The Badge and the Bad Boy (Redemption Ranch, #1)

by Lena Hendrix

In a heartbeat, Evan was in the man’s face. “Disrespect her again. I fucking dare you.”

“A man like me always wants what he can’t have. But you, baby girl, are the most dangerous thing on this ranch.”

“Nights are mine.” Evan paused as his eyes drank me in. His wide palm delicately wrapped around the column of my throat. My pulse hammered beneath it. “You,” he whispered as his head bent forward to nip my ear, “are mine.”

In another life, I could love Evan Walker. He was a broken boy, grown into a man who’d pieced himself back together. He deserved someone to hold the leftover pieces that didn’t quite fit. Protect those precious bits of him no one else appreciated.

I gently kissed the curve of her bare shoulder. “I know you should leave, but if you go now, you’d be taking my heart with you.”

“I can’t pretend that when you walk in the room, the temperature doesn’t shoot up twenty degrees. Or pretend that the ache in my chest isn’t from watching you walk away.” “Evan, you can’t say things like that.” “I can and I will. You deserve to know.”

“Oh shit.” She lowered, only fractionally. “I don’t want you to die.” I scraped the scruff of my beard against the delicate skin of her inner thighs, and they quivered. “Baby girl, if I die with your pussy on my face, it would be an honor.”

Al leaned against the butt of his shotgun. “What did you expect? This is Tipp. When one of our own is in trouble, we come running.”

There are so many more important words that I should have said to you. Three in particular. I hope one day I’ll get the chance to say them. Yours, Evan

When you were here, it felt like family is supposed to feel. I know there is darkness inside me, but you had a way of finding the light. I miss your laughter and your light.