Heart Wrenched

HEART WRENCHED HOLLOWS GARAGE BOOK 1 KATE CREW HEART WRENCHED Content Warnings: Sexual content (Consensual), Toxic Friendships, Non Consensual distribution of nude photographs/videos, Near Death Experience, Violence, & Explicit Language. Copyrighted Material Heart Wrenched Copyright © 2023 by Kate Crew. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means— electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise— without prior written permission from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Cover Designer: Books and Moods at booksandmoods.com Nate, Thank you for encouraging me to finish the damn book and always reminding me how strong I am. CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Thank You! ONE QUINN 3 Years Ago - High school The first time I spoke to Ransom Ward was the worst night of my entire life, and I’d hated him ever since. It didn’t start that way, though. From the first moment I saw him, I was already hooked. His sharp jaw, dark hair, and haunting blue eyes were like a bear trap, snapping my foot and snaring me without a word. Every day he and his friends would be in the school parking lot with their cars, and my skin would prick with the feeling that I was being watched. So many times, I would wonder if it was my imagination, but then I would catch his eye, and the spark would reignite all over again. I would never talk to him, and he wouldn’t talk to me. Ransom and his crew circled the school like wolves, leaving most of us too scared to get closer to them. It was the rumors, mostly. Each one that went through the school kept growing worse, darker with crazy stories about them killing a man, that they had wild parties, they would bet on street races, or use their fast cars as getaway cars in robberies. But no matter what I heard, I couldn’t help but be drawn to Ransom. When a particularly dark rumor started, I knew I shouldn’t brush them off anymore. I knew I should start to believe them. Not that I wanted to. No, my mind was too busy running out of control with fantasies. I would try to brush the rumors aside and dream of who he could be, who I hoped he was. I would think about his hard body over mine, getting to run my hands through his dark hair, and the more I thought about him, the more frustrated I became. Soon, I was so annoyed that each time his face came to mind, I would do anything to push the thought away. I tried to focus on school, on my boyfriend or my friends, anything but him. I thought I was saving myself from ruining my life. I knew getting good grades meant getting into a good school and never going back home again. It was what I wanted, and I just needed to get over the phase of my life when a girl wanted a bad boy. But nothing ever got rid of him. I even thought of him when I was making out with the guy I dated. I tried hard to get a bad boy out of my system by dating Logan. He was a safe bad boy in my mind. While we dated, he went from burnout to quarterback. His grades soared, and they even planned on him getting scholarships to play football. Overall, he was supposed to be perfect. But whether I was dating Logan or not, I couldn’t help but steal a glance at Ransom every morning, wondering how he could look better each time. Him, his friends, their ridiculously fast cars - it was impossible not to be curious about them. I wouldn’t go near him, though. I wouldn’t let myself fall into his bottomless pit of trouble. Instead, I turned to Logan again and again, trying to finish whatever stupid hang-up I had on bad boys and save myself the risk of going near Ransom. I thought Logan was a decent choice for a boyfriend, but he quickly became something so much worse. Everything was going fine until it wasn’t. Until I wasn’t saving myself, I was destroying myself. 9 Months Ago - High school It was the night I first spoke to Ransom. It happened during my senior year. Ransom and most of his crew had graduated, but I still saw them around some of the parties. At school, there was no more staring at him each day or watching them go. There were no glimmers of hope that he was looking at me, too. And as many times as I tried to tell myself they were dumb fantasies, some ridiculous part of me still hoped they would come true. At some point, I realized he wasn’t coming for me. It was no one else’s job to save me from the horrible cycle my life had taken. That was when my destructive path twisted even more out of control. Logan and I still dated, breaking up every month and then getting back together. I just stopped caring. The breakups happened in a quick second so I could move on with my life until he came back around. There weren’t tears or heartfelt apologies from