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    Finding Hope: Colorado Veterans, #5
    Finding Hope: Colorado Veterans, #5
    Finding Hope: Colorado Veterans, #5
    Ebook153 pages1 hour

    Finding Hope: Colorado Veterans, #5

    By Tiffani Lynn

    5/5

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    About this ebook

    Marine Corps veteran, Cy McMullen walked away from his life, and everyone he loved, never looking back. Suffering from severe PTSD from his time overseas has left him socially crippled and emotionally damaged. With limited coping skills and an inability to trust anyone, he now lives a hopeless, solitary life on the streets.

    Registered Nurse, Rosie Rossi recently moved to Colorado Springs to be near her sister, after a forced estrangement that lasted nearly two decades. She loves spending time with her sister and family, but she needs something to call her own as she struggles to deal with the ghosts of her own past. She soon finds purpose in volunteering at the local Veteran's homeless shelter. 

    One cold December afternoon, circumstance pushes Rosie and Cy together in a way that forces them to come to terms with things they've long since avoided. An unlikely friendship blossoms between the two with a warmth that could melt even the most frozen of hearts. 

    In a season where miracles are born, fate chose to bring these two lonely, broken people together to heal one another. The pain of the past is the only thing standing in their way, but they both have been given a gift, something they thought was gone forever... hope.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTiffani Lynn
    Release dateNov 19, 2018
    ISBN9781386636939
    Finding Hope: Colorado Veterans, #5
    Author

    Tiffani Lynn

    Tiffani is a music loving, baseball adoring, crazed hockey fan. She lives in Florida with her family. Writing romance is a passion for her as well as reading and spending time with friends. 

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      Book preview

      Finding Hope - Tiffani Lynn

      1

      Cy

      The early December sun is high in the blue Colorado sky as I rest between the two buildings that make this an alley. I’m thankful for the sunny day that helps to warm me, allowing me to rest. For some reason though, today I’ve only been able to doze on and off for the last hour. The nights are so cold, I’m afraid if I don’t keep moving I’ll freeze to death, so I do my best to sleep during the day and roam at night. As I shift a little to find comfort, the putrid aroma of my skin wafts up into my nose and I cringe. I know what I smell like, but when you live on the street it’s hard to keep up with personal hygiene, and not easy to blend in if you do. Because I have money stashed in a bank account, I used to go and rent a hotel room every couple of weeks to get cleaned up, but being clean brought more attention from the unsavory characters on the street than I needed, so I made the showers less frequent .

      Footsteps pound into the alley I’m curled up in and I sit up, adrenaline spiking through my system. It doesn’t take much to get my heart pumping these days, but I picked one of the least frequented places to sleep today so it should be quiet.

      Here! a guy yells over his shoulder as he stomps around to the back side of the dumpster, where I’m now crouched against the wall with all of my worldly belongings piled next to me. I slip my hand under my duffel bag and wrap my fingers on the two-by-four I found a couple weeks ago. I kept it and started carrying it when a couple of guys living on the streets were murdered brutally and the assailants weren’t caught. I may not like my life much, but I’m not ready to

      lose

      it

      .

      The guy doesn’t see me but he sees the lump of a sleeping person covered in a blanket further back, who happens to be Ms. Nona. She’s much older than I am and wouldn’t survive a beating. Most of us out here watch out for her and there’s no way I’m letting anything happen

      to

      her

      .

      Hey! You looking for me? I call out, gaining his attention.

      His head turns my way and his wide eyes let me know I startled him. He flashes me an evil grin and steps toward me. Yeah, you’ll do, he snarls.

      I’d bet money this guy is on something. His eyes are bloodshot and wild. Graying wisps of fuzzy hair stick out all around his head like he hasn’t brushed it or cut it in a while. He doesn’t look homeless, just out of control. The hand holding the baseball bat is shaking more than a little bit and he’s oddly twitchy all over. He steps forward with his left foot, while his right foot extends hard to kick me. Thank God I’m trained in self-defense and hand-to-hand combat because I’m able to read his moves before he makes them. He’s sloppy and drugged out, which works in my favor. Unable to keep the two-by-four in my grip and get out of the way, I release it, roll over the top of my stuff and jump to my feet. The guy stumbles a little when he misses me and rights himself, madder than he was a

      minute

      ago

      .

