Avenged Read online

  Avenged

  By Jay Crownover

  A MacKenzie Family Novella

  Introduction by Liliana Hart

  Avenged

  A MacKenzie Family Novella

  Copyright 2017 Jay Crownover

  ISBN: 978-1-942299-77-6

  Introduction copyright 2017 Liliana Hart

  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.

  Book Description

  Avenged

  By Jay Crownover

  New York Times bestselling author Jay Crownover brings heat and heart to Liliana Hart’s MacKenzie family with AVENGED…

  Girl meets boy…

  On the worst night of her life when she’s decided to take a drastic step that there is no going back from.

  Girl is used to sitting by, letting fate deal cruel hand after cruel hand to good people with soft hearts and she’s had enough.

  Girl thinks it’s time to fight back against fate and against men who aren’t careful with all the precious things a woman in love has to give him.

  Fate shows girl who’s boss and turns her world and plans upside down without breaking a sweat.

  Boy meets girl…

  On the best night of his life when he’s decided that he’s going to make moves to be the man he was always meant to be instead of the man he was trained and conditioned to be.

  Boy is used to a solitary life, quiet in the woods and knowing the only thing that might be looking for him is trouble and trouble is no longer his stock in trade.

  Boy thinks it’s time to show trouble who’s boss, even if this trouble has big blue eyes and a body made to make men stupid. Trouble only gets the upper hand if the boy falls prey to its temptation.

  Trouble turns the boy’s quiet, serene life sideways without any effort.

  Trouble is fun and fate has a wicked sense of humor when it comes to this boy meeting this girl.

  About Jay Crownover

  Jay Crownover is the International and multiple New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Marked Men Series, The Saints of Denver Series and The Point and Breaking Point Series. She is a tattooed, crazy haired Colorado native who lives at the base of the Rockies with her three awesome dogs. This is where she can frequently be found enjoying a cold beer and Taco Tuesdays. Jay is a self-declared music snob and outspoken book lover who is always looking for her next adventure, between the pages and on the road.

  Also by Jay Crownover

  Click to purchase

  The Saints of Denver Series

  Salvaged (Coming this June)

  Riveted

  Charged

  Built

  Leveled (novella)

  The Breaking Point Series

  Honor

  The Welcome to the Point Series

  Better When He's Brave

  Better When He's Bold

  Better When He's Bad

  The Marked Men Series

  Asa

  Rowdy

  Nash

  Rome

  Jet

  Rule

  Author’s Note

  First off, I have to tell you how excited I was when Liliana contacted me to take on this project. Authors are very protective of their worlds and their characters, as they should be. Those words are our everything; we guard them with every fiber of our beings. They’re an extension of us, a peek into our minds and hearts…so being allowed to play with Liliana’s baby was a big deal and an honor I didn’t take lightly. I also couldn’t say YES fast enough when she asked. I have a real fondness for romantic suspense, for love stories with a bite, so having her open the door for me to readers that embrace nothing less is an opportunity I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into. I really adore Liliana (she was one of the very first authors that approached me and struck up a conversation well before I had the bestseller title attached to my name), and I really love this series and every single one of her badass boys, so I hope that I did her words and her world justice.

  All of that being said, if you are new to my work there are characters in this story that appear in two of my existing series (don’t worry, there are several MacKenzies that pop in throughout). The main love story can definitely be read as a standalone, but the overall plotline ties into the end of my book HONOR and is kind of a bridge to the next book in the series, DIGNITY (the Breaking Point series). Many of the Point characters are at play here. There are also several appearances from characters that are in my book BUILT (The Saints of Denver series). This is a crossover novella that spans 3 separate worlds, so I know my longtime readers will get a kick out of it, but I am also aware that it is a lot of info for new readers to take in. My hope is that I told a story that was engaging and interesting enough that if you don’t know who the other characters are who show up throughout, that you’ll want to know more about them by the end. And if not, I’m 100% certain Benny and Echo have enough chemistry and conflict to keep you entertained during their time in Surrender.

  For my die-hard readers, I hope you have as much fun with this mashup as I did while I was writing it. There is something about tying loose ends into an unlikely and messy bow that really makes me happy.

  Thanks for reading…

  Love & Ink

  Jay

  Author Acknowledgments

  First I want to thank Liliana Hart for inviting me to this project. It was really fun and such a wonderful opportunity.

  I want to shout out to Liz Berry and Jillian Stein for being two of the smartest, savviest women I know…they also happen to be two of the funniest, wackiest humans on the planet; don’t let their million dollar accessories fool you.

