Mastered (The Enforcers, Band 1) - Softcover

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Maya Banks is the #1 USA Today and #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Surrender trilogy, the Breathless trilogy, the Sweet series, and the Colters’ Legacy novels.

She lives in the South with her husband and three children and other assorted babies, such as her two Bengal kitties and a calico who’s been with her as long as her youngest child. She’s an avid reader of romance and loves to dish books with her fans and anyone else who’ll listen!

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Chapter 1

Evangeline stared in the mirror, barely recognizing the wide-eyed woman staring back at her. She didn’t react as her friends Lana, Nikki and Steph hovered around her, putting the finishing touches on her makeup and hair, ensuring everything was perfect.

“I can’t do this,” Evangeline muttered. “This is insane and I can’t believe I let you guys talk me into this.”

Nikki fixed her with a hard stare in the mirror. “You’re going. No backing out now, girlfriend. I’d pay money to see the look on that jackass’s face when he sees exactly what he’s missing out on.”

The jackass in question being Evangeline’s ex-boyfriend, Eddie.

“I’d say he didn’t miss anything at all,” Evangeline said quietly, embarrassment washing over her all over again.

Lana’s eyes were fierce and Steph’s scowl was intimidating. Any other time, Evangeline would be heartened by their display of loyalty and friendship. But she regretted confiding in them the humiliating details of her breakup with Eddie. She should have just told them they’d decided to go separate ways. Except that Evangeline had already told her friends that she was a virgin and that her last date with Eddie was the night. She was going to give him her virginity, confident that he was the one.

What a hopeless, flaming idiot that made her. His words still rang in her ears. Every single one had been like a knife to the heart, only he hadn’t been content to simply plunge the blade. He’d twisted it, drawing out her pain as much as possible.

“Eddie is an asshole,” Steph hissed. “Hon, we all knew it. Don’t you remember us trying to talk you out of giving it up for him that night—or any night for that matter? You have nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing. He’s a dick.”

“Amen,” Nikki said fervently. “Which is why you’re going to march into Impulse like you fucking own the place. You look hot. And I don’t say that as your best friend trying to make you feel better about yourself. I say that as another female who is aware that a much hotter female is in her territory and I’d like to scratch her eyes out because I know I don’t have a chance in hell of looking as good as she does.”

Evangeline’s head reared in surprise and her startled gaze found Nikki’s in the mirror.

Lana shook her head and sighed. “You don’t get it, Vangie. And hell, I think that’s half the turn-on for guys. You have no clue how beautiful you are. You’re all big eyes, gorgeous hair, a figure to die for and you’re good and sweet to your soul. If you had any hint of interest, you’d have men tripping over themselves to get next to you. They’d treat you like the queen you deserve to be treated as, but you honestly have no idea and that just makes them want you even more.”

Evangeline shook her head, utterly baffled. “You guys are crazy. I’m a twenty-three-year-old recently ex-virgin who’s as gauche as they come. I’m barely off the farm and have a southern drawl that makes New Yorkers roll their eyes and want to pat me on the head and say, ‘Well, bless your heart.’ I’m a fish out of water here and you all know it. I should have never come here. If it weren’t for Mama and Papa, I’d go home and find work there.”

Lana threw up her hands. “One day someone is going to make you see you the way everyone else sees you. Eddie is a smug bastard and saw you as a conquest. He knows he’s not good enough to lick your shoes and he sucks in bed, but he’d never admit that so he tears you down instead.”

Evangeline lifted her head. “Please. Can we not talk about Eddie tonight? It’s bad enough I might see him even though he may have changed his mind about going tonight. He could have lied about wanting to take me like he’s lied about everything else. I’m not prepared for this. I’m scared to death and I have no wish to be humiliated all over again.”

“Sweetie, the point of tonight is to see him. Or rather for him to see you so he can kick himself in the balls for what he could have had,” Nikki reminded her.

Steph shoved a VIP pass into Evangeline’s hand, making sure she took it and didn’t lay it aside.

“I could only score one or one of us would go with you. But the line is long and people wait all night and never get in. With this pass, you walk straight to the front, show the bouncer manning the door the pass and voilà. You’re in. And then, girlfriend? You work it. You walk in there, head high, like you don’t need a man, and you give every man, including Eddie, a taste of what they could have but can’t touch. You have a few drinks. And if Eddie looks your way, you do not cower. You do not lower your head. You stare him directly in the eye and you smile. And then you don’t pay him another second of attention, like he doesn’t exist. Dance if you want to. Flirt. Get your mojo back. Your confidence. And when you’re ready to go home, you call the number on the card I gave you. Wait fifteen minutes and then go outside. Your ride will be there and then you get your ass back here to us and give us the 411 on the entire evening.”

Lana touched her shoulder. “And listen. If anything, and I mean anything goes wrong, you call or text us. We can be there in no time flat and we’re not doing anything tonight. We’ll be here for you when you get home, but if you need us before then, you let us know. I don’t care how long that damn line is. I’ll kick the bouncer’s ass if he tries to keep us from rescuing one of my girls.”

A smile hovered on Evangeline’s lips and her eyes gleamed with amusement, not because she didn’t believe Lana. She absolutely did. Her friends were fiercely protective of her, of each other, and Evangeline had no doubt that Lana would take on a two-hundred-plus-pound bouncer—and win—if she knew Evangeline needed her.

She reached for Lana’s hand and squeezed. Hard. Then she glanced up to include Steph and Nikki in her grateful gaze.

“You guys are the best. Y’all have done so much for me. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”

Nikki rolled her eyes and Steph just snorted.

“Like you haven’t been there for us every bit as much? You haven’t nursed us through our share of broken hearts, held our hair while we puked after getting shit-faced over some asshole guy who isn’t good enough for us? Then told us that the douche bag who broke our heart wasn’t fit to touch the hem of our shirts much less anything else? Sound familiar?”

Steph’s reproach made Evangeline grimace. Because she was right. Everything they were doing now for her, she’d done for them. But she wasn’t used to being the recipient. She didn’t date much. Hadn’t dated at all in the first two years after she’d moved to the city from the small town in the south she’d been born and raised in. She’d been too focused on working, taking extra shifts, saving as much money as possible to send back to her mama.

It wasn’t until Eddie had walked into the bar where Evangeline waitressed and then kept coming back night after night until he had worn her down that she’d agreed to go out with him. He’d come on hard and fast, but Evangeline had rebuffed him. Looking back, she could see that she’d been nothing more than a challenge to him. Like waving a red flag in front of a bull’s nose. By holding...