Break Down Here: A Country Romance Read online

  Break Down Here

  If you’re looking to get lost, make your rest stop a good one.

  Shayne McClendon

  Break Down Here by Shayne McClendon

  Copyright © 2015 Shayne McClendon

  Updated Edition: March 31, 2016

  Published by Always the Good Girl LLC

  www.alwaysthegoodgirl.com

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Also by Shayne McClendon

  The Barter System – Book 1

  Hudson – Book 2

  Pushing the Envelope – Book 3

  Backstage – Book 4

  Liberation – Book 5

  Radiance – Book 6

  Yes to Everything

  Love of the Game – The Complete Collection

  Completely Wrecked

  The Hermit

  Break Down Here

  Roadside Assistance

  Dedication

  When you write the stories I write, readers begin to feel like old friends. Some people think I share too much but I find that opening myself, my history, and my mind to the characters who visit me already exposes so much of who I am and what I’ve experienced in my own life.

  In for a penny, in for a pound…as my Nanny used to say.

  I’ve been a voracious reader all my life. Since I was too small to hold books of a certain size. My reading material of choice – to escape the daily world – is almost exclusively paranormal, fantasy, and science fiction.

  When I write…the majority of the time, I choose reality. People, places, and situations that can be difficult to deal with, hard to explain, but if you can make it through them…the journey can certainly be cathartic. For myself…and for my readers. Enjoy the journey.

  Much love,

  Shayne

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Epilogue

  Completely Wrecked - Prologue

  Completely Wrecked - Chapter One

  About Shayne McClendon

  Prologue

  She refused to panic.

  She could not lose her shit.

  She would figure things out. She wasn’t stupid.

  Sure, she’d been acting stupid for a while, but she used to be really smart.

  At least the car was warm and dry. When the sun came up, she would take a deep breath and start again. It was the middle of the night, pitch dark, and currently pouring rain.

  There was nothing she could do until morning. The car was stuck in a muddy ditch and nothing was going to change that. Her efforts to get herself out had only made the problem worse.

  She had to leave it alone, she needed sleep. If she didn’t rest, she was going to kill herself or someone else when she fell asleep behind the wheel.

  It was how she’d ended up in the ditch in the first place.

  Everything she owned was in the trunk. She had a pillow and blanket. The windows were up and the doors locked.

  She climbed over the seat to the back and covered up. Her body, her mind, her heart were exhausted. She hadn’t slept in two days.

  The gun was on the floorboard, under her purse. Its presence made her feel better.

  A little bit safer, all things considered.

  In seconds, she dropped into deep slumber.

  The nightmares came but she was too exhausted to shake herself from them. At least they were in her head. Unlike the life she’d left behind the day before yesterday. That had been all too real.

  Sleep and then she would start again. A fresh start when the sun came up.

  Everything would look better in the morning light.

  Chapter One

  Xander was glad that four days of double shifts were finally over. He’d been covering for one of the other guys who took vacation time for his anniversary.

  Jimmy walked into the station just after dawn looking like a brand new man. “You saved me. Marietta would’ve skinned me alive if I hadn’t been able to take her away.”

  Laughing, Xander told him, “She’s a little bitty thing…you sure about that?”

  Jimmy was almost three hundred pounds of linebacker muscle and his wife wasn’t even five feet tall. “She’s meaner than she looks…I’m kidding. She don’t have a mean bone in her whole body.” He held up his thick pinky finger. “She got me wrapped up tight, the way my mama had my daddy.” He grinned. “I don’t mind a bit.”

  “I bet. What’d y’all do?”

  For a few minutes, his high school friend and fellow police officer filled him in on their quick getaway to New Orleans, a few hours away. Soon enough, his stomach ended the conversation.

  “Go on, now. Get some food in your belly. Crash out for a while. We’ll catch up later.” Jimmy clapped him on the back and shoved him toward the exit.

  He was exhausted and hungrier than he had any right to be considering his aunt had brought him food from the diner after she closed up the night before. He felt like he hadn’t eaten in a month.

  The tires on his old Bronco squealed on the asphalt as he pulled out of the Chatom Police Department parking lot. The only things on his mind were giving his dog a good scratch and taking a hot shower. Then he’d make a quick trip up to the diner and stuff himself to kick off three days of blessed downtime…followed by the longest nap in history.

  The streets of their little Alabama town were still quiet. Seven in the morning on a Saturday found most of their citizens sleeping off a late Friday night. They’d been inundated with drunk and disorderly calls; several of the reasons for those calls were sobering up in holding cells.

  He took the two-lane county road out of town, singing along with the radio and planning what to do with his time off. He hadn’t had so many days off in a row for months. Another officer was still recovering from being clipped by a passing car during a routine traffic stop.

  The double shifts blended together and he hadn’t hung out with his family in too long to remember.

