Title: Gaining Ground (Full Throttle #2) Author: Jenny A. Hayut
Publication Date: February 3, 2015
Plot: As the story of Holt and Niki continues, the two are once again torn apart by secrets. And soon Niki will discover just what lies beneath the words Holt’s never spoken. As a result, the strength she didn’t know she had will be tested.
Truths will be revealed.
Hearts will be shattered.
Lives will be threatened.
☆✮ My Review ✮☆
☆ I received an ARC via Southern Belle PR in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ! ☆
Following up from the heightened events that took place in bk1, Gaining Ground picks up where Shifting Gears left off. I had so many questions as to how Holt and Niki’s relationship would be salvaged after that big cliffy revelation, but, Ms. Hayut answered all of my inquiries in an adept fashion.
Going forward, things aren’t easy squeezy at all. With secrets, lies, and unexpected twists and turn of events set into mention, Niki is aptly hesitant and apprehensive where all the chips with Holt lay.
It’s a bit of ups and downs in this read as now Niki has to make some hard decisions and gather up the strength she never knew she had. Not to mention, Holt has his own demons to answer to.
Get ready for some action ladies, Gaining Ground pulls full steam ahead as tensions and stakes are risen and hearts are put on the line!!
My Rating:
♥♥♥♥
☆✮ Excerpt ✮☆
I open my eyes, but to darkness. I struggle to raise a hand
to my neck, but it’s jolted back with a loud clack.
That clack.
That drip.
I remember.
I sob, slouched up against the frigid tile wall that smells
of mildew.
How long has it been now? One day? Two, maybe? God, a week?
I can’t remember. My mind is numb. The thought of never escaping overpowers me.
Handcuffed to a sink, unable to move really, I kick my feet around to try to
get the circulation going in my heavy legs. The floor is like ice, with shards
of broken tile digging into my skin.
I remember. They’d left Jason bleeding or…or dead on the
floor of the clinic. They’d kidnapped me. Vinnie Calhoun and his goon. The
image of Vinnie’s tattooed arm flashes across my mind. The same tattoo worn by
the man who’d nearly raped me after Holt left me with no explanation.
I shiver. Each passing hour increases the chance that he’ll
remember me. That he’ll see the scar his blade left across my lower back as I
escaped. A reminder of my stupidity, my misery, my weakness. One I’ll carry
with me forever.
He can’t have forgotten how I kicked him in the balls—so
viciously that I likely left him incapable of fathering children. Or so I’ve
always liked to imagine. After what he did to me, he doesn’t deserve kids.
I jump as the door handle rattles. I stiffen, and the nausea
returns as I curl up, utterly defenseless. The door swings open quickly, and
the light flips on, searing my eyes. I squeeze them shut.
“Wake up, sweetheart. Somebody wants to talk to you.”
Vinnie’s voice.
I try to lift my head, but it’s too heavy. And the pain…the
pain owns me.
“Wake up, girl. Got your boyfriend on the phone. Ain’t gonna
come running till he knows you’re really here. So wake your ass up. And don’t
even think about telling him shit. You say hello. Tell him how scared you are.
Beg him to rescue you. Whatever it takes for him to understand you’re mine
until he gives me what I want.”
Did he say Holt?
Holt is on the phone?
Dig. Dig deep.
I have to get on that phone. It’s my only chance.
Painfully, I raise my head in the direction of his voice. I
squint until I see Vinnie silhouetted in front of me, bending down with his
hand held out.
Before I can reach for his phone, Vinnie yanks at my free
arm and shoves it into my hand. My breath is short as I try to form the words I
know I need to say.
Think fast, Niki.
“Hello?”
The guttural sound of Holt’s voice fills my ears.
“Baby, I’m coming. Gonna look under every fucking rock until
I find you. That piece of shit is dead. Has he hurt you? If that fucker has
laid one hand on you... Fuck. Are you okay? Baby, talk to me. I need to hear
your voice. It’s going to be okay. Everything’s going to be okay. I promise
you. Nicolette? Baby, talk to me.”
I try my best to take in the questions coming at me so
quickly. My head is spinning. I have to tilt it to rest on my shoulder but
manage to keep the phone to my ear. Vinnie’s scuffed brown oxfords in front of
me give me the determination I need.
