Twisted Souls

  Twisted Souls

  Copyright © LL Collins 2015

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover Design and Photography by Marisa Shor at Cover Me, Darling

  www.covermedarling.com

  Interior Design by Angela McLaurin, Fictional Formats

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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

  Contact Author LL Collins

  www.llcollinsauthor.com

  authorllcollins@gmail.com

  Twitter: @authorllcollins

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/llcollinsauthor

  Prologue

  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

  Epilogue

  Twisted Souls Playlist

  Acknowledgements

  To my bestie, my sister by choice, LeElla.

  Thank you for always supporting and believing in my dream of writing, from the time we were kids until today. You’re one in a million, and I love you.

  LIANE WATCHED BLAKE as he dug a hole in the sand next to her. She looked over her shoulder to make sure her mommy was still there. She was, talking to Blake’s mommy, known to Liane as Aunt Cathy, though she knew she wasn’t really her aunt. Her big sister was walking down the beach with a friend. Beth was nine and Liane loved her, though Beth didn’t like her little sister much.

  Digging her toes in the sand, she laughed at the feeling between her toes. Liane loved the beach, and it was so fun that they got to come see Blake and his family every summer here at Sanibel Island, Florida. It was far away from her house, and it was always warm here.

  Unlike her, Blake was the big brother. He had two little sisters, and his mommy had a baby boy in her tummy. Liane was jealous about that. She wanted to have a baby in her mommy’s tummy, but Mommy said no. She said Liane was her baby and it was going to stay that way.

  “LiLi,” Blake said, using his nickname for her. She knew that she’d known Blake her entire life, but she was only five years old. They were both starting kindergarten when summer was over, and she was scared.

  “Yeah?” Liane leaned over, looking into the deep hole that Blake had made on the beach. “What are you doing?”

  Blake sat back, his dark eyes looking at her. She loved his eyes; they reminded her of chocolate, her favorite candy. His blonde hair stuck out everywhere, and sand was all over his face, making Liane laugh.

  “What’s so funny, LiLi?” Blake crossed his little arms, a pout forming on his face. “Don’t laugh at me.”

  “I’m not,” Liane stopped, her tummy hurting at the thought of making Blake upset with her. “I’m sorry. You just have sand on your face, and you look like a snowman in the sand.”

  Blake laughed too, making Liane’s tummy feel better. He was her best friend. She had lots of friends at home in Kentucky, in her neighborhood and at her preschool, but none of them were like Blake. Even if he was a boy, which would make her best friend at home, Gretchen, wrinkle up her nose. She hated boys. “So maybe you need some sand on you, too, LiLi.” With that, he reached over and wiped some of the wet sand on her face, making her squeal.

  They stood up, running after each other into the water, their mother’s watching with amused smiles on their faces.

  “Wouldn’t it be great,” Liane’s mother, Margaret, said to her best friend Cathy, “if someday they got married.”

  Cathy laughed, her hand on her protruding stomach. “They’re five years old, Margaret. Let’s not rush things.” She watched her son and Margaret’s daughter splashing and hugging each other, wondering what the future held for all of them.

  “I CAN’T BELIEVE we have to go home tomorrow,” Liane groaned, sticking her toes in the sand. “Another year until I see you again, Blake. I can’t take it.”

  Blake reached over and patted her hand, willing himself to grab her and just let the truth spill out of his mouth. But she hadn’t given him any signs that her feelings for him had changed, and he was scared. “I know. A year is a really long time. But we’ve done it every year since we’ve known each other. There’s always letters and phone calls.”

  “I know. But it’s not the same as getting to spend two straight weeks with you. I wish you lived in Kentucky,” she whined, rubbing her foot absently against his leg.

  “And I wish you lived in South Carolina,” he forced himself to say. Really, he wished he could be anywhere that he could see her every single day, maybe for the rest of his life. He couldn’t wait to be an adult, because that’s exactly what he was going to do; give Liane the world and never, ever leave her side again. And if she didn’t stop rubbing her foot on his leg, it was going to get embarrassing.

  Liane looked over her shoulder at her sister Beth, walking down the beach with a girlfriend that she had also met at Sanibel over the years. Beth was getting ready to go to college, and Liane, high school. “I’m sad that she’s leaving for college,” she said. “I’ll be all alone. I’m afraid to start high school, and my big sister won’t even be there to give me advice. Wait! I know! Maybe ask your parents if you can come to Kentucky for Christmas! You know our parents miss each other just as much as we do. Then I’ll at least have something to look forward to.”

  Blake looked out at the dark water, the moon illuminating just enough for them to see. He lifted his eyes to the stars, wishing that giving his wish to one would make it come true. “It’s been the best two weeks of my life so far,” he admitted.

  “Me too,” Liane sighed. “We even met some new friends this time. You liked Veronica, didn’t you? She’s really cute.” Blake looked at her, wondering how in the heck he could answer this question. There had been a new group of teenagers at the beach for a week, and they had spent time with them almost every day they had been there. They were from Michigan, and hadn’t ever been to Sanibel before. The girl Liane was talking about was a fifteen-year-old bombshell, with dark curly hair, electric blue eyes, and a body well beyond most girls her age. And had he not had Liane, he might’ve liked Veronica. But when Liane stepped into his eyesight, there was no one that held a candle to her.

