Home > Consumed (The Driven World)

Consumed (The Driven World)
Author: Elizabeth Knox

 

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the Driven World!

 

 

I’m so excited you’ve picked up this book! Consumed is a book based on the world I created in my New York Times bestselling Driven Series. While I may be finished writing this series (for now), various authors have signed on to keep them going. They will be bringing you all-new stories in the world you know while allowing you to revisit the characters you love.

This book is entirely the work of the author who wrote it. While I allowed them to use the world I created and may have assisted in some of the plotting, I took no part in the writing or editing of the story. All praise can be directed their way.

I truly hope you enjoy Consumed. If you’re interested in finding more authors who have written in the KB Worlds, you can visit our website here.

Thank you for supporting the writers in this project and me.

Happy Reading,

K. Bromberg

 

 

To the ones who are afraid.

Afraid of telling people who you really are.

It’s okay to be scared, but please don’t let that fear rule your life.

Live life with happiness, and most of all, with pride.

 

 

Chapter One

 

 

Gemma


“Gemma, he is gonna kill you and you know it.” Clayton, the eldest of my brothers, grumbles. He drags his hand over his face in defeat, surely exhausted from trying to change my mind.

“Clay’ . . .” I call him by his nickname, hoping he’ll ease up a bit. Though, I should know better. “No one will ever be able to change my mind. Not when it comes to this. I’m a Storm. It’s what our family is known for, and I’m sure as hell not going to work at the family gym like the rest of the women do.” I huff, ready to dig my heels in the sand and make my stance known.

“Shit, Gem’.” Here he goes doing the same to me. He shakes his head from left to right, breathing in deeply and hanging his head in defeat. “You know, it’s my job to watch out for you and Poppy. I’ve only ever done what I thought was right . . . and racing was never gonna be in the picture for you two. Not with—” He abruptly stops and I know what he’s going to say.

Not with how Mom died.

He doesn’t have to remind me. We all feel the same pain like it was yesterday, a freak fucking accident if we’ve ever been witness to one. She was down with my uncle at the pit stall when my dad’s car started to smoke after a lap. He was able to get out of the car quickly and get to safety, but Mom saw something was wrong. Instead of going off with my father, she ran back to the car and tried to warn some of the crew out of the way before it blew.

September 28th, 2003.

The day that will forever be burned into my memory. I was only a four-year-old little girl at the time, one who needed her mother to put her to bed every night. Only, I didn’t know she wouldn’t be coming home.

If it weren’t for my uncle Jon, our dad would’ve died too.

“It’s not your place to keep me from following my dream, Clay’. What happened was horrible. It was the most traumatic thing we’ve ever gone through as a family, but not even Dad gave it up. He kept going, and he kept fucking winning. Clay’ . . . I know you won’t understand it, but Mom died on that track and I feel like I have to do this. Please, don’t take this away from me.” He can’t really take anything away, but he can try. He can pit the rest of our immediate family against me, from our father, to our youngest sister Poppy, to our two brothers, Braxton and Trenton. Hell, if he’s feeling particularly shitty, he could even try to get my grandma to give me a good talking to.

Who knows if it would even work? I love my grandma Ethel more than I could ever find the words for. Through our childhood she kept my mom’s memory alive, day in and day out. For that I’ll be forever grateful, but like everyone else, I won’t let her rip me away from what I want to do.

“Who am I to tell you what to do?” Clay’ hisses, rising from his rust colored recliner. For a man who has millions, you’d never know it. He still looks like the redneck boy I grew up with and if it weren’t for Poppy and I helping him decorate his place, I’d hate to see what it would’ve ended up looking like.

Cutting in front of him, I place a hand on his chest. “I’m not like Poppy. You know I can handle this.”

“Yeah, I know you’re nothin’ like her. Alice O’Shaughnessy told me that much when you were in high school.”

Alice. My first girlfriend, if I could even call her that. She screwed with my head, and heart in so many ways.

Clayton chuckles, “Shit. I thought the girl was lyin’ to me back then . . . but this, your reaction, it only confirms it.”

“Confirms what, Clayton?” I cock a brow, determined to regain my bearings. He can assume all he wants, but the truth of the matter is he doesn’t know anything unless I tell him.

“You, ya know, walk down the other side of the road.”

“What?” I furrow my brows. “Goodness, can you at least speak in normal English?”

“Dammit. You’re into ladies or whatever.” He mutters, almost ashamed to say anything.

“And why do you think that?” He widens his eyes after my question while I stare him down, causing him to doubt himself. Clay’ is amazing at so much, but when it comes to his confidence, he can really get shot down quite a bit. The front door opens to Clay’s place but I continue on, not really caring who’s walked in during the middle of our conversation. “Oh, because Alice told you? Right. Everything that comes outta her mouth is accurate, right?”

From the corner of my eye, I glance over to the right and see Trenton has made himself at home and plopped back on the couch. “Don’t tell me you’re talkin’ about that bratty bitch from high school.” Trent’ is only a year older than me, but he had his fair share of dealings with her as well. And spoiler alert, they weren’t good experiences.

“Yeah, apparently she started a rumor about me being a lesbian.” I tell Trent’, then look back to Clay’. “That is what she did, right?”

That last time I saw her she was furious, told me that she was going to tell my entire family what I was and they’d disown me. She was a nasty girl, a real bully . . . but man she hid it under loads of makeup and fake smiles. And it was all because I saw her kissing the quarterback under the bleachers, when her and I were supposedly ‘dating’. How dare I question her. So, I told her to go off and tell them, that I didn’t care, but of course she didn’t stop there. She had to twist the knife in even deeper and say my mom would be ashamed to call me her daughter . . . so I closed my fist and gave her a real shiner.

To this day, my family still doesn’t know . . . and I don’t know if I’ll ever tell them. We might be known as the Storms, but deep down we’re just a family who grew up in the backwoods of Louisiana.

“Pfft. What a bitch. She’d do anything to say something nasty about Gem’, and you know it. Why you gonna believe anything she says anyway?” Trent’ immediately comes to my defense, questioning Clay’.

“Yeah, guess you’re right. I need to get goin’, the gym is gonna close in an hour and I need to show Poppy how to actually clean down the equipment.” Clay’ rolls his eyes, sounding less than pleased.

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