Pierced & Inked
KO Ink
Book Two
by Harley McRide and Carson Mackenzie
Published by JK Publishing, Inc.
© Copyright March 2016 JK Publishing, Inc.
Cover, art and logo © Copyright March 2016 by JK Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved.
ISBN#978-1-311-82616-9
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Dedication
To the readers: We hope the book is as enjoyable to read as it was for us to write. The characters have grabbed hold of us and in this book they totally took over. They had us going places they wanted to go, not the path we had set for them.
They wanted heard and at times, their voices were so loud, we just wrote what they wanted to say and went with the flow, it was easier than fighting to keep them contained.
Even they would love to hear from you. Come like them on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/koinkclub/
Thanks for allowing us to bring a little crazy into your life.
Harley McRide and Carson Mackenzie
Table of Contents
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Epilogue
Books by Harley McRide
Books by Carson Mackenzie
Excerpt from Rain Falls
Excerpt from Speed
About the Authors
Prologue
Zoey
“Hey, girl, five o’clock. You can ride with me,” Cora, my co-worker and friend, said as she leaned against the doorframe to my office.
“What?” I said distractedly, I needed to get this paperwork done and filled out.
“Girl, you aren’t getting out of this. You have been here nearly three months and haven’t been out once. It is girls’ night, you are a girl, remember?”
“Yeah, I know.” I knew I wasn’t going to get out of it this time. The women in the office had girls’ night once a month and I had made excuses every time it rolled around. Then of course, I had been doing that to everyone, including my brother who tried to drag me out of the house every weekend to relax. Normally, I would, but darn it, right now I was trying to figure out MY LIFE!
“Come on, Zoey. It will be good for you. All of us need to unwind every once in a while, you included. If we didn’t, this job would suck the life right out of us,” she said way too reasonably, which kinda sucked since I knew Cora was right.
“I’m coming. But I have my own car. I will meet you there.”
“Awesome. How did your inspection go for that young man?”
“Um… Nice place, it passed so all should be good. I will keep checking on him once he moves in to make sure it stays that way but not expecting there to be a problem.” Cora stared at me. She raised an eyebrow at me and I knew she had picked up on my hesitation answering. I didn’t foresee a problem with Brant, but no way was I going to tell her about the man that greeted me at the condo or my reaction to him.
“Okay, so I will see you at Paddy’s?” Cora asked and I was thankful she let the questioning look she’d given me go for once.
“I’ll be there. You know I won’t drink so I can drive anyone home who has too much,” and gave a thumbs up.
“Great. You may have to take a couple of us home. Who knows, maybe you will meet a hot guy, get laid,” Cora said over her shoulder, turned, and her laughter followed her as she walked away. Oh real funny, if only she knew.
“I already did,” I muttered to the empty space. “And hopefully it will be the only encounter with him I have.” Even though I said the words out loud, the little voice in my head told me it was only the start. Yeah, I needed to find a way to shut that voice up. She was wrong. She had to be. No way was a one night, drunken encounter resurfacing into anything more. He hadn’t even recognized me, which if I focused on that reason, I should be fucking pissed, not like it’d been years. Nope, barely three months. So what if I freaked the next morning and left before they had woken. And it wasn’t my fault I didn’t know their last names, or even where they were from. It hadn’t stopped me from thinking of them every day since, and I’d been just as
drunk.
Of course, they probably did that thing regularly with women. I would bet they hadn’t thought of me once, just another chick in a line of many. No, they hadn’t thought of me, but I had a daily reminder them.
Ugh, karma could be a mean old bitch. There was no other explanation, I told myself as I reached in my desk drawer and pulled out my purse. If I left now, I could hurry home, grab a hot shower, and make it to girls’ night in plenty of time. It was just what I needed.
