Helios Awakened (The Helios Chronicles #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

watched him turn and felt the change in his demeanor. She kicked herself for whatever she had done to make him shift like that. They drove the rest of the way in comfortable silence. She kept her eyes on the road while he kept his eyes on her. Every so often she would squirm in her seat and then glance at him sideways. He would quickly avert his eyes, not wanting to make her nervous or uncomfortable but as soon as she turned again so did he. The lake was 35 miles away which should have taken a half an hour or so but with Madison’s mad driving they made it in 20. Madison looked around and pulled up to where she saw the most cars. Now it was Andrew’s turn to squirm as he became overwhelmed with the amount of people that were there. 
    “You look nervous,” Madison remarked, observing how his body posture had suddenly changed as he looked at the group of people they would be joining. “You don't like Brie and her posse?”
    He slowly turned to face her, fear clearly written on his face. “It’s not that.” He hesitated, feeling he had made the wrong decision already. “Most of them show me no interest which is fine. I just...”
    “What’s the matter? You changed your mind?” she asked with a slight tremor in her voice that she was attempting to mask with a chuckle.
    “Umm, no I didn’t change my mind.” His lip quirked up into a sly and devilish smile before fear took hold of him again.
    “So what is it?”
    “There are just things about my past that I am not happy about or even comfortable talking about,” he said hesitantly before looking down and away from her.
    “Andrew, we all have shitty pasts. It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.”
    This did not bring him comfort as he was unsure how she would really feel once she knew the truth. He let out an exaggerated breath, deciding that he needed to tell her.
    “I've been in prison before.”
    “You have?” she said, trying to mask her shock.
    “I’ve been out for a few years but I generally keep to myself. I wasn’t expecting so many people to be here,” he said, looking out across the lake. Madison turned her eyes away from him and glanced around to see that the lake was indeed very crowded.
    “Don’t worry about it, Andrew and, you know, it’s cool. I don’t care that you were in prison. Lord knows I have made enough mistakes in my life. Never anything huge, I guess, but still. I mean, you didn’t like, kill anyone did you?” she asked as she lightly tapped his thigh.
    He shook his head as he brought his eyes down to where her hand was and felt himself shift in his jeans. Andrew wanted her more than he knew he should. It had been eight years since he had felt a woman’s touch. In prison, he had to fight to protect himself. In fact, he had spent his first year or so fighting and fighting and fighting until finally people just left him alone. Andrew chose to isolate himself while in prison. He always stayed on the outside, the peripheral, and watched as people created a life for themselves behind bars and when it was time to go back to his cell, he either read everything he could get his hands on or drew in one of his sketchbooks. When he was finally released, he stuck to his self-imposed isolation, quite successfully he thought. Well, that was until a beautiful brunette moved in to take care of her ailing grandmother and turned his entire world upside down.
    “Come on, Andrew, let’s go have some fun,” she said, pulling her hand away and quickly exiting the car.
    He nodded at her retreating figure and then exited the car as well, quickly pulling out the cooler from the backseat. They walked up to the group of people they were to meet and several looked over at them, fake smiles plastered on their faces. Andrew glanced over at Madison but she didn’t seem to care.

3 FRIENDS AND ENEMIES
    “Madison, I’m so glad you decided to come,” Brie said, half-heartedly.
    In truth, Brie had hoped that Madison would not show up