Kate
Kate
Charyse Allan
Kate © 2020 by Charyse Allan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any written, electronic, recorded, or photocopied format without the express permission from the author or publisher as allowed under the terms and conditions with which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution, circulation or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.
Kate is a work of fiction. All names, characters, events and places found therein are either from the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to persons alive or dead, actual events, locations, or organizations is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.
For information, contact the publisher, Hot Tree Publishing.
www.hottreepublishing.com
Editing: Hot Tree Editing
Cover Designer: BookSmith Design
Ebook: ISBN 13: 978-1-922359-07-0
Paperback: ISBN 978-1-922359-08-7
Blurb
After escaping her past, Kate builds her life around a single purpose: staying hidden. But when the unexpected threatens to unravel her tightly kept secrets, her will to remain alone falters.
Kate ran, planning to leave behind a shell of a life, giving herself strict rules to live by in order to keep the past hidden. But these rules have her trading one prison for another.
Then Kai sneaks into her life, shoving through her shields, getting her to break every one of her rules. An unexpected surprise threatens to unravel her secrets and strip away the control she fought so hard for. But she embraces it, diving into the unknown with Kai.
When her past catches up with her, she battles to keep those she has come to love protected, refusing to relent the strength she found within. But when stuck in a place she never wants to return to and with no chance of escape, she fears losing everything she's allowed herself to cherish.
Every one of my stories has a little bit of you
Contents
Prologue
1. Kate
2. Kai
3. Kate
4. Kai
5. Kate
6. Kai
7. Kate
8. Kate
9. Kai
10. Kate
11. Kai
12. Kate
13. Kai
14. Kate
15. Kai
16. Chloe
17. Kai
18. Chloe
19. Kai
20. Chloe
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About Hot Tree Publishing
More From Hot Tree Publishing
Prologue
After tugging the window open, I popped the screen that was too easy to move, having been popped out many times before. Damp night air had me instantly sweating. The slatted roof scraped against my shoes as I scooted along it to the tree limb that rested on part of it. Debris scattered to the ground once I shimmied onto the thickest branch of the old oak. The rough bark snagged at my clothes as I climbed down the tree to our damp grass.
As I ran across the perfectly manicured lawn, the trimmed grass squishing beneath my shoes, the moonlight kept me much too exposed. Getting across the entire estate would be a mission in stealth and caution if I wasn’t going to get caught. My heart pounded, my legs and lungs screaming in agony. If only I hadn’t been smoking to spite my parents, maybe done a few laps around our enormous pool every once in a while, I might have been in better shape. Might have been able to run across those few acres in much less time.
I finally got to the ten-foot-tall fence, as far away from the surveillance gate as possible. Climbing the wrought iron fence was only possible in the one spot because I had made it so many years before this night. The only reason my parents had never seen the pieces of rope tied to make lattice steps on the fence was because they didn’t keep the grounds. Our gardener always overlooked them, or at least pretended he didn’t see them. I never knew why, but it could have been that he knew how stuffy my life was, how suffocated I was, and thought I needed a bit of freedom from the estate.
I thumped to the ground on the other side of the fence, steadying myself just before I toppled over. The familiar damp, mucky scent of the creek hit me right before I got to it. My pace didn’t slow even after I ran over the worn log that was my bridge to get across the creek, which was still part of our property, only outside the fence. Then I was off for the highway, leaving the luxurious plantation behind me.
No more would I follow their rules. No more would I dress up for Mother’s popularity contests. No more would I allow them to decide my fate.
My fate would be my own.
Delia was parked at the edge of our property in her Volvo station wagon, just as she had promised. The Rankins’ “Movin’ On” assaulted my eardrums when I opened the door. My heart squeezed in my chest, tears pricking at my eyes, but I shoved all fear away when I climbed in that front seat. Delia held a lit cigarette out toward me the second I shut the door.
“Ready, sha?” she asked as I took a long drag of that Joe, nerves and excitement thrumming through my veins.
“Damn right, I’m ready!”
We screamed in excitement when she squealed away from my life trap. “I got an entire album made up for this getaway.” She waggled her dark brows at me, her springy brown hair bouncing as she wiggled to the beat of the song.
We danced and sang, even while tension grew in my chest as the state border came closer and closer. Since this had been planned for weeks, all my things were in the back of the. I had slowly moved anything I knew my mother wouldn’t notice—and the housekeepers wouldn’t mention to her—into Delia’s car. Now we were heading for that state line like a runaway train, and there was no turning back.
At least not for me. Delia had to go back. But her family was easier to live with, easier