Make Me Your VIllain Read online

  Table of Contents

  Make Me Your Villain

  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

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  What's Next?

  Make Me Your Villain

  By Lani Lynn Vale

  Text copyright ©2022 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.

  Once upon a time, I was a poor chick with three kids and a husband who’d just lost his job. This goes out to the old me. The one who wanted better for her kids and found a way to do that.

  Acknowledgments

  Golden Czermak - Photographer

  My Brother’s Editor & Ink It Out Editing- My editors

  Alyssa Garcia - Cover Artist & PA

  My mom - Thank you for reading this book eight million two hundred and seventy-two 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

  Shakedown

  Madd CrossFit Series

  No Rep

  Jerk It

  Chalk Dirty To Me

  Battle Crows MC

  Always Someone’s Monster

  Make Me Your Villain

  For a complete updated list visit lanilynnvale.com/books.

  Blurb

  Flaws—he has them.

  Laws? He breaks them.

  Dues? He’s paid them.

  Scars? He bares them proudly.

  Lessons? He’s learned them.

  Problems? He has one.

  Her name is Iris, and she’s the one thing in his life that he can’t control.

  PROLOGUE

  You know it’s time to do laundry when the only thing you have to wear is your prom dress.

  -Iris’s secret thoughts

  IRIS

  Ten years ago

  “Your daughter has what is called schizophrenia,” the doctor said, shocking the entire room with his words. “When we talked with her after the incident, she told us a few details that are related to the disorder. After observing her and her interactions over the last two weeks during her psych hold, I feel safe in saying that she has what you would call a ‘classic’ case of schizophrenia.”

  The doctor looked at us with a clinical disregard for feelings.

  He was matter of fact.

  He was blunt.

  He was changing my entire life.

  “What does that mean?” my mom asked.

  “It means that she hears voices, darling,” my father supplied oh so helpfully.

  “Basically, it’s a long-term mental disorder that leads to a breakdown in the relationship between thought, emotion and behavior. It leads to a faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships—in this case, that’s congruent with her attempt at hurting her sister—into fantasy and delusion.” He paused to take a deep breath. “When she attempted to hurt Iris, she genuinely believed that her sister had come into her room and tried to murder her first.”

  That was… wow.

  I’d never…

  “And what does that mean in the long term?” my mother pushed.

  I didn’t want to know.

  Because this all seemed like a dream. My sister had tried to kill me.

  “Long term? It means that she’ll be on medication for the rest of her life. If she comes off of it, she could potentially harm someone next time. Her medication will have to be regulated. There’s no way that she’ll be able to just ‘skip’ a day. It’s every single day. For the rest of her life.” He paused. “I also recommend psychotherapy. And, if she doesn’t respond well to the medication, then I also recommend that she be introduced to a long-term care facility that can help with her them and making sure that she continues to do this correctly.”

  I looked away.

  But it was my mother who said, “We will bring her home. We’ll make sure to always keep an eye on her.”

  Lies.

  They were all lies.

  CHAPTER 1

  Do you think Medusa has snakes as pubic hairs?

  -Iris’s secret thoughts

  IRIS

  “You are not walking out that door,” Teller growled. “I will not allow you to come back when you realize the fuckup you just made.”

  My ex-boyfriend, Teller Kincaid, police chief of Gun Barrel, Texas, looked at me like I was a lunatic.

  He thought I was coming back here to get back with him.

  In actuality, I was coming back to his house to pick up my laptop that cost a whack, and I needed it so that I didn’t have to watch Netflix on my phone during my layover tomorrow. br />
  “Teller,” I sighed. “You cheated on me with another woman. I’m not sure what you expect of me here.”

  It was true.

  The flight I’d been working two months ago from Dallas to Detroit had been canceled due to weather. And, since that had been my last flight of four, that would leave me being off for a week, I’d come home since there was no reason to stay in Dallas.

  Meaning, I’d arrived home a day early, only to find my boyfriend at the time, Teller, kissing another woman in his bed.

  Granted, he hadn’t been fucking her, but in my book, he might as well have been.

  There was something wrong with me.

  Every single guy I let into my life left it. But only after cheating on me before he did.

  “I wasn’t going to fuck her!” Teller growled. “I was only talking.”

  “With your mouth?” I asked curiously. “And why was she in the bed that we share? Teller, honest to God, you’re a great guy. I don’t understand why you would’ve done that.”

  I hadn’t stayed long after discovering the two of them together.

  In all honesty, I hadn’t given him time to explain, either.

  I’d seen the blonde hair. I’d seen Teller’s hands wrapped around a small waist, and I’d taken that as my sign—the one that I’d been asking for for a while—to leave. There was nothing left for us and hadn’t been for a long time.

  “It was a mistake,” he argued. “She was here because she didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

  “Well, now she can share that bed with you, hoss. I’m not gonna use it anymore,” I told him bluntly. “If you happen to find anything else of mine that I didn’t clear out, let me know. I’ll come by and get it. I’m staying with Davina until I can get a new apartment.”

  He sighed. “You could just move back into the one below.”

  I felt my eye twitch.

