A Reckless Life Read online

  A Reckless Life

  Tyler Mystery Series - Book 2

  Michelle Files

  Edited by

  Cecily Brookes

  Published by BookLovers.pub

  Contents

  Introduction

  Novels

  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

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  A Note

  Secrets Preview

  Introduction

  * * *

  A teenage girl. Secrets that never stay that way for long.

  At 14, Abbey hangs out with the wrong crowd and gets caught up in all sorts of drama. At 15, she embarks on a journey that's both terrifying and rewarding—one that will test her abilities and emotional resources beyond anything she ever imagined.

  Running away from home and getting a job on a championship horse farm, Abbey meets the handsome, and married, Adam Tyler. That's when things go from bad to worse.

  When people around her start dying, she is forced to defend herself from accusations and mistrust. Can she convince everyone that she is innocent? Is she innocent?…

  Spanning several years in the life of Abbey and her family, this fast paced, mystery, suspense novel will keep you turning the pages. Book 2 in the Tyler Series.

  Novels by Michelle Files:

  * * *

  Tyler Series:

  Girl Lost - Book 1

  A Reckless Life - Book 2

  * * *

  Wildflower Mystery Series:

  Secrets of Wildflower Island - Book 1

  Desperation on Wildflower Island - Book 2

  Storm on Wildflower Island - Book 3

  Thorns on Wildflower Island - Book 4

  * * *

  Ivy Wells Time Travel Series: Books 1-5

  * * *

  For information on any of Michelle’s books:

  www.MichelleFiles.com

  Copyright ©️ 2017 by Michelle Files

  * * *

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form, without prior written permission of the author.

  * * *

  Published in the United States by BookLovers.pub.

  Edited by Cecily Brookes and BookLovers.pub

  * * *

  This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to actual people, places or events is purely coincidental.

  Chapter 1

  ABBEY

  * * *

  The storm was raging wildly outside and I had never been so scared in my life. When I first got into the driver’s seat of the car, there were ugly, dark clouds and I could see that a storm was brewing. However, I could not have been prepared for what actually hit us. It came out of nowhere. One moment, it was just dark and gloomy, then all of a sudden, the winds blew at what seemed like a hurricane force. It was blowing so hard, I was having a difficult time keeping the car on the road. We were hit with severe winds that seemed to come from every direction. Through the darkness I saw a window shutter on the second floor of an old house violently tear away from its hinges and fly through the sky, disappearing quickly. I thought about how happy I was that it didn’t hit the windshield of the car I was driving. I felt that it took every bit of concentration I had to keep from being blown away, and honestly didn’t know if the car was going to keep four wheels on the road or not. I suddenly had visions of Dorothy, along with her house and dog being lifted higher and higher into the sky.

  Then the thunder and lightning came, jolting me back to reality. The thunder was so loud, I nearly jumped out of my seat and gave out a small cry of alarm. My passengers looked at me, but said nothing. They were as terrified as I was. It was certainly nothing I had ever experienced before. It felt like the sky was very angry and was making sure everyone on earth knew it. The roar was deafening. The flashes of light were so brilliant, and so close, that I had to squint my eyes for a moment, not watching the road for a precious few seconds.

  Then I realized that the lightning was nothing, because once the rain hit, I could barely see where I was going. The windshield wipers on the car were moving as fast as they could, yet it wasn’t enough. Not even close. The rain seemed to come out of the sky in huge sheets of water, like ocean waves, descending down on us so hard and fast that the wipers just couldn’t keep up. I had to slow the car way down, I had no choice. We would never arrive at our destination in one piece if I couldn’t see where I was going. Only an idiot would be out driving in this storm. I had called an ambulance, but crazy enough, there were none available. I was told that it could be two or three hours before one was available. Seems the heavens were tormenting everyone that night.

  Because I could barely see in front of me, I was driving slowly when I came upon some debris in the road. If I had been driving faster, I would have surely hit it, stranding us there. I didn’t even want to think about that. Unfortunately, there was no way to go around the debris, so I had no choice but to get out and move it. My passengers were in no shape to help me really, and didn’t offer. I didn’t even look their way. It was all on me, that was clear. As I opened the car door I cursed to myself for being so stupid to not take the time to grab a jacket when I left the house. I was only wearing a pair of jeans, tennis shoes and a t-shirt. As I got out, I was instantly drenched. Then a big gust of wind hit me and slammed the car door so hard, I would have lost a hand if I hadn’t forced my way out so quickly.

