Written in the Sand Read online

  WRITTEN IN THE SAND

  Copyright © 2020 by J Marie

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from the author.

  Editing: Wasted Life Books

  Formatting: Champagne Book Design

  Book Cover Design: BookCoverKingdom

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Novels by J Marie

  Dedication

  Written in the Sand Playlist

  Epigraph

  Written in the Sand

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Epilogue

  Extra Epilogue

  Other Titles by J Marie

  Note from Me and My Thanks to You

  About the Author

  Sweet and Sexy Standalones

  Second Chance Rescue

  TTKL (Coming Soon)

  Moonshine Springs Novels

  Written in the Sand

  Dedicated to:

  Allison Dublin

  For believing in this book even when I didn’t.

  For continually believing in me even when I want to throw every word in the trash.

  Your friendship is incomparable.

  Homecoming queen by Kelsea Ballerini

  I Hope by Gabby Barrett

  End of the World by Kelsea Ballerini

  Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not by Thompson Square

  Written in the Sand by Old Dominion

  I Won’t Give Up by Jason Mraz

  You Shouldn’t Kiss Me Like This by Toby Keith

  Run (feat. Sugarland) by Matt Nathanson

  Loved by a Country Boy by Trea Landon

  Dance with Me (feat. Kelsea Ballerini) by Morgan Evans

  Take It From Me by Jordan Davis

  All To Myself by Dan + Shay

  Slow Hands by Niall Horan

  Die A Happy Man by Thomas Rhett

  Every Little Thing by Russell Dickerson

  Knockin’ Boots by Luke Bryan

  “New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.”

  – Lao Tzu

  Written in the Sand

  I always believed my happily ever after came with the words “I do.”

  I’d been happy once. In love. Until one night changed everything.

  Changed us.

  The love of my life, or so I thought, had become my own worst nightmare.

  So here I am…

  Back in Moonshine Springs. A place I wouldn’t return to unless absolutely necessary. But that’s not the biggest shock. Waiting for me with open arms and a safe place to stay is my high school best friend’s brother, Beau. He’s told me I’m his, but starting over isn’t as easy as creating a new happily ever after. My past isn’t done with me and soon enough, bleeds into my present.

  My name is Cassidy Mae and this is my chance to begin again…

  One week ago

  He’d come home from work early. The smell of her perfume permeated the air. I knew it wasn’t mine. I didn’t wear anything that smelled that expensive and sickly sweet. It was something a teenager would wear, or better yet a woman hiding from age, and clinging to youth. However, it was his upbeat attitude that tipped me off. The one he gets when he’s just gotten laid.

  “Who is she?” I’d demanded. I’m not sure why I was so angry. I should have been relieved that I wouldn’t be forced into my wifely duties anytime soon. I dreaded them. Last time he said he wanted to spice things up… I had bruises on my wrists for over a week from where the zip ties bit into my flesh. That earned me flowers, a new dress, and nights to myself for a week since he didn’t want to look at the ugly marks. I had pleased him greatly and he looked forward to further exploring this side of our relationship. I feared it.

  “What?” He’d said, a look of shock crossing his face.

  I raised my hands to my hips in an accusatory stance. “The whore you’ve been sleeping with this time?”

  “She’s not a whore. She’s better than you will ever be.” He retorted.

  “I want a divorce, Andrew. I’m done with your shit. I’m done getting tested every month because you can’t keep your dick in your pants.”

  The smack that followed was something I never expected. I had never smarted off like that before. No matter, I didn’t deserve that smack. I never expected or deserved the brutal beating that followed that first strike on my skin. It was the first time that Andrew had ever truly laid a hand to me. He’d been verbally abusive for months, but this time it was different. He was enraged. I doubted he could even see through the red haze before his eyes.

  As the blows rained down, he reminded me over and over that no matter how he dressed me up, the etiquette lessons he’d paid for, or the degree he was shocked I’d earned I’d never be good enough for him. That it’d be over his dead body if I ever left him. No piece of backwoods trash would tarnish his name and reputation. He would not be known as a man who couldn’t control an ignorant, weak woman such as myself. I’d learn my place and be what he needed. He’d lock the pantry, run me in the streets, and fuck me into submission if he had to. I should have been grateful for his love and how well he took care of me.

  His insults continued. He mocked my heavily accented cries, which only got thicker with pain. He said I was pretty enough to provide him with legitimate offspring and that he’d start breeding me soon enough since it was now the right time. Oh god! But I wasn’t allowed to get fat. I never thought of a child as a weapon against me. A blow came to my chest. Air whooshed out of me as he’d pushed me to the ground. Alcohol had laced his breath and I gagged. I truly believed he was possessed because how else could a man be this cruel.