Chapter One
Reese
Paddy’s Pub was busy and the music loud. It always was on a Friday night but even the noise and the O’Malley brothers couldn’t take my mind off the tall curvaceous blonde with the best ass I’d seen in quite awhile. When she’d licked her lips, totally focused on my crotch, I could have lost my load. And what a fucking impression that would have made. Who would have thought a social worker could make my dick stand at attention? I wondered what she would have done if I had spanked that ass bright red?
“What is up with you, Reese?” Mike asked me, like I would admit what I had been thinking about. There were two things to remember when dealing with these brothers. One, do not talk about a chick; and two, never give the O’Malleys any ammo to use against you.
“Just a little tired.” I grabbed my beer and took a long pull. It wasn’t a total lie. It’d been nonstop since Brook’s phone call to me about our mom being shot. And it hadn’t stopped since my feet hit the ground when I stepped off the plane from Vegas. Between looking after my mother, to helping in the search of my sister when Hector Sanchez had her taken to get Fin O’Malley to fight him in an underground fight ring to make money to pay his debt owed to some scumbag. Fucker thought he could beat Fin. What a dumbass. Well, asshole paid with his life when his debt wasn’t covered and I didn’t and don’t feel bad because of it.
“Yeah, been a lot going on around here. I, for one, am glad for this little breather. Maybe shit can get back to normal around here.” Mike was kicked back in his chair as he looked around the pub.
Normal? Right, I thought and shook my head. I really hoped this shit wasn’t the new normal around here. I moved back home to be closer to my mom and sister and landed myself smack dab in the middle of chaos. The fight club was no longer hiding their shit now. With young boys turning up dead due to fighting in some underground ring, and the shootings all over the place, the Bronx was more like a war zone. Tony had his men patrolling day and night to make sure that there was a presence on the streets to help people feel safe.
I was opening my new business but in addition to that, I had been using my computer skills to help the guys track what was going on. Unfortunately, a lot of videos had begun surfacing, which showed the fights in real time. So far, we had not been able to trace them. I had spent the last two nights writing codes to search for new posts that came up so we could immediately track them. So far nothing, but I had hope, yeah this was the new normal around here, sadly enough.
“I could deal with even somewhat normal for awhile.”
“Me too, man. Me too,” Mike agreed.
“What the fuck? We get out for once and you two are talking about normal and being tired and shit. Instead of talking like women, why don’t you grab a couple and get laid. Maybe then both your attitudes will improve and you’ll remember you have a dick and balls,” Falon said and before we could respond, Fin walked up behind him and smacked him on the back of his head.
“What the hell, bro?” Falon glared over his shoulder at Fin.
“Nothing, just wondering if it isn’t too late to find your real parents and beg them to take you back,” Fin said while he and Tony pulled chairs to the table and the rest of us laughed and shifted to make room.
“Yeah, you guys always say that shit. You’d think that joke would get old.” Falon got up and headed in the direction of the bar.
“While you’re up there, little brother, grab me and Tony a beer,” Fin yelled over his shoulder and to my surprise Falon didn’t yell anything back, he just flipped Fin off to the amusement of the rest of us.
“Damn, have things changed around here or what? Before, you calling him ‘little brother’ would have been fighting words.” Hell, we’d all fight over less shit growing up together.
“Not that I’m aware. Shit, a week ago, Falon would have kept going till Fin flatten his ass. But he’s been subdued this past week,” Mike said, then took a drink of his beer. I didn’t miss the smirk on his face before he tried to cover it up.
“What the fuck was the smirk for? You know something the rest of us don’t?” Cal leaned forward and asked. Evidently I wasn’t the only one to catch it.
“Just he has been like that since Mel left to go back and clear the military and move her shit here. That’s all I’m saying,” Mike said and shrugged.
“Ha, probably ‘cause she was the first chick not to drop her panties around him,” Bry said.
“No shit, I think she could take him in a fight too,” Sean said and we all started laughing.
“Speaking of women in general. Where is my sister? You guys didn’t leave her at home alone did you? And if you say the newness has worn off already, I’m going to kick your ass.” And that even sounded bitchy to my own ass. So being a guy, I reached under the table and adjusted my package—yeah, still there.
