Vengeance: MMA/Ink Romance (KO Ink Book 1)

by Harley McRide

  “Brook?” I turned back to him.

  “Yeah?”

  “You.”

  “Me? Me what?” I asked, totally lost, again.

  “You. You’re the woman we were talking about. Code free enough for you?” Fin said and walked past, leaving me standing there.

  Well shit.

  Tony

  The door opened and Fin and Brooklyn walked in, I would have loved to know what was being said, if only to match it with what their faces depicted. However, that had to wait because I was in the middle of Falon and a woman, trying to ascertain what the fuck happened while I was on the phone checking in with Jet.

  “You sexist asshole. I’ll show you what a woman can do,” the petite woman said and tried to reach around me to grab for Falon.

  “Aww, sweetcheeks, I would love to partake in what you can do. Really what any woman can do. Maybe even several ti—”

  “Stop,” I place my hand on Falon’s chest, “don’t finish that statement. Now tell me what is going on? Better yet, here comes Fin, you can tell him.” The smile left Fin’s face and was replaced with a frown as he approached.

  “Hey, what the hell is going on here? And it better be good since everyone in the place is watching you,” Fin said and he was right as I looked around. Every guy in the gym was watching the proceedings with curiosity except for a choice few. They were openly staring at the little number’s ass while she went at it with Falon. It never ceased to amaze me how the man got laid so much.

  “What is going on here?” Fin directed at me when he walked up.

  “Brah, I was on the phone. When I came up they were already going at it,” I said, stepping out from between Falon and the woman while gesturing between them. The look Fin gave Falon was ‘they would speak later’ as he turned his focus to the woman.

  “My name is Fin O’Malley and this is my gym. What can I do for you, ma’am?” Fin said and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “I know who you are. I watched your title fight. Fin “Vengeance” O’Malley, best Double Leg I’ve seen executed,” the woman said.

  “Oh, did you stop in to get an autograph pic?” Fin said, turning to look around the gym. “Get back to your workouts. Not like you haven’t seen a woman walk in here,” Fin said, his eyes cut to me, then back to the woman, “let me go to my office and grab you a pic. Falon, why didn’t you get the lady one?”

  “Probably ‘cause she didn’t come in for that. Am I allowed to speak now, if so maybe you would like to know that this…this lady, doesn’t want an autograph,” Falon chuckled, “she wants to join the gym,” he then too crossed his arms over his chest as in triumph.

  Brooklyn stepped beside me after pulling herself from the spot she’d been standing by the door since they walked in. She didn’t say a word, she just stood there beside me watching the O’Malley show. When the brothers went head-to-head it could be entertaining and if not, it left someone close to pull one off the other. Win-win growing up, unless they turned on me.

  When Brooklyn looked up at me I noticed the timid smile, then the blush right before she focused back on what was taking place. Something was said between Fin and Brooklyn and I wasn’t going to find out if I didn’t speed this little show up.

  “Okay, she wants to join the gym. Why would that start an argument?” I asked.

  “It shouldn’t have and didn’t until sexist asshole told me that dating services could be found online, that I didn’t need to join a gym to meet men,” she’d said and glared at Falon along with Fin.

  “You want to join the gym? Let’s go to the office and have a chat while I get a contract out, and sorry for my brother’s ignorance. Our mother dropped him quite often.”

  “No problem. I’m Camelia Caparelli, but everyone calls me Mel,” Mel said and followed Fin to his office.

  “For the love of God, Fin, tell me you are not going to let women train in the gym.” After Falon spoke I was sure I was never going to find out what happened between Fin and Brooklyn or at least not until I posted bail for Fin after he killed his brother.

  “Man, go back to the ink shop before your brother kills you,” I said and then placed my arm around Brook to lead her to the chair behind the desk. She was acting stunned and I needed to know what happened to put her in this state. It couldn’t have been what took place just a minute ago, she was used to that show, we all were, growing up around the O’Malley’s.