  Familiar tension sparking through his body made him realize he hadn’t done a lot of things in too long. Maybe he’d make an appearance at the bar later and find some company. A sweet little country girl he could play house with for a while sounded like just the thing.

  The old road was the shortest route to his place and it needed serious repair. Maybe in the next decade, the county would get around to getting it done.

  A light fog hovered above the fields on either side of the patched blacktop, the sun not yet high enough burn through it. It gave the countryside an almost dreamlike appearance. It was pretty and peaceful, normally his favorite time of the day.

  Xander was too exhausted to appreciate it at the moment.

  He rounded a bend in the road and a car in the ditch stuck out in his lane just enough to startle him. Slamming on his brakes, he managed to stop before he hit the back bumper of the old Chevy. He put the Bronco in park, cut the engine, and turned on his hazards.

  “What the hell?” Exhaling roughly, he answered his own question. “Probably some drunk drove into the ditch and stumbled the rest of the way home.”

  With a shake of his head, he got out and approached the vehicle cautiously. As tired as he was, he was glad he’d been able to stop in t
ime, but he was rattled.

  Checking the backseat as he approached the driver’s side window was standard procedure. He froze in place when he saw the woman sleeping there. He blinked and looked again.

  Sure enough, a little fairy was curled up on the backseat of the Nova.

  On her side, he could see her short dark hair, fine cheekbones, and full lips. A lightweight blanket covered most of her body and she looked cold.

  Xander took a step back and considered. He was sure to scare her if he knocked on the window, but it was better he woke her up rather than some driver who couldn’t avoid hitting her.

  His gentle tap on the rear window tore her from sleep as if he’d set off a firecracker. She sat up on her elbow and glanced through the glass with a look of absolute terror.

  He backed up several steps and was glad he was still in his uniform.

  Rubbing her eyes, she sat up fully and put her feet on the floor. He watched as she climbed over the seat and opened the driver’s side door.

  In a voice that telegraphed her fear, she whispered, “Good morning, officer.”

  “Good morning, ma’am. I’m sorry to scare you. I almost hit your car when I came around the curve. How long have you been stuck?”

  She placed pretty bare feet on the damp grass and stood up. Her eyes were very blue and she looked to be about five-four. She wore stretchy leggings and a soft t-shirt. He felt bad about noticing she wasn’t wearing a bra.

  As she turned to face him fully, he took in the nasty shiner on her other cheek that spread into her hairline. He estimated she was about the same age and size as his little sister.

  He’d kill a man who ever touched CiCi in such a way.

  “I slid off the road in the rain last night. I could barely see and I must have missed the turn I was looking for.” Glancing at the car in the ditch, she grimaced. “I tried to back out but I wasn’t accomplishing anything but spinning.”

  “The ground here is real soft. Add the slick grass and there wasn’t much chance of you being able to get out without some help.”

  She nodded. “Instead, I tried to drive forward more. I didn’t think I was still sticking out so much on the road. I’m sorry about that.” Her eyes came up as she shrugged. “Not surprising since there isn’t too much going right lately.”

  “I’m Alexander Callahan, ma’am. I’m happy to help.” He bent over to check the frame beneath her trunk and saw where he could attach his tow chain. Standing up again, he smiled. “I’ll have you out of there in a couple minutes.”

  He started in the direction of his truck and she stepped forward, placing her fingertips on his forearm. “Before you do, I need to tell you that I have a registered handgun on the rear floorboard. It belongs to me. It was given to me by my father, who was also a police officer.”

  She smiled carefully. “I have a license to carry concealed and the world being what it is, I don’t want to give you the wrong impression.”

  Xander tilted his head. “I appreciate that, ma’am. Do you mind if I remove it?”

  At her nod, he walked to the open door and pushed the driver’s seat forward. Setting her purse on the other side, he picked up a nickel-plated .38 Special snub-nose revolver. Checking the barrel, he removed the bullets and handed the weapon and bullets to the young woman.

  “What’s your name?”

  “My name is Madison Wilcox, officer.” She seemed more awake and alert by the minute and her voice had a natural huskiness to it.

  “Call me Xander.” He paused, frowning. “Your name sounds…familiar to me, Madison.” There was a tingling sensation on the back of his neck.

  As if she sensed his disquiet, she tossed the bullets into the brush along the side of the road. Then she placed the gun on the roof of her car, closed the driver’s door, and took several steps away along the ditch in the opposite direction of both their vehicles.

  It was clear that she was familiar with police procedure and wanted to put his mind at ease.

  He wasn’t sure that was possible.

  “I’d like to talk to you for just a minute and then you can decide how you want to handle things. I’m not dangerous and I’m in full possession of my mental faculties.” He stood, unspeaking, in front of her. “If you could hear me out, I would appreciate it.”

  Hands on his hips, Xander waited. The tingling on the back of his neck got worse.

