Broken

Broken by Eve Vaughn

Chapter One

“I had that dream again.” Jocelyn clutched the wheel of her rented SUV until her knuckles went white. Beads of perspiration broke out along her forehead as she attempted to stave off the shiver racing up her spine. Taking a deep breath to calm the erratic beating of her heart, she mentally counted down from ten. She hadn’t meant to blurt that out, but anything was better than the silence. The silence that gave her a chance to dwell on things she would rather not have.

Even after all this time, reliving the moment over and over again still had the power to reduce her to a bundle of nerves. To make her afraid. Ashamed. Less than human. The nausea welling within the pit of her stomach made her tremble.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Her best friend and traveling companion reached over to rub her thigh.

Jocelyn shook her head, knowing she’d said more than she should have. Why did she have to open her big mouth? What she really wanted to do was turn the vehicle around and go home, back to New York and fade back into her world of pretense. A place where she ceased being just plain Jocelyn Winters, but instead known as Jos Song. When she was Jos, she was beautiful, confident, brave, not constantly looking over her shoulder, unable to trust or give all of who she was. No, the cloak she donned as her public persona would not shield her where she was headed.

She waved her hand dismissively. “Forget I mentioned it.”

Kyla tightened her clutch. “How can I when you’re shaking like a leaf? You don’t look so well, hon. Maybe we should pull over at the next exit.”

“No!” The truth was, if she stopped this vehicle, the impulse to turn around and drive back to the airport would be too powerful to resist. And the last thing she wanted to do was let her father down. She owed it to him to make this trip if nothing else.

“Then tell me what’s going on, girl. The closer we get to our destination, the more agitated you seem. You’ve been quiet for the last hour and I figured you didn’t feel like talking. But maybe you should. Sometimes vocalizing your concerns puts things into perspective—makes you feel better. Tell me about it. Please?”

Jocelyn’s lips tightened briefly. Nothing raised her hackles more than the feeling of being backed into a corner. Deep down she knew Kyla was only trying to help, but Jocelyn grasped on to any emotion other than the cloying despair threatening to descend upon her. Unfortunately, it was anger which came strong and swift tearing through her very core.

“Oh? Like how you’re oh so willing to open up about your life? Why don’t we talk about how stellar your life has been?” The minute the words left her mouth, she could have kicked herself. Never in a million years would she ever want to deliberately hurt the one person who’d been in her corner these past few years and she feared that’s exactly what she’d done.

Kyla snatched her hand away, her eyes widening and mouth falling open and then closing again. It was as if a great invisible barrier suddenly slammed between them. With flared nostrils, and crossed arms, Kyla turned around to stare out the passenger window.

Not another word passed between the two for the next ten minutes. Jocelyn counted every second of it, wishing she had held her tongue. Starting an argument before they reached the ranch wasn’t on her list of things to do, but she was so on edge and didn’t know how to handle the tension churning within her like electricity.

She took her eyes off the road momentarily to glance at her friend, taking in Kyla’s rigid frame, and face devoid of emotion. Jocelyn more than anyone knew about concealing pain, and was familiar with how Kyla dealt with hers. “I’m sorry, Ky. I didn’t mean it.”