I sat and internally debated while I half listened as Reese ran over the money situation with all the businesses. Slinging Ink was doing awesome, with the added license for MMA training finally coming through, the gym memberships were really picking up. Tony’s security company as always was the biggest moneymaker in the building. Since all of this started, and the businesses were all in the same building, they had a vested interest in each of them. Except for Brit’s business, which had just officially opened. Reese was going to do her books as well, she just wouldn’t be included in these meetings. Reese was investing everyone’s money, considering he ran a casino in Vegas, he knew how to manage big money and have it make more.
Michael leaned forward, and I looked up. “Family dinner Sunday, I have an announcement, and everyone needs to be there.”
Ranger walked back in. “Shit, are you serious? I am not coming. Mr. Roark just about had a coronary. He could kick my ass, I have damage control to do. I am thinking about giving them a kidney or something like that.”
I chuckled, and then nodded. “Yep, we all need to be there, sounds important. Maybe by then, you can get Maria to calm her father down.”
“Fucked up, you know I can’t wait for payback,” Ranger grumbled, and then sat down.
“So, we need to meet with Trey LaRue to find out what is going on with Emilo, too. Mel is kinda chomping at the bit to figure out what is going on there,” Falon said.
“Yeah, and you need to make the appointment with Elson to get the portrait going. We need to snoop around, so Sean will be your backup. They required a list of people Falon would need to come with him to the appointment. Sean, we put you down as Falon’s assistant. Since we discovered the Russians were involved in not only the fights, but human trafficking and the drugs being pushed here and the surrounding areas, it makes more sense. Falon, you need to see if there is any way we can get an appointment, and since he already asked about you, I think approaching him wouldn’t raise any red flags. No way could gangs organize that much stuff or have that much money. Shit, no wonder we have been chasing our fucking tails, so we need to get a handle on this.
“Sean, you are gonna need to step up a bit more, you and Cal are the only ones who haven’t been in the forefront with anything we’ve done. Hopefully, we can make it work to our advantage,” Fin said, and Jet knocked me in the arm to let me know to listen.
“Uh yeah,” I said distractedly. “That’s cool.”
Cal chuckled, “Sure, tell me what you want.”
Falon laughed loudly. “Hell yeah, I finally am the boss of your ass.”
I snapped my head up when what Fin said penetrated, just hitting the accept button to Angelique’s friend request. Fuck me for not paying attention. “Assistant, screw that, tell them I’m his agent.”
Fin shook his head. “We need to snoop. If you were his agent, you would stay with him and watch him. As his assistant, Falon can demand you go find the room with the perfect light.”
“We’ll give you one of those lux meters that measure light. Then you’ll be able to wander around without being searched,” Tony said. “Especially with the two-sided camera built into the device, like on your phone. You’ll be able to zoom in while looking at one thing and we can be looking at something else. The meter will store its data on the lighting, but anything else will be transmitted to our computer. If Elson has anything there we can use, we need to find it now.”
Tony leaned forward and continued, “And, Jet, you need to get into the training ring more. We don’t know when they’re going to call you up for the fight, so we need to be prepared. Harm is already hearing a few grumbles about the next fight. I think it could happen sooner rather than later.”
I nodded, focusing more on the meeting rather than my phone. “Jet and I are all moved in, Brit and Angelique are as well. And Angelique’s brother will move in as soon as he’s released from the hospital.”
“Yeah, Taylor will be back from emergency leave any day now, so couldn’t have been planned better. When Josh gets released, if need be, Taylor will available to bring him to the brownstone. In case anyone is watching, it’s an option,” Tony said.
Mace leaned forward and grimaced. “We are still trying to track the site on the dark web. A lot of chatter about some new fighter. Jet is supposed to be fighting the latest champion to win the fights. However, now we have chatter about this dude named Borya “Bo” Aristov. They’re claiming he is the one in the past who killed his opponent. Ran him and damn, the dude was once a Russian MMA fighter. He also killed one of Russia’s well-known boxers. They ran into each in some town, and he boasted that MMA fighters were skilled and that being just a boxer was like winning a medal for gymnastics. Needless to say, they fought in the street, and the boxer died from the injuries he received. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
I stared at Jet who was nodding, and I could see the determination in his eyes. He would be ready for anything or anyone they put in the ring with him. My phone dinged, and everyone in the room frowned.
“Okay, meeting over. Next time, Sean, put your damn phone on silent.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes, then stood and waited while everyone walked out of the room, leaving only Jet and myself. When we knew no one could hear us, Jet laughed.
“What the fuck? What are the odds?”
I rolled my eyes and said, “We need to nip this in the bud.”
As Jet and I walked out of the meeting room, Brit’s laughter had both of us looking down the hall to see her talking with Chad Macon and Mel, who looked to be drooling over the baseball player, while they headed toward the stairs.
“Come on,” Jet said softly.
“Right behind you,” I muttered and stalked with determination toward our woman and the good-looking baseball player who had his damned hand on Brit’s waist.
Hell no, was the only thing I thought as we neared the pair.
