Take Me in the Night

by R. L. Kenderson

  Table of Contents

  Title

  Copyright

  Blurb

  Note to Readers

  Prologue

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  Thirty-Four

  Thirty-Five

  Thirty-Six

  Thirty-Seven

  Thirty-Eight

  Thirty-Nine

  Forty

  Forty-One

  Forty-Two

  Forty-Three

  Forty-Four

  Forty-Five

  Forty-Six

  Forty-Seven

  Forty-Eight

  Forty-Nine

  Fifty

  Fifty-One

  Fifty-Two

  Epilogue

  Also by R.L. Kenderson

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Take Me in the Night

  by

  R.L. Kenderson

  PUBLISHED BY:

  R.L. Kenderson

  (Renae Anderson Au & Lara Kennedy)

  Take Me in the Night

  Copyright © 2018 by Renae Au and Lara Kennedy

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN-13: 978-1-7327368-0-1

  Editor: Jovana Shirley, Unforeseen Editing, www.unforeseenediting.com

  Cover Designer: R.L. Kenderson, Utterly Charming Designs, www.rlkenderson.com

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the authors, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Take Me in the Night

  First, he took my heart.

  It started in high school. I was his girlfriend…he was the love of my life.

  We had plans for after graduation. We were going to escape—he from his family’s reputation and me from my father’s control.

  But all that changed the summer before college. Charged with a crime he hadn’t committed, he was whisked away from life, never to be heard from again.

  Then, he takes my body.

  Twelve years later, he’s back. He’s bigger, he’s tougher, and he’s harder around the edges. He’s no longer the boy I fell in love with.

  But I’m no longer the girl who gave him her heart.

  Everything’s changed between us. Anger, resentment, and bitterness have replaced happiness, love, and trust.

  Except for when darkness falls. That’s when he comes to me at night, taking what is still his.

  Now, he’s going to take my soul.

  When the lines between our old love and our new hate begin to blur, I know that, this time, I might not survive if he leaves.

  Note to Readers

  This book is an erotic romance for entertainment purposes only. This story is pure fantasy. Please always practice safe sex and use protection.

  Also, the facts surrounding Maddox’s case and career might not happen in the real world. We took certain liberties in order to give you the best story possible.

  Prologue

  Addison

  Twelve Years Ago

  “Shh,” Maddox said with a grin as he covered my laughing mouth. “Your father is going to hear.” He pulled me halfway across his body as we lay on my bed.

  I slipped my hands underneath his T-shirt. “Who cares? Soon, we’ll be out of here, and he can kiss my ass.”

  My father didn’t like Maddox. He didn’t think Maddox was the right kind of boy for me.

  What my father meant was that Maddox didn’t come from the correct side of town. I was waiting for the day when my father came right out and said that Maddox wasn’t good enough for me, but I thought even he knew that would be going too far.

  Maddox kissed me. “Addy, we still have two months left. I really don’t want anything to ruin our plans now.”

  “You’re right. We’ve made it the last two years, so we can make it the next two months.”

  In two months, the two of us would be going to college. Him to the state school and me to the private school. They were only twenty minutes away from each other. Maddox was going to be a doctor, and I was probably going to major in business. He was going to school on a football scholarship, and I was going to school on my father’s dime. It made no difference to me as long as the two of us got out of there.

  I grinned.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Two years, two months…the two of us. Everything’s in twos,” I explained.

  His green eyes bright with the plans of our future, he kissed me again. Oh, how I loved this boy. This man. He’d turned eighteen five months ago.

  He broke our kiss, and I ran my fingers through his chin-length dark blond hair. He was always saying he should cut it, so my father would respect him more, but I wouldn’t let him. I loved Maddox’s long hair, and there was nothing he could do to earn my father’s respect anyway. Maddox was a Wolfe. He had been born with that stain on his soul, as far as Brantley Graham was concerned.

  Maddox glanced at my alarm clock. “I gotta go. I’m supposed to pick up Foster.”

  I sighed my disappointment. How my father felt about Maddox was how I felt about his brother, Foster. One year younger and on the opposite end of the spectrum from Maddox. Foster already had a juvenile rap sheet as long as my leg, and it was a surprise he hadn’t been kicked out of school for skipping so many classes.

  He was another reason I couldn’t wait to leave our godforsaken small town. I didn’t want Foster to take Maddox down with him.

  Two months, two months, I chanted in my head.

  I gave Maddox a peck. “Okay. Just be careful.”

  He rolled away from me and shook his head as if he thought I was crazy. “Always, Addy. Always.”

  I scooted to the edge of my bed and followed Maddox to my window.

  He flung one leg over the sill. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I smiled at him. “Promise?”

