Rhys Page 6

  My heart stops beating.

  Carefully, he springs the lid. A beautiful cushion-cut diamond engagement ring sparkles up at me.

  “It’s soon,” he says softly. “I know it’s soon. But you’re it for me, Vi. I’m crazy for you, and I always will be. It’ll only ever be you. But this ring and I, we’re asking a lot. Some would say too much.”

  I swallow hard and lift my gaze from the ring to his. I’m new to this life, this world of police officers and all they go through. The danger. The sometimes life-threatening situations.

  My gaze drops to his shoulder, just now starting to return to normal. The wounds.

  I know we won’t have a “normal” life. I know we won’t always do things the traditional way. Things won’t be perfect, like the happily-ever-afters I write in my books.

  But I don’t want perfect. I want Rhys Hartley. Because I love him, and he loves me. And if saying yes to him means saying yes to the badge, then I want my own I can wear proudly pinned to my chest. Forever.

  “Yes,” I whisper. “Yes to it all. To everything. I want you, Rhys. I love you.”

  His eyes light up, and he slides the ring onto my finger. “Violet, I love you, and I swear to you I will do everything in my power to give you the happily-ever-after you deserve.”

  As we kiss, I know he means every word of it.

  Another beautiful chapter to add to our never-ending love story.

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  Sneak Peek of SAINT: Badge Bunnies 3

  A Steamy Alpha Bad Boy Cop Romance

  Put your hands where he can feel them…

  Saint

  The last thing in the world I expected when I went undercover to meet the head of a luxury car theft ring in Ridge City was Lyra—the raven-haired dark angel from my past who immediately grabbed my heart again with her beautiful face and sexy body.

  She’s not a bad person. She's just made some bad decisions. And now, more than ever, she needs my help. I can’t bust her just yet. I need time to explore her mind…and hopefully something more.

  She makes me want to forget my name and get down to all kinds of devilish actions with her.

  She needs protecting…and I’m the only man for the job.

  Lyra

  I never wanted to be part of this criminal underworld, but my abusive ex is threatening me.

  But I never imagined he’d actually set me up to take the fall for him until a detective’s flashlight is in my eyes. A detective who I know from a past that seems so long ago.

  He’s always been the sexiest man I’ve ever seen…and despite our past history, he wants to take me to jail.

  His name is Saint.

  I desperately need Saint to save me from my ex and the dangerous game I've been playing…and I want him more than I’ve ever wanted anything.

  But can he set the law to the side to be my archangel and protect me, or will he devil me to prison for God knows how long?

  Please enjoy this sneak peek of the first chapter of SAINT.

  Chapter 1

  Saint Rivers

  “Are we clear on the operation?”

  I glance around the table at my assembled team, clenching my jaw. Tonight cannot go sideways. What we’ve accomplished—what I’ve managed to do—is a one-shot only situation, and the margin for error for tonight is huge.

  Heads nod, and I feel only a glimmer of satisfaction, but that’s still a good thing. The best of the best sit at this table at HQ with me now—detectives from auto theft, undercover patrol officers, a few members of SWAT. Gunner Hansen, a top undercover officer, gives me a nod across the table. He’s got my back if no one else does.

  I only wish my older brother Jaxson was on this op with me. He’s a year older, but it’s almost like we’re twins. We’re as close as if we came into this world together, and we even got our first tattoos together—a cross in the middle of our chests, and the word “Trust” on our left ribs.

  But he’s got his own cases, and this one is mine. This one is the one that could make or break my career in Auto Theft.

  I’m finally going to get my hands on Max Hendricks, the suspected lead of a luxury car theft ring in Ridge City.

  Though, suspected, my ass. He’s guilty, and tonight I’m going to bring his sorry ass in where he belongs. He and his team are responsible for a string of seventy-five thefts over the past two months. Benzes, Beamers, Range Rovers, Ferraris, Lambos. You name it, they’ve stolen it.

  I’ve orchestrated tonight’s meeting with him as delicately as handling a bomb. It’s been a meeting that’s been a month in the works. He’s been evasive and occasionally impossible to get a hold of, giving me the runaround while, I’m sure, he tried to determine whether or not I was who I said I was—a fence for those luxury vehicles. I produced falsified reports of “transactions” I told him I’d completed for similar hot products, selling these cars overseas to buyers willing to pay top dollar. I engaged the tech team and the cybercrimes department to make the transactions appear as legit as possible.

  Finally, finally, last week, he agreed to meet with me, to discuss a plan for getting the cars overseas and into buyers’ hands.

  “Let’s run it down one more time,” I say to my team. “We’re supposed to meet at one of his properties, an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of downtown. I sent Gunner’s team to recon the location earlier this week.”

  Gunner nods and glances around at the team. “Confirmed the location as being Hendricks’s. But it’s only abandoned on paper. And it’s only one of his bases.”

