Broken Barriers (Barriers Series Book 4) by Sara Shirley Read Free Book Online Page A

couldn’t change the past. No more than a week after my birthday, I received word about Courtney getting married, almost a year to the day from our last encounter at the airport.
    I angrily pushed my fingers into my temples to hopefully forget the past and focus on the future sooner rather than later.
    A loud splash in the water caught my attention, but I couldn’t see where it was coming from. My hearing wasn’t what it used to be, but I could almost be certain it was from directly across the bay. A single light from a house glowed brightly amidst all the evergreen trees that surrounded much of the property around these parts.
    My eyes darted to the location to catch any kind of movement. Not knowing what or who might be around me caused my heart rate to accelerate slightly. I knew I was no longer in a war zone. Typically, in this situation, I could easily have just reached for my night vision goggles and determined if there was any danger by this point already. Here, I was vulnerable to everything, and I had no way of knowing. I couldn’t jump to conclusions anymore. I had to keep telling myself this was only temporary and eventually I’d adjust and things would be normal again.
    A rumbling laugh vibrated through my chest, and I shook my head in defeat. I lay back onto the dock with my feet still swinging over the edge. As I gazed up at the sky, everything finally settled within me. This was the lake, you moron… What danger were you possibly in?
    Suddenly, images of Josh and Sam’s wedding came to mind. Why my mind yearned to always return to that night I never knew. It was this time of night when those two danced beneath the stars for their first dance as a married couple. I watched from afar as Courtney captured it all on camera. If it weren’t for her, that moment wouldn’t be remembered forever—kind of like the framed photo in the house that held so much significance. The moment between Courtney and me…only the two of us actually knew the thoughts going through our heads. The only problem was, she never heard my head screaming how much I loved her.
    The painful memory of that moment coursed through my veins. With a strengthened growl, my mouth dropped open, and I let out a painful scream. Yes, I was the stupid moron who never said the right things at the right time. I could not fix past wrongs, and now that I was home surrounded by everything that reminded me of her, I felt as though I was drowning. As I sat back up on the dock, my vision blurred. My shoulders slumped as a lone tear fell from my eyes. Tension formed in my chest, and I had no idea how much time passed as I glanced around through my clouded eyes.
    Getting to my feet, I slipped my flip-flops back on and made the trek back to the house. When I was back inside, I grabbed the unopened bottle of tequila from the lower cabinet and pulled out the wooden stopper. I didn’t bother with a glass. I just tilted my head back and took a large chug. The liquid swished back into the bottle when my mouth was full, and I swallowed.
    The burn flowed down my throat, but the warmth remained, and it felt amazing. I didn’t even cough after taking such a large swig. I needed to feel this. I needed to feel the emptiness that was inside me get washed out by the liquor. After another long drink, I slid the bottle onto the counter and reached for my phone.
    As the home screen lit up, I turned on the music app and hooked into the wireless speaker in the house. I listened as Amy Lee and Seether belted out the lyrical agony from “Broken.” My fist slammed onto the granite counter on the island. The throbbing pain shot through my knuckles, but at least I was feeling something besides the bitter emptiness that had been there for far too long.
    A single lamp in the living room cast a soft glow over the darkened room, and I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the windows. The man that stared back at me was not the man I used to be. Pain lay deep within him, and I saw