Text copyright ©2020 Lani Lynn Vale
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Dedication
To Dani, my ride or die.
When I met you at my first signing, I had no freakin’ clue that we would turn out to be best friends. This one is for you. <3
Acknowledgments
Golden Czermak - Photographer
My Brother’s Editor & Ink It Out Editing- My editors
Cover Me Darling - Cover Artist
My mom - Thank you for reading this book eight million two hundred times.
Kendra, Lisa, Laura, Kathy, Mindy, Barbara & Amanda—I don’t know what I would do without y’all. Thank you, my lovely betas, for loving my books as much as I do.
Table of Contents
Blurb
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
Author’s Note:
What’s Next?
What else is next?
Other titles by Lani Lynn Vale:
The Freebirds
Boomtown
Highway Don’t Care
Another One Bites the Dust
Last Day of My Life
Texas Tornado
I Don’t Dance
The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC
Lights To My Siren
Halligan To My Axe
Kevlar To My Vest
Keys To My Cuffs
Life To My Flight
Charge To My Line
Counter To My Intelligence
Right To My Wrong
Code 11- KPD SWAT
Center Mass
Double Tap
Bang Switch
Execution Style
Charlie Foxtrot
Kill Shot
Coup De Grace
The Uncertain Saints
Whiskey Neat
Jack & Coke
Vodka On The Rocks
Bad Apple
Dirty Mother
Rusty Nail
The Kilgore Fire Series
Shock Advised
Flash Point
Oxygen Deprived
Controlled Burn
Put Out
I Like Big Dragons Series
I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie
Dragons Need Love, Too
Oh, My Dragon
The Dixie Warden Rejects
Beard Mode
Fear the Beard
Son of a Beard
I’m Only Here for the Beard
The Beard Made Me Do It
Beard Up
For the Love of Beard
Law & Beard
There’s No Crying in Baseball
Pitch Please
Quit Your Pitchin’
Listen, Pitch
The Hail Raisers
Hail No
Go to Hail
Burn in Hail
What the Hail
The Hail You Say
Hail Mary
The Simple Man Series
Kinda Don’t Care
Maybe Don’t Wanna
Get You Some
Ain’t Doin’ It
Too Bad So Sad
Bear Bottom Guardians MC
Mess Me Up
Talkin’ Trash
How About No
My Bad
One Chance, Fancy
It Happens
Keep It Classy
Snitches Get Stitches
F-Bomb
KPD Motorcycle Patrol
Hide Your Crazy
It Wasn’t Me
I’d Rather Not
Make Me
Sinners are Winners
If You Say So
SWAT 2.0
Just Kidding
Fries Before Guys
Maybe Swearing Will Help
Ask Me If I Care (4-14-20)
May Contain Wine (5-12-20)
Jokes on You (6-9-20)
Join the Club (7-14-20)
Any Day Now (8-11-20)
Say it Ain’t So (9-8-20)
Officially Over It (10-13-20)
Nobody Knows (11-3-20)
Depends Who’s Asking (12-8-20)
Valentine Boys
Herd That
Crazy Heifer
Chute Yeah (3-24-20)
Get Bucked (4-21-20)
Blurb
Ford Spurlock has known Ashe Trammel since they were babies.
He’s also done his level best to stay away from her because every time he gets to within five feet of her, they’re fighting like cats and dogs.
Ashe is the apple of her father’s eye. The motorcycle club princess that was never to be harmed in any way—or touched for that matter. And he’s always resented the fact that she could get away with things that he couldn’t. Things that she then blames on him and he always gets punished for.
Fast forward to adulthood, and Ashe is still off-limits. Still driving him insane. Still… beautiful.
She never misses an opportunity to give him hell, either.
That has to be why he agrees to do a photoshoot for KPD SWAT that’ll benefit her charity even when he’d rather shoot himself in the foot with his duty weapon.
***
Ashe never thought he’d agree.
Honestly, she thought she’d ask him, he’d say no, and that’d be the end of it.
She never realized that she’d leave his photo up in her office, and it’d be the last thing that she saw every night as she locked her door.
When they were kids, Ford used to be that boy that threw dirt at her and pulled her hair.
Now, he’s the same Ford Spurlock, only a whole lot sexier. And a lot harder to say no to.
When he challenges her to one date, she has no other recourse but to agree.
What she didn’t agree to was falling in love with Mr. March. Or wanting to give him everything she had to give.
Prologue
Dear Math, please grow up and solve your own problems.