Jet
My eyes bored into the back of the male slut, and I wanted to reach out and snap his neck when Brit giggled at something the idiot said. Yeah, she giggled, what the fuck? I thought as we walked down the hallway toward the stairs. Sean tensed next to me when the man leaned in close and muttered something else into Brit’s ear, which made her blush and hit him with her hand playfully.
Seriously? So fucked up, we were right here behind them. She was acting like she didn’t belong to us. She knew she did, fuck, she KNEW IT! We had been patient, we had waited for the crazy woman to settle down and just fucking think this over. It wasn’t rocket science, we MARRIED her. Sure, I would give her that it wasn’t a real marriage in the technical term, but FUCKING A, we still MARRIED her. We were going to take the plunge, we made the decision. We should get points for that.
“Chad, do you think you can spare some time? We can go out for dinner, have some drinks, and really get down to planning your schedule for the offseason? With the sponsorships coming in, you are really going to need to be on top of things,” Brit said and grinned at the man. It took everything in me not to growl out loud.
The asshole nodded and winked at Brit. “Of course, you have done an amazing job getting me sponsors. I really owe you big time. I will buy dinner and drinks as a thank you, just name the time and the place.”
Brit giggled again, and my eyes narrowed. They hit the top of the stairs, and I struggled to not push the golden-haired prick down the them. The only thing that stopped me was that Brit would be pissed, but fuck, it was hard not to do. I looked at Sean, and I could tell he was having the same thoughts I had by the evil glint in his eye and how his hands were clenched into fists at his side.
“Brit,” I snapped, and she turned and glared at me.
“I am busy,” she said, and the athletic asshole looked at me and smiled.
“Hey, we are almost done,” he said with a grin, and then took Brit’s arm and walked down the stairs. Oh, hell no he didn’t. Sean growled a little as we followed. We heard him say to Brit. “You know it is cool your office
is in a gym, like we could have meetings, and then I could work out before or after. It would kill two birds with one stone. Where do I join?”
Brit sighed and said, “Oh, I’m sure I can get you a membership for free. I mean, maybe we can work out a sponsorship with Fin.”
“Right, the MMA champ, that would be cool,” Chad said smoothly, and I wanted to rip out his tongue. “Okay, so I will call you about dinner and shoot me a message about the gym.”
I rolled my eyes as I watched her fawn all over the man, really? He wasn’t even that muscular. Hell, I could kick his ass without breaking a sweat. Dreaming about punching him in the face was going to keep me going for a while. When Sean and I hit the bottom of the steps, we watched as Brit showed the asshole to the door.
“Seriously, we are going to need to step up our game. She represents some of the biggest man-whores in the industry. They are going to try to get into her pants. And I am pretty sure I’m not going to be able to watch that without snapping someone’s neck. So, for the sake of not having to come up with bail money, we need to figure something out,” I snapped, and Sean turned to me.
“Yes, we do. We need to figure out a way in. She is bound and determined to ignore what happened in Atlantic City. What we already have been doing isn’t working, so we try a different approach—head-on.”
I nodded and hoped we weren’t the ones with concussions. While we stood at the bottom of the stairs, we watched Brit head for the connecting door between the ink shop and the gym. Just as we started in the same direction, Sean’s phone dinged again. “What in the fuck is going on with your phone today?”
Sean ran a hand down his face and groaned, then said, “Come on, let’s go into the shop and see what the fuck they’re doing. They have to be talking to each other, it doesn’t make any sense that suddenly they are all friending me. If they find out who I really am, we are going to need to go into hiding. I hope Briggs gets back soon, we could need WITSEC and fast.”
I chuckled and shook my head. “No way do they know it’s you. We have kept it hidden.”
Sean stopped and looked at me. “You are joking, right? ‘Cause I could see them fucking with me like this.”
I grinned. “Fuck no, because if they did know, so would your brothers, and since they haven’t shown up to give you shit, we are solid.”
Chapter Four
Brit
OMG, I was exhausted. Stroking egos seriously takes it out of you. If I had to listen to one more story about an amazing play Chad Macon made, I was going to throw up. I hated kissing ass, and in my job, I had to do a lot of it. I sighed, and then moved toward Slinging Ink. I needed a little vent time, and I knew Zoey was in the shop as were the rest of the girls. I moved to the door that led to the ink shop from the gym.
“Hey, honey,” someone called, and I turned and smiled. Reilly O’Malley and Anthony Roark Sr. were walking toward me. I smiled big, just what I needed, REAL men. I loved both of these guys, they just seemed to seriously ground me when I needed it.
When they reached me, Reilly pulled me into a hug, and Anthony leaned over and kissed me on the head while he side-hugged me. Leaving his arm around my shoulders, I leaned into him.
“How are you doing darlin’?” Anthony said, and I shrugged.
“Fine, but you know dealing with men who have super gargantuan egos really sucks. Sometimes I want to give them a real taste of reality and knock them down a peg or two,” I said, and Reilly shook his head.
“Nature of the beast, honey, when dealing with men. I am assuming you are referring to the baseball player who just left. Seems to me I read something about him.”