  Ducking my head down against the weather and trying to brush back the soaking wet hair from my face, I slowly pushed my way to the front of the car. There was a small tree and a rusty old car door, of all things, blocking our way. I was so determined in my task that I hardly noticed the cold. Without a second thought, I wrenched the tree up with all my might and backed my way across the road, dragging it carefully. There were broken off branches, resulting in deadly wooden skewers all up and down the tree. One wrong step, a tumble, and visions of me spiked on a wooden skewer and bleeding to death right there in the road flashed in my mind. So, I treaded carefully. When I reached the side of the road, I laid the tree down gently and went back for the car door, which was surprisingly heavy. I dragged it slowly out of the way, just enough for me to drive around it.

  It was then that I noticed I was shivering and ran back to the car. No one else had thought to bring a jacket either. We had been in such a hurry to get going that it hadn’t crossed our minds to dress warmer. As I jumped back in I reached over and turned the heater dial up to the highest position, hoping for a quick blast of heat. It worked. A few minutes later we were very toasty, even though I continued shivering. I was no longer cold, just scared to death that we wouldn’t reach our destination in time to save her.

  About fifteen minutes later, a large tree branch, or perhaps it was the entire tree, flew into us and hit the driver’s side of the car with such a loud bang that I jumped and temporarily lost control and skidded sideways. As I frantically hit the breaks and turned the steering wheel into the
slide, I started to regain my composure as I saw the tree fly over us, continuing its journey into the darkness of the night. I was able to get us going back in the right direction and continued along. I was so happy at that moment that I had slowed the car down to not much more than a crawl just a few moments before.

  “Watch where you are going, Abigail. Are you trying to kill us?” My passenger in the backseat yelled over the storm. That was the first thing she had said during the entire ride. She was bleeding and in a lot of pain, so had only been moaning up until this point.

  I was by far the youngest person in the car, but at that moment, I was in charge, and I was in no mood. “Shut the hell up!” I yelled back. “I need to concentrate.”

  I heard a loud huff from the back seat and not another word was said. Oh boy, was I ever going to pay for that later. But, at the moment I didn’t care. I needed to get us to the hospital in one piece.

  I continued driving for another few minutes, more nervous than ever. The storm was not letting up, but I was determined to get through it, to fight the forces of nature, and to win. Nothing else on earth mattered at that moment. When we reached the narrow bridge that crossed over the river, I could see that the water was very high and raging wildly. It was actually overflowing the banks and threatening the bridge itself. I didn’t know how this was even possible. How long had it been raining? Certainly not long enough for this to happen. But, there it was, right in front of me, very close and threatening.

  While crossing the bridge, it suddenly felt like we hit a patch of ice, which was impossible, because it was a summer storm. But that’s what it felt like. I had the steering wheel in a death grip. The car started skidding and there was not much I could do about it. I took my foot off the gas and turned into the skid, knowing that was what I was supposed to do, but it wasn’t helping. The car seemed to have a mind of its own. I could see, and feel, the bridge railing coming straight for us. For a moment I wasn’t sure if we were skidding toward the railing or if it had broken loose and was flying toward us. It felt like it was all happening in slow motion.

  I was just sixteen years old and had only practiced driving a couple of times ever. Now here I was, driving the two people I probably hated the most to the hospital, in a horrible storm, and their lives depended on it. But, before I tell you that story, you need to know how we got here.

  Chapter 2

  ONE YEAR EARLIER

  * * *

  Bam! Something, or someone actually, hit me head-on in the hallway of the high school. We both fell to the ground, with books and binders scattering everywhere.

  “Watch where you’re going, stupid,” the other girl screeched at me while I was trying to get up. When I glanced over at her, she didn’t even look my way.

  As the other girl was getting up, brushing herself off and gathering her things, I started heading down the hallway toward my classroom.

  Even though we made quite a commotion, it seemed like no one in the hall noticed. Barely a sideways glance from anyone, as we went on our way to class. I looked over my shoulder as the bell rung and saw the other girl quickly running down the hall in the opposite direction.

  A couple of minutes later, she walked into my classroom, out of breath, with an attitude already starting. It was pretty obvious. She stood at the front of the room with her arms crossed and rolled her eyes when she saw me. Every head turned her way. She looked around the room and turned bright red. Then she actually put her left hand up to feel her face, like maybe she had warts all over her, by the way everyone was staring. Then I saw relief flood over her as she realized she was being ridiculous. She looked fine. A little rough around the edges perhaps, but fairly normal either way.

