The Fall and Rise of Kade Hart: A Hart Brothers Novel (39 page)

When I look back, I reflect on how I
would’ve been so different if Langston hadn’t raised me. But
sometimes you have to fall and fall hard before you can rise. And
other times it takes someone like Juliette to help you rise. It did
for me. Langston may have been to blame for the fall, but Juliette
is responsible for the rise of Kade Hart.

For as long as she could remember, Serena
Callahan wanted to learn how to SCUBA dive. She’d first fallen in
love with the idea when she watched her little goldfish swim around
in their bowl, but it wasn’t until she saw the movie
The Little
Mermaid
that she became obsessed with it.

Only Serena had a problem. She was the
youngest of three children and had been born twenty years too late
to aging parents that didn’t care a whit about her. She grew up
isolated within her own household, ignored, unloved, and
unwanted.

Serena would dream about what her life would
be like when she grew up. She would live by the sea, spend her time
underwater talking to sea creatures, until she grew old and
died.

But she knew she had to have a plan. So she
took a nosedive—right into her schoolwork. It wasn’t that
difficult. She had no friends. All the girls made fun of her
because she wore grossly outdated clothing that were hand me downs
from her older sisters. They smelled like mothballs and were
stained and moth-eaten from being stored in the old attic for so
many years. And boys—well, they were equally bad, cutting off
chunks of her hair in class and writing nasty words on the back of
her ugly blouses. Serena learned to ignore them, shut them out.

She lived in a world inside of her own
head.

When it came time to apply to college, her
test scores were unreal, and her high grades ensured her acceptance
to the best of universities. But there was one obstacle. Her
parents wanted her to stay home to care for them. They were older
now and needed her assistance.

Guilt almost kept her there, until a kind
and perceptive counselor at school persuaded her to accept a
scholarship from Duke University. She explained that since Serena
was now eighteen, she could legally live on her own. So it was
after she graduated from high school that she left the confines of
her parents’ home and moved to Durham, North Carolina to begin a
new life. She got a job in the Marine Laboratory assisting research
scientists, and with the money she saved, she took SCUBA classes
and became PADI certified.

Serena took to SCUBA diving as if she’d been
born a fish. The first day, when they instructed the students how
to use the buoyancy control device, she was the only one that
didn’t need assistance. She adjusted hers correctly to give her
zero buoyancy in the water, so she neither floated to the surface
nor sank to the bottom.

Then when they added the tank and regulator
and told the students to breath naturally, Serena felt like she was
on land. The first day they let the students stay under water the
entire class, she had the most oxygen left in her tank. She was
proud because her instructor told her it meant she was breathing
normally and didn’t have any anxiety under water. She couldn’t wait
for the day to take her certification exam. For the first time in
her life, she felt like she was an equal to the other students. No
one made fun of her, ridiculed her, or bullied her. She finally
felt at home.

So, after Serena attained her BS degree and
decided to work on her master’s, it was with monumental excitement
that she took her first trip to the United States and British
Virgin Islands with a diving group from the marine biology
department. They would be collecting and gathering different
species that were indigenous to the area and would study them to
identify any mutations in response to environmental factors.

There were six students, professors, and
masters candidates altogether. Serena would be writing a paper on
her findings with the hope it would be published.

Several of the dives would be conducted
during the night and they would be divided into teams of two. One
team would be dropped off at one point and the other team at
another. The boat would then come back to retrieve them an hour
later.

As Serena was collecting samples that night,
when she was getting ready to surface, she spied an unusual
necklace, an oval-shaped, odd colored stone, suspended from a black
chain. She stuffed it in her mesh bag, and then surfaced from her
dive, intending to pay closer attention to her finding at a later
time. She often found things while diving—jewelry, sunglasses,
money, you name it. But this seemed special, different. But she
might be wrong, because it was hard to tell sometimes under
water.

When she arrived back at her hotel room, she
was pleasantly surprised. The necklace was quite attractive. She
decided she would box it up and take it home with her, hiding it
amongst her other jewelry, and not claim it as a dive
discovery.

The next morning, after Serena was dressed,
she was on her way down to eat breakfast when she remembered her
necklace. Grabbing it off the desk, she quickly put it with the
rest of her jewelry, but what she couldn’t have known was she had
just sealed her fate, a fate filled with danger that would lead her
down a path she could never have anticipated.

The End

For Now

Juliette

Kade was right. Separating myself from the
necklace broke the bond of my shadows. When we came home from our
trip, I could no longer see them. For a week, maybe two, I would
call to the one at night, but he never came. Until one night, I’d
finally given up hope. I was outside with Ethel when I felt that
familiar disturbance of air. He didn’t speak aloud like he did in
the past. He brushed past me and filled my mind with a farewell. I
got the sense that they were still out there somewhere, but since
the necklace was no longer in my possession, my ability to
recognize them had been taken away. The necklace had kept them tied
to me. I still refuse to go out after dark, only traveling by car,
and only with Kade.

At times I wonder what that necklace really
meant and if my father was tangled up in some sort of organized
crime. The best conclusion I can come up with is the Russian mob. I
can’t for the life of me understand why my father would involve
himself in something so shady and dark. He never seemed the type
that would do something like that. I suppose I’ll never have the
answer.

We decided to get married at Kade’s
brother’s house in Charleston. They were gracious enough to plan
everything for us and take care of all the arrangements.

The day we boarded the private jet that
would fly us there, my nerves were on edge. The memories it evoked
aren’t great ones. Kade pulled me close and reminded me that the
past is the past and the future is our gift.

