Tangled up in Hate Read online

  Tangled up in Hate

  Charlotte Byrd

  Contents

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  Also by Charlotte Byrd

  1. Jackson

  2. Harley

  3. Harley

  4. Harley

  5. Harley

  6. Harley

  7. Harley

  8. Jackson

  9. Jackson

  10. Jackson

  11. Jackson

  12. Jackson

  13. Jackson

  14. Harley

  15. Harley

  16. Jackson

  17. Jackson

  18. Jackson

  19. Jackson

  20. Harley

  21. Harley

  22. Harley

  23. Harley

  24. Jackson

  25. Jackson

  26. Jackson

  27. Jackson

  28. Harley

  29. Harley

  30. Harley

  31. Jackson

  32. Jackson

  33. Jackson

  34. Jackson

  35. Jackson

  36. Harley

  37. Harley

  38. Jackson

  39. Harley

  40. Harley

  Black Edge

  Chapter 1- Ellie

  Chapter 2 - Ellie

  Chapter 3 - Ellie

  Chapter 4 - Ellie

  About Charlotte Byrd

  About Tangled Up In Hate

  Epic love requires an epic sacrifice…

  A long time ago, I borrowed money from a very powerful family. I paid my debt, but they have come for more.

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  They want everything that I have built and they will hurt her if I refuse.

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  Harley doesn’t understand why I have to break her heart. She hates me, but at least she’s okay…for now.

  * * *

  But what happens when sending her away isn’t enough?

  * * *

  What happens when I lose everything?

  Praise for Charlotte Byrd

  “Decadent, delicious, & dangerously addictive!” - Amazon Review ★★★★★

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  “Titillation so masterfully woven, no reader can resist its pull. A MUST-BUY!” - Bobbi Koe, Amazon Review ★★★★★

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  “Captivating!” - Crystal Jones, Amazon Review ★★★★★

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  "Exciting, intense, sensual” - Rock, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★

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  “Sexy, secretive, pulsating chemistry…” - Mrs. K, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★

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  “Charlotte Byrd is a brilliant writer. I've read loads and I've laughed and cried. She writes a balanced book with brilliant characters. Well done!” -Amazon Review ★★★★★

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  “Fast-paced, dark, addictive, and compelling” - Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★

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  “Hot, steamy, and a great storyline.” - Christine Reese ★★★★★

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  “My oh my....Charlotte has made me a fan for life.” - JJ, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★

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  "The tension and chemistry is at five alarm level.” - Sharon, Amazon reviewer ★★★★★

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  “Hot, sexy, intriguing journey of Elli and Mr. Aiden Black. - Robin Langelier ★★★★★

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  “Wow. Just wow. Charlotte Byrd leaves me speechless and humble… It definitely kept me on the edge of my seat. Once you pick it up, you won't put it down.” - Amazon Review ★★★★★

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  “Sexy, steamy and captivating!” - Charmaine, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★

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  “ Intrigue, lust, and great characters...what more could you ask for?!” - Dragonfly Lady ★★★★★

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  “An awesome book. Extremely entertaining, captivating and interesting sexy read. I could not put it down.” - Kim F, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★

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  “Just the absolute best story. Everything I like to read about and more. Such a great story I will read again and again. A keeper!!” - Wendy Ballard ★★★★★

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  “It had the perfect amount of twists and turns. I instantaneously bonded with the heroine and of course Mr. Black. YUM. It's sexy, it's sassy, it's steamy. It's everything.” - Khardine Gray, Bestselling Romance Author ★★★★★

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  Also by Charlotte Byrd

  All books are available at ALL major retailers! If you can’t find it, please email me at [email protected]

  * * *

  Black Series

  Black Edge

  Black Rules

  Black Bounds

  Black Contract

  Black Limit

  House of York Trilogy

  House of York

  Crown of York

  Throne of York

  Standalone Novels

  Debt

  Offer

  Unknown

  Dressing Mr. Dalton

  1

  Jackson

  Before…

  “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

  I read the words over and over again silently.

