Mastered by Malone (Haven Texas Book 6) Read online

  Mastered by Malone

  Laylah Roberts

  Contents

  Let’s keep in touch!

  Books by Laylah Roberts

  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

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from Daddy Bear

  Dirty Daddies Anthology

  Laylah Roberts

  Mastered by Malone

  © 2019, Laylah Roberts

  [email protected]

  laylahroberts.com

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. 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 express written permission from the author / publisher.

  Cover Design by: Allycat’s Creations

  Editing: Eve Arroyo

  Created with Vellum

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  Books by Laylah Roberts

  Doms of Decadence

  Just for You, Sir

  Forever Yours, Sir

  For the Love of Sir

  Sinfully Yours, Sir

  Make me, Sir

  A Taste of Sir

  To Save Sir

  Sir’s Redemption

  Reveal Me, Sir

  Old-Fashioned Series

  An Old-Fashioned Man

  Two Old-Fashioned Men

  Her Old-Fashioned Husband

  Her Old-Fashioned Boss

  His Old-Fashioned Love

  An Old-Fashioned Christmas

  Haven, Texas Series

  Lila’s Loves

  Laken’s Surrender

  Saving Savannah

  Molly’s Man

  Saxon’s Soul

  Mastered by Malone

  Montana Daddies

  Daddy Bear

  Daddy’s Little Darling

  Daddy’s Naughty Darling (Available in the Dirty Daddies anthology)

  Daddy’s Sweet Girl (coming Sept, 2019)

  Men of Orion

  Worlds Apart

  Cavan Gang

  Rectify

  Redemption

  Redemption Valley

  Audra’s Awakening

  WildeSide

  Wilde

  Sinclair

  Luke

  The Hunters

  A Mate to Cherish

  A Mate to Sacrifice

  1

  Dead bodies were following her around.

  Mia fought the insane urge to laugh. It wasn’t funny, of course. Her next-door neighbor was dead. Very dead. Bullet in the head not gonna come back from this dead. Blood pooled under her body; her eyes stared lifelessly ahead. Mia stood frozen, staring down at Angel.

  Move, Mia. It’s not safe.

  Trembles rocked her body. Her breath came in sharp pants. This felt like it was happening to someone else. Her body might be reacting, but on the inside Mia felt numb. Almost detached.

  That was bad, right? She should feel something, shouldn’t she? Horror? Fear? Sadness?

  Run, Mia.

  Okay, so admittedly, Angel was a pretty crappy person. She played her music too loud late at night. She had people visiting her at all hours. Mia wasn’t certain if she was a prostitute or she just really, really liked sex. With lots of different men. But the things she’d heard through the thin walls of her apartment at night were enough to leave her blushing.

  She’d also suspected Angel had been coming into her apartment and stealing stuff. Not that she could ever prove it. There was never any sign of a break-in.

  Well, she’d been unable to prove it until now, since Angel was wearing Mia’s bright yellow raincoat. She also had a hole in her forehead that Mia was pretty sure was supposed to be hers as well.

  A bubble of laughter escaped. Aware of the note of hysteria, she forced her lips closed.

  Angel had stolen her bullet. She was lying in the alley that ran along the side of their apartment building, dressed in Mia’s favorite rain jacket, with Mia’s bullet in her brain.

  What wasn’t there to laugh about, really?

  Only everything. None of it was funny. It was terrifying and completely unfair. She’d always been a good girl. Worked hard. Paid her taxes. She’d never run a prostitution business out of her apartment.

  And someone was trying to kill her.

  She ran a shaky hand over her face. The numbness was fading. It wasn’t safe. She needed to move. What if he was still around?

  “If he was still here, you’d be dead,” she muttered to herself. Had he checked to see whether he’d murdered the right girl? Maybe he thought she was dead. It was wrong to find hope in this situation, right? It was wrong to hope that Angel’s death meant she was safe. At least for a while.

  She sucked in a shaky breath and spots danced in front of her face.

  Remember to breathe.

  Her location had been compromised. He’d found her.

  “I really loved that jacket.”

  Focusing on the wrong thing here, Mia. Get your ass gone.

  Soon someone else was going to come across Angel’s body. And if she was there, it wasn’t going to go well. They’d probably wonder why she was just standing there, not reacting, not calling the cops, not doing anything.

  Not her first rodeo. Not her first dead body.

  She forced herself to turn away. She wouldn’t go back to her apartment; she wasn’t that dumb. Instead, she turned and walked out onto the sidewalk, moving away from the building where she’d lived for the last three months, leaving everything behind except her handbag and the clothes she was wearing.

  “I need a favor.”

  Alec Malone didn’t bother looking away from the invoices strewn across his desk. How the fuck had Tanner and Raid destroyed a thousand dollars’ worth of stuff at some trashy bar?