-Sincerely, Ford
Ford
Ten years ago
High School
“Hey, GMC.”
I stiffened and turned to find none other than Ashe Trammel standing behind me, her arms crossed over her chest, pushing her cleavage up, staring at me with a look of amusement on her face.
“What?” I asked stiffly.
“You do realize, right, that this is a school and not a brothel?” she asked, her eyes on my girlfriend, Linnett.
Linnett sneered at Ashe.
Ashe, however, was unfazed by either of o
ur glares.
“What do you want?” I asked.
I was a senior this year and should be living it up.
Yet, every fucking time I turned the corner, there was Soot, making my life a living hell.
“I need a ride to the clubhouse today,” she said. “My car broke down on the way to school. My dad said you wouldn’t mind giving me a ride home.”
I gritted my teeth.
“We can’t—” Linnett started to say, but I interrupted her.
“What’s wrong with your car?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I called my dad to come help me, but he was on a call. Mom was at work.”
I sighed. “Where did you leave it?”
She narrowed her eyes.
“What does it matter?” she asked.
Linnett growled in frustration, already annoyed by Ashe.
I’d been dealing with Ashe for a long time, so her suspicion didn’t annoy me as much as it did Linnett.
“It matters because I might be able to go fix your car at lunch,” I answered. “If you tell me where it is.”
She mumbled something I didn’t quite catch.
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked.
She rolled her head around on her neck, then said, “It’s on the highway. On-ramp. Right where I would’ve gotten on to get to school.”
I stared at her blankly for a few moments, then narrowed my eyes.
“You died on the highway and had to walk to school from there?” I asked incredulously.
She shrugged. “It wasn’t a big deal. I was going to track practice anyway, and I just used that time to run instead.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, causing Linnett’s arm to dislodge from mine.
“You ran on the highway, in the dark, and your father didn’t care?” I asked for clarification.
She sighed. “Yes.”
“What the fuck, Ashe?!” I growled, throwing my hands up. “Why the fuck would you go and do a thing like that?”
She narrowed her eyes.
“It’s not like I wanted to do that,” she countered. “It was that or go back home, and I knew I couldn’t go back home because we have that test today in calculus. The one that we stayed up for hours studying for.”
“Wait a minute,” Linnett said slowly. “You studied with her instead of coming over to my house and studying?”
Linnett was getting mad now, I could tell.
I ignored her and held out my hands.
“Give me the keys. If I can get it running, I’ll get Linnett to drive it back,” I said.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Linnett denied. “Not after you lied to me and told me that you were too busy to come study with me.”
Ashe turned her head and narrowed her eyes at Linnett.
“Maybe he wanted to actually get some studying done,” she said smartly. “Maybe he knew that if he went over to your house, you would just make him suck your face instead of studying. And he needs to pass this test, or he’s going to fail.”
Linnett narrowed her eyes at Ashe.
“You’re just jealous that Ford actually likes me,” Linnett sneered. “Instead of doing shit for you just because he’s told to or because he feels sorry for you.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Ashe asked, her hands now fisting at her thighs.
I knew exactly what Linnett was about to do before she even did it.
“Linnett, don’t,” I ordered.
But Linnett didn’t listen.
Instead, she opened her fucking mouth.
By this point, half the senior hallway was listening to us.
“He told me that y’all made a bet. What was it? Who could sneak out and not get caught?” Linnett said, sidestepping my arm. “That if you won, he had to teach you how to kiss. And if he won, you would cover for him anytime he wanted to sneak out of the house. So…how long have you been covering for him now? A few months? Have you learned to kiss yet? Or did you just Hoover vacuum someone’s face and hope that you did it right?”
The entire senior hallway broke out in laughter.
Ashe’s pained eyes turned to me.
“How could you?” she asked.
I opened my mouth to tell her I hadn’t meant for it to get out but closed it just as fast.
Apologies wouldn’t help anymore.
“I’ll teach you how to kiss, Soot Face.”
Ashe turned to survey the captain of the football team. Colin Wilson.
I narrowed my eyes at him and took a threatening step forward.
Linnett caught my arm and hauled me back.
I whispered to Linnett.
“Ashe is right,” I said softly. “If I didn’t study, I would’ve failed. And I can’t fail. I have to pass to play, and you know that.”
Linnett pouted.
“And I don’t appreciate you telling her about that kissing thing. You promised if I told you that you wouldn’t say a word. You’re making it to where I can’t trust you.”
