Broken Barriers (Barriers Series Book 4) (32 page)

When You Sleep – Mary Lambert

Alone Together- Fall Out Boy

Broken - Amy Lee/Seether

Let Me Go - Avril Lavigne/Chad Kroeger

Bad Company - Five Finger Death Punch

Porn Star Dancing- My Darkest Days, Zakk Wylde

Bright Lights – Gary Clark Jr.

One - Metallica

Never Let Me Go - Florence + The Machine

Same Love – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

I See the Devil in You – Sandi Thom

Your Guardian Angel – The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

The Hanging Tree- Jennifer Lawrence, James Newton Howard

Dream On – Aerosmith

Howlin’ For You – The Black Keys

Feeling Love – Paula Cole

Hear Your Heart – James Bay

Victim of Love - Eagles

Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival

I Put A Spell On You – Annie Lennox

Breathe Again- Sara Bareilles

I think my love for books started when I was a teenager on summer vacations reading suspense novels. As I grew older that turned into reading romance novels. Now, that's turned into me writing four romance novels and another on the way in 2016.

In college I actually majored in Geography and concentrated in Travel & Tourism. I still love to travel constantly, but now find myself working in the world of Finance during the day and writing novels at night.

I was born and raised just north of Boston and currently live with my husband and one cat. When I'm not running a mile a minute with work and books you can find me at a local wine tasting or out with friends at the pub laughing and being a goofball. I have a weak spot for candy, Ghirardelli chocolate to be exact. I am addicted to the three “C”s. Coffee, Cheese and Carbs. I grew up with an Italian family and giving those up would be the death of me.

I typically have a dirty mind and zero filter between my head and my mouth. If you are around me...good luck. I'm obsessed with hockey, Oregon football, beaches,
Supernatural, Friends
and stupid comedy movies. I've been called a "tall drink of water" due to my extreme height and love for platform heels. Chances are you will not miss me if we are ever in the same room. Just look for the chick laughing hysterically, wearing crazy heels and holding a glass of wine in her hand. That will be me.

Where to begin? It’s been a hell of a year with a lot of moving parts. But the following people have made me laugh, helped guide me through good times and bad, been mentors and in the end…friends.

Paige Smith, Amy Garland, Leanne Hauser-Mertz, Al Daltrey, Rae Bradford, Nicholas Ryan, Frances Rosa, Joelle Mendes, Alan Walker, Gina Whitney, and Jack Gallow.

Thank you to Jovana at Unforeseen Editing for the beautiful formatting and Renee at RE Creatives for the incredible cover design.

Hugs and kisses to my always incredible boss lady and editor Paige Smith. From day one you pushed me to be a better writer and in return loved my characters with all your heart. This last one certainly did a number on both of us. We both knew the end was coming in this series. But without your dedication to Drew he wouldn’t have come out as perfect as he did. We’ve certainly had our fun this last year with edits. Big yellow blobs, sex scenes, tornado warnings, and lots of “check your tenses.” I’ve learned so much from you and cannot wait for the next time we will work together. Love you to bits lady!

Another big thank you goes out to Noelle Bodhaine, Jack Gallow, and Al Daltrey for allowing me to pimp their asses out in this book. **Cough Cough** Be sure to check out their books. You’ll be glad you did. I wouldn’t lie…they are just that good.

Thank you to Alan Walker for providing me with yet another amazing poem to start this book off with.

To the girls at All is Read, Talkbooks, and all the other blogs that have supported not only the series but also an unknown author like myself. Your support has truly meant the world to me.

Thank you to the fans and readers. This series was born because all of you wanted more after reading Frozen Barriers. More Josh. More Lucy. More Drew. Without all of you there wouldn’t have been Hidden, Burning or even Broken Barriers. Thank you. Hearing your comments about characters that I created still blows my mind. Love you all and thank you for all the tremendous support!

And last but not least…my husband. The person who provided me with the crazy idea to write books. What the hell were you thinking?! He’s the person who gave me so much inspiration for characters in these stories. He’s my Jeremy, Josh, Jake and Drew all in one. He’s stood by and waited for the moment when the earbuds would come out and the laptop to shut down so many nights. He’s supported the crazy world I’ve lived in for well over a year and never complained. Love you Asshole.

This is not goodbye for good. I will be back. You can expect a new story sometime in 2016 and I have to admit I’m already itching to get it started.

I’ll be seeing your smiling faces soon. Until then…keep living your dreams, laugh and remember to always make it fun….no matter what you do.

Continue reading for an excerpt of Noelle Bodhaine’s
Whisper
which was spotlighted in Broken Barriers. Find the rest of her
Voice Series
on Amazon.com

Prologue

Two weeks ago, my heart was broken, broken by the man who helped to piece it back together. I served it up on a silver platter, free for the taking. But that is the end and this is the beginning. I should have known better. I did know better. He had his secrets and I had mine. It was just a fling, a momentary affair that went on too long.

