by KB Winters
Entangled Heart
Ashby Crime Family Romance Book 6
KB Winters
Copyright © 2021 by KB Winters and Bookboyfriends Publishing Inc
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 written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
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
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Epilogue
Thank You So Much!
Also by KB Winters
About the Author
About Entangled Heart
WSJ and USA Today Bestselling author KB Winters brings you a brand new romantic suspense series about the ruthless Ashby crime family!
Madison
I should have never got drunk that night.
But I come from the wrong side of the tracks.
Thank God the hard bodied man sleeping next to me is a gentleman.
Men like Jameson don’t go out with girls like me.
They keep us in the friend zone.
Well, he’s a friend with killer abs and an ass that won’t quit.
He’s also a cop and I work for the biggest crime family on the West coast.
But I’ve never believed in fairytales and happily ever afters don’t happen to people like me.
Jameson
Ever since my best friend was killed, I’ve wanted to be a cop.
I get out of the academy, and the feds request me to help solve a double homicide because of the people I know.
My family.
And I’ve seen a lot. Too much.
But I’m not a crooked cop. I want justice to be served. On both sides of the law.
Madison is my best friend.
She sent donuts to the cop shop ffs.
She’s tough. Headstrong. Fearless.
And I love her sassy mouth.
And as we get closer, I find I want more than that.
Then she hits me with a big WTF.
And I have to make her mine.
Love a little spice with your crime? You got it! Hit that 1-Click button today!
Entangled heart is the sixth book in the Ashby Crime Family Series!
Chapter One
Madison ~ 5 Months Ago
“Happy birthday, Molls!” I jumped up and down in front of my sister, ignoring the scowl she always wore lately.
She looked up at me with sad eyes and sighed. “What’s so happy about it?”
“Are you kidding?” I gestured to the collection of kids that gathered in what passed for a park inside The 215, the creative name given to our San Bernardino trailer park, located just off the I-215. “Look at all these people who showed up to celebrate your birthday. Your thirteenth birthday, Molly!”
As a nine year old, thirteen seemed real grownup to me, and I couldn’t believe she wasn’t more excited.
Molly snorted and gave her best I-don’t-give-a-fuck, shrug. “They’re not here for me. They came for the burnt hot dogs and stale Wal-Mart birthday cake Mom bought last night.”
I frowned. “What’s wrong with that? Cake is cake, Molly!”
Molly stood and smoothed down the blue and white polka dot dress we found for two bucks at the Salvation Army near the movie theater and nodded for me to follow her into the kitchen. She yanked the fridge open and pointed to the pink and red cake. “Go on, get a good look at it.”
I peeked inside with an eager smile that quickly faded as I read the words, “Happy Birthday Sally.” I turned to her, confused. “Who’s Sally?”
Molly sighed. “It’s a day-old cake that someone else didn’t want or forgot to pick up. Mom probably got it for cheap so she could afford that case of beer that’s in the drawer where the vegetables should be.”
I looked, and like always, Molly was right. Molly was righter than our own mom. I wondered how she got so smart because she knew everything. And there in the veggie drawer was familiar green and gold cans filled to the top that meant today would be an awfully long day. “I’m sorry, Molly. Maybe it’s not old?” I tried to cheer her up.
She shrugged like it didn’t matter, but her sad brown eyes told me it mattered. A lot. “Whatever.” She walked off, even angrier than before and I wanted to cry. Would it be so hard for Mom to act like a mom, just for one day?
This was Molly’s special day, and she was my favorite person in the whole wide world. I couldn’t take back the three beers Mom had for breakfast, or the creepy guy sleeping in her bedroom, but I could fix this one thing for her. I pulled the cake from the fridge and stared at the white frosted name that mocked my sister. Sally. I grabbed a butterknife and tried to pick the letters off the cake. Major fail. Instead, I spread it across the cake into something that resembled a rectangle.
“Okay, what now?”
I went to the cupboard first and found a couple cans of vegetable soup and ravioli in one, unused seasoning packets and ketchup in another. Nothing useful. In the fridge, I found the perfect substitute. Chocolate syrup. I turned the plastic bottle over and in my best printing, I carefully dribbled out MOLLY over the reddish smear. It didn’t match the red and pink frosting, but at least my sister’s cake had the right name on it.
The name of the coolest sister ever.
The front screen door smacked open against the trailer’s doorframe before a familiar voice yelled, “Molly! Where’s my beautiful birthday girl?” Slurred but happy words carried through the entire trailer, and I sighed, bracing myself for whatever came next.
We were used to it. Mom’s drinking and stinky old men.
“Molly? Get out here so I can see how pretty you look today!”
The door to our shared bedroom opened, and Molly’s footsteps sounded down the hall. “What’s up, Mom?”
