Guns and Roses

Locked in her badge

I knew she was back in town the moment her boots touched Wilhelm soil again.

Genevieve Taylor. Geni.

Yeah, I knew.

I knew when she enrolled in the police academy. Saw the photo she posted in her uniform looking like the righteous daughter of justice and fire. I knew when she graduated top of her class and when she got promoted, twice. I even showed up to her graduation. Didn’t get out the car, didn’t need to. Just watched from the shadows like I’d been doing for years. I knew every move she made, every breath she took, every man she tried to replace me with. I watched her grow from a soft-hearted girl who cried on bathroom floors into a steel-cored woman built of precision, purpose, and pain.

I watched her become everything I couldn’t be.

And I never made a move.

Not once. Not even when I had the means. The power. The damn world at my feet.

Three years locked behind bars changed a lot. Came out with silence in my chest and fire in my eyes. Took over the trade from my old boss, became the name they all whispered when deals went down in alleyways and penthouses. I built my empire brick by bloody brick—7 houses scattered across the country like markers on a chessboard. A fleet of cars-Benzes, Ferraris, G-Wagons. Anything my money could buy. And trust me, I could buy everything now.

Ten thousand dollars every thirty minutes.

That’s what I pull in. I was the king of this streets

While she was chasing justice, I was collecting sins like currency. While she was learning to hold a badge, I was learning how to run cities. And still..still. She was the only thing I ever wanted but couldn’t touch.

I had women. Plenty. Models, dancers, diplomats’ daughters. But none of them wore white eyeliner like war paint. None of them smiled like thunder cracked in her teeth. None of them made my soul ache the way Geni did when she laughed or cried or even looked my way.

She was a storm I couldn’t weather.

So I watched. From a distance. With the same hunger I’d buried for years. Because loving her out loud would ruin her—and if there’s one thing I’d never forgive myself for, it’s dragging her back into my darkness.

She made a life without me.

And I respected that.

But now?

Now the universe was stupid enough to put her in my line of fire again.

And this time?

I wasn’t sure I could stay quiet.

Saint-Laurent Leo

They say the streets talk—but sometimes, they scream.

I was sitting in my penthouse in Atlanta, the one with the black marble floors and gold trim that looked like it belonged to a damn villain, when Malik burst in, sweat clinging to his forehead like guilt.

“They got him,” he said, voice shaky. “Jayce. He got caught in Willhound.”

I leaned back in the leather chair, let the words sink in. Wilhelm.

“Who picked him up?” I asked slowly.

Malik hesitated, then swallowed. “Detective Genevieve Taylor.”

Silence.

You ever hear your soul crack?

Because mine did.

My gripped the sides of my table. The name alone. Her name,knocked the breath outta my lungs. Not because I was scared. Nah. But because the universe had a real sick sense of humor. After all these years of watching her from a distance, trying not to taint what little peace she carved for herself, fate decided to throw her right in my path. Again.

Only this time, she wasn’t the girl on the beach.

She was the law.

And she had my boy.

Jayce wasn’t just one of my runners. He was a figure. A message. Sent by my rival—Rico Lanes—as a symbol of peace between our sides. A handshake dressed in a hoodie and Timberlands. If Jayce rotted in a cell, Rico would see it as a betrayal. A trap. And Willhound would bleed under the weight of war. Rico wasn’t the type to forgive, and I wasn’t the type to back down.

But if I made a move on Genevieve now. If I even showed my face. It would unravel everything.

I stood up, paced the floor slowly.

This wasn’t just about business.

This was her.

Detective Taylor.

Still fierce, still bold. Still the only person who could make me hesitate in a room full of enemies. And now she was standing between me and everything I’d built.

If I didn’t intervene, Jayce would talk. Or worse, he’d rot, and Rico would send bodies in place of words. But if I confronted Geni… I’d be crossing a line I swore I never would.

She wasn’t supposed to see me like this.

Not now.

Not ever.

But now?

Now I had to decide.

Risk the peace… or face the girl who still had my heart locked in her badge.