Runaway
By Aubrey
Kendall
Genre: Young
Adult Contemporary
At seventeen years old,
Courtney Apuzzo is fed up. With a dead mom and an alcoholic father that beats
her every chance he gets, Courtney decides that enough is enough. Packing up
only what she needs, Courtney leaves home without telling a soul and heads off
to find her new life.
Life
on her own is not exactly as she thought it would be. With nowhere to stay,
Courtney finds herself sleeping on an old stoop in an abandoned apartment
alleyway. A chance meeting with a new group of friends seems like a great beginning
to her second chance at a real life. But everything is not as it seems.
Tricked
into a life she never wanted and fears, Courtney needs to run away, again. She
needs to find a way out of this new and dangerous life. With the help from a
man she barely knows, will Courtney find her way out? Or will she find herself
on the run from a dangerous past, and a hopeless future? Faced with a choice
that will change her life forever.
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Meet Aubrey Kendall
S.M. Knowles
was born in Elmira, New York where she was swept away in a whirlwind to the
Land of Oz—Independence, Kansas. Her parents were relocating for working
opportunities and decided that this would be the perfect place to start new
roots. Little did she know that this place would contribute to the inspiration
for the first book she wrote in her Rylee Everley Series.
While growing up, S.M. would travel the roads around her
house while imagining she was somewhere else. Her imagination would take her
everywhere, making the long hot summer days seem shorter throughout her
fantasies.
At the age of twelve, she decided to write her first book.
Filled mostly with dialog, she filled up one-hundred pages, front and back.
After taking the book downstairs to show her mom, and persuading her to buy her
more paper, she excitedly ran back to her room. As she barreled through the
door, S.M. tripped over items left on her floor, and her papers came raining
down in her room. Discouraged, she stood there in tears, picking up her papers
and throwing them in the trash. Her work had no organization, no numbers on her
pages, just a child fulfilling a joy that she would put down and not pick up
again.
When she became older, she joined the military for
something different. In that time, she was able to explore many places and even
met her husband in Iraq. After coming home, she started her family in Arizona
and went back to school, earning a Master’s degree in Adult Education and
Training.
Excerpt
Courtney does
her best to hide her face as she remembers seeing this guy once before. He got
out of a car that followed her partially one day as she was looking for a job.
Braxton! She pushes her face deeper into the blanket and quickly realizes this
was the worst thing she could do, as the old musty smell pushes itself up her
nostrils....“Who is this?”
“Oh, you know. Another one of those runaways.”
“I don’t understand why we have to do this.”
“It’s not your job to understand. It’s your job to understand what your job is, so we can make sure this job gets done.”
“Yea, but kidnapping young kids.” He stops, looking at the girl on her stomach, huddled in the corner of her cage. “Look at her. She didn’t ask for this.”
“We didn’t ask you to share your emotions. This is our job. I get paid when I get money from her family. Therefore, it’s gonna happen!”
Courtney’s blood is boiling with his remarks. She tries hard to bite her tongue, but she can’t. Spinning around her hair flowing with her head continuing around wrapping her face. “You won’t get anything out of my family! They are poor!” Her face is full of fury, and her teeth are showing as she growls with each breath in. “I have no other family.”
“Bella?”
Courtney looks at Braxton, their eyes meeting again. Dread fills her veins as he searches her eyes. A cosmos separates the two of them with passion building, but Courtney doesn’t understand any of it as tears fill her eyes.
Braxton turns, walking out of the room, snarling at the man who freed Courtney of her restraints earlier, “Let her go. That’s an order. I’ll answer to my father.”.........
“Oh, you know. Another one of those runaways.”
“I don’t understand why we have to do this.”
“It’s not your job to understand. It’s your job to understand what your job is, so we can make sure this job gets done.”
“Yea, but kidnapping young kids.” He stops, looking at the girl on her stomach, huddled in the corner of her cage. “Look at her. She didn’t ask for this.”
“We didn’t ask you to share your emotions. This is our job. I get paid when I get money from her family. Therefore, it’s gonna happen!”
Courtney’s blood is boiling with his remarks. She tries hard to bite her tongue, but she can’t. Spinning around her hair flowing with her head continuing around wrapping her face. “You won’t get anything out of my family! They are poor!” Her face is full of fury, and her teeth are showing as she growls with each breath in. “I have no other family.”
“Bella?”
Courtney looks at Braxton, their eyes meeting again. Dread fills her veins as he searches her eyes. A cosmos separates the two of them with passion building, but Courtney doesn’t understand any of it as tears fill her eyes.
Braxton turns, walking out of the room, snarling at the man who freed Courtney of her restraints earlier, “Let her go. That’s an order. I’ll answer to my father.”.........
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