Linnett looked contrite.
“I’m sorry,” she said, pushing her body into me.
I curved my arm around her shoulders and tugged her into me.
“You have to be nice to Ashe,” I said. “She’s like a sister to me.”
Linnett snorted. “Some sister. She treats you like trash.”
“She doesn’t,” I said. “She doesn’t do anything to me that I don’t do to her.”
She groaned at my words.
“Whatever,” she said. “You really don’t think you’ll pass that test?”
I shook my head.
“Nope,” I sighed. “Calculus just jumbles up in my brain. I don’t know why, but it just does.”
***
Ashe
“Oh, look,” Linnett sneered. “It’s ol’ slag face.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“I tolerate when Ford calls me Soot, or Slag, or Ember. What I do not tolerate is when you do it. You have no permission to call me names. Please refrain,” I snapped.
“Please refrain?” Linnett laughed with her friends. “Whatever, Soot.”
“Don’t call her that,” Ford ordered as he took his seat between us.
I smiled inwardly, then looked forward when Mr. Humphries came in the room holding a stack of tests in his hands.
“Everybody ready?” he asked as he stood at the first row of desks.
“Yes,” came the droned, monotone responses.
Mr. Humphries’ quick smile had me smiling right back.
And as I breezed through the test, I felt confident that I would pass with flying colors.
One glance at Ford, however, showed me that he was struggling.
Still, at first, I didn’t worry about him.
I was too focused on doing all my problems.
Then, as I was normally always the last one finished, I looked over just as Ford got up, too.
He looked like he was about to throw up.
The teacher nodded his head toward the desk.
“I’m gonna go grab some coffee,” he said. “Place your papers right there.”
Ford tossed his down carelessly and walked back to his seat.
Not being able to help myself, I glanced at the front page of his test and saw that almost all of the answers that Ford had on the page were wrong.
A quick flash of inspiration hit me.
I closed my eyes as I realized what I was about to do.
Get us both in trouble, that’s for sure.
But I had to take the chance.
Because, despite what Ford might think, I didn’t hate him. I wanted him to succeed. I wanted him to pass his classes. And even more, I knew that playing football was important to him.
So I did what I had to do.
Erasing Ford’s name, I put my name on the paper. Then, erasing my name from my test, I quickly wrote Ford’s name. Then tucked them back into the stack, m
ine on top.
The teacher came in then, a fresh cup of coffee in his hands.
“All right,” he said. “Everyone done?”
I smiled at the teacher, feeling my heart take a pounding.
“Yes, sir,” I said.
“Good,” he said. “Then I’ll get these graded.”
I licked my lips nervously and sat, my thumbs twitching, as the rest of the class talked in quiet tones around me.
Since I was the only junior in a senior level class, I didn’t have any friends in here. And the one person that I knew never talked to me because he didn’t like me all that much.
The teacher graded the papers and flipped them back over, one by one, until he got to the last in the stack.
I saw it the moment he realized whose paper it was.
Shit.
He marked ‘X’ so many times that I knew that Ford—or actually now I—had failed within the first page and a half.
And by the time he was done recording the grades and handing the tests back to us, I felt sick to my stomach.
Everybody groaned as they got their tests back, but Ford, who blew out a relieved breath beside me.
When Mr. Humphries stopped in front of me, I knew that he was about to say something.
“Ms. Trammel,” the teacher said, looking at me worriedly. “Are you okay today? You don’t usually make grades like this.”
He handed the paper to me, and I didn’t even bother to look at the grade.
I’d failed.
I saw Ford’s head snap up, the smile slowly leeching off of his face as understanding dawned.
“I had a bad morning,” I lied. “My car broke down and I had to run six miles to school. And last night I had a stomach virus… let’s just say I’ll do better next time.”
And I would.
“You can come see me in my office after this,” he said. “We’ll talk about what happened.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I know what happened, Mr. Humphries. I didn’t study. End of story.” I shrugged as if it meant nothing to me, when I’d literally just screwed up my 4.0 GPA.
Mr. Humphries sighed as he looked at me with concern.
“Okay,” he said. “Next time study, though. And if you feel bad, don’t come to school.”
My mouth twitched. “Yes, sir.”
Once the teacher moved down the row, I caught Ford looking at me as if he was about to say something.
I narrowed my eyes and pointed at him.
“Don’t,” I ordered.
“Ashe…”
“Shut up, Chevy,” I snapped softly. “And just remember, you owe me.”
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