“Fuck no! She was going to stop by your mom’s after work and then drop her off to her therapy appointment. Ms. Maddie is doing good too,” Fin said, picking up one of the beers Falon sat on table when he returned.
“Mom is doing great. She was thrilled when the doc told her she could go back home, didn’t need to have someone with her twenty-four/seven,” I informed the guys. “Now we just need to make sure she doesn’t try to stick her nose in when it comes to Brant and the other boys. She knows we are working this case, but damn, she doesn’t want to lose anyone else to these pricks. I warned her next time they wouldn’t miss if they shot at her, but fuck, she is insistent.”
“Man, she sounded excited that you were moving back for good,” Tony said.
“I know, she told me. I need to find a place soon. Had a company pack up my apartment so my stuff will arrive in about a week. Plus, I hired a company that is driving my truck here too.” My boss had been great with my resignation at the casino. He hated to lose me but he understood family and needing to be close to them. I wasn’t going to make near as what I was getting paid there but I would at least stay busy with taking care of the three businesses on a daily basis. And who could put a price on being back in your childhood neighborhood with the people you grew up with and were the closest to.
“Reese, you know you can stay with me as long as you want. Not like my house isn’t big enough. Shit, I even have empty rooms that your furniture can go in. Besides, when I was out there a few months ago, your furniture is nicer than mine,” Mike said and chuckled.
“No shit, anything would be better than yours, Michael. You still have that flowery shit Mom gave you when she bought new flowery shit for her and Dad’s living room,” Sean said and the other brothers laughed.
“Yeah, you fuckers laugh, you can’t tell the woman no either. I was just the unlucky bastard who hadn’t bought living room furniture yet. Her and Dad came over one day and then hell, the next day I come home from Slinging Ink, tired as shit from a long day, and there it was in the room,” Mike stopped, took a drink of his beer then continued, “next day, got my damn spare key back too.” I laughed and so did everyone else.
“Man, I have been gone a long time, but fuckin’ A, I know not to give any one of our mothers a damn key. Seriously, that is like giving them an open invitation,” I said and they all shook their heads at me and Tony pointed his finger at me.
“Oh wait, what, you’ve been here a month. Dude, we have been back three years and if anything, they have gotten worse. There is no door or boundary the moms won’t cross. I love your sister more than anything, and I am happy she is a part of my life, but the one thing I am most thankful for a
bout her being mine is—my ass doesn’t have to go to dinner at my mom’s and worry about who she is going to have at the table for me to meet,” Tony said and sat back in his chair. He had me there. Not that my mom wasn’t bad, no, she was, she was just sneakier about it. Magazines sitting around about grandparents, or taking her to lunch when she was in Vegas visiting, only to have her turn to an older lady with what was probably her grandchild sitting on her lap while the woman was reading a book to the kid, and sighing loudly. Or her newest one since I’d been back that started when I stayed with her in the hospital. “Oh, Reese, I’m so lucky to be alive. The only thing I could think of when I was shot was I wasn’t going to see my kids get married or hold a grandbaby close.” Not that the woman hadn’t been close to death but shit, she said that after the doctor had just checked on her and informed us how well she was doing and a full recovery was definite.
“Well, since you love my sister so much, when is one of you going to marry her?”
“Ask your sister. We had it planned for her to marry Tony, and I was cool with that. He is the only male to carry on the Roark name and I have this bunch to keep the O’Malley name going,” Fin said, waving his hand out to include each of his brothers. “But no, not Brooklyn, she wants to marry Tony but wants us to change our last names to Roark-O’Malley.”
“So, what are you two going to do about it?” Mike asked and from the look that crossed Tony’s and Fin’s faces, I had a feeling I didn’t want to know because it involved my sister.
“Give her exactly what she wants,” Tony said and when he and Fin fist bumped each other, I knew I had been right. I didn’t want to know and that was only the beginning of it.
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