Fallen Ink

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  “George running late again?” Adrienne asked as she leaned back from her work and cleaned it off.

  Mace nodded and then went into Adrienne’s workspace to see the finished product. “Dude. That’s fantastic.”

  She held up her hand, shaking her head. “Don’t say another word until Tracy here gets to see it.” She smiled as she said it, and Mace rolled his eyes. She had a thing about not saying anything about a tattoo until the client saw it, and while Mace agreed, he also wanted the world to know how talented his wo—best friend was.

  Hell, he’d almost called her his woman.

  She wasn’t his, not like that. And because they’d set their flimsy boundaries, she never would be. They were best friends who now had sex—though only with each other. And, apparently, they were keeping it secret, which he agreed with because he didn’t want to have to deal with all the knowing glances and endless questions that were bound to pop up when it came to the two of them. Everyone always wondered if they’d gone to bed together, and now that they had, he felt like everyone could tell.

  And….now he’d ended up back in high school. He needed to get over himself.

  Tracy, a middle-aged woman with bright eyes and long, auburn hair, bounced off the bench and practically skipped to the long mirror at the end of the pathway between the booths. Mace met Adrienne’s gaze, holding back a smile. Tracy was far too energetic after having a needle stabbed into her arm over and over…but to each his or her own.

  Adrienne handed Tracy a mirror so she could look at her ink, and the woman squealed as if she were a fifteen-year-old girl rather than a woman in her forties. The work on her shoulder was exquisite. Addi had added shadow and depth to the vibrant blues and purple hues to make it look as if the fairy were floating right off Tracy’s shoulder and whispering a joke to anyone who passed by. For a walk-in without a lot of direction, Addi had knocked the art out of the park. Each of them at the shop had specialties, and she was coming into her own with this type of artwork for sure.

  “I love it. It’s the perfect fairy. Is it a good fairy? A bad one? Depends on the day. My husband is going to pass out when he sees it. I can’t wait to surprise him.” She shook her hips and did a little dance, and Mace couldn’t help but laugh along with her. The woman’s enthusiasm was infectious.

  By the time Tracy had left, her laugh still echoing off the walls, Shep was still focused on the full back piece, just getting back from a water break, Adrienne was cleaning up her station, and Mace was finally getting down to work with George. They were working on a full-color piece on the man’s thigh today, and Mace wanted to get started so he could get in the zone.

  George was all set up in the chair, and Mace rolled his shoulders, ready to get started on the back-aching part. He’d be working on the outline today and would do the colors and final shading during their next appointment. It would be too much on both of their bodies to do the full art in one go. George’s skin tended to swell, too, so Mace didn’t want to screw up the end game by going too fast and too hard.

  Adrienne came up to him while he was about thirty minutes in and took the extra stool in the booth. Though the heat of her next to him made him harden slightly, he was professional enough to keep his eyes and attention on his work and not the woman next to him.

  “Looking good, George.”

  The other man gave her a wink from his perch on the chair. “You know it. I only want the best.”

  Adrienne raised a brow, and Mace did his best to hold back his smile. George was a great guy but, sometimes, he didn’t think before he spoke. Between that and his inability to be on time, Mace sometimes wondered why he liked working on the man as much as he did.

  George seemed to understand that he’d stepped in it and quickly backtracked. Mace had to sit up, lifting the needle since the other man’s thigh had tensed as he put his hands up in the air in surrender.

  “I meant…shit. I didn’t mean you weren’t the best. Just that Mace is one of the best. You’re the other best.”

  Shep cleared his throat behind them, and Mace couldn’t help but join in with Adrienne’s laughter. “I’m standing right here, you know,” his boss and friend said with mock sternness. “I mean, come on.”

  “You’re fine, George.” She patted his arm, her smile wide. “Just know that while Mace is the best. I’m the bestest of the best.”

  Mace kicked her foot. “Whatever you say, babe. The answer’s in the ink.”

  She snorted and leaned into his shoulder, and he swallowed hard, doing his best to back away slowly and not let Shep see his true reaction. Mace and Adrienne had always touched and leaned into one another, but things were different now. He’d known that things would change once they slept together, and though they’d each said that nothing would happen outside of what they did in the bedroom, it had been a lie. A necessary lie, but a lie nonetheless. And with Shep so close to them and observant beyond measure, the two of them were walking a dangerous line that he wasn’t sure either of them knew how to fully straddle without ramifications.

  Before he could get too lost in his head, the door opened again, and everyone looked toward the front area as a man in a suit holding a clipboard walked in, a frown on his face as he looked around.

  “Is,”—the man looked down at the thick clipboard in his hand—“there an Adrienne or Shephard Montgomery here?”

  Mace straightened as Adrienne stood, wiping her gloved hands on her pants. “That would be me,” she said, her voice friendly but firm.

  “And me,” Shep said, his voice a tad deeper than usual.

  Ever since that unknown man had come into MIT and threatened them, and then with the addition of the graffiti attack on their building, everyone had been on edge. Whoever this guy was, didn’t give Mace a good feeling. And from the way Adrienne and Shep stood tense and yet professional, he wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Even George and Shep’s client seemed on alert since both of them were regulars and friends of the crew.