  I need to thank Mel for always stepping up and wrangling me when I need it. When I’m working on a thousand projects at once, that means she’s working on a thousand projects at once…on top of having a full and active life.

  I want to thank Mike for keeping my day to day together when it feels like it is splitting apart at the seams. Thank you for keeping me grounded in reality, dude…also, thanks for taking one for the team and going to the occasional chick-flick with me.

  I always owe my parents a bucket of gratitude. They are unwavering in their support of me, regardless of what I’m writing. My mom may have even been the one to encourage me to go my own way when I was starting to feel trapped and beaten down by my circumstances.

  My tribe…I love them. I admire them. I aspire to be like them. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them. When you find the people that get you, the ones that keep it real and don’t ever let you fall, but pick you up when you do, hold onto them and never take them for granted.

  For you readers, thank you for following me into uncharted territory! It’s an adventure you won’t regret taking…I promise.

  To all the bloggers and book pimps…I appreciate all you do. Thank you for holding the book world together and for creating a safe space for romance lovers of all kinds.

  Want to touch base with me? These are all the places you can find me.

  You should sign up for my newsletter right now so you don’t miss a thing! It’s full of everything I’m currently working on and everything I have planned for the immediate future.

  http://www.jaycrownover.com/subscribe

  You can also appease your inner stalker in all of these places:

  https://www.f
acebook.com/groups/crownoverscrowd...My fan group on Facebook. I’m very active in there and often the best place to find all the happenings and participate in giveaways!

  www.jaycrownover.com...there is a link on the site to reach me through email.

  https://www.facebook.com/jay.crownover

  https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJayCrownover

  Follow me @jaycrownover on Twitter

  Follow me @jay.crownover on Instagram

  https://www.goodreads.com/Crownover

  http://www.donaghyliterary.com/jay-crownover.html

  http://www.avonromance.com/author/jay-crownover

  An Introduction to the Mackenzie Family World

  Dear Readers,

  I’m thrilled to announce the MacKenzie Family World is returning! 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 and packed with action and adventure—exactly what you’d expect from a MacKenzie story. 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 Spies and Stilettos, a brand new, full-length MacKenzie novel written by me. This will be the final installment of the MacKenzie series, featuring Brady Scott and Elena Nayal. After eighteen books of my own and ten books written by other bestselling authors in the MacKenzie World, it’s going to be difficult to say goodbye to a family I know as well as my own. Thank you for falling in love with the MacKenzies.

  So grab a glass of wine, pour a bubble bath, and prepare to Surrender.

  Love Always,

  Liliana Hart

  * * * *

  Available now! Click to purchase.

  Spies & Stilettos by Liliana Hart

  Trouble Maker by Liliana Hart

  Rush by Robin Covington

  Never Surrender by Kaylea Cross

  Avenged by Jay Crownover

  Bullet Proof by Avery Flynn

  Delta: Rescue by Cristin Harber

  Hot Witness by Lynn Raye Harris

  Deep Trouble by Kimberly Kincaid

  Wicked Hot by Gennita Low

  Desire & Ice by Christopher Rice

  Hollow Point by Lili St. Germain

  Table of Contents

  Book Description

  About Jay Crownover

  Also by Jay Crownover

  Author’s Note

  Author Acknowledgments

  An introduction to the MacKenzie Family World by Liliana Hart

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Discover the Liliana Hart MacKenzie Family Collection

  Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights

  An excerpt from Salvaged

  Special Thanks

  Chapter 1

  Echo

  I was cold.

  Freezing.

  Frigid all the way down to my bones. Bones that ached and throbbed under my icy skin from the impact of my sporty little SUV sliding off the winding mountain road and into a nearby ravine. I wasn’t sure how many times the vehicle had flipped over, but I could clearly recall my panic and fear as I frantically turned the steering wheel every direction to try and break the skid and to stop the nightmare that was quickly unfolding in front of my eyes. I was born and raised in Denver, Colorado, so winter driving was nothing new to me. I had four-wheel drive and was overly confident that winters in Montana couldn’t be any worse than winters in the Mile High.

  I was wrong. Really fucking wrong.

  I’d never seen so much snow fall in the span of an hour. Everything was white: the road, the shoulder, the sky, my entire windshield. It was a whiteout in a matter of minutes and when the wind picked up, it was like I was trying to drive through a snow globe someone wouldn’t stop shaking. Montana was also far less populated than Colorado. Even up in the mountains where I was from, you would stumble across a little ski town or spread of ranches every fifty miles or so. Montana wasn’t like that. It was…vast. There were stretches and stretches of road that seemed to lead nowhere and along the way there was nothing but the wildlife and intimidating snowdrifts that warned of what was coming—if only I had paid attention.

