Grind
Powertools: The Original Crew Returns, Book 3
Jayne Rylon
Happy Endings Publishing
Copyright © 2020 by Jayne Rylon
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or shared in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means—including email, file-sharing groups, and peer-to-peer programs—without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
If you have purchased a copy of this ebook, thank you. I greatly appreciate knowing you would never illegally share your copy of this book. This is the polite way of me saying don’t be a thieving asshole, please and thank you!
If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Refer to the don’t-be-a-thieving-asshole section above for clarification. :)
V2
eBook ISBN: 978-1-947093-19-5
Print ISBN: 978-1-947093-20-1
Cover Design by Jayne Rylon
Editing by Mackenzie Walton
Proofreading by Fedora Chen
Formatting by Jayne Rylon
Contents
About The Book
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
Discounted Boxset - Powertools
Discounted Boxset - Hot Rods
Powertools: Hot Rides
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What Was Your Favorite Part?
Jayne’s Shop
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About the Author
Also by Jayne Rylon
About The Book
The original Powertools crew is back in a brand new series!
The crew has overcome enormous odds to live and love together. Can it survive being divided?
Dave knows where he’s needed most is back home, helping his wife rebuild her business—and her dreams—which burned to the ground while they were partying with friends. But is it right to expect their friends Devon, Neil, and James to be there too if it means giving up opportunities to join Mike and Joe on the project of a lifetime in Middletown? And how will they manage on their own if not?
Resentment could be the final nail in the crew’s coffin if they can’t find a way to move forward together. Because in addition to their careers, the Powertools’ intimate bond is in jeopardy. It’s up to them to find a way to strengthen it even if it means grinding away at the past in order to prepare for a bright future.
This is a standalone book set in the Powertools universe. All your favorite Hot Rods and Hot Rides characters will be making appearances as well. So come make new book boyfriends or hang out with old ones!
Additional Information
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1
Smoke rose from the charred wreckage of Kayla’s dreams. It curled upward like the tentacles of some sinister monster from hell, threatening to drag her into its dark and fiery underworld. She was suffocating.
Orange clouds and eerie limited visibility lingered in the aftermath of the deadly forest fire that had swept the surrounding mountains. It only added to her inability to draw a deep breath. Not that there was much left to see beyond the ominous haze.
It was gone. Every last bit of her naturist resort—the cabins, the home she’d shared with her husband for fourteen years, the lodge. Even the trees and animals that had infused them with serenity and tranquility to observe.
Their future.
All of it had gone up in the blaze that had decimated thousands of acres in a matter of hours.
Smoke and flames. So. Many. Flames.
“Thank God the resort was closed and we were in Middletown at Ollie, Van, and Kyra’s wedding. This would have been so much worse if there was anyone here. Guests. Us.” Her husband Dave’s voice was even deeper and raspier than usual, whether from the thick char poisoning the air or his emotions, she couldn’t tell.
Kayla blamed her watering eyes on the soot and not the blackness settling in her heart as it had on everything around them. How could they possibly come back from this?
Along with her agony, anger began to smolder in her core. They’d worked so hard all these years. And for what? For it to be stolen from them overnight, destroyed before they’d even known it was in jeopardy.
She blinked, then blinked again. But nothing changed.
This was a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from.
Behind them, Neil, James and Devon stepped closer, as if their presence could somehow shield them from the horror of what they were seeing and the things they were not. How could her entire life’s work disappear with hardly a trace? The dense wall of smoke made it impossible to spot the lake in the distance, the panoramic views obliterated as surely as everything else on the mountainside.
It was probably for the best. If she could scan the horizon and it was only more of this unrelenting scorched earth that greeted her, Kayla would likely be driven to her knees. How could this have happened? It seemed like a movie or the apocalypse.
It certainly didn’t seem real.
She wandered over the gravel that had been their driveway, which now only led to a vague outline of a square on the ground. The ashes of her home were interrupted by a single stone pillar, crumbled a bit on top, which had been the mammoth hearth at the heart of their home. Melted blobs of steel marked the place where the kitchen had stood.
Memories smashed into her one after the other. The Powertools crew get-togethers. Special meals they’d cooked and shared. And the times they’d made love on the plush rugs right there, in front of that fireplace.
Kayla shuddered. She’d never be able to see flames, controlled or not, in the same cozy way again.
Some things had been ruined forever.
The trick was going to be figuring out what damage was irreparable and what she could fix. Or maybe she was kidding herself. This was too much. Too impossible to come back from.
She sank onto the bench
