I come from a family of fighters. I always thought I’d follow in their shadows, becoming unstoppable in the ring. That changed the day I saved the life of a woman I loved, but could never have.My brother hailed me as a hero, and my reward was a wheelchair.
Paralyzed, my life became an inescapable nightmare.
Until I met her.
Ash Mabie had a heart-stopping smile and a laugh that numbed the rage and resentment brewing inside of me. She showed me that even the darkest night still had stars, and it didn’t matter one bit that you had to lie in the weeds to see them.
I was a jaded asshole who fell for a girl with a knack for running away. I couldn’t even walk but I would have spent a lifetime chasing her.
Now, I’m on the ropes during the toughest battles of my life.
Fighting the shadows of our past.
Fighting to reclaim my future.
Fighting for her.
“Hey, Flint? What time is it?” Quarry asked.Ash’s smile actually slipped completely. For the briefest of seconds, she appeared almost ashamed.
I dragged my eyes away from her in order to answer his question, but as I looked at my wrist, I had no answer at all.
“Here,” she said as she pulled my watch from her pocket.
What. The. Fuck?
Quarry howled with laughter, and Ash chewed on her bottom lip.
“Explain,” I demanded, wrapping my watch back around my wrist and shoving my wallet in the front pocket of my hoodie.
Quarry filled in the blank. “She’s a pickpocket, dude. You should have seen her when she fell on your lap. It was so fucking fast. She straight-up stole that shit from you, and you had no fucking clue.”
“I didn’t steal it! I was gonna give it back,” she amended uncomfortably. “It was just a joke.”
A joke.
- Fucking. Joke.
And just like that, I remembered why I didn’t laugh anymore.
“Was it funny? Stealing from the cripple? You get a good laugh out of that?” I snapped, spinning and rolling myself away. “You know, maybe my judgment of you wasn’t all that off to begin with. Like father, like daughter, I guess.” It was a low blow, but I felt completely betrayed by a woman I didn’t even know.
“Flint, wait. I wasn’t picking on the cripple!”
I fully realized that I had just used the term, but it enraged me that she’d had the audacity to repeat it back to me. Who the hell was this chick? I pushed a hand into my pocket, searching for my keys. Fuck the food. I’d leave her ass there. Hell, Quarry too if he didn’t get his ass to the car.
“Get in the car, Q!” I yelled, only to close my eyes and drop my chin to my chest when my hand never made contact on the keys. “Son of a bitch,” I said as I spun back around.
Quarry was laughing next to her, but Ash’s cheeks were bright red.
“Keys.” I snapped my fingers and opened my hand, palm up.
“Stop being a dick,” Quarry said, casually tossing an arm around Ash’s shoulders.
She didn’t budge as she held my glare.
“Keys,” I repeated, but she remained still.
“It was a joke.” Her chin began to quiver.
For fuck’s sake, I wasn’t in any kind of mood to deal with bullshit from some girl I didn’t even know and was quickly discovering I didn’t care to know, either.
Quarry’s eyes grew wide as she turned to him and buried her cries in his chest.
What the fuck, asshole! Q signed before rubbing his hands over her back.
Her shoulders shook as she let out a loud sob that shocked us both.
“Come on. Let’s sit down.” Q tried to guide her over to an empty table.
Ash refused to look up and tripped over one of the chairs.
“Shit,” Q said, catching her around the waist.
I was just about to roll my eyes when she glanced my way. He was still trying to get her back on her feet and over to a table when her tear-free, bright-blue eyes pointedly glanced in my direction. My head snapped back in surprise, but a smile grew on her face.
Ash was about to put on a show, and with that one look, she had invited me to have a front-row seat.
As she floundered all over Quarry, her hands slid between his pockets and her own. Every noise she made and each time she flailed covered up a jarring movement. She was keeping his mind too busy for it to process all the places she was touching him. Hell, I was only watching her and I could barely keep up.
There was no denying that it was entertaining, but I wasn’t willing to show her that. However, as she accidentally lifted her knee, catching Q in the balls, a laugh erupted from my throat. He cupped his crotch while she apologized profusely and pushed him toward the same chair he’d been dragging her to only seconds before. Just before he sat, Ash swung her arm out, unwinding Q’s belt from around his body before tossing it at me.
“Oh God. I’m so sorry!” she said as Quarry held a finger up to ask for a second to recover. She didn’t wait at all though. Instead, she walked over in my direction; her prideful smile grew with every step.
She pulled my keys out of her pocket and dropped them into my lap. They were quickly followed by Quarry’s phone, wallet, and house keys. Then she snagged his belt off the floor and tossed it over her shoulder.
“It had absolutely nothing to do with you being in a wheelchair. It was a joke and it wasn’t supposed to piss you off.”
“Hey!” Quarry yelled. “That was messed up. You did not have to knee me in the balls to prove a point to him.”
“Oh, that wasn’t to prove a point. That was for bullshitting me. You knew good and damn well that he wouldn’t find it funny,” she said without ever tearing her gaze from mine. “Look, I’m sorry. I don’t have a lot of friends. And I’ve mentally noted that pickpocketing might not be the best way to make new ones.” She shrugged. “Consider it a lesson learned.”
