Finding Serenity
Authors: Eden Butler
Finding Serenity
Copyright © 2014 Eden Butler
Edited by Sharon B. Browning
Cover Design by Steven Novack
Interior Design by Angela McLaurin,
Fictional Formats
All rights reserved as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the Author. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Author Publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
The author acknowledges the copyrighted or trademarked status and trademark owners of the following word-marks and references mentioned in this work of fiction:
Events:
San Diego Comic Con; Nerd HQ;
Television Shows:
“Chuck,” NBC; “The Walking Dead” AMC; “Sports Center”, ESPN; “Maria de los Barrios”, Telenovela;
Movies:
“Red Dawn”;
Personalities:
Zachary Levi, The Rolling Stones, Gary Oldman, Aaron Hicks;
Music:
“Downhearted Blues” by Bessie Smith; “We Are Family” by The Pointer Sisters;
Towns:
Maryville, Tennessee; Sevierville, Tennessee; Jackson, Mississippi;
Sports Teams:
The Minnesota Twins, the Philadelphia Phillies;
Miscellaneous:
Samsung Galaxy, Tennessee State Troopers, Wal-Mart
Warnings/Notes:
This novel takes some creative license with regard to how prisons conduct visitor and prisoner interaction. Heather McCorkle advised me on what was and wasn’t proper procedure, but Vaughn needed to be in that room. Please forgive any glaring errors.
The two main characters in “Finding Serenity” are (respectively) an outlaw biker’s daughter and a proud US Marine. They both partake in much foul-mouthedness and a lot of adult behavior.
Reading recommended for mature audiences.
This novel can be read as a standalone, however “Finding Serenity” does contain significant spoilers to both “Chasing Serenity” and “Behind the Pitch.”
You have been warned.
Mom—There is more cursing in this one.
Just a warning.
Please don’t fuss at me.
“Eden Butler is a powerhouse romance writer. If you thought you knew contemporary romance, think again. Her stories are real and raw. They grip you and never let you go. You’ll cry, you’ll laugh, you’ll swoon and more. If you chased serenity with Declan, then you
need
to find serenity with Vaughn.”
—Bestselling author Lila Felix
“A beautiful, compelling love story that left me breathless.”
—Bestselling author Kele Moon
“Butler writes with a stylistic, descriptive flair that emphasizes the burdens of carrying physical and emotional wounds. She creates characters destined for each other and ready for life’s lessons.
Chasing Serenity
holds promise that the series roll-out will create Serenity-aholics.”
—Michelle Monkou, USA Today
“
Chasing Serenity
explores emotional heartache, but on a different levels. From old scars that refuse to heal, to potential emotional mending. You’ll feel it, deep.”
—Maryse Black, Maryse’s Book Blog
“A refreshing, smart, and HOT read that you’ll want to sink your teeth into again and again!”
—Penelope Douglas, New York Times Best Selling author of
Bully
and
Until You
Also by Eden Butler
Chasing Serenity,
Book 1
Behind the Pitch,
a novella (Book 1.5)
Finding Serenity,
Book 2
For Karen Chapman and all those brain-storming lunches. You amaze me, friend
.
And to the women and men who serve our country in the United States military. May God keep the demons at bay.
Ten years ago…
Her father rolled the blunt tight around his wide fingers. The tip pressed flat, small flakes of the herb dropped onto the yellow Formica table top. Between the dark gashes on the surface of the table and the many cigarette burns that made it dingy, Mollie Malone could see her splintered reflection.
She was thirteen with a small gap between her front teeth. Her father could not afford braces, said she would grow into those too large pearly whites. But she feared that her hair would always be a dull brown, that her dark eyes would remain unremarkable. That her life in her father’s too cramped, always filled home would never be more than what it was that night: a constant party, the filtering in and out of outlaw bikers and the people they attract.
“You want some, Mimi?” her father asked her, holding the lit blunt between his index finger and thumb. His graying dark hair was long, slicked back into a tight braid down his back. He had a handsome face, worn now by hard living and too many disappointments, but Mollie thought he was still good looking. She watched the red lines fracture the deep brown of his irises. They held a bloodshot tint that told Mollie how high he was.
He was stoned already, struck careless, irresponsible, by whiskey and weed but Mollie didn’t hesitate to reach through the smoke surrounding him. She figured this was no worse a life than the one that awaited her in Tennessee where her mother tried to ignore the life she had lived in Jackson , pretending she never loved a biker. Where social standing and designer labels were more important to her than the twice a year calls she made to Mollie on her birthday and at Christmas. She took Mollie’s sister, Katie, with her because she was blonde, because, unlike Mollie, she looked nothing like their father. Mollie’s laugh was identical to his and their eyes are a perfect match of whiskey brown. And so Mollie was eager to numb the loss she told herself had nothing to do with her mother’s abandonment, the monotony of the constant party, the strict rules in place for the daughter of the president of the Ministry of Malice motorcycle club.