  Liane came to the beach this year looking like a woman, and he had no idea what to do with that. While last year she had been rail skinny, this year she wasn’t only beautiful, she had curves. Her breasts had filled out, as well as her hips. Her in a two-piece bathing suit was enough to send Blake running for his condo. It didn’t help that puberty had hit him full force this year. He had spent all of the last two weeks trying his hardest to look at Liane the way he had the previous thirteen years of their lives. But nothing dissuaded him from falling hard for her. He thought even his parents had noticed; maybe even hers. He wished that would embarrass him, but he was getting to the point that he would admit it if they would just help him with what to do.

  There wasn’t a memory
of Sanibel that didn’t have her in it. Their parents had met here when they were both babies. Liane liked to tell him that she was older and therefore wiser their entire life. Their birthdays differed by just weeks. There hadn’t been a year in their whole lives that they hadn’t seen each other, and ever since they knew how to write and make phone calls, they had spent much of the rest of the year keeping in contact that way.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” Liane said, nudging him. She wondered where he had just been. That had been happening often, either he would go off into la-la land, or she would catch him looking at her. While he was still her Blake, there was something different about him this year and she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Beth thought that he had a thing for her, but she knew that wasn’t the case. He was her best friend; plus she had seen him eyeing Veronica all week long. She didn’t blame him; Veronica was gorgeous. Maybe he was sad that she left yesterday and he would probably never see her again. Liane found herself wondering if they exchanged phone numbers, but she couldn’t make herself ask.

  “Sorry,” he laughed, realizing she had asked him a question and he had spaced out. “Veronica was cute and nice, but I’m not interested.”

  “Why?”

  Blake sighed. She just wasn’t going to let this go. This summer, she had been relentless in pointing out cute girls. Even when they went into Fort Myers for shopping or out to eat with their families, it seemed like she was always trying to find him a girlfriend.

  Before he could stop himself, he stood up and reached out his hand, pulling her up to her feet with him. She looked bewildered. “What are you doing?”

  Something took hold of him, and he knew he was going to do it. It was now or never. “Liane,” he began. “My LiLi. We’re growing up now. We’re not little kids anymore. We’re about to start high school, and so many changes have happened. You will always be my best friend. But I have to be honest with you right now, because we’re leaving tomorrow and I can’t go another moment without telling you.”

  She laughed nervously, wondering what in the world he was about to say. He looked so serious, and his hands were clutching hers. “What’s going on?”

  The moonlight shone on his eyes, making Liane suck in a breath. She might be young, but she loved romance novels and movies. She knew exactly what that look was, and she couldn’t believe it was coming from her best friend in the world. She started to back up, willing him not to say the words. It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought that same thing over the last two weeks, but she knew that it was pointless and would only hurt them in the long run. After all, they were only fourteen years old. What did they know about love and relationships? She had never even kissed a boy before.

  “We can’t be just friends,” he said softly, his heart hammering in his chest. She looked confused and a little panicked; yet he knew he wasn’t stopping now.

  Liane’s eyes widened. He didn’t want to be friends with her? What had happened? How had she misread him so terribly? “W-what?” Tears pricked her eyes. “What did I do? I’m sorry!”

  Blake smiled, shaking his head. “You don’t get it, Li. We can’t be just friends because I want us to be more. I want you to be my first and only girlfriend, Liane Kelly.” Before she could process the words he just announced, he closed the space in between them and pressed his lips to hers. She had thought about this moment ever since she started liking boys when she was about twelve, but never did she think she’d have her first kiss on Sanibel Island with her best friend, Blake McIntyre. His lips were warm and a little sticky from the marshmallow they had eaten earlier. They were like pillows pressing against hers. She knew all about French kissing, and wasn’t so sure that she wanted to do that just yet with a boy. He kissed her once more softly and then backed away, his eyes searching hers for any reaction whatsoever.

  Liane’s breath started coming in short spurts as she searched for some semblance of understanding. What had just happened? She couldn’t kiss her best friend. It would ruin everything. She could never live without him, yet now he wanted to be her boyfriend? She had just had her first kiss. With Blake McIntyre. Her best friend since she was in diapers. This wasn’t happening.

  She found herself backing up, dropping his hands. He reached for her, but she continued moving away from him. What was she going to do? “I-I have to go,” Liane stuttered. “I can’t do this with you, Blake. Not now, not ever.” With that, she turned and ran off into the darkness, leaving Blake looking after her.

  He was pretty sure she had just ripped out his heart and was running away with it.

