Kitty Kitty Read online

  Table of Contents

  Kitty Kitty

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Other titles by Lani Lynn Vale

  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

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  What's Next?

  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.

  Dedications blow. Let’s go have a cookie.

  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 and thirty-one times.

  Kendra, Lisa, Laura, Penney, Brandi, Jen, 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.

  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

  The Southern Gentleman Series

  Hissy Fit

  Lord Have Mercy

  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

  May Contain Wine

  Joke’s on You

  Join the Club

  Any Day Now

  Say it Ain’t So

  Officially Over It

  Nobody Knows

  Depends Who’s Asking

  Valentine Boys

  Herd That

  Crazy Heifer

  Chute Yeah

  Get Bucked

  Souls Chapel Revenants

  Repeat Offender

  Conjugal Visits

  Jailbait

  Doin’ A Dime

  Kitty Kitty

  Gen Pop

  Inmate of the Month

  Madd CrossFit

  No Rep

  Jerk It

  Chalk Dirty to Me

  Blurb

  This is the story of a man falling in love with a woman.

  A man that was supposed to be a role model, and a woman that was just barely twenty-one.

  A man who should’ve known better, and a woman that didn’t know that she was destroying his career word by word, innocent touch by innocent touch, smile by smile, until it had already imploded.

  The world collapses around Absinthe ‘Sin’ Solomon, and the only thing he can do is try not to take her down with him.

  The moment the inevitable happens, and the gavel bangs signaling that he will spend the next nine years in prison for attempted murder, Sin tries to let go. But Blaise Mackenzie has never, not ever, been one to give up without a fight.

  Her military career might be over, but her career as a prison guard is just about to get started.

  And her favorite prisoner? A pissed-off older man, a drill sergeant dishonorably discharged from the Army that tells himself daily that the new ‘Kitty Kitty’ female prison guard is not for him.

  After following him around for years, watching over him from afar in any way she can, Sin is released early. And the first person that he’s going to see? A stubborn little blonde-headed female that should’ve known better than to trust a man like him.

  PROLOGUE

  Drill Sergeants: they will kick your ass and look sexy doing it the entire time.

  -Blaise’s secret thoughts

  BLAISE

  Six years ago

  Oh. My. God.

  “Holy shit,” the girl beside me breathed as she got a load of the male drill sergeants.

  I didn’t say anything.

  Couldn’t.

  I didn’t want to be singled out and be forced to do anything more than I was already doing.

  When I’d told my parents that I was going into the military—the Army specifically—I didn’t have any clue just how bad it was going to be at first.

  It was… hard.

  Like, really hard.

  One second, I was a happy twenty-one-year-old, and the next I was in the Army, being yelled at by
really screechy female drill sergeants for eating two freakin’ kiwis instead of just one.

  I mean, for God’s sake, it didn’t say ‘you can only have one goddamn kiwi.’

  How was I supposed to know the limit was one?

  Anyway, I digress.

  The men standing in front of us were… gorgeous.

  But one drill sergeant in particular kept drawing my eye.

  The name stitched into his uniform said ‘Solomon’ and he was so sexy I could barely breathe.

  Then again, that barely breathing thing might have something to do with the number of push-ups we’d been forced to do over the last hour.

  Whatever the reason, I had a feeling that every single eye in the entire unit I was in was currently focused on one drill sergeant in particular.

  “Drill Sergeant Solomon,” our female drill sergeant, Drill Sergeant Ames, called. “Would you like to lead the next drill?”

  A small flicker of annoyance crossed Drill Sergeant Solomon’s face, then he stepped forward and led the next drill.

  I fell over my feet twice as I tried not to stare at his bulging biceps.

  How the hell did they not rip the damn shirt?

  Jesus Christ.

  I…

  “Do you have a problem, recruit?”

  I shivered at the low, raspy voice of the other male drill sergeant that had come with the sexy one.

  The name on his shirt read ‘Brees.’

  The shiver that’d run down my spine wasn’t the same type of shiver that Solomon had gotten out of me earlier.

  No, this one was one of downright terror.

  Because there was something about this particular drill sergeant that had freaked me out from day one.

  When I was younger, I’d had a lot of ‘premonitions.’ Not like ‘you’re about to die, don’t step off that curb’ kind of premonitions. No, this was the kind of feeling that maybe the person you just met wasn’t a particularly good person. That they were someone that I needed to stay away from. A man that in this case, if at all possible, I needed to not gain his attention.

  “Sir, no, sir.” I went rigid at attention.

  The man’s eyes traveled over me, head to toe, and his lips twitched. “Mackenzie.”

  I swallowed hard. “Yes, sir.”

  “I know a couple of Mackenzies,” he drawled.

  God.

  Dammit.

  Of course, he did.

  That meant he was going to be paying more attention to me.

  Wonderful.

  “Carry on.” He gestured to the rest of my platoon that’d started off without me.

  I rushed to catch up, a feeling of utter relief coursing through me at not having to stay with him any longer.

  The only problem was, I’d gained his attention.

  When a man like Drill Sergeant Brees had you in his sights, things were bound to go bad.

  And they did.

  • • •

  Three weeks later

  I. Was. Terrified.

  Drill Sergeant Brees had made a comment this morning during our morning drills. One that had left me with my eyes wide open even though I needed the sleep desperately.

  You may think you’ve won, but you haven’t. I’ll see you tonight, Mackenzie.

  Normally, it was only the female drill sergeants that dealt with the female soldiers.

  This morning, though? It was like Drill Sergeant Brees had gone out of his way to make sure that my life was a living hell.

  It was boot camp.

  I’d expected it to be hard.

