As the night ends, p.1
As the Night Ends, page 1
part #6 of Finley Creek Series
As the Night Ends
Calle J. Brookes
Lost River Lit Publishing, L.L.C.
Contents
Also by Calle J. Brookes
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132
Chapter 133
Chapter 134
Chapter 135
Chapter 136
Chapter 137
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140
Chapter 141
Chapter 142
Chapter 143
Chapter 144
Chapter 145
Chapter 146
Also by Calle J. Brookes
Other Titles by Calle J. Brookes
Paranormal
DARDANOS Paranormal Romance
Live or Die
The Blood King
The Seer’s Strength
The Warrior’s Woman
The Healer’s Heart
Once Wolf Bitten
Awakening the Demon’s Queen
The Wolf’s Redemption
The Wolf God & His Mate
God of Nightmares
DARDANOS: THE LAQUAZZEANA
A Warrior’s Quest
Out of the Darkness
Warrior Blind
The Witch
Balance of the Worlds
The Healer’s Soul
DARDANOS: THE ADRASTOS
The Outcast
The Forlorn
The Beloved
The Betrayed
Romantic Suspense
PAVAD: FBI ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Beginning (Prequel 1)
Waiting (Prequel 2)
Watching
Wanting
Second Chances
Hunting
Running
Redeeming
Revealing
Stalking
Ghosting
Burning
Gathering
Falling
Hiding
Suspense/Thriller
PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0001
“Knocked Out”
PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0002
“Knocked Down”
PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0003
“Knocked Around”
FINLEY CREEK SERIES
TRILOGY ONE
Her Best Friend’s Keeper
Shelter from the Storm
The Price of Silence
TRILOGY TWO
If the Dark Wins
Wounds that Won’t Heal
As the Night Ends
OTHER FINLEY STORIES
Hope for Finley Creek
MASTERSON COUNTY SERIES
Seeking the Sheriff
Discovering the Doctor
Ruining the Rancher
COMING SOON
Seeking (PAVAD)
Denying the Devil (Masterson)
Calle J. Brookes is first and foremost a fiction writer. She enjoys crafting paranormal romance and romantic suspense. She reads almost every genre except horror. She spends most of her time juggling family life and writing while reminding herself that she can’t spend all of her time in the worlds found within books. Calle J. loves to be contacted by her readers via email and at www.CalleJBrookes.com.
Calle has several free reads available at CalleJBrookesReads.com
For my grandfather, the best man I have ever known.
You will be missed.
Oct. 2015
For my grandmother, who gave me the courage to try. Without you and your love of romance, I never would have made it this far.
Feb. 2016
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As the Night Ends
Calle J. Brookes
Lost River Lit Publishing, L.L.C.
Springs Valley, Indiana
Est. 2011
The Lost River Lit Publishing, L.L.C. name and imprint are the sole properties of independent publishers Calle J. Brookes and B.G. Lashbrooks. They cannot be reproduced or used in any manner; nor can any of their publications or designs be used without expressed written permission.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, or locations, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
Copyright © 2018 Calle J. Brookes
Cover by Lost River Lit Publishing, L.L.C.
All rights reserved.
As the Night Ends
Finley Creek
Book 6
FINLEY CREEK
BOOK 6
“O hiding hair and dewy eyes,
I am no more with life and death,
My heart upon his warm heart lies,
My breath is mixed into his breath.
-WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
1
The glass taunted her.
Ariella Avery stood outside the Garrity County branch of the Texas State Police staring at the emblem sprawled over the tinted window, feeling like the biggest coward in creation.
It was just a woman. Just a stranger. She’d share a few words with her, see what the other woman thought about the entire evil birth mother thing, and then she would be free to get back on with her life.
Ari didn’t have to see this sister she’d never met before ever again. But she had been the one to start the hunt for her lost siblings, and she had to be the one to see it through.
Because a teenage boy was counting on her doing just that.
There was no way she was ever going to break a promise to Simon again. She’d told her little brother once that she would do whatever she had to in order to keep him safe.
Less than two weeks later he had almost died in her place.
Hard for her to forget that.
She would not fail Simon again.
“We don’t have to do this.” They had tw o other brothers and a sister who could have done this instead. Those three half-siblings were all older than Ariella, and a heck of a lot meaner. Braver. She wasn’t just the hundred-ten-pound runt of the pack, she was also the wimpiest. “I can page Ashton back. He’ll bring the car and we can arrange a meeting some other way.”
Rafe, the half-brother she’d known the least amount of time, ate people for breakfast on a regular basis. He certainly scared the crud out of Ariella every time she’d had the misfortune to catch his attention.
He could have done this, easily. And then walked away and forgotten it completely. She glanced over her shoulder in time to see the company car that had driven her and Simon the four counties south of where she lived.