“Three burgers all the way, onion rings, and a shake?” the guy at the counter called out.
Ash arched an eyebrow. “You want it to go, or are we good?”
I didn’t have to drop my attitude. Sure, she’d apologized, but while I might have had a short fuse, I also had a hell of a long burn. However, as she stood in front of me with her arms crossed over her chest and her blue eyes pleading for forgiveness, it magically fell away.
I swallowed hard. “No. We’re good.”
“You sure?” She leaned in, eyeing me warily, but her smile began to grow.
I swear to God it pulled at my lips as well. I fought it. But the harder I tried to keep it restrained, the bigger Ash’s grew. She was stealing my smile. The chick was good! Finally, with an eye roll, I let out a quiet chuckle, which seemed to appease her.
“Good. Now, help your brother get redressed and I’ll make the fancy sauce.” She waggled her eyebrows.
I fell in love with a girl who changed my life by showing me that even the darkest nights still had stars and it didn’t matter one bit that you had to lie in the weeds to see them.
Aly Martines has quickly become one of my go-to favorite authors to read. I stalk her new releases incessantly and would pre-order without even batting an eye lash. I love her books that much. She writes some of my favorite broken heroes and heroines that melt their hearts and mend their broken pieces. Fighting Silence was one of my favorite books and a huge 5 star read for me. The teaser at the end of it for Flint’s story almost drove me mad in my wait for it. While you may technically read this book as a standalone, I’d advise against it. The story is based on the 3 Page brothers, and while each book focuses on each individual brother, it helps to know the full backstory, and Flint’s began partly in Fighting Silence. I knew just from reading the prologue that this book will be a huge winner for me, and I was not even a little bit wrong.
Flint Page is the middle brother. He idolized his brother, heavyweight champion of the world, Till “The Silencer” Page. But while Till’s successful career only made his brother proud, his wife caused their inevitable disconnect. Flint has been in love with Eliza for as long as he remember, and the more he sees her with his brother, the more he gets swallowed up by his jealousy and self hate.
The end of Fighting Silence finds Flint jumping in front of a bullet for Eliza and losing his ability to walk after getting shot in his back. Angry at the world, resentful, and drowning in his jealousy of his brother’s woman that he knows will never be his is slowly chipping away at him. His answer is to leave it all behind and to move as far away from them as possible in order to start anew. This is when Ash Mabie walks into his life.
I loved Ash from just the first few pages. Having her father married to Flint’s deadbeat mom is the connection that brings them together. This is not a girl that had an easy life. Forced to pick pockets for her father, moving numerous times in a year and unable to go to school because of their less than legal life, this is someone that by all intents and purposes should be just as jaded as Flint. But she has this hopeful and sunny outlook to life that you can’t help but love. She’s so open with her feelings and trusting, and it all just works so well for her character. Her ways of looking at the world and calling Flint on his bullshit soon begin to chip away at his grumpy ways too.
No ache in my chest.
No pity.
No bitterness.
I was numb.
And it was incredible.
Ash Mabie was quickly becoming my own personal brand of lidocaine.
What first began as an unlikely friendship soon begins to turn into something so much more. But Ash is heartbroken to learn that while she’s been falling head over heels for Flint, his heart belongs to another woman. That doesn’t stop her from giving her heart to Flint unconditionally; that’s just the kind of person she is.
Of course what would an Aly Martinez book be without the hero’s inevitable fuck up. And when Flint Page fucks up, he royally fucks up. But oh man the feels of this book and his road to redeeming himself was so worth that fuck up. As much as I loved the first half of this book, I loved the second half even more.
You belong with me. And I will do whatever I have to do in order to keep you….
I will chase you for the rest of my life if that is what it takes to be with you.”
I read this book in one sitting, completely unable to put it down. I spent the first half waiting for the shoe to drop (because the prologue was the worst tease ever), and I spent the second half with butterflies in my stomach reading Flint work for his forgiveness. I simply adored these two together. While Till and Eliza are still my favorite book in this series, Fighting Shadows was fantastic as well. Then came the tease for Quarry’s book and OH MY FREAKINGGAWDAREYOUKIDDINGME?! If I thought the wait for Flint’s book was painful, the wait for his book just may kill me.
Fighting Shadows was a beautiful and emotional story about love and second chances, strength and perseverance. It was packed with feels, heartbreak, and heart melting moments. Aly Martinez simply gets better and better with each new book and I can’t wait to see what she has in store with the next one. If you haven’t read this amazing series yet, you need to! Trust me when I tell you that you’ll be kicking your own ass for not reading it sooner.
Haven’t read this series yet? Meet Flint Quarry, Till & Eliza in Fighting Silence
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Born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, Aly Martinez is a stay-at-home mom to four crazy kids under the age of five, including a set of twins. Currently living in South Carolina, she passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a glass of wine at her side.
After some encouragement from her friends, Aly decided to add “Author” to her ever-growing list of job titles. Five books later, she shows no signs of slowing. So grab a glass of Chardonnay, or a bottle if you’re hanging out with Aly, and join her aboard the crazy train she calls life.
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