Beyond the Blue Horizon by A.L. Jackson will be out Oct. 7th. Get a first look of her upcoming book about a single mom, he falls first, small-town romance!
I should have known I’d break the promise I made when I found her stranded in a blizzard…
Feisty as hell and the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen.
With the cutest kid and her grandmother in tow, she’s completely off limits.
I don't get involved with women like that.
I learned long ago I don't have the ability to love.
My life is sordid and danger is always hiding in the shadows.
Only I can’t turn my back on them when I realize she’s in trouble, and I insist on them staying in a cabin at the motel I own.
As penance for my sins, I promised my life to protecting others.
Except she becomes so much more.
A need I don’t recognize. A desperation that burns beneath my flesh.
One kiss, and I’m falling for her.
One touch, and I’m at her feet.
But when my dark past comes back to haunt me, I’m in a race against time to save the only woman I’ve ever loved. Only it may be the demons that have been chasing her that destroy what we built…
What to Expect in Beyond the Blue Horizon:
Single Mom
He Falls First
Hate to Love
Morally Gray Hero
Heroine in Hiding
Motel Shenanigans
Ex-Motorcyle Club
Secret Society
Band of Brothers
Small Town Romance
Excerpt (Chapter 1)
The squall of snow came sideways across the road, the gusts of wind howling through the trees as the storm pounded its fury out on the earth.
I was barely able to see a hundred feet in front of me, which was why I was squinting extra hard as I tried to make out the faint glow of red up ahead.
Taillights.
Another vehicle was traveling through the hazardous blitz.
Didn’t know why that bothered me so much, but worry suddenly blistered up beneath the surface of my skin.
Maybe it was instinct.
A sixth sense when things were about to go to shit.
Because the car started to take a curve that eased a bit to the left—one I knew like the back of my hand considering I normally flew along this road on my bike.
Only the lights suddenly whipped harshly to the right then gave into a full spin. A flash of color and a shockwave of disorder that I could feel diffuse across the space.
“Shit.” It left me on a ragged breath.
Sweat instantly slicking my palms, I gripped tight to the steering wheel as I sped toward the car, heart fuckin’ pummeling my chest in a riot of dread.
Took me all of three seconds to travel the distance, and I came skidding to a stop off the side of the road, angling a fraction behind it so the car would be protected if someone came blazing around the bend, unprepared and unaware of an accident.
It was a small gray sedan that had taken a nosedive into a ditch.
I didn’t take the time to drag on my jacket. I tossed my truck into park, flipped on the hazards, and jumped out.
The pelting snow felt like tiny, fiery darts that impaled the bare flesh on my arms.
I ducked down against the frigid ferocity of the wind, blood sloshing in my veins as I ran up to the car, terrified of what I might find.
Never could stomach it when something happened to an innocent.
I ran up to the driver’s side door and jerked the handle.
Locked.
Alarm twisted through my insides, and I smacked my palm against the window. “Hey, are you okay in there? Can you hear me? Is anyone hurt?”
I could feel the energy radiating from the cab.
Disoriented fear.
Like whoever was inside might be in shock and unable to process what was happening.
Didn’t relish the idea of breaking the glass, but I’d do it with my bare hands if I needed to.
“Open the door. I’m here to help you,” I shouted, barely feeling the frigid cold that howled through the forest.
A fire lit through my being.
Fuck, please be okay.
I breathed out the smallest gush of air when the door finally clicked open, and the light inside the cab flicked on to reveal a woman in the driver’s seat. An older woman was in the passenger seat, but what sliced through me like a blade were the cries erupting from a small child in the back.
The airbags had deployed, and it looked like the windshield was busted to shit.
A scourge of distress poured out, and I bent at the knees so I could better assess the situation.
“Is anyone hurt?” The words scraped up my throat.
The driver finally shifted her face in my direction, giving me a look at her for the first time.
In an instant, I was nailed to the spot.
Held by these fucking giant blue eyes that stared back at me in shock.
The same color as the arctic lake that The Sanctuary was built up against.
Just as fuckin’ deep.
The kind if you even dipped your toes into it, you’d slip right in and drown.
But it was the stream of blood coming from a gash on her temple and running down her cheek that sent worry screaming through my body. Slammed with a rush of protectiveness so severe that I didn’t know what hit me.
I ground my teeth against it. Only I was fucked up enough to be thinking about how gorgeous this woman was when she was in the middle of a calamity. Wanting to sink my fingers into her flesh all while I wanted to make sure she was whole and complete.
Never claimed not to be a sadistic bastard.
“Are you okay?” I forced my voice into calm as I tried to break through the daze that had taken her hostage.
Attempting to get her to focus on me when I could see her spellbinding gaze whirring with confusion.
“Hey, I’m right here. We’re going to get you help. I just need to know if anyone is hurt.”
She blinked through the havoc, words breaking on her tongue. “I…my son.”
Rattled cries of terror were coming from the backseat.
“It’s alright. Just stay calm. I’ve got him.”
I pressed the locks on the inside of the door. They clicked, and I hurried to the back driver’s side door, pulling it open to expose the car seat that sat directly behind the driver’s seat.
It faced backward, and a toddler who I’d guess was maybe two was buckled into it. His blond hair struck in the bare glow that rained down from the cabin light. Fat tears ran down his chubby cheeks, and he pointed his little index finger toward the front.
“Mommy!” Fear distorted his face, his mouth tipping down deep on the sides.
Distraught and still cute as fuck.
“Hey, buddy.” It was impossible to keep it light and easy with the dread that barreled through, my words gritting against the thickness that held the air. “Your mommy is right here. She’s okay. You’re okay.”
At least, I hoped to God they were.
