 by A.L. Jackson.jpg)
Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
I’m a dark, dangerous disaster who leaves destruction in his wake.
But when she offers to pretend to marry me to help me get my kids back, I can’t refuse. They are the one thing I have left to fight for.
Milo Hendricks found me at my lowest.
Battered and broken by my ex with no place to call home. When he insists I stay at his cabin with him, he sparks the feelings I’ve tried to suppress.
He’s only supposed to be my friend, but every time he comes in the room, he makes my knees weak.
This gorgeous, tatted, mountain-of-a-man who’s riddled with secrets.
Tessa is everything I crave but can’t have.
I shouldn’t touch her.
Shouldn’t make it real.
But she’s a red-headed flame I can’t resist, and I can’t help but take her to my bed.
Now we’re falling into an abyss of passion and need.
Loving her is easy.
Only we’re tied in ways we don’t know.
I’ll do anything to protect her, but it’s my past that might destroy her in the end…
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
ONE
MILO
It was just before ten p.m. as I edged through the crowd.
Every muscle in my body was coiled and ready to strike.
Absolution was packed wall-to-wall, filled to capacity with a line at the door, same way it was most nights.
Though, as I moved beneath the lights that flashed in time with the chaotic rhythm of the band that played onstage, the throng broke apart, instinct warning them they’d do best to keep out of my way.
My job was to keep tabs on those who came to the club for a taste of the excess offered within its walls.
Kult cut through the roiling mass, heading in my direction. He was the second head bouncer here at Absolution, and the two of us were running circuits on the main floor tonight.
Dude had buzzed his once long-blond hair. The effect of it only doubled the threat that oozed from him in waves. He slowed to a stop in front of me, and he lifted his voice over the din. “All quiet?”
“If you mean I haven’t had to haul any unruly assholes out back, then yeah.”
He cracked a shit-eating grin. “Tell me why you seem so glum about that.”
So, I might come with a reputation. I chalked it up to it being a part of the job, but my crew knew better. Still, I played it off. “Glum? Not even close. Hell, I’d pay for one dull night.”
Cracking up, Kult pointed a finger in my face. “You, my friend, are a liar. But don’t worry, the night’s still young. No need to sulk. Your face is way too pretty for that,” he razzed.
I grunted at him.
He laughed again, though he was holding his hands up in surrender. “Just messin’ with you, brother. No need to go beast on my ass. I know you only give a beat down if someone deserves it.”
God knew there were plenty who did.
I’d been a bouncer here at Absolution for the last three years. There weren’t a whole lot of nights that shit didn’t go down.
It was on me to draw the invisible line. On me to decide what forms of corruption were acceptable and when those boundaries had been breached.
No, the irony wasn’t lost on me, considering I had never been so good at delineating them for myself.
“Besides, we’d be out of a job if people decided to behave themselves. You’re not going to find me complainin’,” Kult said. “I’m going to make the rounds. Let me know if anyone gets rowdy.”
“Will do,” I told him.
Truth was, I took protecting those who came to this club seriously. It was always the innocent that got in the line of fire. The ones I could tell with a glance didn’t belong in a place like this and had stumbled into a viper’s den, without a clue how to navigate the seedy, sordid waters.
Deviants could scent that shit from a mile away. Sniffing out the vulnerable, getting off on the thrill of tainting something pure.
So this? I used it as an offering.
Penance.
Reparation.
A guardian of the innocent and a reaper of the corrupt.
Fools didn’t know how desperately they didn’t want to be the latter.
I let my gaze wander the cavernous space.
Housed in an old warehouse, Absolution was two stories of luxury cut with a slice of biker bar. Plush booths lined the walls, and leather couches and high-top tables were set back from the dance floor to fill the open middle area. Blue neon lights glowed from the main bar that ran the length of the entire far end of the building and illuminated the wall of bottles that ran up its height.
Upstairs quartered another bar and a bunch of pool tables, done balcony style so there was still a view of the stage.
People flocked here night-after-night, searching for escape.
For a good time.
A fuck.
Freedom.
Whatever they couldn’t find outside these walls.
As long as they weren’t hurting anyone else? Then for me, it was a go.
My attention roved over the disorder. It snagged on Trent who stood at the end of the bar. He lifted his chin, gesturing for me to approach.
I headed that way, weaving through the groups of people who were huddled around the high-top tables.
“Trent,” I said when I got within earshot of my boss.
Trent was one of the club owners, along with his two brothers, Jud and Logan, plus Sage, a guy who used to be the general manager but who had bought in recently.
Trent was intimidating as fuck, tatted from head to toe, an ex-biker who’d known the dark life but had come to our small city of Redemption Hills, California and started over.
I’d met him when he’d first come into town. Two of us had taken one look at each other and had known we were one and the same. We’d become instant friends, and I’d been working for him ever since.