  “Fine, when you guys get ready to head back to the hospital call the shop. One of us will come over,” Falon said and walked off.

  Brook sat down in the chair and I leaned over and kissed her head. She still hadn’t said a word and I hoped Fin didn’t take too long with Mel. I needed to know what took place between them.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Brooklyn

  He did not just say that to me! It had to be a mistake, no way would he ever say something like that to me. Shit, the planets were not aligned in a strange way to make people hallucinate or something. Oh my God I was swearing now too, being around these two all of the sudden I had my potty mouth back. When I was younger it was the way; however, when I went to college I figured out real fast there was a whole other world out there and if you wanted to be taken seriously in the work place, you needed to act professional. So I had cleaned up my swearing, I did, but one damn day with these two and suddenly I wanted to scream curses.

  I looked up at Tony who was looking worried about something, and I smiled faintly at him. “How was your day?” I asked softly, hoping to distract him.

  “Fine, how was yours? If your frown is anything to go by I would say not very good, honey. What happened?” Tony said softly.

  “Nothing, oh fine,” I snapped when Tony raised his eyebrows. “Fin and I went to see my mom, and then lunch, Mia showed up and suddenly everything went wacky. Fin and Mia were talking in some code I had no idea what they were talking about. I mean I told him I wasn’t going to stay at his house when Ma got out of the hospital because I was trying to be nice and let him know I was leaving so you could bring your women back to his house and not feel uncomfortable that I was there. He didn’t believe me when I said I read books about ménages, I know how they work, and having another woman in the house while you are trying to woo your woman would be like awkward for everyone. But noooo, he had to freaking laugh and be weird and then he announces all nonchalantly that you both don’t want any one woman, that you had already found her. I said good, then he just says it was me. ME? Like I freaking know what the hell he’s talking about. It is not possible, there is no way you want me, I am just Brooklyn, normal Brooklyn.”

  Tony was frowning and looking at the door, yeah, I was right, I totally was right. Fin had said they wanted me and Tony didn’t want me, and so it was all a mistake, all of it. Thank goodness Fin chose that moment to walk in, because I could leave, this was humiliating.

  “Okay, well I am totally out of here,” I said, attempting to stand up, but then Tony was standing in front of me blocking me.

  “Don’t think so, baby.” Tony smiled and then shook his head at Fin. “What the fuck, man, you just threw that on out there and then didn’t explain. You freaked her out. You know the first rule is trust, you can’t just do that.”

  “I didn’t just throw it out there. You weren’t there, she was saying she was leaving and shit, and not making any sense since we had already told her this morning what we wanted and she agreed and suddenly she is talking about other women and shit. I just set her straight, she said she wanted it like that and I gave it to her,” Fin said and looked at Brooklyn. “Baby girl, I swear I thought you understood this morning.”

  “Why would I think you are talking about me?” I yelled at then crossed my arms.

  “Baby,” Tony said in a soothing tone. “Why would we not, since we saw you again you are all we think about.”

  “What?” I said, looking between him and Fin, impossible.

  “You,” Tony said. “We want you, both of us.”

 
I looked again between the two of them and realized they were serious, like this wasn’t a joke. My mouth opened and shut and Fin smiled and crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah, baby, I see it is sinking in. We want you, and only you.”

  “But, but, but,” I sputtered. “You have known me since we were young, you never have acted like I was anything but invisible, why on earth would you be doing this now?”

  Tony laughed loudly. “Let’s see, because we kissed you last night, and trust me, if the parents wouldn’t have shown up we would have both been in that sweet pussy of yours. You have no idea the thoughts we have been having, and yeah, baby girl, I know we have known you since we were little but we weren’t the men we are right now, and right now, we know you are ours in a way we know will last. So we are gonna explore this, together, and while we do, we are gonna keep you safe, keep your mother and brother safe, and you are not gonna give us any shit, or I’ll tie you to our bed and not let you come until I am ready to, if you would like to argue with us. ‘Cause then, you would know you were ours, and there would be no argument. So what is it gonna be, are you gonna let us show you how good we could be together or are you gonna fight with us every step of the way? It doesn’t matter to us.”

