force the two apart?
For JBJ
I love you
Cassidy
Eight years ago…
“
C
ARTER,” I WHISPERED, forcing back tears.
“I have to go.”
“Why, Cass?” he
demanded.
I stared up at
my best friend and tried not to fold. “You’re leaving—”
“I’ll be back in
less than a year.”
Carter had driven
to my place, rather than heading home after work, and he now stood in my
kitchen (after sneaking in through my bedroom window), his face contorted in
frustration as I tried to explain in person what I’d tried to explain over the
phone. My parents were still at work and my sisters were out with their
boyfriends, so I had the house to myself… which almost never happened.
“But if you’re
not here, there’s no reason for me to stick around.” I smiled. “Who knows where
the Air Force will take you?”
He shook his
head and ran his hands through his hair. “Damn it, Cass. I don’t get this need
you have to run.”
I giggled.
“You’ve known me since I was six. I have always wanted to run.”
Carter Quinn had
been my constant shadow ever since my parents moved me and my sisters to the
property adjacent to the Quinn farm eleven years ago. It had started on my
first day of first grade when he put a cockroach in my hair and I calmly
removed it and named it “George.” He was two years older than me, but ever
since then, we’d spent pretty much every day together trekking through the
wooded areas around our homes and lazy water “rides” on what he called the
Quinn River. Of course, it was more of a pond, but it was safe to swim in and
sometimes we would all take turns pushing each other in inner tubes in order to
feel like we were all on some kind of rapids adventure. Silly kid stuff that I
was going to miss.
“That’s not what
I meant,” he grumbled.
“I know, buddy.”
I sighed, trying once again to bolster my resolve.
Carter was the fifth
of six brothers, all rambunctious little boys who grew up to be gorgeous,
strong, respectful men. They loved their Mama, and had a deep reverence for
women in general, but that didn’t mean they didn’t take advantage of the fact
they were all illegally good-looking.
“I can’t believe
you’re giving up your senior year.”
“To dance in
France
,
Carter!” I said for the umpteenth time.
“You could dance
in good old America,” he said, also for the umpteenth time. “What if you hate
Paris and I’m not here to help you pack up and come home?”
“You leave in a
week.” I rolled my eyes. “You won’t be back for at least eight months, probably
longer, and then that’ll be for what, a week or two? Then onto something else
for another year or more, right? I’ll do my year in Paris and beat you back
here either way. It’s the perfect chance for me to finish school and train with
a prestigious ballet company… and take my mind off the fact that you’re going
to be flying planes into combat. It’s a win-win.”
He knew how much
I hated school. I was never good with the politics of high school and once he
left, I was bored… and a target.
“Are you still
dealing with assholes?”
“Not since you
forced your brother to stick close to me,” I said with a sigh.
“I didn’t force
him to do anything. You know he thinks of you like the sister he never had.”
I chuckled. “Or
wanted.”
Carter grinned.
“Aidan adores you. Just don’t let him know I told you.”
Aidan was the
baby of the family and one year younger than me, but you’d never know to look
at him. He was six-foot-one and still growing, his best class was weight
training, and, as was common with the Quinn brothers, he had a harem of girls
who followed him everywhere.
Once Carter
graduated and I was left without my “shield,” Aidan took up the mantle and his
harem didn’t like it, but I tried to keep my head down and ignore them as best
I could. Easy to do for the most part since I was dancing more than going to
classes my junior year.
“My lips are
sealed.” I tried for a goofy grin. “This isn’t a problem that you can make your
bitch, buddy. We’re just going to have to let it all play out naturally.”
Carter crossed
his arms and studied me. “If you go, I’m gonna miss your eighteenth birthday.”
“I’ll be back a
full week before my eighteenth birthday, it’s you who’ll still be gone more
than likely.”
“You’re breakin’
our deal, Cass.”
I scowled at
him, my stomach churning. “You broke it first by running off to war!”
“So, this is
about getting back at me?”
“No!” I snapped,
and then took a deep breath. “No, seriously, it’s not. The deal was we would
have a private wedding ceremony by the dead tree with Torbig the Troll as
officiant
when
I turn eighteen, right? I’m not eighteen. So, as long as
you’re back at some point before I turn nineteen, I will view the deal is intact.
Unless of course, you find your forever love and marry her instead. At that
point, I will admit that my heart will unequivocally shatter into a million
pieces…” I let my sentence trail, hoping my joke would lighten the mood.
Carter laughed.
“Fuckin’ nut.”
