Exclusive excerpt: 'Better When He's Brave' by Jay Crownover

Coming Aug. 11 is the third book in the Welcome to the Point series by USA TODAY and New York Times bestselling author Jay Crownover. In Better When He's Brave, we experience the conflicted and troubled tale of Titus King — cop, protector, brother to the baddest of the boys, Bax. Titus' story is intense, suspenseful and action-packed, particularly as his world goes from black and white to all shades of gritty gray when he falls for seemingly bad girl Reeve Black. The city he's fought so hard to protect is at the brink of war, and he and Reeve get caught in the deadly crossfire.

Today, exclusive to HEA readers, we have a never-before-seen sneak peek of Better When He's Brave.

EXCERPT

I heard my mother muttering under her breath and then shuffling as she left the room. When I finally looked up it was just me and my father, and he was looking at me like I was a stranger.

"We raised you better than that. All life has value and you are not the judgment maker. We didn't turn our back on Rissa when she fell into drugs. We didn't stop loving her when she turned tricks for that boy. We still valued the good in her. How could you do that, Reeve? How could you make a deal with a monster like Novak? Where is there any kind of good in that?"

"I felt like I had to. Rissa deserved better than she got." How could he not want the man that had hurt Rissa so badly to pay? Why was I the only one that thought that way?

"Did it make you feel better after it was done? Did it bring you peace?"

All I could do was shake my head in the negative. He sounded disgusted by what I had done. I wasn't surprised, but it still cut to the bone. "No. Nothing has."

"Because there is no cure for grief. All you can do is wait it out, and day after day, little by little, you come to terms with it. But what you did"—now he was the one shaking his head at me—"even time can't fix that kind of mistake. You will always be tied to a killer, Reeve, and we've had so much death and loss in this family. Why did you come here? We were doing fine. Why did you think we had to know that?"

I swallowed hard to keep his words from hitting me like blows from a fist.

"I didn't have a choice. The agent that came to the door is trying to take his own kind of revenge against people he feel has wronged him and I'm one of them. He threatened to hurt you and Mom if I didn't come clean about what I had done. He might hurt you anyway, so you should really be careful. Revenge can make a person go crazy." I know that's what it had done to me and I wasn't nearly as demented and deranged as Conner was turning out to be.

"Hurt? That isn't the right word to describe what you've done here today, Reeve. We lost one daughter to her vices and her love for the wrong man. We're losing another to her own selfishness and impulsiveness. You shouldn't have come here. If this is what you had to bring home with you, you should've stayed far, far away."

"I had to." I really did. This was the reaction I expected, but it still tore me right down the middle.

"Just like you had to make a deal with a terrible man so you could seek out retribution. 'Had to' and 'want to' are very different creatures. I think you should go."

"I'm sorry."

I got to my feet and stumbled to the front door.

"You should be." My father's voice was harsh and shaking throughout the entire exchange. I had rendered my mother nearly catatonic but he had enough in him left to tell me, "Don't come back, Reeve. We were healed, had moved on without you."

They had healed because he was right: it was only time and the acceptance of the loss that led to healing, to moving on. I had yet to accept my sister's death. I was still stuck in the moment, watching dirt cover Rissa's casket and smoldering like a live ember with fury and rage. I was never going to be whole.

I pulled the door open and burst onto the crumbling cement stairs that led to the door. I tripped a little over my own feet because I was weak with rejection and disappointment, but hard hands were there to hold me up. He seemed to be there catching me every time I fell these days. I didn't even look up, just leaned into his chest and started crying. Titus didn't ask any questions. He just folded me into his strong embrace and took me to his car. The GTO stood like a beacon of freedom, of justice, in this worn place, and once I was inside it, I completely fell apart. The sobs racked my entire body as the motor roared to life and Titus pulled away from my parents' house. It felt like I was leaving my entire past behind.

"Don't turn your phone off again."

I hiccuped a little at his stern tone and blinked the water out of my eyes to see where we were going. The city was behind us and we were cruising at lightning speed around the Hill and up into the mountains. I had never been up that high. I was a born and bred city girl, so the closest I got to nature was walking across the grass when I was in WITSEC. The landscape was dark and imposing and also beautiful.

"I had to. If I spoke to you I knew you would talk me out of going or insist on going with me. Conner told me he would kill them if I didn't go alone. Besides, you didn't need to hear me explain what I had done again." Shouldering my father's disgust was hard, but seeing it on Titus's handsome face again would have killed me.

"Roark might go after them anyway."

"He might. But it was more about ripping me apart than it was about them. He figured my dad was going to look at me like he never wanted to see me again, and he was right. I had told him that telling my parents what I had done was the one thing I could never do. Admitting it to them was always one of my biggest fears. Turns out I had a reason to be terrified." I leaned my forehead on the cool glass of the window and asked, "How did you find me?"

He snorted and the wheels spun as the gravel turned to dirt, kicking the back end of the powerful car out to the side. "I called the feds. Though I'm feeling slightly annoyed at myself that I couldn't figure out where 'home' was from the instant you sent the text."

I hummed a little acknowledgment. "Where are we going?"

"To the top of the mountain. We used to race down the side for money and pink slips. Bax had a hell of a winning streak when he was sixteen that sort of put everyone off of doing it anymore, but it's still a nice place to have a quiet minute."

"I don't know that quiet is good for me right now." I felt cold and numb all over. "But thank you for coming for me."

He swore and the car fishtailed again but he didn't seem that interested in slowing down. His voice was smoky and thick as it washed over me.

For more info on Jay Crownover, visit www.jaycrownover.com.

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Vilma Gonzalez is a blogger, reader, marketer, wife and mom. She has an insatiable appetite for happily ever afters and a deep love of the written word. You can find more about her and read full book reviews at Vilma's Book Blog. Please e-mail Vilma at loveinsuspense@gmail.com about content related to this column. Due to the volume of mail, e-mails may not be answered personally, but all will be read.