“Why? You chicken?” Simon was only thirteen but as tall as she was and about twenty pounds or so heavier. Ariella was close to five-ten. He easily matched that—their two older brothers were both over six-and-a-half feet tall, broad-shouldered, and strong. Simon was going to be equally as big.
It was possible their mother had been tall, as well. No one except Simon knew for sure. And he refused to ever talk about her.
Denise Daviess had sold nearly all of her children, one-by-one, two-by-two, just whichever kid or kids she had with her at the time she needed some cash would go. Like…puppies. Ari still didn’t know how she’d fully managed it.
Ari had been worth a hundred grand to her birth mother. Money her father—a kind, loving, wonderful man who’d worked with his hands for a living—had barely had to spend. But he’d been determined to get his daughter.
Ari had gone home with her father from the hospital three days after she’d been born.
She’d never met her mother. And Ari never would.
Denise had done only one noble thing in her life—she’d died trying to protect Simon from a killer.
A killer Ari had brought into the then twelve-year-old Simon’s life.
“I’m going in.” Simon shot a look of determination at her and crossed narrow arms over his skinny chest. “You can stay out here and be a big wimp if you want.”
“Don’t be a butt, Simon.”
He grinned, looking very much like their eldest brother. “Come on. What’s the worst that could happen? We don’t like her? She’s a serial killer? We’ve both already done that.”
Yes, they had. And the kid had put things in real perspective. Ari wrapped her hand around the metal handle and opened the door.
The Garrity TSP post was tiny. Three desks were in what passed as the bullpen and there were two doors leading off that area. One had Sheriff Zoey Daviess emblazoned on the glass. Ari pivoted and headed there.
Toward yet another sister.
She wished her older sister Paige was there to do this. An FBI agent, Paige would have been right at home in the small police station.
Ari, not so much.
Simon took another step toward the door. Ari firmed her resolve—she would not be wimpier than a not quite fourteen-year-old boy.
A receptionist, a pretty Native American woman probably in her mid-fifties, stopped them. “Zo—oh. Well…I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else. May I help you?”
“We’re here to see Sheriff Daviess.”
“Of course. I’ll tell Zoey you’re here…” The woman hesitated. “And what names should I give her? And the reason for your visit?”
“It’s Ariella Avery, and this is a private family matter. Thank you.”
Ari waited while the woman knocked on and then entered the sheriff’s office door. Her eyes met Simon’s; the kid just smirked. If he felt fear, he was darned good at hiding it. The brat.
He was becoming more and more like their eldest brother Luc every day. It could be worse. He could act more like their other older brother. Rafe defined the word misanthrope well at times. At least where his biological family was concerned.
With Jillian, Rafe had done a complete one-eighty. He adored his new fiancée. And had nearly died protecting Jillian. To see the love he had for Ari’s best friend after all of the hell they’d been through was wonderful. Ari could never ask for more for Jillian. Except that her friend had fallen for any other man than Rafe, the brother who definitely hadn’t wanted Ari, Simon, Paige, or Luc in his life.
The woman returned, a perplexed expression on her face. “Sheriff Daviess will see you now.”
“Thank you.”
Simon glanced at her, a sudden vulnerability in the eyes that were identical to Ari’s.
Ari pulled in a deep breath—she was twice Simon’s age, an adult. Ari had started this whole quest and he was looking toward her to get through this. No one who had spent a dozen years facing constant rejection enjoyed walking into a situation where rejection was a high probability. Especially a child. She knew that from personal experience. He needed her.
She grabbed her little brother’s hand and stepped toward the sheriff’s office.
It was now or never.
The sheriff met them at the door. Ari stopped and just stared.
“Wow!” Simon said, recovering faster than Ari. “Cool!”
Cool wasn’t exactly the word Ari would use to describe the woman staring back at her.
Eerie, surreal. Strange. Those were better words. Far better words.
“What can I do for you?” The woman’s voice was cool. Her body language said Stay Away loud and clear. More nerves filled Ari, shaking her out of her shock.
She and Paige looked a good deal alike—but this woman… There was no denying she and Ari were related. At all. Other than the fact that Zoey Daviess had a good thirty or so pounds on Ari, they were almost identical.
Sixteen months separated them in age. Which wasn’t much. People seeing them side by side would think they were twins. No doubt about it.
She hadn’t expected this, even though she, Paige, Simon, Luc, and Rafe did resemble each other strongly.
“Well?” The woman wasn’t exactly welcoming. “Who are you? Why are you here?”
That didn’t make any sense. She’d emailed Zoey not even three days ago to set up this meeting. “I’m Ariella; we spoke through email. About our biological mother.”
