Katelyn. Katelyn’s sweet angelic voice.
Then her touch. Her soft and gentle hands on mine.
Give me the gun, Luke. Please.
Let me try. A male voice. Buck.
No! I will. I love him. He needs me.
Katelyn’s caress, so sweet and warm.
It’s over. It’s over, my love.
My love. My only love.
I turn, look into her understanding eyes.
She takes the gun and hands it to Buck.
“You need a doctor,” Katelyn says. “You’re bleeding.”
“I’m fine.” But I wince.
All this time, I forced my body not to feel anything. I had to be strong. To protect Katelyn.
But yeah, I could probably use a doctor.
In the distance, sirens blare.
“Everything’s okay now, Luke,” Katelyn murmurs in my ear. “I love you, and everything’s okay.”
“I love you too.” I kiss her forehead. “So damned much.”
Several days later, after hours and hours of questioning, Katelyn, Buck, and I are free to go.
King is finally in custody and his dirty money has been seized.
As for me, my immunity deal still stands. I’m not sure how my old man did it, but I’m a free man.
No more hiding.
I can be Lucifer Ashton again. Except I don’t want to be. I only want to be Luke Johnson.
I still have red on my ledger. I always will. I have to live with that. I think about calling Buck, asking him to meet, but Katelyn tells me not to. That the wounds are still too fresh.
So I’m surprised as hell when he calls me.
I meet him for a burger on the beach.
“We’ll never be friends,” he says.
“Interesting way to say hello.”
“I mean it. This isn’t a friendly meeting.”
“I never imagined it was.” I take a bite of burger and wash it down with bottled water.
“I just want you to know that Emily’s good. She’s happy.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“Are you?”
“I am.” I wipe my mouth with my napkin. “Look. I never expect you to forgive me. I never expect her to forgive me. I was fucked up. I’m the first to admit that. But she has nothing to fear from me, and neither do you.”
“You can bet I don’t.”
I resist rolling my eyes. Such a fucking tough guy.
“So what’s this for, then? Why are we here?” I ask.
He swallows his bite of burger, takes a drink of his beer. “We’re square. You and I. Square.”
I nod. “Good. I’m totally good with that.”
“Take care of her. Of Katelyn.”
“I will. You take care of Emily.”
He nods. “Done.”
“And…” I stop.
“What?”
“If you ever need anything. Anything at all, I’m here. Just ask. For what you did for Katelyn. I owe you.”
He cocks his head slightly. For a moment, I’m not sure he’s going to speak again. Until—
“Thanks.”
Later, after Katelyn and I have dinner, we take a moonlit stroll on the beach. Jed pants at our heals.
Her hand is warm in mine, and we’re barefoot, the sand tickling our toes. In my pocket is a velvet box containing a diamond ring.
I’m going to propose. I stop, turn, and—
Katelyn’s phone buzzes.
“Ignore it,” I say.
“I wish, but it could be about my dad.”
James’s biopsy results were compromised, so the doctors had to take another. Katelyn and her mom have been waiting to hear.
She glances at her phone. Then she gasps.
“What is it?” I caress her cheek, my heart breaking at the terror in her eyes.
“It’s my friend Aspen. Garnet from the island. She’s missing!”
* * *
Read more about Luke and Katelyn in Garnet, coming May 31, 2022!
Begin the adventure with Rebel, available now!
EXCERPT FROM REBEL
Lacey Ward was fucking hot.
Oh, she tried to hide it in her navy-blue blazer and tight-ass high-necked blouse, her dark blond hair pulled into a high ponytail so tight that her facial muscles could barely move, and her unglossed lips pressed into a straight line, but I knew the type.
A fucking tomcat in the sack.
I could tell by her eyes. They were big, blue, and vibrant, and they looked me over as if I were a hunk of USDA prime beef tenderloin.
Yup, a tomcat.
Not that I’d ever know. Hell, not that I cared.
I was here for one reason only—so my mother and siblings could hear the contents of the shithead’s will. I already knew he’d left me a fat lot of nothing.
And I didn’t care one fucking bit.
Lacey Ward’s voice had a rasp to it. A sexy rasp. It wouldn’t be a hardship to listen to her for the next few hours. Hell, I didn’t even need to listen to the words. I knew what they’d be anyway.
Rock gets nothing.
Fine with me.
“Section Five, distribution of personal property,” Lacey said. “All of my mother’s jewelry in my possession and in the safe deposit box at First National Bank is hereby bequeathed to my daughter Riley Doris Wolfe.”
No surprise there.
“My automobiles, except for the Tesla and the Porsche, are bequeathed to my sons, Roy and Reid Wolfe, with Roy, as the older, to have the first choice. They will then choose alternately. The Porsche is bequeathed to my daughter, Riley Wolfe.”
His cars. Daddy’s pride and joy. He loved those damned cars more than he ever loved any person in his life, least of all me.
I stopped listening. I sat back, closed my eyes, and basked in the rhythm of Lacey’s sexy voice.
Yeah, Rock. Fuck me good, baby. Pound that hard cock into me…
My groin tightened. Hell, I didn’t care. Just get this day over with.
That’s it, baby. Fuck me. Make me come…
Damn, she’d look good on the back of my bike, that blond hair flowing out of a helmet. Yup, I was a helmet man. No point in splattering my brains all over the place. Now that I had a life I enjoyed, I wanted to keep it that way.
I hated Manhattan. I wanted to go back to Montana, where the sky was big and blue and everything was open. New York was so closed in. And it smelled. Even in this posh Manhattan office, the stench of the streets still wafted in the air.
I looked around. My brother Roy was looking down at his lap, while Reid was ogling Lacey. Not that I blamed him. He’d probably fucked her already.
A spear of jealousy hit my gut. Why? I didn’t know. So what if he’d fucked her? Reid fucked anything in a skirt.
My little sister, Riley, sat next to my mother.
Riley… The sight of her brought it all back. We weren’t close, and I was sorry about that. I’d been protecting her that day, but she didn’t know that, and I could never tell her.
Then of course…Mommie Dearest.
Constance Wolfe.
Bitch extraordinaire, who’d had no issue with turning a blind eye to her husband’s extracurricular activities.
My gaze floated back to Lacey Ward. I closed my eyes again and sighed. This was going to be a long day.