  BLAKE SHOVED ANOTHER pair of swim shorts into his bag, catching his reflection in the mirror above his dresser. He turned back and forth, flexing into the mirror, and smiled. He had been working hard this year to not look like a little boy anymore, now that he was eighteen, and he thought he was doing a great job. There was muscle now where there just used to be flat skin. He’d always been so skinny, and was tired of it. He played basically any sport he could, but added weight training to it this year and it had paid off. He had added thirty pounds of straight muscle, and was now satisfied he didn’t look like a skinny little boy anymore. He was a man.

  He wondered what Liane would think of him. They were leaving in the morning to go to Florida, and she was coming this time. She had promised. He hadn’t seen her in four years. It still hurt that she hadn’t come to see him in so many years, but he also knew the last time they had seen each other had changed things for them. She was still his best friend, and they talked on the phone all the time and sent letters. But making sand castles and splashing in the water had been replaced by feelings for a girl that had become a woman, and he wasn’t quite sure how to handle it. All he knew was he couldn’t ruin the relationship with the only person that really got him by making things weird between them, so he made a vow to himself that he never would. When they were last together, the summer before they started high school, he had almost ruined everything. Not this time. She had a boyfriend, anyway.

  The door swung open, and his two sisters, Brooke, who’s sixteen and Brianna, who’s fifteen, bounded in and jumped on his bed. The three of them were very close. Their littlest sibling, Bennett, was almost thirteen and his only brother.

  “All packed?” Brooke asked, her blue eyes bright. She was the only one of the four that got their mom’s blue eyes. The rest of them had their dad’s chocolate brown eyes, and all four were blondes.

  Blake looked back one more time at the mirror, his stomach fluttering with nerves about seeing Liane again. His LiLi, though he had stopped calling her that when she came to the beach looking like a woman instead of a little girl when they were fourteen. He now stuck to just calling her Li. Her school picture on his bulletin board caught his eye. It was her senior picture, and they were both heading off to college in just a few weeks. It had been a source of a lot of conversation over the last few months. Her blonde hair fell in waves over her shoulder, her bright green eyes sparkled at him, and her body was even more womanly now, the small cheerleading skirt and top not hiding anything from his eyes. He had memorized every single thing about that picture. Covering his bulletin board were pictures of the two of them all the way from infancy until fourteen. No wonder he couldn’t get a girlfriend. Well, scratch that. He could get one. Just not one he wanted.

  “Ready to see Li?” Brianna asked, a knowing smile on her face. He told Brianna and Brooke everything, and they knew how much he was struggling with staying friends with her. They also knew she had a serious boyfriend she had been with almost two years. He had endured too many conversations about Ronan the amazing boyfriend. He hoped he didn’t have to fake being interested in that ‘amazing’ relationship while they were at the beach. All he wanted was to spend the next two weeks making up for not seeing each other for the last four years.

  He blew out the breath he had been holding. “I’m as ready as I’m getting,” he admitted. Brooke watched him, not saying a word. She was the intuitive one, always knowing what
he was thinking without having to say a word. “She has a boyfriend.”

  “And you’re in love with her,” Brianna just threw it out there. “You probably have been your entire life, Blake. What are you going to do about it?”

  Blake blinked, looking back and forth between his sisters. “In love with her? No, I’m not.”

  Brooke smirked. “There are two ways to be fooled, big bro. One is to believe what isn’t true. The other is to refuse to accept what is true.”

  “Shut up,” he growled, making both of them cackle with laughter. He had never been in love with anyone, and wouldn’t know the feeling if it hit him.

  Brianna stood up, followed by Brooke. “This is your shot, Blake. You don’t want to regret it for the rest of your life.”

  He shook his head. “This is not my chance, Bri. She has a boyfriend. I’ll never be that person.”

  “Until she has a ring on it, it’s not too late,” Brooke said quietly. “You’re both adults now. You graduated from high school and are going to college. Things are different. Does she have any clue how you really feel?”

  He sighed, running his hand through his spiky blonde hair. “I haven’t seen her in four years, Brookie. And I almost ruined things back then. I can’t take that chance again.”

  Brooke and Brianna exchanged a knowing look. “A lot can change in four years, Blake. She’s coming to the beach for a reason, and I don’t think it’s to hang out with us.”

  “I’M SO GLAD you’re coming with us this year,” my mom stands in my doorway, watching me shove bikini after bikini into my suitcase. We’re leaving in four days to go to Sanibel, and I’m ready. I think. “We’ve been lonely the last few years without you and Beth there.”

  My sister Beth has been away at college for the last four years and hasn’t gone with them to their annual time share in Florida. Me, however, have just been avoiding going. But between my parents and Blake, I’ve been convinced to go this year. I’m getting ready to go to college in just a few weeks, so I figure now is as good a time as any to face Blake again. Though Ronan is not happy about me going away for two weeks when we aren’t going to see each other for months once college begins. I know his real reason for being unhappy though: he doesn’t want me to see Blake. He knows all about him, and although he has never met him, he’s seen enough pictures and knows enough stories about him to see him as some sort of threat against our relationship. If he only knew the truth about what had happened with us before, he’d be right to see him as a threat. But there are some things that are better left unsaid as far as Ronan is concerned.