  I was trying to keep up with him, but when he said the ‘p’ word, seriously I stopped listening. I was already wet, no shit, I was feeling hot and bothered, just ‘cause he said that word. Shit.

  “And, sweetheart,” Fin said and bent low so I had to practically lean forward to hear what he was saying. “Please pick the latter, I would love to see you tied to our bed and spread wide for us.”

  Shit, shit, shit. I was so not equipped to deal with this. The books didn’t even come close to helping me deal with this. I felt a small thrill, they wanted me, me boring Brooklyn. Shit.

  Fin

  Brooklyn was so damn cute, everything about her was fucking cute and I couldn’t help but smile at her confusion and adorable cluelessness. She seriously didn’t think we were talking about her. Oh well, she knew now, and this was going to happen so she had better get used to it.

  I really hoped my brother didn’t piss that Mel off anymore, because after speaking to her briefly and finding out she was in the military, it made me think she could be the answer to our prayers. It pissed me off thinking about Brooklyn spending time with other men, if we got a woman on the security team, she could guard Brooklyn and we wouldn’t have to worry about Falon putting the moves on her.

  Mel would be a great addition too, she had training, it was obvious when she said she wanted to be in the advanced classes if we had them. I could train her myself and then I wouldn’t have to worry. Not that I would with my brothers, but damn, the way they were, I would kill them.

  “You can’t tie me to a bed, that is kidnapping,” Brooklyn said breathlessly. Oh yeah, we were getting to her. Nice.

  “Baby, we can do what we want when it comes to you. Trust me, you are ours,” Tony said slowly and Brook frowned.

  “What does that mean?” she cried and I grinned.

  “Okay, giving it to you straight,” I said and her eyes came to mine and she nodded.

  “We already told you what we had decided, that we wanted a woman to share. Now, that is not for one night, when we say you are ours, we mean, you are ours for the long haul. We want a permanent relationship with you,” I said.

  “But that is illegal!” she hissed.

  “No it isn’t, when we finally claim our woman, one of us will marry her, most likely Tony because he has more to lose if something happens to us. Plus, his insurance is awesome. No one needs to know what we do in the bedroom, but we will all live in my house, together. Our families will know and we will not hide our relationship in public, we don’t give two shits what people think,” I continued.

  “If it makes you feel better,” Tony said softly. “We have already seen this work with our friends. The women are loved and cared for and are very happy. We can make this work.”

  I watched as Brooklyn struggled with this, damn it, maybe it was too soon.

  “I don’t care about that,” Brooklyn said and I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “Jeez, I just can’t figure out why you want me.”

  Tony

  “Seriously?” I said incredulously. “We are still there?”

  “Yes, damn it,” she said and then pushed her way until she was standing up. “I don’t want you to think I am something I am not, and then suddenly dump me.”

  Fin and I both burst out laughing. Brooklyn frowned, crossed her arms and snapped, “What? This is serious! What if we don’t work, like you know…in the bedroom.”

  “Baby girl,” Fin said and went to her and pulled her into his arms. “I have no fucking doubt in my head we are going to work.”

  “Absolutely, sweetheart,” I said, stepped to her back, moved her hair, and kissed her neck softly.

  “Oh wow,” Brooklyn said breathlessly again.

  Just when we were going to take it further the phone on my desk rang, damn it all to hell, why? Brooklyn froze and I stepped back and sighed. Fin glared at me and I went to the phone and picked it up.

  “Anthony?” my mother screamed into the phone and I grimaced. Really, cockblocked by my mother yet again.

  “Ma, I don’t have—” I said.

  “I am at the hospital visiting Ms. Maddie, and some man named Jet told me to call you, he is cute, you know your sister—”

  “Ma, what?”