  He grabbed my nightgown and yanked me toward him.

  I had to put my hand over my mouth to stifle my laughter again.

  “Promise,” he said to me. “I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time with you tonight.”

  I longed for the time when we didn’t have to make love quickly in case my father came up the stairs or someone caught us in the backseat of his car. “Someday, we’ll get to take our time,” I told him.

  He grinned. “Two months.”

  I kissed him. “Two months.”

  He let go of my pajamas. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow,” I agreed. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” He swiped his finger over my nose and was gone.

  I wouldn’t see
him again for twelve years.

  One

  Addison

  The Present

  “Serena, do you have the Warner file?” I called through my open office door.

  I had an intercom, but when it was just the two of us, we weren’t very formal. Hell, we weren’t very professional, even when we had clients. That was the beauty of living in a small town like Brook Creek. I knew almost everyone, at least by name, and I was the only lawyer within miles who took on the number of pro bono cases I did and charged such cheap fees for the others. They could either take me or leave me.

  Serena came rushing into my office with a folder in her hand. “Here you go.”

  I took it from her. “Thank you. I thought I had lost it.”

  “At least it’s just a will.”

  I looked at my assistant like she was crazy. “This isn’t just any will, Serena. I had to sit with the Warners for six hours. Six hours. They own a house and a car and have one child. It should never have taken me that long. That’s six hours of my life I can never get back.” I shook my head. “I refuse to do that again.”

  Serena put her fingers to her mouth and giggled.

  “It’s okay. Go ahead and laugh. I would, too, if I were you. Count yourself lucky that you’d taken the day off.”

  Her eyes lit up. “Speaking of days off—”

  “Serena, what have I told you about taking days off? You just can’t,” I teased her but pretended to be serious. “I need you way too much.”

  She gave me a look. “You survived for years without me.”

  “That’s because I didn’t know someone like you existed. My last assistant was worse than Karen Walker.”

  “Who?”

  I waved her question away. “Never mind. It was a TV show that was on when I was in high school.” I used to watch it with Serena’s uncle when my father was out for the night. Well, half-watch it anyway.

  “Oh, I know. It’s from Will & Grace.”

  I whipped my head up in surprise. “You know Will & Grace?”

  “Yeah, it’s on TV again. It’s funny.”

  “Huh.” I remembered hearing something about it coming back, but these days, I rarely had time for TV. “Anyway, you are a godsend. I’m just happy to have you working here.”

  Serena had just been a girl when Maddox was arrested and taken away. Her mother was Maddox’s older sister, who had already started following in their mother’s footsteps. Maddox’s mom had had Serena’s mom, Kelly, when she was seventeen, and Kelly had had Serena when she was sixteen.

  Despite Kelly being the oldest, Maddox had been the one to run the family. His mother was too busy drinking and chasing after guys. And Maddox had been the closest thing that Serena had to a dad.

  I had loved Serena like a little sister and done my best to stay in touch with her. Despite her family’s reputation and limited resources, Serena had graduated with straight As. It wasn’t enough to get her a full ride anywhere, but it was enough to get her some scholarships. She was going to take community college classes starting in the fall while she worked with me to help out her family. I couldn’t lie that I was relieved that I wouldn’t be losing her. And she’d be able to put in more hours with me while she was in college than she’d been able to do while working after school for me.

  “And I’m happy to be working here. But…”

  “But?” I waited for her to finish before I remembered what we’d been talking about. “Oh, yeah. A day off.” I pulled up my calendar on my computer. “When were you thinking?”

  Please don’t say the tenth. I had a full schedule that day.

  “Tomorrow afternoon.”

  My shoulders sagged with relief. “That’s it?”

  Serena laughed. “Yes. It’s the street dance this weekend.” She did a little dance. “It’s Creek Days, and I get to go and help my friend set up for the parade on Saturday.”

  I groaned. Another joy of living in a small town. The annual parade and street dance. I didn’t mind the parade, but the street dance was the worst. It was loud and went on until sunrise the next morning. Officially, it shut down when the state said it could no longer serve alcohol, but that didn’t stop everyone from going home and drinking till the sun came up.

  That also meant that I was usually called down to the sheriff’s station at least once in the middle of the night to bail someone out of the drunk tank. It was the downside of being the only lawyer in town.

  Last year, I’d had to help get out the Richardson brothers before their mom found out and beat their asses. All because they’d decided to go cow tipping. And they’d had to pick Old Man Flanders. The meanest and grumpiest person in town.

  “So, what do you say?” Serena asked.

  I’d almost forgotten she’d asked for the afternoon off. “What’s on the schedule?”

  “Nothing. I think everyone else is too busy to come in.”

