Hudson Brooks
Betrayal cuts deep, slicing through what you believe to be true and the things you hold closest to your heart. It creates new realities, boundaries, and solutions for even the minutest details of your life.
And it’s sneaky. You don’t know it’s coming.
When it hits, it’s like an earthquake destroying everything in its path and ripping the core of your foundation.
You’ll question who you are and hate yourself when you never did before.
You’ll no longer enjoy what you used to get pleasure from and beat yourself up for allowing yourself to think you had a right to indulge in it.
You’ll live in a bubble of pain and take out your hurt on those you hold dearest to you without even realizing it.
Then when you think you have a hold on it and have moved on, it comes back to bite you again, only this time, you should have seen it coming.
But you don’t.
The new betrayal hides in a shiny package, bearing gifts of hope and new beginnings.
When it strikes again, it hits harder, creating a seismic wave a hundred times more potent, stretching further than the eye can see. The second time around, it attempts to destroy the light in your life you struggled to obtain because of all the issues you have from the first time it annihilated you.
Kate Contro is my betrayal.
Lena Woods is my light.
This time, I’ll need to crawl quickly through the grasp of betrayal.
The first time Kate struck, I took it personally. I assumed it was only about me. If I had paid attention, I would have seen all things connect.
On paper, she is a therapist, an expert in assisting gang defectors in re-entering society.
Off paper, she is a master of manipulation.
When I met her, Beckett was in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. A murder from the hands of Skates, the leader of the Twisted Hearts, the fastest-growing gang in the nation.
For three years, she was always interested in my family. I thought it was because she loved me.
I was wrong.
When I caught her cheating on me with a fisherman from Cortez, I didn’t want to know anything about the guy. She had cheated on me. I wasn’t enough for her. The last thing I wanted to do was see who she chose over me.
If I had stopped worrying about my hurt ego, I would have inquired more about him and learned how he was Skates’ right hand. I would have noticed him on the boat even though Ryland put a bullet in his head.
And when the name Max Crello came up, I would have connected him to Kate and never let her step foot in my house.
I slept with the enemy, but I never knew it. If I had done any of these things instead of just taking it personal, I would have. And now Lena, my light, is in the middle of the earthquake.
This time, make no mistake, I won’t bury my head in the sand. Kate, and every other Twisted Heart involved, will pay.
Betrayal goes both ways.
Read WEB OF BETRAYAL, book four of the Brooks Family Saga series - click here.