  And when that’s not enough, I repeat them out loud.

  Our life is a gift.

  A precious and wild gift from the universe. It doesn’t matter if you believe in reincarnation or an all-knowing God, we all come from dust and we will return to dust.

  And then there’s our time here.

  Here on Earth.

  Of course.

  What is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life, Jackson? I ask myself.

  I look at myself in the mirror.

  The man looking back at me is attractive, and distinguished, and rich.

  The world is mine, so to speak, I can do anything I want. Or so it seems on the outside. On the inside, however, my life isn’t so easy.

  There are complications.

  My business.

  My obligations to everyone who works there.

  So, I can’t just take off. I can’t just put it to one side and do something else.

  But there’s an even bigger problem than that.

  What is it that I would do if I could do anything?

  There was a time when building my company up from nothing meant the world to me.

  Every quarter we made more and more revenue and we brought in more and more advertisers.

  My life became fueled by the numbers on the ledger.

  My life revolved around our profit-loss statements. It was all I thought about all day and all night.

  I certainly didn’t want to think about anything else.

  If I did, then I’d have to think about living my life entirely cut off from everything that is human.

  Then I’d have to think about what it would be like to have real friends again.

  And what it would be like to fall in love again, or at least open myself up to the possibility of opening myself up to another person.

  I thought that I had it all figured out.

  I thought that if I could barricade myself in my mansion then nothing could hurt me.

  And I was right, for a bit.

  But as time passed and months became years, something else dawned on me.

  It wasn’t so much t
hat I was keeping the rest of the world out, but keeping myself in.

  My home has become a prison of my own making and after a while, I wasn’t strong enough to escape that world.

  Until her.

  Harley Burke.

  Chestnut hair.

  Inquisitive eyes.

  Plump lips and a square jaw.

  Sometimes she smirks when she laughs and sometimes, she even snorts.

  But most of the time, her laughter sounds like angels singing.

  Harley Burke burst into my life, freeing me from a cage of my own design.

  She brought me out into the world and she showed me that it’s not as scary as I thought that it would be.

  She showed me that life is not only precious and wild but also kind.

  She showed me what it feels to get that shock of electricity coursing through your body when you think about someone coming over soon.

  She challenged me.

  But mostly, she taught me how to believe in not only love, but also life.

  I had lost faith in life for a while there, and she showed me that reality has a lot to do with how you look at it.

  Two people can experience the same exact terrible thing, but what changes everything is their perception of that thing.

  And so, that’s why I’m here now.

  Harley showed me that life is wild and precious and what I want to do now with mine is to go out there and buy her a ring.

  I don’t know where she is. I don’t know if she’s even alive, but I am buying a ring because I believe.

  She will come back to me.

  And when she does, I will use this ring to propose to her.

  Why now?

  There comes a point when you realize that all you want is to spend the rest of your life with one person.

  And when that point comes, you also realize that you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

  This phrase comes from When Harry Met Sally, and I butchered it, of course.

  But the reason I mention it here is that I never really understood what it meant until the moment when the realization dawned on me.

  Instead of heading to Tiffany’s or Harry Winston or another well-known brand, I go to the small office of a jeweler I found on Etsy.

  She’s a woman in her late thirties and she recognizes me immediately when I walk in but does not mention it.

  Instead, she shows me the kind of floating diamond rings that I mentioned I would like for Harley and explains the different things about various setting options.

  I don’t know much about diamonds and I appreciate the introductory lesson. After I decide on a three-carat diamond, emerald cut, with side diamonds, set in platinum, she gives me an estimated price of fifteen grand.

  It’s about half of the price I’ve seen for a similar ring online and about a fourth even, not more, of the cost of the same ring from a jeweler with an international brand.

  I’m not here because I’m trying to save money.

  I’m here because I know that this is where Harley would like me to get her ring - from a small jeweler with amazing online reviews who runs her own business.

  I pay the deposit and thank her for her time.

  “Thank you so much, Mr. Ludlow. I know that you won’t be disappointed,” she says.

