Inked Memories (Montgomery Ink Book 8)

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  And a matchmaker, but that was besides the point. “She will. She likes you.” And wanted to make sure Jillian never felt alone. He understood and loved that his family had taken to her so quickly.

  He had too, after all.

  He loved Jillian Reid. And one day soon, he’d tell her. She wasn’t ready, and they both knew that. He’d seen the look in her eyes when they talked about their relationship, and he knew if he told her and she ran, she’d feel as though she were alone even if that weren’t the case. Plus, she was still healing over her father, and they weren’t that far into their own relationship. When the time was right, he’d tell her.

  Or when he found the courage…you know, whatever.

  “Are you ready to head back to your place?” she asked once the waiter came back with Wes’s card.

  He nodded, then froze. “Holy…oh my God.”

  “What?” she straightened, her eyes on alert. “What’s wrong?”

  “I forgot my tablet at the warehouse. I can’t believe I did that.”

  She blinked. “You? You forgot your tablet? That thing is always on you. Like I was surprised you didn’t sleep with it. And it’s Saturday, Wes. That means it’s been over twenty-four hours since you last looked at it.”

  “I can’t quite believe it.” He’d been so into his date and time with Jillian that he’d actually focused on life rather than work. Hell had well and truly frozen over.

  “Well, we can stop by the warehouse on the way to your place. It’s sort of on the way.”

  He shook his head. “It can wait until Monday,” he lied.

  “Sure, Wes. And then we’ll see a pretty night rainbow once we get home. Come on. You know you won’t be able to truly focus now that you know you forgot it. Before, you couldn’t dwell because you didn’t realize, but now that you do? It’ll always be in the back of your mind, and I’m not really digging the idea of getting it on while you’re reminiscing about time with your pretty tablet.”

  She fluttered her eyelashes as she stood, and Wes broke out into a loud laugh, catching the attention of a few of the other patrons.

  “Come on, then,” he said, taking her hand. “Hopefully, it won’t take too long because now I’m having images of you, me, and my tablet.” He leaned down to her ear and whispered, “We’ll put on some porn and see if we can figure out the moves.”

  They were still laughing as they made it to his car and slid in. They’d left their trucks at his place and taken his car since they wanted to be fancy for the night. It was nice shedding their work boots and jeans and putting on something soft and glittery in Jillian’s case.

  “What kind of porn are we talking about?” Jillian asked, her hand clasped in his as he drove.

  He shifted in his seat, his cock hard already. It was apparently a perpetual case when he was around her these days. “I was thinking the porn for women category. They always have the best oral that leads to sex where they both get off.”

  “Rather than a forty-minute blowjob, a couple fake screams, then his coming on her face?” she asked dryly.

  “Sounds about right.” He paused. “Or wrong. Plus, how the hell does a man last forty minutes like that? I barely last two when you’re giving me a blowjob.”

  She laughed and leaned over the console to kiss his cheek. “You last longer than two minutes, Wesley, but it does make me all warm and tingly inside that I can get you off.”

  “Ditto,” he growled. “Now let’s stop talking about sex because I’m having trouble keeping my eyes on the road.”

  “Well, I can talk about the snake’s nest I found in one of the walls of my old job. The momma had left her skin behind, and oh dear Lord, that snake must have been big. But the babies? There were like twenty of them making little sounds as they slithered in that wall.” She shuddered. “I thought it was just a bad clog at first, but nope, snakes. Lots of them.”

  Wes shuddered, his hand gripping the steering wheel just a bit tighter. “What did you do with the snakes?” he asked through clenched teeth. He wasn’t afraid of snakes, per se, but a bunch of them together? No thanks.

  “Animal control came and relocated the babies. Not sure if they ever found the momma, though. I was done with the job by then and didn’t hear.”

  They pulled into the site and parked under one of the big lights that lit up the warehouse. “Thanks for that mental image.”

  “I helped though, right?”