  “Andrew Berry here,” the man said, pulling out his wallet. “Department of Sanitation. We’ve had a couple of calls and complaints. I’ll need to do an inspection, according to our code…”

  The man rambled on about code numbers and what needed to be done, and Mace held back a curse. All three incidents so far might not seem connected since they were all out of the blue and different, but Mace didn’t trust what was going on. MIT hadn’t been open for long, and now they were dealing with this crap?

  He quickly cleaned up George, knowing they wouldn’t be able to finish today. The other man and Shep’s client were understanding, but he knew if something didn’t change, the shop would be dealing with even more issues soon. If word got out that they were having cleanliness issues as a tattoo shop? They’d be screwed.

  “Go home,” Adrienne said an hour later when Mr. Berry was done. “No use in you staying when we’re so quiet for the night. Ryan’s on his way in, and we’re still open so he’ll be able to finish an appointment.” There was such defeat in her voice that Mace knew she probably needed time to herself so she could get through whatever was going on in her head before she faced the next step—whatever that was.

  “I can stay. There’s plenty of things to do. Though, thankfully, the list the asshole gave you wasn’t that long.” He didn’t have anything on his schedule now at the shop since he should have been working on George. With that off the table thanks to the unplanned and unnecessary visit, he would only be working on walk-ins with Ryan and Adrienne.

  She looked down at the paper in her hand and scowled. “There’re two things on here and they aren’t even marks, just suggestions for better practice. The man looked annoyed that he even had to come here at all and said he’d look into who thought it would be a good idea to waste his time, but it still pisses me off.”

  Shep leaned against the wall near them and frowned. “Someone is out to get us. That’s what it feels like. And, yeah, it makes me sound like I’m talking about the mob or some shit like that b
ut it took us four extra months to even get this place built, and now that we’re here, we’ve had issue after issue, and all things that are meant to keep people away. I don’t like this. Not one bit.”

  Mace didn’t either, and it made him even more reluctant to leave. But with Adrienne so closed-off, and since the only way he knew to make her feel better was to kiss that frown off her face, he figured he should leave her with her brother and Ryan so she could think through her feelings.

  “We’ll figure it out,” Adrienne said, still scowling. “We’re Montgomerys. We don’t take shit from other people.”

  “Hell yeah,” Shep said before squeezing her shoulder and going up to the front where his next client was coming in. Thankfully, they hadn’t had to cancel everything.

  “I’ll head home and hang with Daisy,” Mace said. “Pick her up from the parents early.” He nudged Adrienne with his shoulder. “I made stew in the Crock-Pot before I left, so come over when you’re done since you’re not closing. I’ll even let you have the ends of the French bread I bought.”

  She laughed softly, and he relaxed. If she could laugh, even a little, then she’d be okay. He just hoped they could figure out exactly what was going on—at the shop and between them.

  “Stew sounds good,” she said.

  Mace had known things would get complicated once they started this new path of their lives, but as things kept coming at them, he had a feeling he’d only scratched the surface of how things would be changing.

  He nodded and then said his goodbyes before heading to his parents’ so he could pick up Daisy. He was afraid he’d never be able to fully comprehend or appreciate how his life had changed. He now had her in his life every day rather than just on the phone when he wanted to talk to her.

  “I like stew,” Daisy said, peering over the counter as she stood on the tiny black and purple pop-up stool he’d bought at the hardware store. “It’s warm and yummy in my tummy.”

  Mace couldn’t help the laugh and shook his head. “Really? I like the potatoes the best. What about you?”

  Daisy tapped her lips with her tiny finger as she thought hard about her answer. He loved that she made sure every answer she had was the right one—or at least the right words for the answer she had.

  “I like the spicy things that aren’t spicy.” She tilted her head and studied the Crock-Pot. “What are those again?”

  “That’s the garlic. I like that, too.” He held back his full laugh at her answer since it was so unexpected and yet so Daisy. “Maybe next time I’ll make a horseradish sauce to add to the top.”

  Her little nose scrunched up. “A horse and a radish? Why would you make sauce with a horse? I don’t want horsey sauce.”

  Mace took his time explaining exactly what horseradish actually was before picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder, her giggles making him settle down after a weirdly long day. Adrienne would be over soon, and they’d have dinner and try to enjoy the rest of their night without worrying about the other crap in their lives—or at least trying not to. He’d heard from Jeaniene every day since she left, surprising him, though it shouldn’t have. She wanted to be a part of Daisy’s life, but not the part that they’d planned on. He wasn’t sure if he could ever forgive his ex for that, not that he’d ever forgiven her for taking Daisy away in the first place.

  As his daughter skipped around the room, singing a song she’d made up the day before, he did his best not to worry like he’d told himself he wouldn’t. Only, as soon as the doorbell rang and Adrienne walked through the door, he knew he’d lied to himself.

  He’d worry about every damn thing he was doing wrong, but right then, he’d have dinner with his two best girls and just be.

  As much as he could.

  Chapter 7

  With the week Adrienne had been having, if it weren’t for getting off thanks to Mace and the upcoming Brushes With Lushes night, she was pretty sure she’d have screamed into her pillow.