My life was in desperate need of reworking. Something had to change. I needed to reinvent myself, to do something spontaneous and prove to myself that I still had ‘it’, whatever ‘it’ was. Four years of struggle and heartache had left me feeling older than my 24 years. I was in desperate need of an escape when Olivia called and offered me just that, a wedding, in Miami, her wedding, new people, new town, celebrating new beginnings; a perfect elixir for this unreachable itch. Between caring for my aging and forgetful grandmother and working full time, I had little time for myself or friends, if I had any left. Most of them went away to college and never came back, rightfully. I landed on a different path and have been afraid to change course ever since.

Nineteen years old and returning home for Christmas from my first semester away at college. I had never been that far away for that long and I was so homesick. My parents were so proud of me, as was I. I had made it to the University of Washington, my first school pick. First semester went off without a hitch and I found myself falling into a good rhythm. I crushed my finals, packed up my suitcase and headed to the airport. The weather in Washington was less than ideal. Snow really sends that State into a tizzy. But being from Colorado it was no big thing to me, I was used to the snow and cold temperatures, after all it was December. I just really wanted to get home. The winter storm covered the entire western half of the US. The snow wasn’t very heavy in Washington, but the temperatures were frigid, so everything was covered with a blanket of invisible ice. We sat on the tarmac for two hours, just waiting to hear if we would even take off. When they finally de-iced the plane and gave the green light I was ecstatic if not a little nervous. I’m pretty sure ours was among the last planes to go in or out of Denver International Airport, as the airport closed soon after dusk, stranding hundreds of travelers that had not yet made it out. The wind was too fierce and temperatures were too low, but I was so happy and relieved to be home. Even though I had gone to Washington with my best friend, Olivia, I still felt a little lonely and longed for my family. She was enthusiastically swept up in the camaraderie and excitement of rushing a sorority, which was something I had no interest in. It was only natural that we drift a bit, but all in all we were having a great time, college was everything we had hoped.

We were so close to home, painfully close, crawling along at a snail’s pace on the ice slicked highway. I could see the Christmas lights on our house from where we were, a bright white star that my father had always perched atop of our garage. Lost in thoughts of all the delicious treats my mother had waiting for me, I turned my head to ask a question and everything slowed to a crawl. It was as if the world was turned on its side. The strained screaming of rubber fighting ice and the stillness of the snow collided in a torrent. I watched the truck slide across the ice and fishtail, tires slipping and struggling against the slide. The truck narrowly avoided two other cars in his lane before losing control. He came crashing across the wide median, blowing loose snow and ice in his wake. Skidding tires echoed in the stillness of the storm and echo still in my dreams. The ice screamed under the abuse of rubber and a ton of steel. New snow crunched under cold tires, offering no resistance.

My life did not pass before my eyes in that moment. There was nothing but my mother’s horrified face. My father reached over to her, to cover her with his arm, but nothing was going to save us from what was coming. She reached out for my father, a silent scream passing her lips. No sound, just terror. Her cry would have stopped my heart if it wasn’t trying to escape from my chest. The truck slammed into the driver’s side, crushing the car. The sound of twisting metal filled the heavy winter air. We were pushed violently from the road, skidding off the shoulder. Heaven became hell, up was down. The sheer inertia of the truck pushed us for one hundred yards, gliding easily over the freshly fallen snow. Smoke poured from the wheels of the truck as it rolled over us and then everything stopped, my heart, my breath, my life. Everything was crushed under the weight of that truck. I briefly remember the world being upside down, my hair a curtain in front of my face, my body hanging by my seatbelt, and the noxious smell of burning rubber and crushed steel. There was no sound. My mother was silent. My father was silent. The next thing I knew, I woke up in a hospital, two days after Christmas, alone. Empty, broken, battered and lost.

I could not bring myself to go back to school. The only person I had left was a broken-hearted Grandmother, her mind half gone. I moved in with her, enrolled in a state university, got a job at the local paper and buried my head, watching from the sidelines as Olivia lived and did all the things we had planned to do together. When she headed to Cambridge last year for a year abroad reality crept over me. My life had come to a stand-still, while the rest of the world continued to turn. I stood still for years, willing the world to return to the way it had once been, but that was never going to happen. And now I am faced with a best friend who has moved on, who has continued to live while I merely exist. We have always been close, like sisters, but now she’s starting a new life. She went off and traveled the world, like we had planned to do together. She came back from Cambridge with a fancy degree, a haughty new world view, and a fiancé to match.

4 years later I have become a whisper in the background, quiet and inconsequential. I have a small, half empty apartment, a fractured heart and battered body, a Grandmother mired in the early stages of dementia who hardly knows me and a rotating cast of hospice nurses who tend to her care.