I chuckled. “I’m sure you have, hell, everyone has, and he knows it. I brought him into my agency, which will really give me a boost. I shouldn’t complain, it’s just until I get to know him, like with Bruno I know he can handle it if I call him an asshole. Chad, not so sure yet, the man seems to think everything he touches turns to gold.”
Anthony squeezed my arm and said, “Well you will sort him out, I know you will. Wanna know why?” he asked.
I looked up at him and said, “Why?”
“Because you are what we used to call a woman with a lot of moxie. First time I saw you, I knew you were a force to be reckoned with, and you have not let me down. I know Reilly calls you all his ‘girls,’ but you are mine, too. I think it’s time I get in on this, you poor girls need all the support you can get,” Anthony said.
Reilly laughed, “Anthony, you know when I say that I mean you, too. We have been friends for so long, I forget when I say that.”
Anthony grinned, “That’s okay, you can buy me a drink at Paddy’s.”
“You are on,” Reilly said, and then looked back at me. “Now, to sort you out.”
I shook my head. “You don’t need to sort me out,” I said. “I am sure everything will even out. I just started, and moving here had taken awhile with everything going on, you know? But I’m sure it will settle.”
“I’m not sure you understand, honey,” Reilly said softly and took my hand. “You are a part of the family. I know my boys have already set their sights on you, which means they are gonna catch you. But during this process, you are still going to need support.”
My eyes widened, and I looked at Anthony and Reilly. “No, I am not…”
Reilly smiled, “Honey, you are.”
“I am not,” I snapped.
Anthony chuckled and squeezed me again, “You are.”
I rolled my eyes, and then said, “Listen, I love you guys. I think of you like family, but I know you have a lot of daughters and daughters-in-laws already and I am not going to be added to that obviously,”
“Why obviously?” Reilly asked with a smirk. “Because where I am sitting, you are already in the fold.”
I rolled my eyes. “But…”
“Nope,” Reilly said, and Anthony nodded.
“Nope, you are in, so get used to it. Now, no more lip, let’s just move on from here. I am going to be going to the breakfasts and lunches from now on,” Anthony said.
I sighed and shook my head. I don’t know how my life decided to take a left fucking turn, but it did. When I was young, I loved rollercoasters. That was what this felt like, and I for one, was ready for the guy ride to be over. I was down with this family stuff, though, I loved these two men, so I would go along with it until they figured out I was so not going to be with Jet and Sean. It wouldn’t matter then anyway.
“We are training today, so we will let you go do your thing. But remember as one of our card-carrying ‘girls’ that means you call us if you have a problem.”
I laughed and kissed both of them on the cheek and watched as they walked toward where a group of boys was standing. Then I turned and opened the door to where Slinging Ink was and almost walked back out due to the yelling going on.
“Can you believe it! I never thought she would answer,” Angelique crooned loudly, and I frowned when I heard the others giggle. “Woot, woot, I swear when I saw her name pop up in recommended friends, I almost died. But it says she is located close to me. Wouldn’t that be so freaking cool. We could meet, I could become her bestie and talk about everything she is writing. Help her plot. OMG, what if she needs someone to organize her stuff, like a PA. I see these ones online all the time, like JA LaFrance, she is a PA, wouldn’t that be awesome as shit!”
“Does she say when her next release is?” I heard Petal ask.
“Okay, I am sending a request now.” I heard Zoey gush. I rounded the corner and saw every single one of my friends standing around the counter on their phones and grinning. Angelique and I were the newbies to the group, although Zoey and Petal had joined recently as well, the two had quickly become integral parts of the families. Sometimes I was a little jealous, but I knew I shouldn’t be. Hell, the O’Malleys, the Macaroys, and the Roarks had been welcoming as if I’d always been a part of their families. The three families were tight. They were all woven together into one big happy family,
so different than I was used to.
However, it also made me crave it a little bit more than I should. Shaking thoughts of one particular pair of men, I said, “What the hell is going on?”
Zoey turned and clapped. “Come here. First, we want to hear all about your last client!”
Mel moved closer. “What is he like? I mean, is he as smooth as all the tabloids say. I swear when I walked out into the hallway after the meeting and he looked at me, I had a mini orgasm.”
“Mel!” Brook laughed.
“What? I did. There is just something about his smooth walk,” Mel said and sighed. “Falon is so going to get lucky when we get home tonight.
“Okay, first of all,” I said, rolling my eyes, “yes, the man is hot, but he knows it. Second, I am pretty sure he is the high maintenance sort, like he constantly needs reassurance he is sexy and awesome. And third, I am not so sure the rumors about his dick being huge are true because the trainer said he’s using one size larger on his cup size than needed.”
Mel groaned and shook her head. “Aww, come on. You are going to ruin him for me. He was on my list.”
Maria leaned forward. “What list?”
“You know,” Brook smirked. “The list, the one that every couple has.”
Maria frowned. “No, because if I knew what list, I wouldn’t have asked.”
Zoey laughed, and Maria’s frown deepened. “You each get to make a list of people you can have sex with if you ever meet them without your spouse around. And the spouses can get pissed off. The people on your list are famous. You know, people who you basically will never see, ever. But if you do, you get a free pass.”
Dazzled and Dazed (KO Ink Book 6) Page 3
