Page 29 of Phoenix

“They did this to you?” she asked.

“It’s okay, honey,” he insisted. “They could have done so much worse. All that matters is that they didn’t and that we’reboth safe now.” He pulled her to his side, and she helped him into the house.

“I think he might have a sprained ankle, but we should get an x-ray, just in case it’s more than that,” Savage said. He and his husband, Bowie, were right behind them, and she was sure that she saw two more of the Royal Bastards in the back seat.

“I take it you were able to get a hold of Vin’s old partner to get the file?” she asked.

“I was,” Savage said.

“And they got to me just in time,” Vin said, “ten minutes later and the Ghosts threatened to come after you. I don’t know how they found us, but they knew exactly where to find me.”

“What was in the file?” she asked. “You worked homicide, not drug trafficking.”

“Yeah, but the Ghosts were after a dead man, so I guess my file came in handy. All I overheard was them saying that they wanted to know who killed their old boss, Hangman,” he said. “But that case was never solved. Wolf and I never found the guy who shot him. I’m not sure what they want the old case file for, but they have it now. I’m sure that we’ll find out what they were after at some point.” She didn’t want to know what the Ghosts were after. In fact, if she never heard the name, Ghosts, again, that would suit her just fine.

“Are we safe to go home?” she asked.

“Yes,” Savage answered, “but until we figure out what they are doing, I think you guys should continue to lay low.”

“Well, that works for us. We can take an extended honeymoon then,” Vin said.

“You guys are getting married?” Bowie asked.

Vin wrapped his arm around Aggie and smiled at them both as though he was the proudest man on the face of the earth. “We are,” he admitted. “Hopefully, tomorrow.”

“Wow, tomorrow?” Savage asked.

“If we can find someone to marry us by then, yes,” Vin said.

“I think that we can have our chaplain marry you at Savage Hell if that works for you,” Savage said.

She and Vin smiled at each other and nodded their agreement. “I think that works for us,” Aggie said. “I’ll call the Royal Harlots to see if they can help get the bar ready.” She couldn’t believe that she was going to marry the man she never thought would even notice her, and she was going to do it at Savage Hell surrounded by the Harlots and her family. She really couldn’t ask for anything more.

“So, I guess we’re getting married tomorrow, honey,” Vin said.

“Well, it’s about time,” she teased. “I’ve waited a long time for you to get around to asking me, Vin.” He pulled her in for a kiss and when he released her, she was sure that he’d always be able to take her breath away with just one look in her direction.

“Me too, honey, me too,” Vin said. “But you were well worth the wait, my Harlot.”

The End

I hope that you loved Phoenix and Riggs’ story and Vin and Aggie’s Novella! Here is a sneak peek at book five of K.L. Ramsey’s Royal Harlots Series—Vixen is coming in January 2025!

Daredevil

Dare walked into the back of the bar, trying to avoid bumping into Vixen again. He was an idiot, he could freely admit it, but asking one of her best friends to dance, just to make her jealous, was a shitty idea, and he’d been kicking himself for months about it.

Besides pissing off Vixen, he also pissed off Riggs, one of the club’s members and that was a mistake. Riggs could decide if he was patched into the Royal Bastards or not. So many of the guys were hooking up with women from the Royal Harlots, all he could think about was Vixen seeing him in a different light once he was a full member of the club. But that just might be a pipe dream.

The night of his bad decision, he was feeling down about himself. He was let go down at the local glass factory and he needed a job—fast, or he’d lose his apartment. And running back to his older brother, to tell him that he failed (again) wasn’t an option. His brother had been his guardian since their parents died when Dare was just ten. Saint had just graduated high school and took on the responsibility of raising him. At eighteen, his brother had no idea what he was getting himself into. Hell, attwenty-five now, Dare wouldn’t have a clue as to what to do with a kid. Saint had saved him from having to go into foster care, and his brother never missed one of his football games. He had even gotten Dare the job down at the factory, and it was only a matter of time before he would have to admit to his big brother that he was fired for showing up late—again.

He wasn’t always like that. When he was just twenty-two, he graduated from the local police academy and started working one town over, in Athens, Alabama. It was a small, quiet town where nothing ever happened, or so he thought. Everything went well for two years until all hell broke loose. His department got a tip that there was going to be a drug deal going down and the local cartel would be in Athens for a few days until it was finished. His captain wanted the drug cartel taken out while they were in his town. It would look good on his resume for a promotion, and that was all his boss seemed to care about.

He sent a team to stake out a warehouse where they suspected the cartel was laying low, and it felt like forever before they saw movement. Dare and his team were sent into the warehouse to cease the drugs and arrest the cartel members, but there was a snag. Not only was his team just as green as he was, but the cartel had a mole on the inside of the force. They knew that Dare and his men were moving in, and that’s when things went south. Dare sent most of his guys in while he and three other guys secured the perimeter of the building. His captain hadn’t sent enough men in for the operation, and his team was going to pay the price.

His guys ran into the building, and he waited to hear their gunfire, but it never came. Instead, the blast from the warehouse blew him practically across the road. He knew that his men would never walk out of that building, but he held out some hope until the guys from the Athens fire department told him that they were all lost. He and one other guy had survived,and it was questionable that the other man would survive until morning. He had third-degree burns over eighty-five percent of his body. The fire captain said that if the guy was lucky, he’d die on the way to the hospital because that was no way to live. Dare didn’t understand what he meant until he saw his friend in the hospital, struggling to breathe. He passed away within hours, and Dare went into the department to give his captain an update. That was also the night that he turned in his badge and gun. He couldn’t accept that his team was gone, and without them, he didn’t want to be a cop anymore. They gave their lives for nothing. The cartel was never apprehended, and Dare could never forgive himself for sending his guys into that building only to lose their lives.

That’s when he started trying different jobs, hoping to find something that fit. Saint tried to convince him to go back to the force, but his brother would never understand what he had been through. Saint was an accountant, and he was always dependable. He didn’t have to risk his or his co-worker’s lives and that was what Dare wanted—a nice quiet job where he could settle in, lay low, and try to forget the horrible night that he lost his teammates from the force.

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