  Chapter Two

  Clearing her throat, Madison kept her hands at her sides.

  She knew policemen and they got nervous if you fidgeted or seemed like you were going for a weapon. The man in front of her seemed different from officers of the law she was familiar with most recently.

  He had eyes that reminded her of her father; kind, intelligent, and hopefully rational.

  “If you call your office – and I hope you’ll wait – you’ll find out that a missing person report has been filed about me. I’ve been missing for two days. I plan to stay that way.”

  When he did nothing more than watch her, she continued. “I’m in trouble, very big trouble. Years ago, my grandma was friends with a woman named Missy Rayland who lived out this way. She gave me some cash and drew me a map to Missy’s place. The map is on the front seat of the car along with several phone numbers.”

  Inhaling carefully, she added, “If you run the plates, you’ll find that they belong to my best friend who is a personal trainer in Reno. She insisted I take them. The car belongs to me, which can be confirmed by running the VIN. Everything I own is in the trunk and there are two more unloaded guns under my stuff.”

  Xander’s eyes widened. “What are you running from?”

  She sighed deeply. “I got myself into a bad situation and I intend to see myself out. Not only am I stuck in the ditch, I’m pretty sure I jacked up the wheel on the front passenger side. I’m tired and I need to get off the road.” She pressed her fingers into her temples. “I can’t contact my younger sister. My parents are dead or my father would have known what to do. My grandmother is in her eighties. I have no other family to speak of.”

  Xander asked quietly, “How old are you?”

  “Twenty-one. My ID is in my purse.”

  “Have you done anything illegal?”

  She laughed but there was no humor in it. “No sir. My father would come back from the grave and kick my ass. Nothing illegal, not even close.” A breeze drew her attention to the tall grass on the other side of the road. It seemed so real, so simple, after everything that had happened. “All of this is because of a man.”

  Anyone who’d known her for more than a year would know that the single sentence said it all.

  Xander didn’t take his eyes off her face. He stood, deep in thought, with his fingers slowly tapping his hips. Finally, he murmured, “You’re packing a lot of firepower, like you’re worried you’ll have to use it. Do you have ammunition?”

  “Yes. I have enough to take out him and any of his friends, if I were backed in a corner.” Her disgust was as powerful as the fear she tried to control. “I’m running to avoid that but…I might not have a choice.”

  “Tell me what happened. I need to know what I’m dealing with before I can make any decisions.”

  “I appreciate your honesty, Xander.” She stood there, staring at the gently waving grass, wishing that all this was behind her. Then she whispered, “It’s easier to show you.”

  She turned around and lifted her t-shirt to expose her bare back. His gasp told her it was still in bad shape. Crisscrossed over her skin, from waist to shoulder blades, were bruises, welts, and faintly healing cuts.

  “When I give attitude, only a belt will do.” She reached down and moved her leggings off her hip to show him that the injuries were extensive. “They go clear to my ankles.” She bent and pulled the stretchy material to her calf to show him. “They’re on the front of my body as well.”

  Facing him, she lifted her shirt to just beneath her breasts, exposing her belly and the identical marks. Tugging down the neckline, she showed
him that they started at her shoulders.

  Putting her clothing back in place, she glanced at their cars. “Do you mind if I sit on one of them? I’m really tired.” She paused. “I’m not a threat.”

  “Jesus, of course.”

  Walking to the back of the Chevy, she climbed up and sat on the trunk. “Three days ago: he wanted me to take on his friends. I refused. I was strapped down naked to the kitchen table and beaten until I passed out.” She closed her eyes. “I like when I pass out. I have no idea what else happens and I can lie to myself.”

  * * *

  Xander had never felt such cold fury in his life. The young woman described her severe assault as if they were having a normal conversation about the weather.

  “I hope you don’t think too badly of me. I knew before it started that I would have to run. I had to wait. I didn’t have a choice. When my parents died, my sister was still in high school. I had to get her out first.” He watched her take a deep breath. “Jason is a police officer.”

  As the information sunk in, as he realized the ripple effect such a thing would have on an abuse victim, he thought his head was going to explode.

  “Ironic right?” she whispered sadly. “It started fucked up and only got worse.”

  He walked to his Bronco and grabbed a bottle of water. In the console, he found an energy bar. He took them both to her and she smiled.

  “Thank you.”

  “Madison, let me get your car out of the ditch. There’s an old cattle road a little ways up. The rancher doesn’t use it this time of year so it won’t be in the way. I need to make this bend safe and then I’d like you to tell me everything.”

  “Okay.”

  “I can see that you’re nervous and with what you’ve been through, I sure don’t blame you.” He took his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed his sister’s shop. She was always there hours before she opened. “Hey, CiCi. I have a big favor. I need a place to talk to someone and I think you being there would put her at ease.”