A Heart for Robbie

Readers love the Survivor series

by JP BARNABY

Aaron

“This is one of those books that I will remember forever… It is real and raw and in your face emotions and Ms. Barnaby doesn't pull any

punches.”

—Guilty Indulgence Romance Review

“Thank you, JP, for a heartbreaking, brilliant story of tragedy, hope,

and love.”

—Rainbow Romance Reviews

Painting Fire on the Air

“
Painting Fire on the Air
is a great read, and a worthy addition to anybody’s kinky library.”

—BDSM Book Reviews

“JP Barnaby really has a way of creating these characters who are filled with emotional pain and suffering, and letting us share in their journey as they find happiness and redemption.”

—Joyfully Jay

Spencer

“JP Barnaby allows us to cry with them, hurt with them, smile with

them, mourn their tragedies with them and finally, to celebrate their

triumphs with them while we embrace all their possibilities.”

—The Novel Approach

“This was yet another brilliant title delivered by JP Barnaby. Strongly

recommended for an intense, emotional ride with a heavy dose of a

realistically painted love story.”

—MM Good Book Reviews

By JP BARNABY

Bane of Boston

A Heart for Robbie

Mastering the Ride

Papi

LITTLE BOY LOST

Enlightened

Abandoned

Vanished

Discovered

Escaped

Sacrificed

SURVIVOR STORIES

Aaron

Painting Fire on the Air

Spencer

Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

Copyright

Published by

DREAMSPINNER PRESS

5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

A Heart for Robbie

© 2014 JP Barnaby.

Cover Art

© 2014 AngstyG.

www.angstyg.com

Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL

32305-7886, USA, or http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/.

ISBN: 978-1-63216-066-9

Digital ISBN: 978-1-63216-067-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014940016

First Edition July 2014

Printed in the United States of America

This paper meets the requirements of

ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

For my daughter, Kaitlyn, and for Jack,

who challenged me to write the book I

never thought I could. I love you both.

A Heart for Robbie

1

Prologue

FROM
MANIFESTATIONS
, Book One of the Black Heart series by Julian Holmes:

Liam Black crouched outside the barn, its faded paint cracking and

peeling under his fingers as he peeked around the corner toward the door.

The demon he’d been chasing had not made a reappearance. Moving fast

and low, he sprinted for the door and found it odd that no other

manifestations were around to hinder his progress. A low voice in the back of his mind, harsh and insistent, told him he was walking into a trap, but he couldn’t stop. He wouldn’t walk away and leave Eve in their hands.

She might have been the cause of the manifestations, she might be a

conniving witch, but she made his skin tingle by the mere thought of her.

One kiss and he would lose himself. Okay, yeah, that sounds totally lame, but it’s all about the romance, right?

The door opened silently on well-oiled hinges. The barn wasn’t as

decrepit as someone wanted it to appear. With light steps, he followed the wall in the pitch-black darkness. Night had not yet fallen, but no light found its way into the barn. He tripped over something lying on the floor, something warm and rather soft. Using the display from his phone for just an instant, he illuminated his stumbling block. Clay’s eyes were closed, and a gash on his head poured blood over his ashen face. Liam checked

his pulse. Still alive.

He continued on because the only way to save Clay, to save Eve,

was to defeat the darkness growing in that place. No sound broke the

silence inside the barn, no squeak of mice, no creak of wood, nothing. It 2

JP Barnaby

was almost as if sound didn’t exist, as if light didn’t exist. The darkness swallowed him.

Slowly, painfully, Liam made his way around the edges of the world,

stumbling blindly, until a light appeared in a crack underneath a door. He didn’t think he’d gone all the way around. Judging by his location, he

determined that the door lay on the back wall of the barn. It should have led to the outside, but somehow, Liam didn’t think it did.

He swore as something smacked into his forehead. Liam brought the

phone up and had the flashlight app on before he could blink. A shovel

hung from a hook in one of the low rafters. Taking advantage of the light, he did a quick sweep of his surroundings. Empty. The lit doorway stood

just feet from him. He took the last few steps at a jog and threw open the door.

Nothing, except a stairway down.

A Heart for Robbie

3

Chapter 1

JULIAN HOLMES’S heart leaped into his throat while nurses scurried

around the operating room barking orders at each other and handing

complicated-looking equipment to the doctors. So caught up in the joy and excitement of finally becoming a father, he hadn’t realized his son’s life became an emergency. The neonatal intensive care team, who had been

standing by as a precaution, surrounded his baby like a human shield so

that neither Julian nor Erin could see him.

“Julian? Why isn’t the baby crying?” Erin asked as she tried to fix

her glassy-eyed stare on him. Her voice sounded weak and vacant after

being in labor for nearly nine hours before the C-section. She reached out, and his stomach clenched as he caught her hand. Desperation and clawing

terror ripped the inside of his chest while he surveyed the tumult around them.

“What’s happening?” Julian asked over the cacophony of the

roughly organized chaos. His voice came out as a panicked squawk