Our arrival in Charleston was amazing. A
limousine whisked us off to a hotel suite, where every amenity
awaited us. After we relaxed, another limo drove us to Kestrel and
Carter’s house, and I immediately fell in love with Kade’s family.
His brothers were warm and welcoming, and his sisters-in-law took
me under their wings and treated me like they had known me forever.
But the baby, Daniel, was so precious; I couldn’t seem to keep my
hands off him. His chubby cheeks begged to be kissed and squeezed,
and his giggles were contagious. Kade was equally smitten. He
laughed at Kestrel because apparently Kestrel was never one who
wanted children, but now he is the epitome of the perfect dad.
Carter can’t lift a finger before Kestrel already completes the
task.

“So, Kestrel, it looks like you’re a diaper
pro,” Kade remarked.

“I have it down to less than thirty seconds.
The little man here is very cooperative.”

Carter shook her head.

We spent an enjoyable evening together, and
the girls told me what was in store for the next day, our wedding
day. Carter showed me pictures of her wedding day and said she
ordered flowers similar to the ones she and Kestrel had. Everything
was set for six in the evening.

“So, Juliette, your honeymoon sounds
awesome,” Gabby said.

“Yes. I’m super excited. I’ve never been to
Europe before. Kade is the one who suggested the coasts of Spain
and France. But Charleston would have been great too.”

Charleston is a wonderful city. It reminded
of my hometown, New Orleans, except on a smaller scale.

Our wedding day dawned bright and beautiful,
with not a cloud on the horizon. It was April and the weather was
perfect. My dress was an ivory silk sheath with a lace overlay on
the top. Kestrel walked me down the aisle and Kade didn’t break a
smile. He looked so serious, it actually worried me a bit. But when
we turned to face each other and say our vows, I knew why. He
leaned into me and whispered, “I am the luckiest man alive. And
it’s all because of you.”

I would’ve argued that he had that
backwards, but then it would be tit for tat, and our vows took care
of everything we needed to say to each other. The strange thing
was, if all of that horror hadn’t happened, I never would’ve ended
up in Denver, at St. John the Baptist, and Kade and I would never
have met. Life works in odd ways sometimes. I can’t say I’m happy I
lived through all of what I did, but I wouldn’t take Kade out of my
life for anything. He said I’m responsible for lifting him up after
his fall, but he’s my light and he chased away the darkness that
haunted my existence. I often wonder where I would be if it hadn’t
been for him. I don’t ever want to find out the answer to that.

After we returned to Denver from our
honeymoon, Kade told me he had a surprise for me. We got in his
truck and drove to the cemetery. When we arrived, he escorted me to
a giant headstone. On it read:
In loving memory of Christopher,
Kathleen, and Sylvie Bressan. May they rest in peace.

I was speechless. My hands ran over the
words, touched their names, and then I cried. It had been a while
since I’d thought of them. But the idea of a memorial to them had
never crossed my mind. That Kade thought of it meant so much to me.
“Thank you. This means more to me than you’ll ever know.” And I
pressed myself against him, knowing I’d never want to let him
go.

In my dreams, when I’m unusually tired, I
still hear the voice of my shadow telling me to take care at night.
I sense he is angry that I tossed the necklace into the sea. We
argue back and forth, but then I wake up and laugh at myself. I’ve
always been one to have crazy dreams, so I’m sure this experience
has only added to them. Sometimes my dreams are of my family, of
how I found them, and I wake up terrified. But Kade is there to
calm me and pull me back to the present.

As for my shadows, as time passes, I wonder
if I really did see them or if they were something my stressed
brain conjured up. Kade insists they were real, as real as their
footprints in the snow and the necklace I threw into the sea. All I
know is my family died for some unknown reason and I’ll have to
settle for the fact that I’ll never find out why.

Thank you so much for reading The Fall and
Rise of Kade Hart. I hope you enjoyed this
not-your-run-of-the-mill-romantic-suspense. Over the last year I’ve
gotten so many requests to write another Guardian-like series that
it got my wheels spinning. I thought about how it would be to
introduce a group of mysterious guys in one of my contemporary
novels and do a spin-off about them. So that’s how The Seven were
spawned. (No, Candace, I was not smoking crack when I wrote this
book, LOL!) As you’ve probably figured out, there will be a spin
off of this featuring Serena Callahan and Sabin’s Seven. The book,
Sabin, A Seven Novel
, will be released in
September 2015. More information about this mysterious group of men
will be revealed to you then.

If you could be so kind and take a few
moments to write a brief review at your favorite e-tailer, or
wherever you purchased this book, I would very much appreciate it.
If you could help spread the word, that would also be appreciated.
Tell your family, friends, aunts, cousins, uncles, (well, maybe not
your uncles—not unless they like hot romance novels!). Hell, tell
your frenemies, too. Whatever. Indie Authors appreciate any kind of
buzz (even the vodka kind!), so I’ll take that, too, as long as it
doesn’t come with a drive-by egging. Just saying. This author
thanks you in advance for doing so.

About the Author

Reader, Writer, Dark Chocolate Lover, Ice
Cream Worshipper, Coffee Drinker, Lover of Grey Goose (and an extra
dirty martini), Puppy Lover, and if you’re ever around me for more
than five minutes, you’ll find out I’m a talker.

A.M. Hargrove divides her time between the
mountains of North Carolina and the upstate of South Carolina where
she pursues her dream career of writing. If she could change
anything in the world, she would make chocolate and ice cream a
part of the USDA food groups. Annie writes romance in several
genres, including adult, new adult, and young adult. Her books
usually include lots of suspense and thrills and she sometimes
ventures into the paranormal, sci-fi and fantasy blend.

Other Books by A. M.
Hargrove

The Guardians of Vesturon Series:

Survival, Book 1

Resurrection, Book 2

Determinant, Book 3

reEmergent, Book 4

Dark Waltz, A Praestani Novel

Death Waltz, A Praestani Novel