  I’d rather choke myself with a toothbrush than move into the separate apartment on his property, but that would just be stupid. There was barely any housing in Intercourse, Texas.

  In fact, I’d been searching for a month and had come up with nothing.

  He saw my hesitation and grinned. “You can have the mother-in-law suite for the same price that you were paying before you moved in here.”

  I would rather pay the extra hundred and fifty bucks.

  But, since he was the one who screwed me over, I had good reason to take it for that price.

  “Fine,” I replied stiffly. “I’ll take it.”

  “Good.” He paused. “It really was nothing, honey.”

  I didn’t care.

  Not anymore.

  I ran my fingers over the back of my neck.

  “Teller,” I muttered softly. “You and I were already drifting apart as it was. There was a reason you kissed her, and even if you weren’t going to do anything with her, you did that. And people that love someone else don’t just kiss other people.”

  Teller didn’t have anything to say, because he knew I was right.

  I would’ve been more upset about my boyfriend kissing another woman, and not about how I no longer had anywhere to live, if I’d loved him like I should have.

  Which he damn well knew.

  “The keys are still the same,” he said instead of addressing what I’d just said. “You can have whatever furniture the last tenants left behind.”

  Probably shit furniture. Because people didn’t leave behind good shit.

  Which meant I’d have to get rid of it.

  Which also meant that I’d have to ask him to help me.

  I didn’t say ‘thank you’ because we both knew that I wasn’t getting anything out of that.

  Instead, I turned my back on him and walked out the door. “Bye, Teller.”

  “Bye.”

  The first person I called when I walked out the door was my adoptive brother’s wife, Davina.

  Davina was a gorgeous brunette, with flowing brown hair that came down to her ass, brown eyes that looked like caramel and hot chocolate, and skin that was bronze all year long. She also had the most beautiful, curvy body that a woman could ever want.

  Then there was me.

  I was ice blonde with long hair down to about mid-back, it was curly as fuck, and half the time decided to be curly, while the other time it decided it liked being one with the frizz.

  I had a muscular body and no ass, with barely any tits to speak of.

  But, like I liked to tell everyone that commented on my lack of ass, the reason it was so small was because my thighs were just that big.

  They were thick with muscle, and every single woman that worked out near me always commented on them.

  What they did not comment on was my ass.

  Because I didn’t have one.

  No matter how hard I tried to build it up.

  “Tell me you got your computer,” Davina pleaded.

  I laughed. “I got my computer. He also let me have my old apartment back.”

  “Ugh,” Davina scoffed. “I would rather you live here.”

  “You might,” I agreed. “But Anderson wouldn’t.”

  Anderson and Teller Kincaid had been good friends. They’d both been in the law enforcement community and had known each other before Davina and I came along.

  We’d gone out on a double date, and things had just meshed from there.

  And, until about six months ago, things had been going great.

  Then Teller started to change, and I started to not like that change, and we’d grown apart.

  Now, Anderson was in a precarious position with allowing me to stay with them, even though his best friend had been dumped.

  “You’re right,” she agreed. “But he also understands that if he wants some happy, he’ll allow you to stay on my couch as long as I want.”

  I snorted. “I’m coming home to get my stuff and then running past Walmart to get an air mattress. Then I’ll be heading back to the apartment.” I paused. “I might ask if Anderson will help get some of the old tenant’s shit out, though. If he doesn’t help, I’ll have to ask Teller.”

  “He’ll help,” she assured me.

  I sighed. “Thank you.”

  “Do you want to go to Bubba’s tonight for a drink?” she asked. “Just us?”

  I thought about that. “Sure.”

  • • •

  SHINE

  “You have got to be shitting me.”

  I felt the headache that I’d been able to keep at bay by sheer force of will start to throb at the woman’s voice.

  “I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” I admitted. “But Lindy, I’m tired. I don’t want to do this right now.”

  “Well, then you should’ve found another way to your room,” she snapped.

  Maybe I fucking should have.

  Living in a house that you shared with your ex-girlfriend was strange.

  But, since the housing situation was the way it was in our small town, I’d had no other recourse but to stay. Or be homeless.

  I could stay with my sister, of course, in one of her cabins, but those bitches raked in a thousand dollars a month, and there was no way that I was taking that income out of her hands.

  I was literally looking everywhere for a new place, but for the last four and a half months, I’d come up short.

  Literally, there was nothing out there, and it was getting to the point where I was considering building a damn house if it took me far away from Lindy and her annoying voice.

  “There is only one way to my room,” I pointed out. “And that’s through the main living area. You may be able to use it as yours, but you still have to give me access to it.”

  We shared the kitchen, but the main living room was hers, while the game room in the basement was mine. We each had our own bathroom and our own bedroom.

  The only problem was, I had to walk through ‘her’ living room to get to my bedroom.

  And, unless I wanted to climb in my window—which was sounding better and better every day that passed and I had to deal with her screechy self—I had to figure this out.

  “What is it this time?” I sighed.

  “You left your peanut butter knife in the sink again,” she growled.

  I felt my eye twitch. “And?”

  “And you need to wash it, or it’ll dry onto the silverware,” she snapped.

  It felt like we were still together at this point.