Mom gasped. “Oh, my baby girl, you are so fucking gorgeous. At least your father gave me one beautiful child. Happy thirteenth birthday, baby!” Mom pulled her into her arms for a big bear hug.
“Thanks,” Molly whispered, returning Mom’s hug before she turned quickly away.
Mom pulled back, swaying a little, her smile wide and proud as she gazed lovingly down at Molly. “Cake is in the fridge and ice cream is in the freezer. Burgers and dogs are ready for the grill, buns and chips are set out on the picnic table, the one without the broken leg, and I even managed to find some balloons. Let’s go see.”
Before Molly could object, Mom pulled her out of the trailer and around back to the park with one working swing, a missing slide and rusted monkey bars. “What do you think, honey?”
“It’s great, Mom. Thank you.” I knew Molly didn’t mean it, but we both knew it was easier to say it, than to risk making Mom mad, especially after she’d had a few drinks.
An hour and four more beers later, Mom was totally drunk, and Molly was super embarrassed even
though she wasn’t friends with most of the kids in the trailer park.
“This is such bullshit,” she mumbled and shook her head. “I can’t wait to get the hell out of San Bernardino. One day,” she sighed angrily.
I nodded and wrapped an arm around her. “I can’t wait until we both get out of here.” My biggest fear was being left behind by my sister. She was four years older than me, and I knew as soon as she got the chance, she would bolt, and I’d be stuck here. With Mom. And her creepy boyfriend of the week.
Molly flashed that smile, the one that made guys, old and young, do a double-take, and wrapped both arms around me. “Just you and me, sis. We’ll put this place behind us soon enough.”
“You think so?” I didn’t want to grow up to be like the people around here, miserable and angry all the time. I wanted to do something big, something important with my life. I didn’t know what, yet. But I would.
“Yeah, I do. And thanks for fixing the cake, Madds. It was nice not to see that bitch Sally’s name staring back at me.”
She laughed, and I laughed too, not because I understood the joke, but because Molly was smiling and that meant everything would be all right.
At least for a little while.
At least until the party was over.
At least until Ken woke up and the grownup party started.
Thoughts of Ken startled me awake. I hadn’t thought about that creep in years, not since Molly’s birthday when he cornered her in our bedroom with a perverted smile and hands that never stopped moving. He smelled like sweat and alcohol, and I’d never seen my sister look so afraid in my whole life. I didn’t even think. I ran to the front door and grabbed the bat we kept for protection and hit him. Two times. Three times. Six times until he fell to his knees and passed out on the floor.
It was the first night of many Molly and I learned to sleep with one eye open, our rickety dresser pushed hard against the door.
“What the fuck?” I sat up on an unfamiliar bed and groaned at the weight of the bridesmaid dress. Even more disappointing, I was in a hotel room with an impossibly hard, hot as fuck male body lying beside me, and I was fully dressed. So was he. “Bummer.”
Slowly, the details of Maisie and Virgil’s wedding came back, reminding me why I was dressed up like an Easter egg and drunker than a sailor on leave. Not even my dehydration or still dry panties could distract me from that dream about Molly, or was it a memory?
Either way, I looked at the sleeping man on the bed and thought of my still-missing sister. Molly had finally gotten the hell out of San Bernardino and right into the clutches of monsters far worse than Ken and his gross hands. I couldn’t shake the feeling that Molly was lying dead somewhere in the desert, but I also couldn’t shake the feeling that the Ashby’s were hiding something from me. I couldn’t say what exactly. They were far more experienced than me, but they were definitely hiding something.
Fuck my life.
Jameson turned over, still asleep and looking so damn sexy that I really wanted to just climb on top of him and beg him to fuck me. Anything to stop thinking about Molly’s angry, honey-brown eyes, dead and lifeless. But I knew what he’d say, the same damn thing he’d said earlier when we fell onto the plush hotel bed.
“We’re too drunk, Maddie. You’ll regret it in the morning, and I’d hate that.”
I would NOT have regretted it, not the way Jameson thought anyway. He was big and built, and sexy as fuck. There was a good chance I’d want another night. And then another. And another. And that, I would definitely regret.
He woke up, revealing smiling gray eyes and lush crooked lips pulled into a matching grin. “Morning. You all right?”
“Yeah, I’m good. I need something to drink though,” I replied not wanting him to know my thoughts about him.
“We could go down to the casino and drink some more and gamble away some of our hard-earned money. You hungry?”
I looked at Jameson, still in his tux minus the bowtie and then down at my dress, the prettiest and most expensive thing I’ve ever worn. I let out a loud laugh. “Hell yeah, I am. All dressed up, and with sex off the table, might as well take advantage of hotel amenities. Right?”
