Duly Noted Read online

  Duly Noted

  a Love, Hope & Faith novel

  by H.M. Shander

  Duly Noted

  Published by H.M. Shander at Amazon, KDP Publishing

  Copyright 2016 H.M. Shander

  Amazon Edition, License Notes

  Thank you for downloading this e-book. This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite e-book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Copyright 2016 H.M. Shander. All Rights Reserved.

  Duly Noted is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used factitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, events or locals, are entirely coincidental.

  Cover Design: ZH Designs – www.zeehdesigns.com

  Editing by: PWA

  Shander, H.M., 1975 – Duly Noted

  First Edition

  Visit my Amazon Author Page or my website

  This book is available for print at via the author’s website and online retail stores.

  You took a chance on me with Cat & Drew, and

  I hope your time spent with Aurora and Nate

  is just as magical and wonderful.

  Thank you for reading.

  This novel is dedicated to you, the readers,

  who believe in happy ever afters

  and the magic of falling in love.

  HMS

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty- Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Dear Reader

  Other books by H.M. Shander

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  The laughter died in a split-second. No one saw it coming. Metal snapped, scrapped and twisted. The air reeked of something salty and mercurial. Life changed forever.

  May 24. 10:17 p.m.

  The rain poured down, blanketing everything in its path with a cold wetness that chilled to the bone. The dark sky blew up with arcs of forked lightning, lighting up the area for miles. In the distance, sirens wailed, getting louder on approach. Gasps and inaudible sounds came from the onlookers who stood around drenched yet watching. Unable to help. Unsure of where to start.

  ***

  Aurora drove through the pounding rain, with her momma in the passenger seat, and Carmen behind her. Normally Carmen would drive, as she attended the University there, but tonight she let Aurora take the wheel. They enjoyed a perfect girl’s weekend– eating more than normal, staying out late and shopping.

  Laughing, and singing off key to an old country song on the radio, they headed back to their hotel after an exhaustive but successful search for the perfect dress. Aurora’s high school graduation was less than two weeks away. Carmen, her older sister, said the ball gown made the blue in her eyes dance, and Derek would think she was the most beautiful girl at the ceremony. But Aurora knew he’d think that anyways. He always told her that.

  Still blocks from the hotel, Aurora drove down the scenic one-way street and thought nothing of checking for traffic approaching the stop signs. A set of white lights, bright enough to blind her peripheral vision, appeared out of nowhere. No time to react and slam on the brakes.

  “Momma!” she screamed, as her head cracked against her mom’s shoulder, which was now closer than it should have been. When the vehicle stopped moving, Aurora’s head smashed into the driver’s side window, shattering it into millions of pieces before her world turned dark.

  Coming back from the dark, she slowly pieced together what she saw. A dark grey dashboard, the cream colour of the airbag puddled on her lap, and several red blinking lights in the distance. Not a fender-bender, but a major accident. She was involved in a car crash. The kind she’d watched on her favourite medical dramas. One day she hoped to be on the other side as the ER doctor. But today, she’d be the patient.

  Her jeans, cold and wet against her skin, made her shiver, bringing her back to the present. Were her ears deceiving her? All around her, an eerie silence stretched out – like the kind you get when you wake in the middle of the night from a nightmare. Yet as she strained her ear, murmurs could be heard. A gasp here and there. And some gargled breathing. And that sound chilled her even more than the cold. Because it was close. Too close. It didn’t help her stay calm when the smells surrounding her were as frightening – strong and overpowering, but also unfamiliar as there was no textbook or literature on that. And without a moment’s hesitation, she never wanted to smell them again. They reeked of fear and death.

  “Momma,” she said in a painful, whispered breath.

  Her head leaned on the edge of the window, allowing the rain to mix with her tears. She tried to lift her head, but it weighed at least fifty pounds. And it ached. Like every other part of her body. A quick roving body search confirmed that she was alive – the indescribable pain told her as much. Pushing against the door to right herself, she screamed in agony and blacked out again.

  Awaking later as warm fingertips palpitated her face. A soft male voice said, “My name’s Jordan and I’m here to help you.”

  A clap of thunder overhead startled Aurora more than the hands that slipped something solid and plastic around her neck. “Momma? Carmen?” she called out in a hoarse whisper. Forcing her eyes open, she tried to twist her restrained head to search for her mother and sister. Even straining from the corner of her eyes, they weren’t there.

  “Don’t move.” Jordan’s voice spoke with such calmness that for a moment she thought the situation wasn’t as bad as it was. Momma wasn’t there, no sound from Carmen, and yet Jordan spoke as if he were simply removing a splinter from her finger. Maybe I’m dreaming.

