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Inizio la giornata con una segnalazione. Oggi esce in inglese “Fighting Shadows”, il nuovo romanzo di Aly Martinez. Si tratta del 2° volume della trilogia 'On the Ropes'.
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Fighting Shadows
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DATA DI PUBBLICAZIONE: 7 luglio
Fighting Shadows (On te Ropes, #2)
Vengo da una famiglia di combattenti. Ho sempre pensato che avrei
seguito le loro orme, diventando un lottatore inarrestabile sul ring. Tutto è
cambiato il giorno in cui ho salvato la vita di una donna che amavo, ma non
avrei mai potuto avere. Mio fratello mi ha accolto come un eroe, e la mia
ricompensa è stata una sedia a rotelle. Da quando sono paralizzato la mia vita
è diventata un incubo da cui non posso più fuggire. Finché ho incontrato lei.
Ash Mabie aveva un sorriso che faceva smettere il tuo cuore di battere e una
risata che intorpidiva la rabbia e il risentimento dentro di me. Lei mi ha
mostrato che la notte più oscura è piena di stelle, e non importava che tu
dovessi sdraiarti sull’erbaccia per vederle. Ero un coglione stanco che si è
innamorato di una ragazza con un talento per la fuga. Io non riuscivo nemmeno a
camminare ma avrei voluto trascorrere una vita intera ad inseguirla. Ora, sono
alle corde con la battaglia più dura della mia vita. Lottare contro le ombre
del mio passato. Lottare per rivendicare il mio futuro. Lottare per lei.
ESTRATTO #1
Prologo
Ash
“Where the fuck have you been?” a man’s voice growled as soon as I entered the conference room.
My eyes flashed to his for only a single second before I recognized them. The door had barely clicked behind me but I already wanted nothing more than to bolt. My heart raced and my mouth dried.
I had to get out of there.
“Um…” I stalled, giving myself time to formulate a plan.
“Sit. Down,” he ordered, pushing out the chair next to him, but there was no way I was getting that close.
“I’m good,” I said, taking a step backwards toward the door.
“Don’t even think about it,” he snapped. “I swear to God, if you so much as open that door…” His words may have trailed off, but the threat was clearly stated.
I swallowed hard, and slowly walked to the chair farthest away from him, perching on the very edge—waiting for just the right moment to escape. He looked down at the name badge around my neck and quirked an eyebrow.
“Victoria?”
“You can call me Tori if it’s easier.” I tried to fake a smile, but it only seemed to infuriate him. He took several calming breaths, which did nothing to dampen the blaze brewing in his angry eyes.
“I’ve been looking for you, Ash.” He snarled my name.
“Oh, yeah? Well, mystery solved. Here I am.” I pushed back to my feet, but was halted when his fist pounded against the table. I jumped as my whole body flinched from the surprise.
When the room fell silent, I slowly looked back up to find him staring at me with a murderous glare. Even sitting down I could tell he was huge, and as he held my gaze, the tense muscles in his neck and shoulders strained against the cotton of his grey Henley. He blinked at me for several seconds before finding his voice again.
“You live in a homeless shelter,” he stated definitively, as if the words told a story all of their own.
And maybe they did.
“I work at a homeless shelter,” I quickly corrected.
Only he corrected me just as fast. “In exchange for a permanent place to live…In. A. Homeless. Shelter.” He enunciated every single syllable. I looked away, because it was the truth.
A truth that I hated.
But the God’s honest truth nonetheless.
Tears welled in my eyes and I battled to keep them at bay.
My life was hard, but him being there made it infinitely harder. If I could just escape that room, I could disappear again. It wasn’t ideal, but neither was him showing up.
“I want you to leave.” I lied with all the false courage I could muster.
“I can’t do that. You stole something of mine.”
“Look, I don’t have your book anymore.”
A knowing smirk lifted one side of his mouth. “Liar,” he whispered, reaching into the chair beside him, revealing the tattered book and ceremoniously dropping it on the table.
My eyes went wide, and without a conscious thought, I dove across the table after it.
That was mine.
Not even he could have it.
Just as quickly as the book appeared, he snatched it away and grabbed my wrist.
I slid off the table and tried to pull my arm from his grasp. It was a worthless attempt though because even if he had suddenly released me, his blue eyes held me frozen in place.
“Three fucking years,” he seethed.
“I had to,” I squeaked out as the tears streamed down my cheeks.
“Three. Fucking. Years, Ash. You took something that belonged to me.” He released my arm and pushed to his feet.
My mouth fell open and a loud gasp escaped as he took two impossible steps forward.
Pinning me against the wall with his hard body, he lifted a hand to my throat and glided it up until his thumb stroked over my bottom lip. Using my chin, he turned my head, and dragged his nose up my neck, stopping at my ear.
Sucking in a deep breath, he released it on a gravelly demand. “And I want her back.”
My breath hitched.
I’d waited years to hear those words.
If only I could have trusted them.
“Flint, please.”
ESTRATTO #new
Flint e Ash
Ash’s smile actually slipped completely. For the briefest of seconds, she appeared almost ashamed.
I dragged my eyes away from her in order to answer his question, but as I looked at my wrist, I had no answer at all.
“Here,” she said as she pulled my watch from her pocket.
What. The. Fuck?
Quarry howled with laughter, and Ash chewed on her bottom lip.
“Explain,” I demanded, wrapping my watch back around my wrist and shoving my wallet in the front pocket of my hoodie.