  “You did something. Want to wait here while I run to where I probably left the damn thing?”

  She shook her head and started to get out of the car as her answer. “I’m fine. It’s a warm night, and I don’t want to stay alone in the car. Plus...I know you called security to say you’d be by, but I’d still rather be with you.”

  At the mention of why they had security to begin with, his jaw clenched. “Let’s get to it,” he said and held out his hand. She took it, and they walked to the security station, checked in, and then headed to the warehouse.

  “I think I left it near where I set up my office. I’m such a fucking idiot.”

  “No, you’re not, and you have everything on your phone anyway, but let’s just get it and head out. This place kind of gives me the creeps in the dark.”

  He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.” And he wasn’t lying.

  “Not if I protect you first.” And he had a feeling she wasn’t lying either.

  They made their way to where he’d been working on Friday afternoon, and he let out a relieved breath when he spotted his tablet hanging out on a stack of wood, untouched and lonely.

  “Hello, my precious,” Jillian whispered. He gave her a look, and she blinked innocently. “I was just narrating your internal monologue.”

  He kissed her hard. “And that’s why I love you.” They both froze as he said the words, and her eyes widened. “Uh…”

  But before he could say anything else, there was a sound behind them. They both turned, confused, then everything happened at once.

  A bright light flashed in front of him, and what sounded like fireworks popped all around them. Jillian pressed into his side, and he tried to cover her but hit the ground instead. His head slammed into the cement, and Jillian’s did the same.

  He turned so he covered her body, and his hand slipped in something warm and wet. When his brain finally caught up to the red in his vision, he choked and pressed his hand to Jillian’s shoulder where blood seeped over her black, sparkly dress and pooled beneath them.

  Her eyes were closed, her face paling, and he couldn’t think of what to do next. He turned to look over his shoulder as four big men raised their guns toward them. He didn’t move, he didn’t breathe, but before he could register that this might be the last moment of his life, another shot echoed in the room.

  “Freeze! This is the police! We have you surrounded. Put down your weapons and put your hands up.”

  Wes’s hands shook as he covered Jillian’s wound. He needed to get her to the hospital. He knew this was bad, knew there wasn’t much time to waste.

  And then everything changed again.

  A black blur shoved into him, and shots rang out again. He hit the ground hard on his shoulder, and a big man landed on top of him. He didn’t know at first if it was a cop or whoever had attacked them, but he didn’t care, not in the heat of the moment when he needed to be with Jillian.

  He shoved the guy off him and sat up, finally seeing it was a man in a black mask and clothes. Knowing this couldn’t be a cop, Wes punched the guy hard in the face, once, twice, three times until he was down for the count, before crawling over to where Jillian lay so still he feared the worst.

  People shouted around him, but he could only look at the woman he loved, dying in his arms. He couldn’t fathom a world where he didn’t hear her laugh, didn’t see her smile.

  “I need help,” he called out. “Someone call an ambulance.”

  Others moved around him then, and he recogniz
ed one of them as Frances. She had a large first aid kit in one hand, and two cops were by her side. He let them push him to the side but still kept his hand on Jillian’s as they worked to keep her stable until the ambulance arrived.

  His body ached, and his heart raced. He couldn’t focus on anything, and it wasn’t until someone came to his side and touched the back of his head that he realized he was bleeding.

  They shined a light in his eyes and tugged Jillian away as his world went black.

  He couldn’t lose her.

  He couldn’t imagine his world without her.

  He couldn’t.

  Chapter Twenty

  Jillian blinked under the harsh lights as she woke. She didn’t know how long she’d been asleep, but she knew where she was.

  A hospital.

  She’d been shot.

  Or at least…that’s what it felt like. Either that or a Mack truck had slammed into her head-on and had left her bleeding and cold on the cement floor of the warehouse. She couldn’t quite remember everything that had happened, and for all she knew, she’d imagined the searing pain in her shoulder and the nauseating thump her head had made against the floor when she fell. She knew she was forgetting something important, but she couldn’t quite remember.