Do it, Niki. Now.
From the pit of my stomach, I find the voice to say,
“Campbell’s.” As much effort as it took for me to get it out, it ends up barely
a whisper. I pray he heard me as it’s all I get the chance to say. Vinnie
snatches the phone from me and backhands me across the cheek with it. I wince
as my head jerks in the other direction.
His blow has me near unconsciousness again, and his
lumbering footsteps grow distant as the darkness returns and the door slams
shut.
His voice is muffled by the door, and I struggle to make out
what he’s saying.
“You see? I got your girl, tied up and waiting for you.
Gotta say she was worth the wait. Best get her quick. She might decide she
likes this dick better than yours.”
I shiver at the thought of Vinnie forcing himself on me.
Please, Holt. Please hurry.
I hope like hell he understood what I meant. If he even
heard me. If he meant what he said about coming for me… And that’s another
problem. Can I still trust him?
What Vinnie said about Holt has been festering in my mind.
That he was using me. That I was his pawn to get to Doc C. That the two of them
were competing to get Doc C first.
The man I’ve known and loved since I was a child. The man
who inspired me to become a vet. The man whose position I’d filled at the
hospital when he made the sudden decision to retire and leave town. The man no
one had been able to find until Holt woke me in the middle of the night to tell
me he was safe and out of Vinnie’s reach.
I haven’t forgotten any of that. Nor have I forgotten that
Vinnie said it was all just a game. Like it’s always been between him and Holt.
A sick, twisted game, manipulating people. Playing on their emotions.
Vinnie couldn’t have known just how potent his words were.
How they shattered me. Killed me inside. The knife in my heart. Twisting. Over
and over again.
I don’t know what to believe. Who to trust.
But none of that is important right now. I can’t think about
it. Can’t let it control me. I gotta think about me. And Doc C. I gotta think
about getting the hell away from Vinnie before he figures out who I am. Can’t
let him get Doc C either. Can’t let that happen.
So Holt is my only hope. My only chance of escaping. He’s
the only one who knows where I am. And I have to believe that he’ll find me. I
just hope like hell he doesn’t give Vinnie what he wants: Doc C.
* * *
Minutes feel like hours. Hours feel like days. I wake again
to the faucet dripping. The smell of mildew hangs in the air, and I’m certain
it’s coming from the crumpled up, sagging shower curtain dangling from the
bathtub. This bathroom, and the room on the other side of it, is somewhere to
get high. Somewhere to fuck. Clearly not a good choice to lay your head to rest
after a long drive. Not a place to take your family on their way to
Disneyworld.
My body is growing numb. All I can feel now is the iciness
of the floor again my skin. The damp in the air. The sickening feeling in the
pit of my stomach. I know why I’m so cold. I can’t escape it. I’ve lost too
much blood.
☆✮ Book One of the Full Throttle Series ✮☆
☆✮ About the Author ✮☆
Well I knew I was on to something early on in those dreaded middle school years with those weekly spelling words we were tasked to use in one page stories. My English teacher became accustomed to getting what equaled nothing short of short stories from me weekly with those huh? words like chimera. I mean really? Of course I went the greek mythology route resulting in one of many imaginative mysteries.
As I hit high school I joined the school newspaper and wrote all kinds of crazy quirky articles. This is where my love of poetry came to life too as I joined the literary magazine and dived into all things Edgar Allan Poe. Dark right? I would have dated him. Heck yeah. That man had soul.
I began reading and reading and reading. I remember stealing my sister's Harlequin's. I'd pretend I hated them but secretly loved them. Somewhere around this time my dream to become a published author was born. I wrote my first what would be considered now a young adult romance. It's hidden somewhere in the attic. Maybe one day I'll dig it out.
So what can I say about my writing? I am influenced greatly by music. Just about every genre. I have a thing for cars too. My Dad loved cars and it seems it carried over to me in my writing. Tattooed men driving fast cars? Yeah that gets my attention. Add an alpha male to that mix and I'm swooning.
With the publication of my first novel Shifting Gears, my dream has been set to motion and I hope to continue bringing more stories to life. Like I have a choice really. All I need is a disco ball in my head. It's like a party in there.
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