  But not this hard.

  The one shining bright light in my dark sky over the last three weeks had been one single man’s attention.

  When I caught Drill Sergeant Brees’ attention, I’d also caught Drill Sergeant Solomon’s.

  And not because of anything that I’d done, but because of what the other drill sergeant had done.

  He hadn’t liked Brees’ attention on me.

  Not one little bit.

  And he’d thwarted almost every single attempt of Brees’ at getting me either alone, or almost alone.

  But tonight, I wasn’t sure that he would be saving me.

  The sick feeling in my stomach grew until it was a pounding ache that nearly doubled me over.

  As if these last three weeks weren’t enough, now I was on my period, in need of tampons, and about to head to sick hall for some medication on top of that.

  I was blessed with awful, and I do mean awful, periods.

  Every month, like fucking clockwork, I had them.

  They would tear me down, one cramp at a time, until I was lying sick on the floor.

  In bootcamp? That kind of thing wasn’t ever going to fly.

  So, even though I felt like utter and complete shit, I forged ahead.

  Why couldn’t I just be like those other chicks that were so damn stressed during basic training that I didn’t have a period at all?

  Oh, because the universe hated me, that’s why.

  “Something I can help you with, Mackenzie?”

  Those words, said in an amused tone, had my stomach almost emptying itself right then and there.

  Swallowing hard, I tried not to let on how freakin’ scared I was.

  “Drill Sergeant Brees.” I tried to smile, but I was sure it came out more as a grimace. “I’m headed to sick hall to get some medication.”

  “For what?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

  Though his physique was impressive, it wasn’t nearly as impressive as Sin’s.

  Absinthe Solomon.

  I’d learned his entire name just yesterday when he’d stepped in between me and Drill Sergeant Brees.

  Drill Sergeant Brees had all but assaulted him for interrupting us.

  Thank God he had.

  Now not only did I know his name, but I also hadn’t had to do anything more humiliating than I had.

  Thank God.

  “Umm,” I hesitated. “I’m having cramps.”

  I didn’t see the point of lying.

  Maybe the idea of me bleeding would turn him off and make him step away.

  If anything, it only made him step closer.

  “Cramps?” he asked. “You PMSing, Mackenzie?”

  I felt another cramp start, nearly bringing me to my knees.

  “Yes, sir.” I didn’t lie.

  “Okay.” He gestured. “Let’s go. I’ll walk with you. Keep you out of trouble.”

  I’d rather go back to my bed and die.

  But when I would’ve turned, he caught my arm in an unyielding grip and didn’t let go.

  His grip was so punishing that I didn’t even think to tug it away.

  I knew that if I did, the result would only be worse than the original intent.

  But, instead of leading me the usual way, he led me the long way, and the ever-darkening dusk started to make me feel very uneasy.

  There were now not many people around.

  Those that were around weren’t paying us any attention.

  Which had to be why, when we slipped past a darkening building, nobody noticed when we both disappeared into the shadows.

  “No.” I started to yank my hand away, realizing just how freakin’ stupid I’d been to go so ‘willingly’ this far with him. But before I could so much as get the ‘n’ in ‘no’ out he had his hand over my mouth.

  “Say a word or scream, and I’ll kill you,” he growled.

  I froze, listening to the sincerity in those words.

  He really would kill me.

  He’d not even blink an eye at it.

  “You know how easy it would be to ‘find’ you?” he asked.

  I wanted to scream ‘but people saw us together!’

  I didn’t, though.

  I stayed still. At least until he had a false sense of security.

  He moved his free hand down the length of my body.

  “Never seen such a sweet ass before,” he growled. “Twitching and bouncing
in my face around every corner.”

  I wanted to knee him in the balls.

  Then I thought… why the hell not?

  I wasn’t getting out of this alive if I couldn’t fend for myself.

  And my daddy, the vice president of the Dixie Wardens MC, didn’t raise no bitch.

  I grew up with a brother, Johnny, that was a rough and tumble sort. He baptized me the tough way. If I wanted to learn to protect myself, I was going to learn the hard way.

  By him doing the beating.

  My brother was great. But back then, he was a rowdy little asshole who’d grown up in a motorcycle club just like me.

  His father was Sebastian Mackenzie just like me.

  He had hundreds of pseudo-uncles that didn’t go easy on him just because he was a child.

  I had an uncle that was former-Army. He taught me to creep and do all of my own dirty work. I had another uncle that was former-Army and a sniper. He taught me everything about a rifle and I could shoot better than anyone I knew. This asshole toad was probably not going to go easy on me, either. Even if he was a male and older.

  “Can I let your mouth go?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  The moment his hand was off my mouth, I struck.

  My knee went high, straight into those two little peas he called testicles.

  When the breath left him in a whoosh of air as he leaned forward, I kneed him in the face with the other knee.

  But, just like my father told me, a determined man wasn’t going to go down easily. Taking a knee to the balls and to the face didn’t take Drill Sergeant Brees down like I would’ve hoped.

  So I decided that the next best thing was to run.

  I ran.

  Hard.

  Only, he was faster.

  Just like my father said.

  A man is always going to be faster. Stronger. Able to go longer than a woman. If you ever truly need to get away, you need to strike hard, fast, and think smart.

  I screamed.

  Only, my face met the dirt so fast that the only sound that got out was a high-pitched yip before my mouth was full of so much dirt that screaming was impossible.

  I struggled hard, but his full body weight pinned me down, forcibly holding me there while he growled behind me.

  “Made a mistake, you little bitch,” Brees hissed from behind me. “All I wanted was a fuck. You could’ve given me that without getting this. But… your fault.”