Crossing The Line

Running away, young & frightened.

There’s no going back.

by Chris Cloake

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Rebecca is running away from violation and loss. Young, frightened and homeless, but articulate, imaginative and determined, she dreams of a new life, a new self. There’s no going back.

Follow her path into desperate isolation during a freezing winter as she struggles to survive. When stealing offers a way out, fate plunges her into the criminal realm of drugs where the stakes and the hits are high, and deadly, and her existence relies on trust. But who is using who? Is she falling into the same traps again?

Crossing The Line by Chris Cloake leads you through the moral minefield of addiction and throws open the debate over control and consent, with outcomes that will stir deep emotions. If you’re a fan of challenging story lines then this you must read.

Get Crossing The Line now to discover the inescapable truths Rebecca faces as a vulnerable girl in a world driven by greed. Marvel at how her courage and an unexpected ally bring about an earth shattering conclusion.

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Book Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DR8HQ1D2

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/crossing-the-line/id6740216035

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/crossing-the-line-231

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1668136

Books2Read: https://books2read.com/u/bxkow6

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/crossing-the-line-by-chris-cloake

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222904838-crossing-the-line

Excerpt:

I check my watch. Nearly nine o’clock. I’ve slept for two hours. I think of home, or what I was made to consider home. They won’t have even noticed I’ve gone yet.

My uncle would have headed to work and my aunt never emerges much before lunch. Then she will sit out in the conservatory, have a fag and the first drink of many.

I’m banking on this. She will wonder where I might be, if she even remembers I’m off school this week and haven’t appeared to raid the fridge.

A slight worry, nothing more. She leaves everything to him. When he’s back, he’ll check my whereabouts, expect me to cook dinner and have done his ironing.

And if the mood took him later, come to my room, he has the key, and have his way with his little slut again.

Not this time. Just for once I’ll have gotten the upper hand. He will be fuming. He’ll blame my aunt, breathe noisily through that ugly nose, blame her again, and then he’ll contact the police.

I smile at the image of him, so rarely flustered, unable to control the situation. Then I rub my ribcage as I remember the time when I defied him before, staying over at Carlos’s and denying him his usual gratification. Imagine if he’d known it was a male friend I’d been out with. The beating would have been harder.

So no one was going to be searching for me until at least tomorrow, if not beyond. I reckon I’ll secure a permanent hideout before my face starts appearing on news bulletins.

I even harbour the hope that he might want to avoid the inquest over why I have run away in case he ended up exposed for what he is. I tell myself not indulge such a fantasy.

He has ‘decency’ in society, a working man who took in a girl with nowhere else to go. And he won’t want to be without the thrill of his easy gratification. I must stay focused.

Giveaway

$20 Amazon

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https://bit.ly/CrossingTheLineTour

About the Author

Chris Cloake was born in 1964 and began telling stories a couple of years later. He grew up in Kent, England.

He is motivated to write by a deep interest in life, particularly the cruel, deeply flawed nature of people contrasted with their incredible creativity and inspiration.

The power of the natural world is a common theme in his work as a writer and professional photographer. He lives happily with his wife, two children and a large collection of music, books and board games.

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