  “Go ahead. I think I’ll take the afternoon off, too. Maybe get in some rest before all the chaos starts.”

  Because, even though the street dance wasn’t until Saturday, residents, old and current, would go out to party on Friday, too.

  Since my office was downtown and my apartment was above my office, I wouldn’t be getting much sleep on Friday or Saturday night. It was still worth it, not to live with my father though.

  He was close enough, living up on the hill in the house I’d grown up in. I hadn’t quite managed to move away permanently after I lost Maddox, but at least I didn’t have to live with my father anymore.

  Too bad he still held the reins to my trust fund—aka the money I used to help run my business. After Maddox’s arrest, I never wanted someone who needed help to be unable to defend themselves in court. Since there were only about three families in town who had a lot of money, it meant a lot of handouts and cheap billing. But I didn’t mind. I’d found my calling, and I loved helping those I could.

  If only I could’ve helped Maddox.

  Unfortunately, there was no record of him in the system, and his case was sealed. It was like he’d fallen off the face of the earth. Not even good old Google could give me anything.

  Serena and I went back to work, and at five o’clock, Foster Wolfe walked in to pick up his niece.

  Foster nodded hello to me, and I nodded back. He and I were civil toward one another, but I still blamed him for Maddox’s incarceration. The two of us didn’t talk more than we had to.

  The only good thing that had come out of it was that Foster cleaned up his act. He’d gone to school to be a mechanic since he always liked working with cars, and he owned the garage in town. The Wolfe name wasn’t such a terrible thing anymore around here—as long as Maddox didn’t come before it. People still hated him for what had happened twelve years ago, and no one felt sorry for him in the least. But that was because everyone thought he’d been the one to commit the crime. Only Foster and I knew the truth. Foster because he’d done it and me because Maddox had been with me at the time. I didn’t understand why he’d never told anyone that he had been with me that night. I would have vouched for him in a heartbeat.

  Part of me hated Maddox for taking the fall for his brother, but I also couldn’t fault him completely for looking after his younger sibling. It still didn’t mean he’d had to go to prison for the guy though.

  I said good-bye to Serena and finished up on the account I had been working on—at least for the day.

  It was going to be another night alone for me, so I wasn’t in any rush. I didn’t know if it was all the thoughts about Maddox or what, but the thought of going upstairs alone seemed worse than usual. I might as well make up for taking tomorrow afternoon off instead.

  Two

  Maddox

  A big, meaty hand slammed down on my shoulder. “We’re going to miss you, Mad Dog,” my friend and teammate said.

  “Yeah, but you’ll enjoy breaking in the new kid,” I told Flash.

  Flash thought he’d earned his nickname because of how quick he was for s
omeone of his size—he was six-three and two hundred thirty pounds of muscle—but it was really because of how fast women scattered when he was around. He was kind of like a big teddy bear, and most females didn’t know what to do with him. He might not have been a ladies’ man, but Senior Chief Thomas “Flash” Morelli was one of the best damn SEALs I had ever had the pleasure to work with.

  He rubbed his hands together. “Fuck yeah, I will. He won’t know what hit him.”

  I laughed, feeling pity for whoever replaced me.

  But everybody had to be the newbie at some point.

  I still remembered my first day in the Navy like it was yesterday.

  I’d been a scared kid, forced far away from the only home I’d ever known, moving to a completely different world from the one I had grown up in. Until then, I’d never even left the state of Iowa. There had been no family trips for me, growing up.

  When I’d been arrested, I’d thought for sure I’d be in that jail cell a few hours at most. I knew the security tape pointed to me because Foster had stolen my letterman jacket and put on my baseball cap and a bandana. We looked very different, and I was broader and taller than my brother, but since my brother had kept his face hidden, the sheriff thought it was me. Or maybe he had just wanted it to be me.

  Brantley Graham had the sheriff and the district attorney in his pocket and was always looking for ways to get me arrested. I’d kept my nose clean my entire life, only to go down for something I didn’t do. But I took the fall because I didn’t want Foster to go to prison. Not only had he robbed a gas station, but also a well-known member of the community had died during the commission of the crime, adding on another charge. But I wasn’t worried because I was innocent, and I had an alibi.

  An alibi who never showed up. An alibi who never vouched for me. An alibi who thought she’d let me rot in prison the last twelve years.

  My only saving grace was the judge on my case. I had a bench trial instead of a jury trial, and he pulled me aside and talked to me. Something virtually unheard of. He pulled up the surveillance video, looked at me point blank, and dared me to tell him that it was me in the video.

  After being railroaded by the sheriff and the DA, I almost cried that someone finally saw the truth and was on my side.