  “I know. Thank you.”

  Stepping back out into the cold, I finally know the answer to that question that Mary Oliver asked in her poem.

  What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

  To find Harley, and to do everything in my power to make her happy.

  2

  Harley

  The smell of paper…

  Used bookstores make my heart ache, in a good way.

  They are stuffy and smelly and claustrophobic, but that’s also what’s magical about them.

  They aren’t like new bookstores where everything is organized just perfectly and you can find any book that you are looking for.

  Those are good, too, especially if you also want a cup of coffee and a scone, and the peace of mind to sit and read for hours.

  But it’s the used bookstores that really captivate me. I think it’s because they are full of the unknown.

  You can go in there with an idea of a book you’re looking for, and you may find it, especially if it’s a classic or popular.

  But what’s even better than that is to go in there with a completely open mind. Without even a notion of what you may want.

  That’s when the real adventure begins.

  I wander around the aisles, running my fingertips over the old spines.

  Some are old, others are ancient.

  And others are almost new.

  I’m not looking for anything in particular, but I am looking for something that will draw me in.

  I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but what else do you have to go by?

  Especially if you have never heard of the author or the title before?

  Something makes me stop by the poetry section.

  I’ve never read many poems before. I pull out one of the newer books from the shelf and stare at the cover.

  It doesn’t really speak to me.

  It’s devoid of all color, except black and white, and has a middle-aged woman glancing strangely back at me.

  She’s not particularly attractive, but she’s also not particularly unattractive. Her boyish haircut isn’t doing her any favors.

  I’m about to put it back, but something stops me.

  Instead, I open it. Not to the beginning, but to a random page.

  Listen—are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?

  The words catch me by surprise. More than that really.

  They stop me in my tracks completely.

  I read the words over and over again until they are ingrained onto my soul.

  How could this poet grab ahold of me with just a question and change the way I see everything about myself?

  My answer?

  Yes, I am breathing just a little and calling it a life. But not starting from this moment.

  Now, every time I feel myself falling into the abyss of everyday life, it’s going to change. I’m more than just a person who goes to work, pays the bills, and thinks about things that I should be doing that I’m not.

  The thing is that I know exactly what I should be doing.

  I should be writing.

  That’s what I really want to do with my life.

  But mundane things tend to get in the way of that.

  There are always emails to answer. More jobs to take to pay the bills. And after all of that is done, I’m just tired.

  Too tired to do the one thing that I really want to spend my time doing. Not after today, I promise myself. Things are going to change.

  I will no longer breathe just a little and call it a life.

  My life will be full of passion and adventure.

  I take the book to the checkout counter. The woman behind the register smiles at me.

  “Mary Oliver, one of my favorite poets,” she says, scanning my book.

  “I’ve never read her before,” I admit as I hand her a five-dollar bill.

  “She’s going to change your life.”

  She already has.

  I bought Mary Oliver’s book of poetry a year before I met Jackson.

  I came home that night and devoured the book and promised myself that in the morning, I’m going to start writing.

  But I didn’t. I set the alarm for six so I could get some writing in before I had to officially begin work, but it was too early and I never got up. I was going to write after work, but again I was too tired.

  After making dinner, all I wanted to do was pass out in front of the television. Within a week, I put Mary Oliver’s book away.

  It was just a painful reminder of everything that I should be doing, and that I was too distracted to do.

  I hated how guilty it made me feel. The words that on
ce spoke to my very core, now made me rot from the inside out.

  That is until I started writing fiction again. This time, it wasn’t the book that inspired me.

  It was Jackson.

  He encouraged me.

  He supported me.

  And he gave me the time to do it. When I no longer had to work to make money, suddenly, I couldn’t stop writing.

  All I wanted to do all day was work on my novel.

  And when it was done, I wanted to start the continuation of the story.

  Jackson leans over my shoulder and looks at the screen.

  “Wow.” He gives me a peck on the top of my head.

  My face freezes in a smile.

  “How many units is that?” he asks.