  Beeps and other hospital sounds filled her ears as her eyes struggled to adjust to the bright overhead lights. Her throat ached, and her body felt so heavy that she was afraid she’d never be able to lift her arms again. Of course, as soon as she tried, a searing pain arched along her shoulder, and she stifled a gasp.

  Someone next to her shuffled closer and sucked in a breath. “Jillian? You’re awake. Oh, thank God.”

  She knew that voice.

  Wes.

  She’d jumped in front of him and had been shot, but if he were talking to her, he had to be okay, right? Because she didn’t know what she’d do if he’d been hurt.

  “Wes?” she croaked.

  “Hold on, let me get you some water.” He moved away, and she kept blinking so he wouldn’t be a dark blur above her head. He put a straw to her lips just as her vision came into focus, and she could have cried at the sight of him.

  He honestly looked like hell, but she’d never found him sexier.

  Because he was there.

  She swallowed a few sips of water before he pulled the cup away and set it down on a table next to the bed.

  “I’m going to go call the nurse to let her know you’re awake,” he said softly, leaning over her. “But I’m so fucking glad your eyes are open right now, Jillian. You scared the crap out of me, and when you’re fully alert, I plan to yell at you for daring to scare years off my life.”

  He traced his finger along her jaw, and she whimpered, tears falling down her cheeks. What was with her? She wasn’t such a crier, yet just the touch of him sent her into emotional turmoil.

  “Be right back, baby.” Then he was gone, and she was alone again, wondering what the hell had actually happened. He wasn’t out of the room long, however. She blinked, and suddenly, he was there again at her side, along with two nurses and perhaps even a doctor to check on her.

  “The bullet didn’t hit any bone,” the doctor explained. “That’s a good thing, but you lost a lot of blood on scene and have a concussion. However, with time and physical therapy on that shoulder of yours, you’re going to feel like new again in no time.” He explained a few other things before leaving to go talk to another patient. One of the nurses stayed behind to tell her about the call button and what she could do while in bed, as well as instructing that she had to stay in the hospital for at least two more days under observation.

  After what felt like hours, she was finally alone with Wes and had no idea what she was going to say.

  “What happened?” Okay, so maybe her mouth was working a little faster than her brain at the moment.

  He gave her a small smile before taking the stool next to the bed and sitting close. He held her hand in his, his brow furrowed.

  “You almost died because you pushed me out of the way of a freaking bullet. That’s what happened.”

  She swallowed hard, the memory of the flash and echoing bang reverberating in her skull. That wasn’t something she would forget anytime soon, but she’d talk about that with him later. She already had a feeling that every time she closed her eyes, she’d see the shot, feel the pain again, but Wes was here. He was alive. And because of that, she could get through the aftereffects if she needed to.

  “I remember that part. Mostly.”

  “Then you’ll remember this,” Wes bit out. “Never. Ever. Do that again. I thought I’d lost you.” His voice cracked, and he leaned forward to gently rest his forehead on hers. The action let her touch him without having to move, and for that, she was grateful.

  “I could have lost you, too.”

  “I can’t lose you, Jillian. I love you so damn much.”

  That’s what she’d forgotten. Her eyes widened. “You said that to me,” she whispered. “Right before everything went crazy.”

  He let out a shaky breath. “Yeah, not my brightest moment. I’d been waiting for the right time to tell you.”

  Tears filled her eyes, and she reached up with her uninjured arm to cup his cheek. “I love you, too,” she whispered.

  He smiled widely, his eyes glassy with unshed tears. “Yeah? That’s good.”

  She laughed then and let out a groan since laughing hurt like hell. “Okay, no laughing for me.”

  His eyes narrowed this time, and he sat back down on the stool. “I’m never going to let you get hurt like this again.”

  “Wes, baby, you can’t fix everything. I thought we went over this.”