  She was actually a very pretty girl, but I’ll bet she never really realized it. She looked like she spent all of her time dying her hair, getting body piercings and tattoos, and finding the weirdest, skimpiest clothes she could find. She was the type that would always say she wanted to ‘express herself.’ To the trained professional she just wanted attention, no matter how much she denied it. She definitely craved male attention. However, with the way she looked, she got the wrong kind of attention. Girls thought she looked ridiculous and hated her, and boys just wanted to sleep with her. No one really took her seriously.

  The second the girl walked into the classroom, and was done scrutinizing her face for warts, she looked directly at me again. I turned my head, trying not to be recognized by her. But it didn’t work. She had already seen me.

  “Hi, you must be Josie,” the teacher said as she walked toward her.

  “Sorry, I got lost,” she said.

  “It’s okay. Please have a seat.” She motioned to an empty desk next to me. The girl looked directly at me and smiled as she walked over and sat down. Just great.

  “What’s your problem anyway?” Josie whispered to me when the teacher wasn’t looking.

  I quickly turned away.

  “Hey, I’m talking to you,” she said more loudly. Everyone in the room turned to look at her. “What?!” She hissed at them. This made everyone turn away from her. They weren’t used to being outwardly challenged like that.

  Class that day felt like it was never ending and almost unbearable, because Josie wouldn’t leave me alone. But, when it did finally end, she was almost the last one out the door. She was waiting for me to leave, so she could get me alone.

  “Hey Mousy, I asked you before what your problem was,” she said bluntly to me.

  “Just leave me alone. And don’t call me that.”

  “Well, what is your name? I’m sure you have one.” Josie was not going to let it go.

  “Abbey. My name is Abbey. Now will you just leave me alone?” And with that, I raced out the door to my next class. I wasn’t afraid of her. She just wasn’t worth the hassle. I tried my best to stay out of trouble at school and she looked like a lot of trouble to me. She wasn’t the type of person I would ever be friends with.

  I didn’t see Josie again for the rest of the day, which was just fine with me. After school I walked home alone, like I did every day.

  While walking home I thought about Josie. She was pretty, I could tell. She hid most of it with that ridiculous blue hair and the tattoos, but she was definitely pretty. Me? Not so much. I was not what anyone would call beautiful. Certainly not ugly, but just average looking. Average height, with short, bland, sandy colored hair. I did have beautiful blue eyes though. People would remark to me about them all the time. Otherwise, just average. At almost fifteen years old, I was a sophomore in high school, had a few friends at school, but mostly kept to myself. I never really felt like I fit in. I was a good student, probably because I didn’t spend a lot of time hanging out with other kids.

  Doing my best to avoid Josie after that, I would duck into the bathroom if I saw her walking toward me in the hallway, or hide, feet up, in a bathroom stall if Josie came in after me. She never noticed. Pretty pathetic, I know.

  A few days after the hallway collision incident, my luck ran out. I was standing at my locker, with my back facing the crowded hallway, when I suddenly felt a chill run up my spine. I spun around to see what it was that caused it. I was half expecting to see some of the boys with a bucket that moments ago held ice cold water. That’s how unnerving the chill up my spine felt. Unfortunately, what I actually found was Josie standing right behind me, only inches from my face. I instantly turned my back to her and slammed my locker shut, wanting to get out of there as fast as I could.

  “Why are you avoiding me?” Josie asked.

  I hesitated for just a moment, staring directly into the closed locker door, then decided that I couldn’t really avoid her forever. I was going to have to talk to her sooner or later. I spun around to face her.

  “Look, I’m not avoiding you. I just want to go to class. Okay?” I said a bit meekly, looking down at my feet.

  “No, not okay. Stop being such a bitch,” Josie responded.

  I was not the confrontational kind. This was s
omething that Josie figured out pretty quickly. She knew that she could intimidate me, and actually found it kind of fun.

  I then looked up, face to face, staring directly into her eyes. “You are the one being a bitch.” I surprised myself by saying that. It just jumped out before I had a chance to think about the consequences. “I gotta go.” I said, and headed to my next class quickly. I dared not turn around for fear that I would find Josie hot on my trail.

  After school that same day, I was walking home alone, as usual, deep in thought. At one point, Josie came up behind me. She could be really stealthy when she wanted to be.

  “Hey Mousy. Whatcha doin’?”

  I jumped, because I had no idea that anyone was behind me, causing me to drop my books all over the sidewalk. As I scrambled for them, I kicked one of them into the street. As Josie jumped off the curb to fetch the wayward book, I picked up the rest of them.

  “Please just leave me alone,” was all that I could muster.