  I would have believed it would be my last night on earth, except he had plans for me. I heard the crack of my ribs as he stood and kicked me while I laid on the floor, curled in the fetal position. I felt the tears stream down my cheeks as I prayed that he’d just end me. I laid there on the cold floor in my own piss and blood. I faintly remember hearing chimes, but then I must’ve passed out along the way because when I woke up, he was gone. It had been his phone. Could that whore have unknowingly saved me? The house was pitch black and quiet except for the hum of the fan on the fridge beside me.

  I went to move and every single muscle in my body screamed out in agony. I was sore and my head was pounding so hard I could barely see straight. I knew at that moment that I had to leave. I had to get out.

  So as fast as my body would allow me, I crawled up the stairs. I’d saved up a stash of cash over since the accident. Just in case is wha
t I had always told myself though I never finished the thought of in case of what. Hiding it in the tampon box in the bathroom closet. One of the places I knew he’d never look, grabbed it and threw it in my purse. I dragged myself into our room, picked up some clothes, and the personal belongings I could get quickly. Heading for the front door I’d snagged up my keys from the hook on the wall. Luckily, Andrew hadn’t thought to take them. I’d hideout for a few days, lay low and then go back for my stuff when I knew he’d be at work.

  Pain.

  Fear.

  Two of the strongest feelings a person can experience in their lifetime and I’d become well versed in both.

  I’d come back tonight, thinking he was working late or at another dinner party. He probably told his colleagues I was homesick. The house was pitch black and I didn’t see his car. Despite knowing it was safe I silently entered the house not daring to breathe too loud or turn on a light. He could have put up cameras or an alarm to alert him I was here. I had to be fast. I didn’t have very many belongings that meant something, but there were a few things that I wanted. I’d brought the divorce papers again and more photos I’d taken of all my bruising. Image was everything to him. If I had to blackmail him to give me a divorce, I would. I just wanted to be free of him. I saw the same papers and pictures I’d mailed him earlier spread out on the coffee table. I wondered what he thought as he looked at his handy work.

  As I silently padded through the house, I hadn’t been prepared for any of the scenes before me. I couldn’t help standing in the shadows and watching as they beat and then tortured my evil tormentor exactly as he had done to me just a week before.

  I froze in the dark hall as they beat him unconscious. Blood spurted from his mouth in dark red droplets against the white tile floors of our old kitchen. Coming here tonight had been a terrible idea. I should leave. I shouldn’t be a witness to what I know is going to happen, but I can’t turn away. A small piece of my brain thinks that it’s poetic justice that he dies this way, brutal and helpless at the hands of someone stronger and more powerful, but my humanity makes me feel sorry for this beaten human being. He’s still my husband, or at least until this divorce goes through, but after tonight I may not even have to worry about that. Obviously, Andrew wasn’t smart enough to realize that sleeping with the wife of one of the most powerful, influential, and deadliest men in the city was not the best decision.

  I wonder when it started. I wonder if he started cheating after the accident. How did they meet? Was it worth it? In the end that was always my question.

  Was it worth it?

  A fist slams down against his face and I hear his nose break as one eye swells shut. Another kick to the ribs while he’s down cements the fact that he probably won’t get up again. I watch the pain that spreads across his face and the wince that follows another kick. This one to the head. I watched as he tried to turn and crawl away, but they grabbed his ankles and jerked, pulling him back.

  I was sick, watching his demise. I was smiling on the inside because this was fucking karma. Served him right. Cheating bastard.

  “You want the gun or the pliers, boss?” I heard one of his guys ask.

  “I think this lowlife needs to learn a lesson. Several, if all the rumors are true. A gun would be way too painless. No suffering with that.” He chuckled, but it’s a menacing devilish chuckle that made my skin crawl.

  “Pliers, it is.” He gave the boss a toothy grin. I watched as Andrew stirred, and his eyes widened with awareness, taking in the scene before him.

  No, no, no, no, no. They weren’t going to go there. Were they?

  Andrew passed out on the floor again, probably from shock. At least he wouldn’t be awake for what was coming.

  I wondered if he knew this would happen when they showed up on his front doorstep tonight. Did they ring the doorbell or just break in? I wanted to know how it went down. It’s a morbid thought, but another one my brain won’t let go. Did he know that the moment his cock entered her body his days would be numbered?

  I tried my best to be quiet. I didn’t need anyone else to know I was here and as much as I wanted to see them finish the job, I couldn’t watch anymore.