I giggled. “Says
the bolt.”
This had been a
private joke I’d started back before I knew exactly what nuts and bolts were.
At the time, he’d laughed hysterically, then explained the sexual connotation
I’d inadvertently voiced, but still, the joke had stuck and it had been our
thing.
“You’re coming
back, right?” he pressed.
“Are
you
?”
“Yeah, Cass, I’m
coming back.”
I slipped my
hands into my pockets. “Well, so am I.”
He wrapped his
arms around me and drew me close. I pulled my hands from my pockets and hugged
him back. I loved him more than I would ever admit out loud, but that was a
story for another day. For now, it was time to grow up and figure out how to
live my life without my crutch. It was something my mother had urged me to do…
figure out how to exist in a world without Carter Quinn, but I’d always brushed
her off, thinking one day, I’d have him forever. That he’d see me for something
other than his best friend. But when he’d been recruited for the Air Force and
jumped at the chance to be a hero, I realized he’d never see me the way I saw
him, so I knew I had to let him go.
“I’m coming to
the airport,” he said, his voice low with emotion.
I squeezed my
eyes shut. “You better.”
“I’ll email you
every day that I can and you better do the same.”
I smiled and
leaned back to look up at him. “Do
not
go get all emotional and shit on
me.”
“Don’t use that
fuckin’ language. You’re too pretty for it.”
“You’re a dork.”
I laughed and shoved at him. “FroYo and a movie? I’ll buy.”
“You’re not
payin’, Cass, but yeah, FroYo and a movie’s good.”
“Do you want to
climb back down the tree or use the front door like a regular person?”
We had a huge
tree that happened to have a sturdy limb that was like a ladder directly to my
room. Carter had snuck in on more than one occasion, mostly when I was mad at
him and refused to answer his phone calls. I’d tease him because if he didn’t
talk to me at least once a day, he couldn’t seem to function.
“I didn’t know
your parents would be gone,” he countered.
I giggled.
“Whatever. I personally think you prefer the tree. Of course, it’s the middle
of the day, so you ringing the doorbell would have been perfectly acceptable.”
He grinned.
“Keep it up, buddy, and there’ll be no movie for you.”
“Oooh, you scare
me,” I retorted as I grabbed my keys and followed him out the door.
* * *
One week later, I stood with my dad and
Carter at the end of the security line, not quite ready to say my final
goodbyes as I headed to my next adventure. Daddy was flying to Paris with me
and checking everything out before flying home, and Carter had offered to drive
us so my mom could say goodbye at home. She was a wreck, so had readily agreed
to do her sobbing in private. My sisters on the other hand had a life outside
of me and were happy to wave at Carter’s truck as we were driving away.
I was consumed
with the fact that Carter was leaving in two days for his tour with the Air
Force, which meant we’d maybe have a day or two to email or Skype, but then
nothing was guaranteed.
I had done a
really great job of keeping my warring emotions at bay. I was excited to go to
Paris. I mean, it was freakin’ Paris after all, but I knew I’d miss my family.
We were tight. Like Carter and his family, only we were sisters, so we fought a
little dirtier, but we loved each other and our parents rocked.
But leaving
Carter made me sick to my stomach. I didn’t know where he was going or where
he’d be stationed… neither did he. The not knowing was the worst and if
anything happened to him, I’d be the eighth to know, unless one of his brothers
called me before my parents did. I blinked back tears at the thought, saying a
silent little prayer to keep him safe.
“You okay?”
Carter asked.
I forced a smile
and nodded. “Yep.”
“I think this is
where we leave you, Carter,” my father said.
Carter nodded
and shook his hand. “Have a safe trip, sir.”
My dad smiled
and nodded, and I lost it, throwing my arms around Carter’s neck and sobbing
against his chest. “Ohmigod, Carter, if you get yourself killed in some Middle
Eastern country, I will hurt you.”
He chuckled,
hugging me tight. “I’m not so easy to kill, Cass. I’m going to be fine, okay?”
I leaned back
and he cupped my face, wiping my tears away with his thumbs. “Please stay
safe,” I whispered.
“I will. A bolt
must return to his nut after all.”
I rolled my eyes
and nodded. “I love you.”
“Love you too,
Cass.” He leaned down and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips. Not a romantic
one, just one that reminded me he was my best friend and he adored me.
Dad and I walked
through the point of no return and as I was putting my shoes back on, Carter
waved to me, and I know he waited until he couldn’t see me anymore before
leaving. Don’t ask me how I knew. I just did.