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Badge by K.L. Savage
Series: Ruthless Kings MC #16
Publication date: September 10th, 2021
Cover Design: Lori Jackson Designs
Photo: Wander Aguiar
Model: Travis Samm
Everyone has dreams when they are young.
And mine came to an abrupt halt.
I changed as a man, as a person, my soul was damaged beyond repair.
So I turned into someone everyone would hate.
Because I hate everyone and everything.
I'm furious at the world.
I don't see that changing anytime soon.
But then it does change.
And if there is one thing I am not good at, it's adapting.
Hope, Bullseye's daughter, jump starts my soul again.
I hate it.
I love it.
I need her.
But I can't have her.
She's my friend's daughter, for one.
For two, she's way too young for the likes of me.
Three? She's got a kid.
And everyone knows how I feel about kids.
Vermin. Loud. Annoying.
Wonderful. Beautiful. Precious.
The voice inside my head is stupid.
It wants and wants but I won't allow myself to have it.
I don't deserve to have it.
There's no hope for me.
Even if hope is staring me in the face.
I have to focus on me. My business. I'm on a case.
Women are dying.
And it's all because of me.
I have to protect what I care about for once in my life.
I failed once and I refuse to do it again.
How can I love her, when hate is all I've ever known?
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Excerpt
"Can I talk to you for a second, Hope?" I ask her between tight teeth. There is no fucking way another man is taking my woman out on a date.
"Sure," she chirps and begins to walk in front of me.
My eyes eat her up, watching her plump ass shake under that dress. Jesus, is she wearing anything under it? Her heels click against the hardwood floors and she opens her bedroom door to invite me in.
Bullseye gives me a curious glance but doesn't think much of it when I keep the door open.
"Can this be quick?" Hope asks, staring at her phone. "Benji will be here any minute."
I rub a hand over my mouth and take a deep breath. "What the hell are you doing? You can't go out with... Benji." I nearly spit his name as I say it. I don't like the guy. I used to, but not anymore.
"Why not? He's around my age. He is kind. He is interested in Faith--"
"--He asked about her?" I grind my teeth together at his audacity. "She is m--" I almost say 'she's my little girl', but I catch myself. I'm so messed up in the head. I don't know when I started thinking that. I've barely spent any time with her. "Why are you doing this to me?" I whisper, realizing how selfish I sound.
"Doing this to you? I'm not doing anything to you, Forrest. I told you I wasn't going to wait around. You said you didn't want me. You pushed me away."
"He isn't allowed to have you," I growl, taking a step forward, readying myself to rip that dress off her and show her who she really belongs to.
Hope shoves me in the chest and points her finger at me. "You arrogant bastard. You don't want me but no one else can have me? Fuck you, Forrest. You had your chance and guess what?"
"Hope! Benji is here!" Bullseye calls out from the kitchen.
Hope lowers her voice and shoves me again. "And you aren't going to have another one. You're going to watch me walk out of here looking fucking amazing and you're going to wish you weren't being a coward." She thrusts her shoulders back and clutches her black billfold against her chest.
Hope goes to walk around and I wrap my hand around her to stop her, tugging her against me. I don't give her time to think. I clutch the back of her neck with my hand and yank her to me, pressing my lips against hers.
My soul is righted as soon as our lips meet. All the pain disappears; all the burdens I've made myself carry melt away. I want to admit everything I am to her. No other man can have these lips of hers. No other man can make her gasp and clutch onto them like I can.
Maybe I am an arrogant man. I never considered myself one.
But I am when it comes to her.
No one else can have my slice of heaven, not when I'm finally accepting her light.
She rips her lips from mine and before I can blink, her palm meets my cheek. "How fucking dare you," she hisses. "You kiss me before I meet with another man, why?"
I wrap my hand around her throat and shove her against the wall, pressing my body against hers. My cock is pressed against her thigh and her swollen lips part, her lipstick smeared and all fucked up from our kiss.
Good.
"So when you're with him, all you can think about, all you can taste, is me."
"You are out of your damn mind if you think I'm going to be thinking about you at all."
"Hope!" Bullseye calls out again, and I take a step back.
"Yeah, better get away from me," she sneers. "Or you'll have to deal with Daddy."
My heart plummets. I screwed up.
"You better hope you got everything you wanted out of that kiss because that's the last time you ever touch me." She cleans the outline of her lips with her thumb, fixing the evidence of our kiss. "God, you're unbelievable," she scoffs.
They write about gritty, alpha males, sometimes their dark sides, and the women they love. If you have the same itch, their alpha males should fix that.