      A strange sound alerts me to another presence and I turn as a baseball bat held by a second guy comes swinging toward my head. Leaping back, I stumble over trash in the alley and fight to stay upright. The bad part, besides the fact that these guys have bats and I now have nothing to fight back with, is that they are backing me further into the alley without an escape route. I know better than to allow myself to get cornered.

      A quick glance back confirms that Ms. Nona ran for it while I had these two goons occupied, and I breathe a sigh of relief before I face them once again. They’re approaching slowly, each with a bat up and ready. There’s nothing around me that I can pick up and use as a weapon and I know the only hope I have is the element of surprise, so I watch the first guy for a few extra seconds before I charge the second guy, knocking him off balance. He drops the bat as I land on top of him, his back to the pavement.

      When I try to roll away I see the other guy coming at me with his Louisville Slugger and I throw up an arm to protect my face. He hits my arm hard and I feel the bone crack, but I know another swing is coming so I snatch the other bat off the ground with my uninjured hand and swing out, catching him in the gut. He doubles over and drops to his knees. I swing at his back to level him. A loud grunt, followed by a thud, confirms it worked. When I glance up to locate the second guy, I realize he’s found my two-by-four and takes a swing at the back of my legs. I’m forced to the ground where he takes another swing at the side of my head. It misses me, but in my haste to get away, I crash head first into the side of the dumpster and sink to the ground. At that moment it’s clear I’ll never see another sunrise or snowfall because these two lunatics are going to kill me. My world fades to black.

      I come to a little bit later to find the alley empty. Slowly, I pull myself up and snatch my backpack with my good hand. Holy shit, I’m hurting. My arm is throbbing like crazy. I’m sure it’s a fracture because the pain is really bad, and if I don’t get help, I’ll be in worse shape than I am

      right

      now

      .

      Every part of my body aches, especially my arm and head. I’m pitiful enough that I need help. The thought of being locked up inside a building, even if it’s a hospital, is enough to make me try to live with the pain. Ever since I came back from my last deployment I can’t sleep if I’m inside. Just being inside a building makes me sweat and shake, never mind sleeping. The claustrophobia is out of control because I feel like a

      sitting

      duck

      .

      The question I have to answer now is, can I live with this pain? I attempt to get my coat off to look at the wound but can’t do it. The pain from just shifting the fabric down my arm is excruciating. I have to get some level of help. This isn’t something I can live with. My stomach rolls with nausea and I turn to the side and throw up what little is in my stomach. The motion jolts my arm and my head and I think I may pass out. It’s possible that the sirens wailing close by scared them away, but I can’t take the chance that they will come back to finish me off so I fight

      passing

      out

      .

      There’s only one place I can go where I trust someone to understand: The Veterans Homeless Shelter. Marv, the guy who runs the place, was once like me and will understand why I don’t want to go to the hospital. He’ll help me. He’s been trying to get me to stay some nights at that place for quite a while anyway.

      The vet shelter isn’t close to where I’ve been sleeping and by the time I hike to it I think I’ll pass out. The huge warehouse building that was converted to the shelter about a year ago is like an oasis in the desert at this point. The outside looks like any other old, red-brick building that’s kind of run-down. Twelve-foot wooden doors stand tall, front and center on the building, while the beveled glass windows give it a more aged quality than clear double-paned windows would. This place has probably been several different things over the years but it’s now a homeless shelter and I couldn’t be more thankful. I push the door open with my shoulder, praying Marv is inside.

      2

      Rosie

      This stupid fake Christmas tree has been kicking my butt for hours. At this point I’d rather break it in half and set it on fire than put it up, but I argued with Marv about decorating for the holidays so long that he finally gave in. So now I’m determined to do it. A tree is essential to decorating since most of the cavernous room is filled with beds, leaving little space to put fun decorations .

      The bell above the entrance jingles and I peek out from my place in the middle of the Christmas tree parts to see a rather gruff-looking man who has clearly seen better days stumble inside. I’ve been here helping out

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