  Lightning split the sky into two distinct pieces and ground-rattling thunder immediately followed. It lit up the empty passenger seat with a missing door. “Momma?”

  “She’s been removed from the car already,” Jordan said. His warm fingers caused an involuntary shudder to course through her body. The shaking hurt her in more ways than she could count, or wanted to count. It made her nauseous. It made her nervous. “Carmen?” she screamed in her mind. Surely she could hear her?

  Aurora returned her focus to the person talking to her. W
hat was his name? Joe? Jordan? What in hell was he doing on the hood of her car? Where was her windshield?

  She focused on his face. “You’ve been in a bad accident, and your mom’s already en route to the hospital. We’re trying to get you out. You’re pinned against a railing, so once we have you properly protected, they’ll pull your car away, so we can get better access to you. Shouldn’t be much longer.”

  She performed some version of a nod, but it was hard to gauge with her immobile head.

  I remember seeing the headlights. Bright and almost on top of us. I don’t remember hearing the squealing brakes from that vehicle. The sliding lasted forever, but I think it was only three or four lanes. I don’t remember seeing a brick wall, but I do remember suddenly stopping.

  Straining her eyes to the edges, she tried to take in her surroundings. Like something on the news, blue and red lights flashed around, belonging to a firetruck and an ambulance or two? It was hard to tell. The area was lit up with beams of light and there were voices everywhere.

  “She’s secure,” Jordan called out as he turned his head. To her he said, “They’re going to pull the vehicle back so you’ll feel a deep shaking.”

  Oh fuck. She understood what that meant. More pain. Because it wasn’t enough to hurt from head to toe already. However, this pain would be nothing when the vehicle moved, rattling her once more. Unlike the crash, she knew what was coming. Preparing for it was another matter. I need to focus or I’m going to black out. Think, Aurora, think. Look at the man. Jordan, was it? Don’t think about the pain that’s coming. I’m in good hands. She focused on the paramedic as he slid off the hood and stepped back, nodding to someone.

  The vehicle violently shook as it skidded and scraped against the ground, the noise deafening. Unable to cover her ears, it invaded her soul. But the worst was the horrible metallic sound of a saw blade cutting into metal surrounding her. This time she figured she’d go deaf as the noise pierced her ears. Reactively, she jerked and blinding pain radiated through her before she blacked out again.

  Chapter Two

  Two Years Later

  Sure, make the new girl do the dirty work. With a long list in her hands, Aurora limped to the elevator and mentally prepared herself for the task; searching through dozens of sealed up boxes for specific titles to go back on the library’s shelves. They said it would be easy. Two hours at most. But they laughed when they said it, so she wasn’t expecting a picnic.

  The teen and middle grade novels had been boxed and moved to the basement while that section was under reconstruction. They were expanding the area to make it bigger and cosier, and more inviting for the teens. Adding a soundproof room with a big screen TV and the latest video game consoles would be a huge draw. Aurora thought it sounded awesome, and hoped when it was finished, she’d be able to hang out along with the teenagers. She could take them all on, especially in any combat games. She rocked those.

  Shuffling into the elevator, she thumbed the down button and waited as the age-old doors closed. She sighed and leaned against the back wall, waiting for her arrival into the dungeons.

  She’d heard the whispering from the other staff members about the importance of locating all the titles, but couldn’t figure out why someone else wasn’t searching. Yes, she was new, and yes, it was grunt work, but still. She’d been hired to shelve books and keep the library neat and tidy, so why was she selected to sort through the boxes? As much as she wanted to complain about it, she bit her tongue. If she was going to keep her job through the summer, she’d better suck it up and make the best of it.

  The elevator chimed, and she stumbled out into the noisy foyer, making a quick right turn. A peek to her left told her the construction crew was down here, strengthening the joists or whatever it was they needed to do before the expansion could begin. Plugging her earphones into her phone, she fired up the latest podcast on organic chemistry, putting the volume up to a level she wouldn’t ordinarily have it at. Some would find her choice in podcasts dry and boring, but to Aurora, chemistry was soothing and interesting. She spent as much time as she could learning, because she wanted to, not because she was forced to like her dorm-mate Kaitlyn would say.

  Aurora made it to the stack of boxes, and stared, wondering how long this search would truly take. A couple of hours? Really? There’s like a hundred boxes here. Spotting a cart, she pushed it over to the boxes and ripped open the first box.

  Sometime later, she was head deep searching in one of the final boxes, when a finger tapped on her shoulder. Ripping her earbuds away and standing taller than the towers of boxes, she stared breathlessly at the man who stepped away from her, his hands raised up. “What the hell?” she snapped.