Quarry filled in the blank. “She’s a pickpocket, dude. You should have seen her when she fell on your lap. It was so fucking fast. She straight-up stole that shit from you, and you had no fucking clue.”
“I didn’t steal it! I was gonna give it back,” she amended uncomfortably. “It was just a joke.”
A joke.
A. Fucking. Joke.
And just like that, I remembered why I didn’t laugh anymore.
“Was it funny? Stealing from the cripple? You get a good laugh out of that?” I snapped, spinning and rolling myself away. “You know, maybe my judgment of you wasn’t all that off to begin with. Like father, like daughter, I guess.” It was a low blow, but I felt completely betrayed by a woman I didn’t even know.
“Flint, wait. I wasn’t picking on the cripple!”
I fully realized that I had just used the term, but it enraged me that she’d had the audacity to repeat it back to me. Who the hell was this chick? I pushed a hand into my pocket, searching for my keys. Fuck the food. I’d leave her ass there. Hell, Quarry too if he didn’t get his ass to the car.
“Get in the car, Q!” I yelled, only to close my eyes and drop my chin to my chest when my hand never made contact on the keys. “Son of a bitch,” I said as I spun back around.
Quarry was laughing next to her, but Ash’s cheeks were bright red.
“Keys.” I snapped my fingers and opened my hand, palm up.
“Stop being a dick,” Quarry said, casually tossing an arm around Ash’s shoulders.
She didn’t budge as she held my glare.
“Keys,” I repeated, but she remained still.
“It was a joke.” Her chin began to quiver.
For fuck’s sake, I wasn’t in any kind of mood to deal with bullshit from some girl I didn’t even know and was quickly discovering I didn’t care to know, either.
Quarry’s eyes grew wide as she turned to him and buried her cries in his chest.
What the fuck, asshole! Q signed before rubbing his hands over her back.
Her shoulders shook as she let out a loud sob that shocked us both.
“Come on. Let’s sit down.” Q tried to guide her over to an empty table.
Ash refused to look up and tripped over one of the chairs.
“Shit,” Q said, catching her around the waist.
I was just about to roll my eyes when she glanced my way. He was still trying to get her back on her feet and over to a table when her tear-free, bright-blue eyes pointedly glanced in my direction. My head snapped back in surprise, but a smile grew on her face.
Ash was about to put on a show, and with that one look, she had invited me to have a front-row seat.
As she floundered all over Quarry, her hands slid between his pockets and her own. Every noise she made and each time she flailed covered up a jarring movement. She was keeping his mind too busy for it to process all the places she was touching him. Hell, I was only watching her and I could barely keep up.
There was no denying that it was entertaining, but I wasn’t willing to show her that. However, as she accidentally lifted her knee, catching Q in the balls, a laugh erupted from my throat. He cupped his crotch while she apologized profusely and pushed him toward the same chair he’d been dragging her to only seconds before. Just before he sat, Ash swung her arm out, unwinding Q’s belt from around his body before tossing it at me. “Oh God. I’m so sorry!” she said as Quarry held a finger up to ask for a second to recover. She didn’t wait at all though. Instead, she walked over in my direction; her prideful smile grew with every step.
She pulled my keys out of her pocket and dropped them into my lap. They were quickly followed by Quarry’s phone, wallet, and house keys. Then she snagged his belt off the floor and tossed it over her shoulder.
“It had absolutely nothing to do with you being in a wheelchair. It was a joke and it wasn’t supposed to piss you off.”
“Hey!” Quarry yelled. “That was messed up. You did not have to knee me in the balls to prove a point to him.”
“Oh, that wasn’t to prove a point. That was for bullshitting me. You knew good and damn well that he wouldn’t find it funny,” she said without ever tearing her gaze from mine. “Look, I’m sorry. I don’t have a lot of friends. And I’ve mentally noted that pickpocketing might not be the best way to make new ones.” She shrugged. “Consider it a lesson learned.”
“Three burgers all the way, onion rings, and a shake?” the guy at the counter called out.
Ash arched an eyebrow. “You want it to go, or are we good?”
I didn’t have to drop my attitude. Sure, she’d apologized, but while I might have had a short fuse, I also had a hell of a long burn. However, as she stood in front of me with her arms crossed over her chest and her blue eyes pleading for forgiveness, it magically fell away.
I swallowed hard. “No. We’re good.”
“You sure?” She leaned in, eyeing me warily, but her smile began to grow.
I swear to God it pulled at my lips as well. I fought it. But the harder I tried to keep it restrained, the bigger Ash’s grew. She was stealing my smile. The chick was good! Finally, with an eye roll, I let out a quiet chuckle, which seemed to appease her.
“Good. Now, help your brother get redressed and I’ll make the fancy sauce.” She waggled her eyebrows.
L'autrice:
Aly Martinez
Nata e cresciuta a Savannah, in Georgia, Aly Martinez trascorre le giornate a casa a fare la mamma di quattro bambini con meno di cinque anni, inclusi due gemelli. Attualmente vive nel Sud Carolina, e passa il tempo libero leggendo un po’ di tutto, preferibilmente con un bicchiere di vino fra le mani. Dopo alcuni incoraggiamenti da parte dei suoi amici, Aly ha deciso di aggiungere “Autrice” alla lista sempre più numerosa delle sue occupazioni. Dopo cinque libri, non mostra segni di cedimento. Così afferrate un bicchiere di chardonnay, o una bottiglia se avete intenzione di frequentarla per unirvi a lei a bordo del viaggio folle della vita, così come lo chiama lei.
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