From where I stood, I couldn’t see any visible injuries on the child, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t suffering something internally.
“Does anything hurt, little man?” Tried to inject lightness into the question, hoping not to freak the kid out any more than he already was.
His head swished erratically in his seat, and he pressed his chest up against the restraints. “I not hurt. I want my mommy!”
I could feel the woman finally break through the haze. No doubt, her son’s pleas drove her to coherency. “It’s okay, baby. Mommy is right here. We just had a little accident. It’s okay.”
“O-kay.” He drew it out on this little cry, though his fear was tempered by her voice.
The woman shifted to peer at the older woman in the passenger seat who looked to be maybe in her early seventies. Just as confused as the driver, her gray hair sticking up all over the place as she tried to process what had happened.
“Are you okay, Nelly?” The words heaved from the driver.
The older woman inhaled a steadying breath.
“I think so. Might have scared the pants off me, but it doesn’t feel like any of these old bones are out of sorts any more than they normally are.”
The driver nodded, then started to fumble around to unbuckle.
“Think you should stay right there until we get someone out here to check you all out,” I warned.
“I’m fine,” she wheezed, ignoring my instruction.
“You have a nasty gash.”
“I said I’m fine.”
Before I could convince her otherwise, she was on her knees, turning around, and crawling through the narrow gap between the seats.
My guts clenched in uncontrollable greed as the dome light overhead illuminated the striking contours of her face.
Fuck me.
This woman was stunning.
The kind of exquisite that could cut through every roughed layer of a hardened man.
Crack him wide open and make him believe there might be a chance of beautiful things.
Too bad I had the propensity of destroying the beautiful.
That didn’t seem to sway the urge at all because my fingers itched to reach out and explore.
Wanting to drag them through her long hair that was so white it was nearly the color of the snow.
Trace them along a face that was a painting of perfection. Defined but soft on the edges.
Cheeks flushed from the adrenaline.
Lips plump and pink.
But maybe what was really stealing my breath was her fierce determination as she fought her way to her son.
Blood gushing from that cut and tenacity dripping from her veins.
Made her look like some kind of battle-torn angel.
Or maybe it was just my own adrenaline thundering through my being that was distorting my nerve endings. Sending my reaction sideways and slanting in a direction it shouldn’t go.
A trauma response.
Only I’d seen so much blood and gore in my life that I knew fuckin’ better than that.
I was nothing but a gluttonous fuck.
Wanting to devour the good and lay it to waste.
“Mommy is right here, baby.”
The second she set her knees on the seat next to him, the kid instantly stopped crying.
“Hi, Mommy.” Through his tears, he grinned this beaming smile, and she choked out a relieved laugh.
“Hi, baby,” she whispered. Her delicate hands started running over every exposed inch of his body.
His little arms and legs.
Over his head and chest and shoulders.
Searching for any injury.
“You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay,” she mumbled like maybe she was trying to convince herself.
“I okay. We go crash?”
“Yeah, just a little crash, but we’re okay. Everyone’s okay.”
“Mommy got owie?” He pointed at the cut on her head. His eyes that were the same color as hers were wide with innocent worry.
“It’s just a tiny bump. It doesn’t even hurt.”
Doubted that claim was actually legit. About an inch of flesh was busted open, and a steady stream of blood oozed from it.
“I’m going to grab the first aid kit and get an ambulance out here to check everyone out. Pretty sure your car isn’t going anywhere.”
Her attention flashed up to me when I said it.
A different kind of panic lit her gorgeous features. Could tell she wanted to argue, but then she was looking back at her son, torn by something I couldn’t make out.
“Okay,” she finally agreed, and I ducked out of the car and ran for my truck. I threw open the back door and dug out the kit from where I kept it stashed, then I nabbed my phone from the console and thumbed into the screen at the same time as I went running back for the car.
Fuck.
No service.
Guts twisting, I kept moving before I popped my head back through the rear passenger door. “There’s no service. We’re pretty deep in the woods and the storm is likely adding to it. I can probably get it about five miles up the road. Think we need to move you all into my truck. It’s warm and I can get you into town quickly.”
Didn’t love the idea of moving the kid, or any of them for that matter.
My only solace was he seemed unharmed.
“I thought you said you could get service five minutes up the road?”
I let go of a heavy exhale. “I said probably, but I’m not a hundred percent. Besides, I’m not sure how long it would take an ambulance to get out here in this storm. Might be best for me to drive you the whole way.”
A war went down in the middle of the woman.
This fiery hot protection that I could feel brimming from her flesh as she stared me down like she could see every sin I’d ever committed.
Thank fuck she couldn’t.
Otherwise, she’d have them all running out into the woods, figuring surviving the storm would be a whole lot safer than surviving me.
“Not going to hurt you. None of you. My name’s Theo. Theo Mallin.” The promise grated up my throat.
Disbelief shook her head. “And I’m just supposed to take your word for it?”
The older woman in the front seat shifted around and peered into the back. “We don’t have a lot of other options, Pipes, unless you want to sit out here and freeze to death, and that doesn’t sound like a real fun way to go to me.”
Good. At least she was in my corner. Seeing things rationally.
I turned back to the woman who was looking at me with so much distrust it was a wonder I didn’t turn to ash.
But apparently, it was too fuckin’ cold for fires because that flame burning from her was petering out.
She breathed out a frustrated sigh. “Fine. But know I will claw you to pieces if you even look at any of us wrong.”
Couldn’t stop the rough chuckle that rolled up my throat while something in my chest was clutching in a fist.
This woman was ferocious.
“Noted, Pipes.”
She sent me a scowl.
I ignored how much I liked it, and I angled my head toward my truck. “Come on. Let’s get you out of this storm.”
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