  “Hey, it’s okay,” the construction worker said, inching away. He was younger than the old gruffs she’d seen earlier. This one appeared around twenty, close to her age maybe. If he didn’t seem so alarmed, she might have thought him cute. “See that door there?” She turned in the direction his stubby finger pointed. “Your boxes are blocking it. That’s the stairwell and our fire escape.”

  “Is there a fire?” Sarcasm rolled off her tongue, and she folded her arms across her chest after taking a quick whiff of air.

  He frowned as he looked around. “No. Not that I saw.”

  “So what exactly is the problem?”

  “It’s a violation of fire code.” He stared at her as if daring her to challenge him. “So you should probably move them out of the way.”

  “What are you? A fire marshal or something?” He’d have to have a badge or something, right?

  “No. I’m just letting you know.”

  Cute or not, she didn’t need that tone from him. “Well, if it’s so important to do it right this minute, then move them. Otherwise I’ll do it when I’m done here. I’ll only be a couple more minutes. I think.” She sat on one of the boxes she’d been using as a makeshift chair and rifled through the box at her feet, trying to ignore the glare he fired in her direction. “There’s only two boxes left and I promise I’ll move everything back.” An insincere smile crossed her face. Pulling out a title, she tossed it onto the cart, missing it completely. “Dammit.”

  He bent down and picked it up, placing it on the trolley.

  “You’re seriously going to stand there and make sure I keep my promise?” She studied him. He was tall. Mind you, everyone seemed tall. She was all of five-foot-four, so she supposed he could be average. No, he was taller than average. Maybe it was the boots he wore. Regardless, he was easy on the eyes for sure, with his light brown hair fanning the edges of his eyebrows, and deep brown eyes staring at her, with what? What was that look on his face? Disgust? Hostility? No. Amusement. Because a small smirk teased the edges of his lips.

  He huffed and narrowed his eyes and gave them a thorough rub. “I can help you move the boxes back. I’m finished for the day, and since you only have two more to go through–”

  “Thank you, but I don’t need your help.”

  “I can see you’ve done a thorough job.” He leaned on a stack of boxes and crossed his arms. “However, the library closes in an hour, so I–”

  Ignoring him, she glanced at her phone, and checked the time. Dammit. I still need one more title. She flipped faster through the open box, and finding nothing she needed, heaved it and added it to the pile.

  “What are you looking for?”

  “Books, obviously.” She rolled her eyes and smirked. This construction worker couldn’t be that obtuse, could he?

  “Specifically?” He leaned over and peered into the box on the floor.

  “Books by Matthew James. Yesterday he announced he’s coming here on Friday for a presentation, and they want all his titles prominently displayed. It’s my job to retrieve these books,” she said, waving the list, “from the boxed up ones so you and your crew can renovate the teen section.”

  “And why’s it so important that all his books are back upstairs?”

  She massaged her temples, not having tim
e nor the desire to explain this. Sighing, she said, “Because Matthew James does a lot for libraries and he’s very encouraging at getting the kids in the door. You know for reading and such.”

  “Doesn’t answer why all his books need to be displayed. Go with what you have here.” He pointed to the full cart. There were dozens upon dozens of his titles piled up.

  “As easy as that would be, it’s not how I roll. I was given a job to do, and I’m going to finish it.” She rooted through the box again, tossing out another title. “Because the branch manager wanted every single title up there. Then after the presentation, those who can’t afford to buy his brand new books, can borrow them from us.”

  “So why isn’t he at a big chain bookstore selling his books and making oodles of money?”

  “Do you even know who Matthew James is?” Disgusted she even had to ask. Everyone knew who Matthew James was. For crying out loud, he was a rock star in the literary world.

  “No. But he’s already sounding somewhat pretentious.”

  “Matthew James is single-handedly responsible for getting teenage boys to read.”

  The man before her whistled. “Wow, single-handedly? Does he wear a cape when he arrives?”

  She slumped over the box at her feet, hiding her oncoming smile. “Shut up. You’re so out of touch.” Finding another title, she waved it around. “Haven’t you ever read, Mocking Me?”

  Staring at her like she was some kind of psycho, he said, “Umm, nope. Can’t say I have.”

  “It’s fabulous, and should be required reading for pre-teen boys–”

  “Well, I’m hardly a pre-teen boy.” He produced a close-lipped smile as he raised his eyebrows.

  Her eyes roved up and down his body. “Obviously.” Displaying the book, she carried on. “It’s educational, full of fantasy and fun without being preachy. It rocks.” She added it to the growing mountain of books. “Plus, his organization–The MJ Association–donates thousands of books to the inner-city schools and the less fortunate.” Sighing at the unconcerned look on his face, she added, “He’s like Tony Hawk to skateboarders, or Jeff Gordon to NASCAR.”