Trouble Maker: A MacKenzie Family Novel (The MacKenzie Family)
Read Trouble Maker: A MacKenzie Family Novel (The MacKenzie Family) Online
Authors: Liliana Hart
Trouble Maker
By Liliana Hart
A MacKenzie Family Novel
Trouble Maker
A MacKenzie Family Novel
Copyright 2016 Liliana Hart
ISBN: 978-1-942299-46-2
Published by Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.
Trouble Maker
by Liliana Hart
Marnie Whitlock has never known what it’s like to be normal. Her ability to see the future and people’s innermost thoughts makes her an outcast—feared—loathed. Even by her own parents. And her father is determined to beat the curse out of her. Her only chance for survival is to escape Surrender.
Beckett Hamilton has loved Marnie since they were kids, but one horrible night destroyed any future he’d hoped for. Now Marnie was back in Surrender, and picking up where they left off is the only thing on his mind. He finds out quickly that some hearts take longer to heal, and not everyone that’s broken can be fixed. But loving Marnie isn’t an option—it’s his destiny.
Liliana Hart is a
New York Times
,
USA Today
, and Publisher's Weekly Bestselling Author of more than 40 titles. After starting her first novel her freshman year of college, she immediately became addicted to writing and knew she'd found what she was meant to do with her life. She has no idea why she majored in music.
Since self-publishing in June of 2011, Liliana has sold more than 4 million ebooks and been translated into eight languages. She's appeared at #1 on lists all over the world and all three of her series have appeared on the New York Times list. Liliana is a sought after speaker and she's given keynote speeches and self-publishing workshops to standing-room-only crowds from California to New York to London.
Liliana can almost always be found at her computer writing or on the road giving workshops for SilverHart International, a company she founded with her husband, Scott Silverii, where they provide law enforcement, military, and fire resources for writers so they can write it right. Liliana is a recent transplant to Southern Louisiana, where she's getting used to the humidity and hurricane season, and plotting murders (for her books, of course).
Connect with me online:
My Website:
www.lilianahart.com
Click to purchase
The MacKenzie Series
The MacKenzie Security Series
(Includes the 3 books listed above)
1001 Dark Nights: Captured in Surrender
THE COLLECTIVE SERIES
THE RENA DRAKE SERIES
ADDISON HOLMES MYSTERIES
JJ GRAVES MYSTERIES
STANDALONE NOVELS/NOVELLAS
Goldilocks and the Three Behrs
A huge thank you to M.J. Rose and Liz Berry for listening to me when I said I had a crazy idea. You never blinked and you saw all the possibilities. You guys are, as always, amazing and treasured friends.
Thanks to Christopher Rice, Cristin Harber, Avery Flynn, Robin Covington, and Kimberly Kincaid for agreeing to be part of this project. You guys are all exceptional and I’m so honored that you chose to explore the MacKenzie World.
Thanks to Jillian Stein for doing such an amazing job with social media and promo. You’re the best!
And a huge thanks to my husband, Scott Silverii, for staying up with me until four in the morning while I finished this book. And also for providing me with Milk Duds and Route 44 iced tea. It’s nice to surface from a book haze and see you’re still there, plugging along with me. I love you more than you can imagine.
An Introduction to the MacKenzie Family World
Dear Readers,
I’m thrilled to be able to introduce the MacKenzie Family World to you. I asked five of my favorite authors to create their own characters and put them into the world you all know and love. These amazing authors revisited Surrender, Montana, and through their imagination you’ll get to meet new characters, while reuniting with some of your favorites.
These stories are hot, hot, hot—exactly what you’d expect from a MacKenzie story—and it was pure pleasure for me to read each and every one of them and see my world through someone else’s eyes. They definitely did the series justice, and I hope you discover five new authors to put on your auto-buy list.
Make sure you check out
Troublemaker,
a brand new, full-length MacKenzie novel written by me. And yes, you’ll get to see more glimpses of Shane before his book comes out next year.
So grab a glass of wine, pour a bubble bath, and prepare to Surrender.
Love Always,
Liliana Hart
Available now! Click to purchase.
Trouble Maker
by Liliana Hart
Rush
by Robin Covington
Bullet Proof
by Avery Flynn
Delta: Rescue
by Cristin Harber
Deep Trouble
by Kimberly Kincaid
Desire & Ice
by Christopher Rice
Table Of Contents
An introduction to the MacKenzie Family World by Liliana Hart
Discover the Liliana Hart MacKenzie Family Collection
Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights
Excerpt from Whiskey on the Rocks by Liliana Hart
To Scott–– Because you told me you loved my “winter body” and it made me laugh. I must really love you.
"Trouble is the next best thing to enjoyment; there is no fate in the world so horrible as to have no share in either its joy or sorrows."
~Henry Wordsworth Longfellow
Surrender, Montana
Fifteen Years Ago…
She’d seen her father’s death.
Marnie Whitlock curled into a ball on the small twin bed and whimpered as pain shot through her body at the movement. The brutal heat of the day had carried into night, and there was no air conditioning in the small two-bedroom house she’d lived in her entire life. The old wooden window in her room was swollen with age, but she’d managed to raise it a few precious inches earlier that day. The breeze barely stirred the worn Priscillas hanging from the curtain rod.
She shivered under the thin, nubby sheet as fever crept through her body. She couldn’t remember ever hurting as badly as she did in that moment. In one year and three days she’d taste freedom. She’d pack her bags and never set foot in Surrender, Montana, again.
Innocence was such a fragile thing. She hadn’t been innocent since the age of four—since the first time he’d taken the tanned leather belt he wore like a religion around his waist and beat her bloody. Her mother had stood by helpless, wringing her hands and wondering if her turn was coming. But she never interfered or tried to protect her daughter from the vicious arcs of the belt.
Even at four years old, Marnie knew she’d done wrong. Daddy said she had the devil inside of her, and her mama always told her to watch what she said. It was her own fault she got the beating. Daddy didn’t like hearing about it when she saw things that weren’t right in front of her own eyes. And she’d been sassy on top of it because she’d asked how come there weren’t any presents under the little Christmas tree someone had given them.
“My friend Darcy has lots of presents under her Christmas tree. How come we don’t have any? You’ve got all that money just sitting in your glove box. You’re supposed to provide. Mrs. Beasley said it’s a man’s duty to provide for his family. And Mama had to put back all those groceries when we were at the store yesterday because she didn’t have enough money.”
“Marnie,” her mama whispered, appalled. She looked back and forth between her child and her husband. “We’ve got what we need. Don’t sass your daddy.”
“How do you know about the money in the glove box, Marnie?” Daddy asked.
His voice was real soft. Gentle even. He sat in the secondhand recliner and kept his eyes on the television.
Marnie looked at her mama, but she had her head down, focused on the dishes she was washing in the sink. But Marnie could see her hands were shaking.
“I saw it,” Marnie said, clutching her nightgown with her fist.
“You went outside and saw it in my truck?”
She hesitated in answering and he turned his head to look at her—frigid blue eyes the color of a lake in winter.
“You were snooping through my truck?” he asked a different way.
“I just saw it,” she said softly, her heart thudding in her chest. “Like in a dream.” Her daddy was scary. But when he looked at her like that he was the scariest. She felt warmth dribble down her legs and to the floor as her bladder released. No one moved.
He stood up slowly and towered over her, and she heard her mother’s whimper from the kitchen as she continued with the dishes.
“What else did you see?”
“I—I don’t know,” she stuttered out. “You were just playing cards. And then you took all the money and put it in the glove box. You drove into town and that lady was waiting for you on the steps. How come you kissed her but you never kiss Mama?”