“That’s my girl,” he said with a smile that made me kind of wish I was his girl.
“Let me at least brush my teeth. They have that free stuff here, don’t they?” I got up off the bed and traipsed to the bathroom. I shut the door firmly. I wanted to fuck him, not let him watch me pee, fart and brush my teeth.
Ten minutes later Jameson went into the restroom to do his own business. And no, I wasn’t interested in watching him pee, either.
He came out looking fresher than before and held out his hand and waited for me to put my hand in his.
I did just that and ignored the tingles and heat that zipped through me at his touch, masculine and protective all at once. “I’ve never gambled before.”
“Never?” He stopped just outside the hotel door, dark brows arched in surprise. “How can that be?”
“No money to gamble, for starters. Until recently anyway.” Money had always been tight until Kat and Sadie had given me a job that paid so well I’d saved thousands of dollars since I started working for the Ashby family empire.
“Okay. What else?”
“Do I need another reason?” I shot back, somewhat defensively.
“No, but you said for starters, which indicates you have more than one reason. So, tell me.”
“You’re bossy. And nosy.”
“I know, thanks.”
I shoved his shoulder. “That wasn’t a compliment.”
Jameson shrugged and tugged me toward the elevator with a playful smile. “Strange. Why did it sound so much like one, then?”
“Typical cop, hear only what you want to hear.” At his surprised look, I shrugged. “I heard your people talking at the reception. Very scandalous for the son of a high ranking MC officer to go into the business of enforcing the law. Why?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know you that well. If I told you, I might have to kill you.”
“Well, we could’ve gotten to know each other really well, but somebody said we were too drunk.”
He laughed, and a snort came out. “I guess we’ll have to find another way to get to know each other.” The elevator doors opened, and we stepped out into the casino.
I came to a stop in front of a craps table and pointed. “No better way to cement a friendship than to lose our shit together, hah! I mean shirt. Right? Figuratively speaking, of course.”
“Of course,” he agreed, lips twitching to contain his laughter.
Just what every girl wanted when she was all done up in a fancy dress, sexy bed head, and a tuxedoed-up guy laughing at her.
I better fucking win big today. And if I didn’t, at least I better get fucked.
Chapter Two
Jameson – Two Months Ago
You rarely got time alone at the Police Academy. At least I didn’t, what with classes and physical training sessions during the day. Nights? That’s when most of the recruits hit the hot spots in town to unwind after grueling days studying city statutes, legal procedures and reading. But not me. I stayed in, did the reading. Lots and lots of reading. I didn’t mind, not really. I mean, yeah, the work was relentless, and it never fucking ended, but that was what I came for, what I wanted. If grueling work was what it took to become a detective, then let me at it because as soon as I paid my dues as a cop on a beat, I was gonna be a detective.
Not just any detective, mind you, but a damn good detective, the kind that made people believe in the police again. I laughed at that thought, knowing exactly who would get a kick out of it. And as if she were reading my mind, my phone pinged. I looked it, sitting on the stack of books on the desk beside me, as her name appeared on the screen.
Madison: How’s the cop shop? You get free donuts yet?
Jameson: Not yet. You offering?
Madison: Totally. What kind do you like?
&nbs
p; I knew she was joking, but I answered truthfully because I enjoyed texting with Maddie. Compared to the women hanging around the Reckless Bastards clubhouse, most of whom were as old as my mom or only interested in becoming a biker’s old lady, Maddie was a breath of fresh air. She reminded me of the women here, sharp and focused as I was, on finishing at the top of the class to pave the way for our future careers.
Jameson: Anything filled or glazed. No sprinkles and no nuts unless it’s pecan pie donuts.
Madison: Who knew a man could hold such strong opinions on a fucking donut? I’m impressed.
Jameson: I live to impress you, Maddie.
Madison: So, how’s it going? Really?
She was the first person to ask the question and really mean it. Ma just believed I could do it and left it at that. Yeah, Dad was proud I’d chosen my own path, but reluctantly so. Charlie was a different beast altogether. He wanted to be proud of me and happy for me, but this choice I’d made put more stress on my older brother because he’d just been made Prez of the Reckless Bastards MC. Having a brother on the police squad wasn’t exactly a good look for him.
Jameson: Good. It’s a lot to learn and do, but I think I’m handling it.
Texting with Madison was a recent thing since the wedding just a few months ago. But in that time, she’d become a good friend, checking in on me regularly or just giving me a hard time, because it seemed to be her favorite hobby. So, I wasn’t surprised when the phone rang interrupting our texts. I smiled before I even glanced down at the screen. This, too, was a Madison thing. Texting for starters and then a phone call. “Yeah?”