The Awakening (Entangled Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

Trust was something he was working on, but after what he’d been through, who could blame him?
    He knew it was bad, but his fingers itched to type her name into the computer and find out more about the sexy, dark-haired beauty next door. Instead, he opened up the local paper and reread about her parents’ accident.
    Over an hour later, he flipped his computer off and frowned as he made his way into the bedroom to pull on his jogging clothes. Something unsettling was running over and over in his mind, and the only way he knew to clear it was to sweat it out on a long run.
    He was usually right about these kind of things. It was one of the main reasons he’d chosen the career path he had. He’d always had a knack for… just knowing. Especially when things were off or hidden. He’d always known when someone was lying to him or when someone was hiding something. Like Xtina had earlier.
    But something deep inside him told him she was just hurt and confused.
    As he set off on his daily run, he wondered why the local police had quickly closed the case and marked it an accident. The more he ran, the more certain he was that Christina’s parents had been murdered. And that the local police were covering it up. So many questions ran through his mind. Did she know? Was she involved? He played over their conversation several times in his mind. She hadn’t even hidden the fact that she was relieved that they were gone.
    She’d never hinted at why, or what they had done to her to make her feel so bitter. As he rounded the corner, he stopped and took a deep breath. He hadn’t meant to run to the bend in the road where her parents had skidded off into a large oak. But standing there with the sun just rising, he started questioning his skills.
    The spot looked like a place that it would be easy for a car with bald tires to slide off the slick asphalt. But something still nagged at his gut. Why?
    He walked over and touched the large tree with the gash in it. Instantly, his vision grayed and his knees went weak.
    Behind his eyes, he witnessed a scene right out of a horror story.
    A young couple stood over a large metal tub filled with steamy water. The couple’s hands were clasped tight together, holding one another back. There, in the deep water, lay a very young girl with long flowing blonde hair. Her green eyes stared up at them in horror until finally, they closed in death.
    He woke from the dream state when his knees hit the trunk of the tree. His fingers dug into the dirt as he threw up, emptying the tea and coffee he’d drunk that morning.
    What the hell had that been? He took a moment to steady himself before he stood up again, making sure not to touch the tree or its large roots.
    Taking a few steps back, he glared at the thing. If her parents had died there, did that mean they were still around?
    He did a quick 180, his eyes moving over every tree branch, every bush, in fear. There was no way he was sticking around if more ghosts would be haunting his nights or days.
    Then he remembered Xtina’s words. “She’s not a ghost.”
    If the lady in his bedroom wasn’t a ghost, what exactly was she?
    He turned around and started back towards the house at a slow pace, his mind racing over the scene that had just played in his head.
    Was that Christina? Had her parents drowned her? He focused his mind on all the details he could remember, from what her parents had been wearing to what other objects were in the small room. He made mental notes of everything and was determined to jot them down when he returned back home.
    He could probably chalk up the entire episode to lack of sleep. He only averaged five hours a night due to his… guest making an appearance each morning. That, or the fact that work had been stressful. Maybe it was because it had been a few months since he’d been out on a date.
    His mind sharpened when he thought of Jessica Sorenson, the pretty brunette who worked in the local coffee shop.
    He’d run into her