  The wheels of my SUV hit black ice coming around a particularly nasty switchback. The car started to slide toward the edge of the mountain and I knew there was nothing I could do to regain control, but that didn’t stop me from trying. I did everything I wasn’t supposed to do in that situation: slammed the brakes, jerked the wheel, and closed my eyes as I braced for the inevitable impact. Unfortunately, my SUV had big, knobby snow tires on it, so when I hit the battered guardrail that was supposed to save my life, I bounced off of it and toppled over it like a Ping-Pong ball. The car was upside down and sliding down the embankment with one jarring impact after another. The windshield shattered, covering me in glass, and the metal of the roof groaned and shrieked as the force of it hitting the ground sent it crumpling inwards toward my head. The airbag deployed with enough force that I couldn’t breathe when it hit me right in the nose. My chest jerked against my seatbelt so hard that I screamed when the nylon cut into my shoulder and the side of my neck. I could smell blood and gasoline, but over it all I could smell the acrid scent of my fear.

  It was seconds—maybe a minute at the most—but it felt like forever for the car to stop flipping. It ended up on its roof, the still-spinning wheels pointed at the night sky as the engine whined and my breath puffed out in white clouds into the chilly Montana air. I could vaguely make out the trunk of a massive tree that had stopped the crash from taking me all the way down to the bottom of the ravine. Everything was on an angle and my long, dark hair was hanging down in my face as blood rushed to my head, making it difficult to see, or to think straight. I turned my head toward the passenger seat, where my purse and overnight bag had been throughout the drive and wasn’t surprised when the seat came up empty. The car had rolled and rolled. If I hadn’t been wearing my seatbelt, I would have been thrown out the same way my things had been.

  Groaning as I moved my hand to release the clasp of the seatbelt, I saw stars and searing pain shot through my shoulder and down to my fingertips. Everything was slippery with my blood as I worked to get myself free. I knew I couldn’t stay dangling upside down in a car that could work its way free at any moment and take me with it to the bottom of the mountain.

  It was a painstaking task, one that had fire and acid burning along all my nerve endings, but I got the seatbelt off and managed to catch myself before I smashed into the jagged and sharp pieces of the destroyed roof that were sticking up like razor blades. Getting out through the annihilated windshield didn’t go as well. I was having a hard time seeing straight and keeping my balance. My thoughts got heavy and my vision went foggy. I caught my palms on the rough edge where there was still glass and felt my skin break. I also felt the sharp pieces poke through the material of my jeans and dig into my knees, but none of that stopped me. I was nothing if not determined.

  In my life, I’d had to be.

  Every few months it seemed like I was recovering from one disaster or catastrophe after another. I’d never had anything easy and my life was the opposite of smooth sailing. If you asked my parents, I deserved it for all the trouble I’d caused when I was younger. I didn’t agree. Sure, I’d always been a handful and marched to the beat of my own drum, after fucking the drummer, but when that tune turned sour and led me down a dark path, I’d done everything in
my power to clean up my act. I had earned a break, I deserved some peace of mind…but it looked like the universe didn’t agree.

  This was the worst day of my life.

  I’d buried my baby sister and almost died running away from grief and guilt.

  Once I was free of the car, I flopped on my back on the fluffy blanket of white that covered the surrounding ground. The chill of the snow immediately sank through my clothes and, while it worked to numb the parts of me that were blazing hot with pain, it also dropped the temperature along the rest of my body in no time. I began shivering so hard that I thought my teeth were going to chatter out of my mouth.

  I was wearing jeans, a thermal, and a flannel shirt over that. I had on sturdy leather boots that were decorated with cute silver studs. Somewhere in my SUV, if it hadn’t been thrown out, was a puffy coat with a fur-trimmed hood that was perfect for this kind of weather. I didn’t think I could pull myself up to go find it. Everything hurt and I was cold…colder than I had ever been in my life and that included the way my heart had turned to ice when I found out that within months of losing my best friend to bad decisions, I’d lost my baby sister as well. So much loss. All of it unnecessary. I thought I was never going to be warm again, but I never considered it was possible to get colder.

  Blood was pooling around my head, staining the pristine snow scarlet. I could feel the thick liquid rolling over my temple and into my hair and no matter how fast I blinked, I couldn’t keep my eyes clear. I wasn’t sure where the blood was coming from, but there sure as fuck was a lot of it.

  I lay there long enough that I started to collect snow. The flakes got caught in my eyelashes and melted with each blink. I could see the fluffy piles building up on my chest and on the tips of my boots. I knew I had to move, but the idea made everything hurt and it was so much easier to simply lie there and pretend nothing was happening.