Title:
Renewed Faith
Series: The
Baldoni Files #1.5
Author:
Heather Mullins
Genre:
Adult, Contemporary Romance
Coming
Soon!
Cover
Designed By: Freya
Barker
Angelo Baldoni doesn’t do relationships—he does flings and one-night
stands. But it wasn’t always that way. See, Angelo was supposed to have the
happily ever after with his childhood sweetheart, Isabella. But that future was
lost in an instant and his world crumbled when the love of his life was
viciously murdered. Now beaten and broken, his faith lost, he goes through the
motions of everyday life.
Mia Bailey is an outspoken, headstrong woman with a heart of gold.
But having been hurt herself more than once in her life, she has walls up,
refusing to let anyone in. Being the newbie of the crime lab, she’s heard all
kinds of things about the detectives of the Detroit Police department, but it’s
Angelo that calls to her.
When these two are put on a case together, both feel something they
want to deny but can’t. With his faith shattered and her protective walls up,
will they be able to let their feelings intervene and have renewed faith or
will their haunting pasts get the better of them?
Chapter 1
MIA
Do
you believe in love at first sight?
Neither do I. Well, at least I didn’t.
I can
pinpoint the exact day that all my thoughts on the matter
changed. When the ideology of ‘true love’
became more
of a reality than a myth.
When love at first sight became a name.
Angelo
Baldoni. Detective Angelo Baldoni to be
exact. Hot shot detective for the
Detroit Homicide division. He embodies
everything I don’t want
to find in a man,
but it calls to me like a lighthouse in a storm.
I’ve
heard the name—the
myth, the man, the legend—from my colleague, Nate
Brennan. Nate often comes into the office, spouting
the tales of him and his best friends, Angelo and Bobby.
It only fuels the infatuation I’ve started to develop
for Angelo.
I
secretly yearn for a chance to work with Angelo, but as luck would
have it,
those chances are nearly non-existent.
With me being a rookie and him being a seasoned detective, it doesn’t
happen often. Until,
that is, I was finally assigned a case.
I knew it would most likely be menial tasks; tagging bodies,
cataloging
evidence, getting coffee for everyone else, but
it’s my
shot to see the man
in action. I jumped on
the case and went into it with gusto.
Working
in the crime lab, the job itself isn’t very
rewarding.
Having to mostly rely on the strengths of the entire team, while
constantly worrying about screwing up one minor detail,
it’s more
stressful than
anything.
When
I was younger, I discovered that I had an ability that not many
possess. It might sound silly, and a lot of people
think I’m just flat out nuts
when I tell them, but I’m able to see the dead.
Well,
maybe not see the dead, per se, but sense them.
Their energy presents itself to me, casting a shadow sometimes, but
more
often than not it’s just the feeling that
they’re with me. For the longest
time, I tried my hardest to
ignore my ability, but the older I get, the more I embrace this
sixth
sense.
So,
when I walk into the crime scene, an abandoned house, the heaviness
of a lost soul’s energy
nearly brought me to my knees. It was almost too
much. It wasn’t the first time
I’d been
given a case to
work on, but it would be my first time with Detective Baldoni, and I
found
myself wishing, like I had when I was younger, for the energy to go
away so I
could focus on my job and nothing else.
Taking
a few deep breathes, I climb the staircase and the moment my feet
hit the
landing, the feelings I’d desperately been trying to shake
washed over me like a tidal
wave. Glancing around, I have to choke
back tears, my heart breaking for the loss of life, and in such a
horrific
manner. Nobody deserved to die like
this; brutally murdered and left behind in such deplorable
conditions.
I’m on
my knees, deep in
trash when someone almost trips over me. Standing up pissed off,
I’m face
to face with the
most handsome man I’ve ever seen. Dark chocolate brown eyes stare into mine and
I’m stunned by the pain I
see in them. It’s not just the
dead’s
energy I can feel,
this man is hurting. I literally have to take a step back so that I
can catch
my breath and focus.
“Shit, sorry, you
okay?” Grabbing my arms to steady me, an
electrical
charge runs through us both, my skin searing from his
touch…Angelo Baldoni’s touch.
“I’m fine, sorry, Sir.” I’m
still staring into his eyes and quickly look down to
avoid his gaze. He releases my arms and I can’t help
but feel a little
empty. As Angelo walks away I take in
the rest of him. The pictures in Nate’s office doesn’t do him justice, his black almost
blue hair and tan
Italian features set my girlie parts on fire. Thinking about why
I’m
here, I pull myself together and focus on the task
at hand.
I work until I see Nate, Angelo and Bobby walk out with
the
victim on a gurney. The heaviness in the hallway increases with all
sadness and
dread coming off of everyone and it becomes unbearable for me so I
hurry
downstairs ahead of them. It eases up
once I get to the van and I’m able
to breathe again.
As I’m
putting the evidence I collected in the van, Cody
the head CSI from Lansing, walks up behind me. He’s a little too close for comfort and he has been
giving off little hints of interest any time we work together. Cody
Anderson
reminds me of a surfer, the blonde shaggy hair, ocean blue eyes and
cute little
dimples when he smiles.
“Hey Cody, all set?”
I shift over
so that he
has more room to put his stuff in the back.
“Sure am, how about
you?” His smile gets to me a
little, it’s sexy.
“Yeah, just finished.
I’m
going to head back and
log in what I’m keeping. It’s pretty late, are
you and your team heading back tonight?” It’s
snowing so I’m
hoping they decide to stay over, the roads are
getting bad.
“Is that an invitation
sweetheart?”
He winks
letting me know
his is joking…I
hope.
“Ha! You wish, it may be safer to crash
at a hotel.
I’d be happy
to lock
everything up at the lab for you.”
“That’s very nice Mia, thank you. Can I get
you coffee in
the morning to show my appreciation?”
“I
don’t drink coffee but you can bring me a
medium hot
chocolate.”
“You don’t drink coffee?” He says with a surprised
chuckle. Cody’s a
good guy that I hope
never gets hurt. His eyes tell me he’s a happy go lucky guy, total opposite of what I saw
in Angelo’s.
“I hate coffee, I drink tea or
cocoa…don’t
judge.”
I joke.
Raising his hands in surrender, “alright, one hot chocolate for the lady.
Thanks for locking everything up. I’ll go let
the guys know we are crashing in the city
tonight. This isn’t going to be fun, see
you in morning.”
He walks
away with a
little bounce in his step…a
little too much for the circumstances, but that’s Cody.
After dropping everything off at the lab and getting things
in their proper places, I make it home around two in the morning. I
honestly
thought about just staying there and if I had extra clothes in my
locker I
probably would have, but that house was too funky for a lab shower.
The
hot water feels amazing as I let it run down body. When the water turns
cold I
sigh in defeat and get out. The feeling of death will linger, it
always does. This
woman was taken violently, her energy’s very heavy. Feeling as clean as
I’ll
get, I set my alarm
to four hours from now and fall asleep with Angelo in my
head.
Heather Mullins has always loved to read and has been writing poems
and stories since childhood. She truly enjoys doing so much with other indie
authors and fully supports this outstanding community. She uses her outgoing
opinionated personality to help write and run multiple blogs.
Heather is a full time student working to get her Bachelors in Human
services specializing in substance abuse counseling. She’s an Air Force Veteran
and enjoyed fighting for her country. Heather supports many different groups
that help out other veterans.
She is a mother of 3 wonderfully crazy kids and has been married for
13 years. When she isn’t playing taxi she is living vicariously through the
lives of characters in any number of books.
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