  “What the hell were they doing in a place called Titties and Totems?” he muttered to himself.

  “I’m sure I have no idea,” his cousin drawled. “Doesn’t sound like a place I’d want to visit.”

  Alec looked over at his cousin, who was sprawled in the chair across his desk, dressed in a three-piece suit. He looked as impeccable as always. Not a hair out of place. There was a knowing smirk on his face.

  Alec snorted. “That’s because you’re a New Orleans Malone. The rest of us aren’t fussy about where we have a drink.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing to have standards.” Jardin stood and leaned over Alec’s desk, looking down at the invoice. “At least my brothers aren’t racking up thousand-dollar bills in a place that sounds like it would make Hooters look classy. What did they do? Trash the place?”

  Knowing Tanner and Raid, most likely.

  “And this is why I’m going gray.”

  Jardin snorted. “So don’t pay it.”

  “If I don’t pay it, things escalate. P
eople turn up here, demanding shit from me. I don’t like when people do that,” he said with a pointed look at his cousin.

  Jardin just rolled his eyes. “I’m not people. I’m family.”

  “You’re a New Orleans Malone, not sure I’d claim you as family.”

  “You’re letting me live in your guest house.”

  “Must have had a momentary lapse in sanity.” Malone glared at him. “You’re evicted.”

  Jardin sighed. “Quit playing around, Alec.”

  He wasn’t playing around. He’d meant every word. Too bad his cousin was shit at reading people. Not a great skill for a lawyer to be lacking.

  “You need to get them in line.”

  “I don’t have to do shit,” Alec snapped back. Not that he didn’t have the same thought several times a day. But he’d go to his grave defending his brothers. He could call them a bunch of dipshits, but no one else could. “Why the hell do I let you stay here?”

  “Because you need someone with an ounce of sanity to help you rein that crazy family of yours in.”

  “I don’t need help.” And like he’d ask his stuck-up snob of a cousin to corral his brothers. The New Orleans Malones didn’t get their hands dirty. They paid other people to do that.

  “Yeah? Because the way I see it, someone is either going to end up dead or in jail.”

  He wasn’t saying anything that hadn’t occurred to Alec. Didn’t mean he liked hearing a lecture on his family.

  “You can’t keep protecting them all their lives, Alec.”

  “I’m not protecting them.”

  “Look, I know what a bastard your father was—”

  “Is this all you wanted?” Alec interrupted him. “To lecture me about my brothers?”

  “One day, one of them is going to do something that you can’t throw money at and fix.”

  “Why are you here?” Alec asked, his patience nearly gone. And it took a lot to make him lose his temper.

  His brothers had always been a bit crazy. Wild. But who could blame them after the fucking hell life they’d all had growing up? Wasn’t like his hands were clean. He’d done what he had to in order to survive. They were all alive and in one piece. Sort of. Beau was missing a finger and West had lost so much muscle in his right thigh after an infected knife wound that he walked with a limp.

  But he’d done his best to instill some values. They might fuck with each other but no one outside the family messed with one of them and lived to tell the tale. Sure, they didn’t always stick to the law, but he’d been the same when he was younger. That he tried to follow the rules now had more to do with not wanting to attract attention than any real respect for the law.

  Something his cousin wouldn’t get. The New Orleans Malones always did have a highly developed sense of self-importance. Thought they were better than their cousins because they were college-educated and lived in fancy fucking houses.

  Go back far enough and all their money came from the same dirty place. Jardin and his brothers just had short memories. Of course, they hadn’t been raised in a household with a monster. Or been made to do shit that would leave them screaming into their pillows at night.

  Could he blame his brothers for blowing off steam? They were Malones. They had an abundance of energy, charm and a reckless disregard for authority. But he also knew Jardin was right. He couldn’t protect them forever. And one day, he worried they’d go too far.

  “I told you, I need a favor.”

  “I thought I already did you a favor by letting you live here.”

  Jardin raised his eyebrows. “You consider that a favor? I take my own life in my hands every time I come up that driveway.”

  “Drama Queen,” he muttered.

  “Raid shot out my front tire!”

  Alec shrugged. “He thought you were that dickwad who keeps trying to buy the ranch.”

  “Osborne is fifty, balding, and drives a red Porsche. Are you seriously trying to tell me he mistook my black Audi for a red Porsche?” Jardin half-yelled.

  “He’s color-blind.”

  “God, give me strength,” Jardin muttered.

  “Stop moaning, it was relatively harmless.”

  “Relatively harmless? He shot out my tire. I could have had an accident. He could have hit me.”