  “Fine, then I’m not going to allow the mob to fucking shoot you again.”

  This time, she narrowed her eyes. “You’re joking with me, right? There’s a mob family in Denver?”

  “Apparently, there’s a mob family in lots of places outside of TV,” Storm said as he strolled into the room, Everly by his side. “Sorry to interrupt, but the family is getting anxious in the waiting room, and we figured we’d be allowed in as the family of your fiancé and all.”

  Jillian must have hit her head harder than she thought. “My fiancé?” She looked over at Wes, whose cheeks had reddened.

  “Uh…well…I was going to ask you in a few months, but that’s besides the point.”

  “Huh?” Her heart raced. “Really?”

  “What he means to say is, he refused to leave your side except when they were stitching up his head and when you were in surgery, and that meant he needed a way back to you since they only let family back here.” Everly walked to the other side of the bed and leaned down to brush hair off Jillian’s face. “Nice to see you awake, sleepy head. You scared the crap out of all of us.”

  “It’s good to be awake,” Jillian whispered before turning to Wes again. “And what does she mean stitch up your head? You’re hurt? You should be lying down in a bed next to me, damn it. You’d better not have played hero and tried to shrug off any pain because you wanted to be here when I woke up.”

  Storm let out a strangled laugh, and Jillian watched as Everly glared at him. “Sorry,” he said. “But it’s kind of rich coming from you since you’re the one who played hero, or so we hear.” He held up his hands as he said it, but she’d seen the worry in his eyes.

  He was still her best friend, even with all the things they’d put each other through, and for that, she’d always be grateful.

  “I’m so confused. Can we take this step by step?” Jillian asked.

  “We can do that,” Wes whispered. “When we walked into the warehouse, apparently, we interrupted a search. It wasn’t their first one either.”

  “Is this the mob you were talking about?” Jillian asked.

  “As crazy as it sounds, yes,” Everly said.

  “It seems the building’s owner prior to the previous one was the cousin—or maybe the second cousin?—of the current mob boss of Denver. They left a few
things behind that they didn’t realize were still hidden in the walls. This cousin wanted to take over the family business, as it were, and remembered that there were a few important documents that could incriminate not only him but also his family. I’m not a hundred percent clear on the details, but they needed to make sure we didn’t find anything important. But it seems we might have.”

  “The box behind the water heater,” Jillian said quickly. “The heavy one that we couldn’t open.”

  “Got it in one. They came to the site because they didn’t know we’d moved the box to another location. Hence the attack in the alley, the guy going through your house, and all of the break-ins at the site. They wanted to not only search the place for what they’d left behind, but they wanted to scare us away from the project.”

  “That’s crazy,” Jillian said. “Freaking crazy.”

  “And only a Montgomery could walk right into an insane story like that,” Storm added dryly. “Seriously, this family is done with waiting rooms, you guys. We need to stop setting up camp in them.”

  “Wait. You mean they’re all here? For me? Or was it because of Wes?” She turned to the man she loved again. “Because you still haven’t told me how you got hurt.”

  Wes gripped her hand again, steadying her. It should have annoyed her that he could do that, but she never wanted to let him go again. “We’ll get to that. And yes, the whole family—minus the kids, and probably one or two adults who tend to take shifts watching them—are outside waiting. For you. They already saw me after I got stitches on the back of my head. I’m just grateful they weren’t staples.

  “Tell me how you got hurt, Wesley, or I’m going to hurt you myself.”

  This time, Storm didn’t bother to smother his laugh, and Everly joined in. “I like the two of you,” her best friend said with a grin. “You both scared the daylights out of me, but you two together? I like.”

  “I’m so glad I have your approval,” Jillian said drily before she once again turned to Wes. “Tell me, damn it.”

  “I hit my head when I fell and then again when one of the guys tackled me off of you. I hit him a few times and knocked him out before going back to you. I’m fine. Only a mild concussion and nowhere near as bad as you.”