  “Oh sorry,” my mother said. “There is a boy here, I don’t know his name, but the man said the doctor said they are going to wake him up and you need to get here.”

  I looked at Fin and said, “They are waking up Brant.”

  Brooklyn frowned and said, “Is he ready?”

  “The doctors wouldn’t wake him up unless he was,” Fin said and then grabbed Brooklyn’s purse and handed it to her. “Come on, sweetheart, we need to get back to the hospital.”

  “But I could just…” she argued and I hung up on my mother for the second time in a week.

  “No you can’t just go home. You are with us,” I said and walked to the door and smiled when I heard her mutter.

  “How do you keep doing that?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Fin

  When we arrived at the hospital and reached Ms. Maddie’s room, raucous laugher greeted us as we pushed open the door.

  “There they are,” Ms. Maddie cooed. If I hadn’t seen this woman lying in a puddle of her own blood a few days ago with my own eyes, I would never have believed she’d been shot. She sat up in bed, her hair fixed and looking as if she was ready for whatever life brought her. And I’m sure it had to do with the two women who were visiting her.

  “Hey, son, everything going alright?” my mother said on her way toward us. I opened my arms to receive my standard hug and watched as she passed by grabbing Brooklyn in an embrace. What the hell?

  “Anthony, we left the lasagna in the fridge, it only has to be heated and the garlic bread is on the counter. Plus we placed a salad in the refrigerator too,” Sonia said to her son as she too walked past and hugged Brook. When I looked over at Tony, he had to be wearing the exact same expression on his face as I did. I’m sure we were both wondering what had been going on in this room.

  “Thanks, Mom. Appreciate it.”

  “Olivia and I set several casseroles in the freezer too. Should last a few days. But you know my pasta is best eaten fresh.” Sonia was right, but no way I was saying that in front of my mom. The woman didn’t raise any fools.

  “Come give an old lady a hug, boys. We were just chatting about you three,” Ms. Maddie said. And there it was.

  “You are looking mighty good, Ms. Maddie,” I said, leaning down and kissing her cheek. Then I raised up just enough to whisper in her ear, “And what have you three been up to?” Ms. Maddie laughed and took her hug from Tony when I stepped back.

  “Ah, now what fun would your mothers and I have if we shared everything with
you kids.” She smiled and the other two women moved back beside her bed and smiled right along with her. They knew. I didn’t know how, but it reminded me when we were kids and no matter what went down, these women knew before any of us got back home. As a kid it had been freaky, and as a grown man, it was downright frightening.

  “I’m with Fin, what have you three been up to?” Yeah, Tony was getting the same vibes.

  “Please, why do you always think something is going on? We are visiting our friend for crying out loud. You know, Anthony, your faith in me is hurtful.” If there was any doubt they’d been up to something, it was gone. And if we hung around long enough it would all come out.

  “Brooklyn? Girl, what is wrong with you? You are being awful quiet and you look a little flushed. Come over here and give your mother a hug.” Brooklyn went to her mother and kissed her cheek. She hadn’t said a word since we left the gym, she didn’t even buck when Tony and I each grabbed one of her hands as we walked through the parking lot to enter the hospital. I hoped it meant that she was processing the fact she was going to be ours and not thinking of a way to get out of it.

  “Ma, you look better than you did this morning. What gives?” Brook stepped back, running her eyes over her mom.

  “Well, the doctor came in this afternoon and said I was doing great, that if I did okay today, then tomorrow I could be released.”

  “Oh my God, that is great, Ma,” Brooklyn said and looked toward Tony and me as if waiting for us to comment.

  “Ms. Maddie, that is awesome,” Tony said.

  “You going to need anything special when you get released? We will get it and have it at the house ready for you.” If she needed anything from the medical supply place, I could send a couple of the guys to go pick it up if the store couldn’t get it delivered before she got there.