  “Nah, those fancy cars practically drive themselves. It would have compensated for your crappy driving. And Raid’s too good a shot to miss. If he wanted you dead, you’d be dead.” Alec found himself having to hide a smile. Who knew Jardin would be so fun to mess with? Only good thing about having him come to live with them. There had to be an upside to having to listen to all his advice.

  “Alec, he cannot go around shooting people.”

  “Ah, Jardin, you’re not people, you’re family, remember?”

  Jardin’s eyes narrowed. “And that’s supposed to mean he gets away with shooting at me?”

  “Again, he wasn’t shooting at you. He shot the tire. You should be happy you’re family, means he won’t kill you.”

  “Does it?” Jardin asked. He sighed. “So, Osborne is still trying to buy the ranch?”

  “Yep. He’s got a real hard-on for this place.”

  “Gotta wonder why.” Jardin looked around with a slight sneer.

  “Not all of us need to live in McMansions with marble staircases and chandeliers.”

  “Oh, fuck you,” Jardin said without heat.

  “He thinks there’s oil on our land.”

  “And is there?” Jardin asked.

  Alec shrugged. “Who knows?”

  “How do you know he thinks there’s oil?” Jardin asked suspiciously.

  Alec grinned. “You don’t want to know.”

  Jardin ran his hand tiredly over his face. “Right. Look, will you help or not?”

  “Help who? You in trouble?” Much as he liked to dig at his cousin, he was still family. No one messed with a Malone. Not even the stuck-up, prissy ones.

  “Not me. I’ve got a friend who’s a detective with the NYPD. His cousin is in trouble. She was a witness to a murder. Mob hit. Now she’s got a hit man chasing her. Somehow this guy figured out where Mike had her stashed and killed her next-door neighbor, likely mistaking the neighbor for her since she was wearing his cousin’s jacket.”

  “So? What has this got to do with me? Why should I care?”

  “Nothing. Don’t worry about it.” Jardin stood. He’d looked pissed off before, but now he had completely closed down. Which meant he didn’t want to show Alec how he really felt about this situation. But Alec couldn’t see how this had anything to do with him . . . unless . . .

  “Fuck, you want me to hide her?” Why the hell would he do that? Didn’t he have enough going on? Did he really need to add in some woman with a target on her back? What the fuck was Jardin thinking?

  A woman living here? With his brothers? He’d never be able to keep them off her.

  That shit sounded too much like his old life. And he’d left that behind to become a rancher. He wasn’t ever going back.

  “This place is isolated, it’s secure, there’s a world-class security system, and you’ve got to admit you, more than most people, are equipped to handle something like this.”

  “Protecting a woman who has witnessed a mob hit? No way.”

  “Yeah,” Jardin grumbled. “I’ll help Mike figure out something else.”

  There was something he was missing here. “You know this girl? You want something from her?”

  “No, I don’t know her. Jesus, Alec, I can want to help her without having an ulterior motive.”

  Not in his world. Well, that wasn’t true. That wasn’t the world he’d grown up in. The world he now lived in was very different. When he ventured into Haven, the town closest to the ranch, he was surrounded by people who looked after one another, without any expectation of anything in return. It still baffled him. He found it hard to trust their motivation. This idea that the women of Haven would be protected and watched over at all costs. Tha
t people would turn up to help a neighbor in need without any expectation of payment in return.

  His default setting was always to see the bad in people. When you’d lived the way he had, it was hard to see the good.

  “Then what?”

  “I like Mike, he’s a good guy.”

  “So, you’re asking me if I can house some girl with a huge target on her back just because her cousin is your friend?”

  Jardin sighed. “He’s found her once. She needs help or she’s dead.”

  “That’s a big fucking favor, putting my family in danger to protect a girl we don’t know.” He wasn’t buying it. There had to be more to it. Jardin liked to act like shit didn’t touch him, but he wasn’t that much of a good Samaritan.

  Family always came first. Before anyone or anything else.

  Family . . . his blood ran cold. “How do you know this detective?”

  Jardin’s eyes narrowed. It was the only sign of emotion. But it was enough. “He’s the detective who found Lottie.”

  Fucking hell. No wonder Jardin felt like he owed this guy something. Lottie was his only sister. Hell, she was the only Malone female to be born in three generations. She was special. And any one of them would die to protect her. About two years ago, she’d been kidnapped while on holiday. She’d been found, beaten and terrified but alive two days later. They all owed this detective.

  Jardin looked him in the eye. “Forget I asked. It wasn’t fair of me. I’ll find some other way to protect her.”

  “I’ll do it,” Alec said. He could keep this girl safe. He had no ties to her. As long as whoever brought her here didn’t have a tail on them, there was no reason anyone would come looking for her here.

  “Yeah?” Again, there was just a sliver of emotion from the other man. Relief, this time. Tarred with a hint of worry. “You sure?”