  Bile crept up the back of my throat as they brought out the tools and I backed away slowly towards the front door. The floor beneath me cracked and I froze, the papers I held fell to the ground. My heart pounded in my chest so hard I thought that it might escape. I stood frozen and listened. Something that sounded like a tool fell to the floor and the room got suddenly quiet. I held my breath. I was afraid that one single solitary breath might alert them to my presence and then I’d be the one on the other end of those tools. I had to get out of here.

  “Did you hear that, boss?” I heard one of the men say.

  “Hear what?” The one in charge replied gruffly.

  “That noise…”

  He chuckled and shook his head. “Go check it out if you’re going to act like a scared little girl.”

  Oh shit.

  I thought to myself. That was my cue to leave. I snuck out the front door and crept along the side of the house. I was glad for once that I’d parked my car along the street instead of pulling up to the house. I sulked along the wood line and up the road to my car. Getting in, I closed the door slowly. It was then that I finally gulped a big breath. My needy lungs craved it in order to pump oxygen through my bloodstream. Pissed because I’d been denying them for too long.

  I turned around and looked over my shoulder at the house just in time to see one of the men emerge from the front door. I ducked instantly, hoping they didn’t notice my car. I snuck up for another peek as he was walking towards my car. My heart leapt into my throat and I had no idea what to do. If I started it and pulled off, I’d surely look suspicious, so I held my breath and waited. I didn’t want to look again in case he was right by the car.

  I must’ve sat there for a good hour before I moved again. I slowly peered up from my crouched position in the front seat of my car. My muscles ached from crouching for so long and from my still healing ribs.

  As far as I could tell, there was no one around. I decided right then and there that I’d go to the one place I never thought I’d go again. I had no other choice.

  The drive back into Moonshine Springs was probably the highlight of the last year. Running away from the emotional warfare of home, to this sleepy little town was the last thing I expected. I had no choice. It was this or stick around to see what became of the bloody scene I’d left behind.

  Some of the blue and purple bruises on my body had started to fade, but the bruises on my heart and soul would forever be a reminder of a place I would never, ever let myself go again. The memories and crushing pain of the night I asked him for a divorce came back to me in vivid technicolor.

  It was then that I realized I didn’t really know the monster that inhabited my husband at all. If he could inflict evil like this upon another human being, then I was simply waiting for death. I would never do that again. It was me or him and I knew I would always, always choose me.

  He’d never be able to abuse me again. Not after what I’d seen. Now, I wondered what happened next. Had they seen me? Would someone be coming after me? When would someone find his cold body lying limp on the kitchen floor in a heap of blood by his head and call nine-one-one? Or would they ever find him? Another of my fears came front and center. What if they hadn’t actually killed him? I hadn’t actually been there to see him take that final breath before death swooped in and took over.

  I would be strong, even though every single fiber of my body was on edge and testy. I wanted to crawl into myself and never come out. Bile crept up the back of my throat at what I’d seen, but I pushed it back down with a swallow. I was moving on. Picking up the pieces of what was left of my broken life.

  Andrew had been good to me in college. Supportive, loving, romantic even. After a couple of years of marriage, he’d ended up in a bar fight over a comment about me and things hadn’t ended well. A
switch had been flipped in his brain.

  I remember that night clearly, like it was yesterday. The blood. The gash on the back of his head after it met the pavement. The devilish noise that erupted from his lips as the pain coursed through his body. He’d turned into someone I no longer knew. I’d seen a new side of my husband that wasn’t there previously. It was almost as if his brush with death unleashed the violent creature that had been slowly lurking in the shadows just waiting for the perfect moment to make its appearance in our lives.

  So, I ran. Home, to this small town from years ago… the one I told myself I’d never return to, because I was better than small town West Virginia. I grew up here in Moonshine Springs. Long days had been spent swimming in the warm lake waters with sweet tea and lemonade drink floaters. Dipping our toes in the springs spread across one of my favorite stomping grounds in this whole town, Willow Springs Stables, owned by the Montgomery family. So many good memories had been formed here and I found a smile cross my lips just at the thought. Traipsing through the woods. Riding horses all day until our butts were sore and we couldn’t walk straight on account of the saddle. Coming home after sunset every night, hungry, sore, and caked in mud.

  Andrew had only ever met my parents a few times in the years we’d been married. When we’d first gotten married he’d allowed me to visit my parents on my own and even encouraged it because I missed them. After the accident, he’d made it perfectly clear that going to meet them in this Podunk town was beneath him and that he didn’t like them, so they came to us. Could a brain injury from an accident really change a person that much in a short amount of time? Apparently so.

  Right now, I was glad that he’d never come once, so this place was untainted by him. My parents had liked him well enough, but like all southern parents, he’d never be good enough for their little girl. They hadn’t been afraid to tell me either. I still remember mama pulling me aside and asking me if I was sure he was the man for me.