  And, yes, she’d put getting off with her best friend on top of her list.

  She was a Montgomery with a weakness—Mace Knight in all his big-dicked glory.

  Adrienne rested her head on her steering wheel and let out a silent scream. She had no idea what she was doing, and all she could do was make immature jokes about the size of Mace’s cock to herself while counting down the hours until she could either get it in her mouth again or ride him until they were both spent.

  This wasn’t supposed to happen. She wasn’t supposed to crave him like this. It was only supposed to be for one night or not at all. And now, every time she was near him, she had to do her best not to touch him, or worse, keep from staying away from him. If she did either too much, she’d break, or others would notice that something was different between the two of them.

  “I have no idea what I’m doing,” she said to herself, her voice oddly loud in the quiet car. “No freaking clue.” But if she sat here in the parking lot talking to herself for much longer, she’d have to add going insane to her already long list of confusing things she’d done in the past month.

  So instead of wallowing over who was out to get her shop, the sketch she couldn’t get quite right for a cancer survivor who wanted to commemorate the occasion with a delicate yet fierce tattoo, and lamenting over what she was doing with Mace, she planned to enjoy her night out with her sisters and friends.

  Tonight was Girl’s Night, after all, and they were kicking off their second monthly Brushes With Lushes gathering. It was a night that consisted of painting and drinking wine, all while having fun with your friends, and being watched and guided under the careful—and usually patient—eye and hand of their instructor, Kaylee.

  Adrienne had a decent eye when it came to painting, she was an artist, after all. Except her medium was ink and her canvas, skin, but in the end, she got to draw and play with pretty colors while hanging with the women in her life that made it all worth it.

  Her sister Roxie was pulling in as Adrienne got out of her car, and she waited while Roxie parked and made her way over.

  “Hey there. Are we late?” her sister asked as she hugged her close. “I hate being late.”

  Adrienne looked down at her watch and shook her head. “Nope. Right on time, but I bet you Thea, Abby, and Shea are already there since they tend to be early to everything like you.” She gave Roxie’s messy hair and incorrectly buttoned blouse under her unzipped coat a look. “Why are you not early?”

  Roxie’s cheeks reddened, and she gave her a shy smile. “Uh, Carter got off work early and, well…”

  Adrienne laughed, wrapped her arm around her little sister’s shoulders, and started her way toward the renovated warehouse where Kaylee had set up her studios. “Good to know you’re still in the newlywed phase where you’re all over each other.” The two of them couldn’t be more opposite from what Adrienne had seen, but she knew they were in love—even if it looked as if they’d rushed into their marriage. But it wasn’t as if she knew exactly what was going on in their relationship, and as she was secretly banging her best friend, she had no room to talk.

  “He’s my Carter.” Roxie let out a dreamy sigh that was so unlike the annoyed one she’d given last time she’d spoken of her new husband. “What can I say?”

  “You’re happy, so that makes me happy. Plus, he’s a sexy mechanic so…”

  Roxie laughed. “And he’s my sexy mechanic. I’m glad he could fix your car.”

  Adrienne groaned as she opened the door to the warehouse. “For now. I’m going to have to suck it up and get a new one soon. Well, maybe not a new one, but a newer one than I have now.”

  “You’ve had that one for almost a decade. I’m surprised it’s been running as long as it has.” They put their coats on the rack near the door and went to the back where the Brushes With Lushes event was being held that night.

  “It would have gone to the junkyard in the sky last year without Carter. So make sure you give him a kiss just for me.” She winked. “I was going t
o say something like a hand job or something, but then I realized he’s now my brother-in-law and he doesn’t know me well enough for that.”

  Roxie just laughed and hip-bumped her. “I don’t think Carter needs any extra help getting those things. In fact, I’m going to end up needing a wrist brace at some point if I’m not careful.”

  And that was why the two of them were laughing so hard they were crying as they entered the paint room and took their seats alongside Abby, Thea, and Shea. Their mom had come with them the first time but had bowed out this week since she had date night with their dad. The fact that her parents still had date nights made Adrienne’s romantic heart swoon. She might have put her career and art before her love life for far too long, but she believed in love and everything warm and bubbly about it.

  “Do I want to know?” Thea asked, her voice taking on that motherly tone that fooled no one. Thea was just as dirty as the rest of them, even if she liked to boss them around lovingly.

  “Probably,” Adrienne said with a wink as she unwrapped her scarf. It was getting colder and colder every night, and she knew she’d have to switch out her fall coat for her winter one soon. She hated that, these days, she couldn’t wear her cute leather one for longer periods since winter tended to creep up on them faster each year.

  “Whoever came up with this idea was brilliant,” Shea said as she sipped her red wine. Each of them usually only had a glass since they all had to drive, but it was fun to enjoy the time together regardless.

  “I know,” Abby agreed. She owned the tea shop, Teas’d, next door to MIT, and had been friends with Thea since she moved into the building a few months before Adrienne had. “I heard they’re all over the country now, though, and since I’ve finally heard of them, they probably won’t be popular for too much longer. I’m always the last to learn anything.”