  Another auto theft detective leans forward. “How many bases are we talking?”

  Gunner shrugs. “We suspect it’s close to a dozen. They’re places where the cars are being stored, where they do transactions and meets from, and they’re constantly rotating.”

  “Can’t have the cops getting onto them,” I add dryly. “One thing at a time. We get Hendricks, we get everything. He’s the key. That’s why tonight is so fucking important. No mistakes.”

  Heads nod again. I don’t have to say it. Some officers take shit like that to offense. Others know to put their pride to the side and focus on the mission.

  “The meet is scheduled for eleven,” I go on, glancing at my watch. “So we’ve got an hour to get in place, an hour to set up surveillance. Make sure you keep an extra-sharp eye out for tails. If anyone sees you, if anything feels off, get out of there.”

  “You gonna be wired?” Gunner asks.

  I hesitate. “He’s not a stupid guy. He’s going to take any and all precautions to make sure I am who I say I am. So, no.”

  Gunner shakes his head. “I don’t like that.”

  “Shit, me neither,” I say. “But what option is there? I go in wired, he finds it, I’m a dead man.”

  It means I’ll be alone, essentially, but that’s why I have a team.

  “No worries, Saint,” Gunner says finally, mustering up a good impression of a confident grin. “We’ve got your back.”

  * * *

  Tonight, I’m not driving one of the force’s unmarked cars. I’m driving a current-model black Camaro, rented especially for tonight. It’s a super-souped-up version that would cost about seventy grand on the market. For my persona, it’s just his everyday car.

  My unmarked car is a few blocks away near the bar Triple Six. Gunner and I dropped it there earlier in the day. You never know when shit will go wrong and you need to get the hell out of somewhere.

  I check my phone. I’ve got messages from the team stating everyone is position. I cruise down the street toward the address Hendricks gave me during our last phone call, then rev my engine a few times for good measure to an
nounce my arrival.

  The warehouse sits on the corner, and a large garage bay door starts to rise. I step out of the car and stride toward the two men who stand there to greet me. They both have guns.

  “You Saint?” one of them asks gruffly.

  I used my real first name when I introduced myself to Hendricks, but a fake last name. I nod, affecting a cocky grin. “Sometimes they call me Devil, though.”

  Neither of the men cracks a smile, but they exchange a look.

  I shrug. “Tough crowd. We doing this, or what?”

  One of them nods. “She’s waiting.”

  She? What the fuck? I frown, and it’s not fake. “I thought I was supposed to be meeting with Hendricks.”

  The guy fixes me with a hard stare. “Yeah, well. Something came up. You’ll meet with his right hand instead. You got a problem with that? If you do, you can turn around and fuck right off in your loud-ass Camaro.”

  I lift my hands. “Hey, man. Whatever. I’m just going off what I was told. I don’t want to be sharing all the info with someone who’s not supposed to know it.”

  “We don’t have any secrets,” the other guy says, and they both turn their backs on me.

  I follow them through a cavernous garage bay. It’s pretty brightly lit for a place that’s supposed to be abandoned, but I don’t see any of the stolen luxury cars anywhere. There are regular cars scattered around, but they’re in various states—and not one looks to be a whole, complete car.

  Chop shop. I keep my face neutral as I follow them through the open area to a short hallway that opens to another area with a large garage door at the back of it. I imagine it faces the other side of the block, which is good—there are at least three teams of officers waiting there. I’m not wired, but we decided I’ll pretend to check my phone during the meet and send a pre-typed text message to them to alert them it’s go-time.

  There are a few more men standing around all dressed in black. They’re talking to a woman who has her back to me.

  I don’t miss the petite, curvy body showcased to perfection in tight black jeans and a black leather jacket, or the thick, waist-length hair the color of espresso.

  Damn.

  Then I shove the all-male part of me—hard.

  Knock that shit off, Detective.

  “Our guest has arrived,” one of my tour guides says.

  The woman turns around, long hair swinging.

  All the breath leaves my body, and not only because she’s the most stunning woman I’ve ever seen.

  It’s because I know her.

  Lyra.

  Read the rest of SAINT, available December 4, here!

  About the Author

  Mazzy King is the author of short, sexy, romantic suspense. She loves writing about the good bad boys and the women who can’t help but fall in love with them. If you love a sexy, tattooed bad boy with a heart of gold, badass and brilliant ladies, no cheating, and happily-ever-afters with a dose of thrill, you’ve come to the right place.

  Enjoy reading Mazzy’s stories with your latte or, better yet, a couple glasses of your favorite vino.

  Visit Mazzy at MazzyKing.com or on social media at any of the links below!

  Also by Mazzy King

  DOMINIC: Badge Bunnies 1

  SAINT: Badge Bunnies 3

  GUNNER: Badge Bunnies 4

  JAXSON: Badge Bunnies 5

  Get the BADGE BUNNIES series here!