Tatted and Tamed (KO Ink Book 5)

by Harley McRide

  Cal held up his hands and said, “Calm the fuck down, bro. Listen before you jump down our throats. We were trying to make sure your woman was safe and taken care of. You know, and none of us actually thought about Mel here getting the piercing, it was more like Petal said, ‘hey have you seen this’. We all looked and then it went from there.”

  Falon glared and shook his head. “Not helping.”

  I stepped forward and leaned in, grabbing his shirt and I whispered, “They suggested a tracking device because they care. The only options are something hidden and small. Now we got a choice of how we do this. I can put one in my ear, bellybutton or nipple. If one of those are ripped out, then we got a problem.”

  Falon shifted and looked down and looked over my shoulder and glared at Michael. “Fine, but I want an app on my phone. I want to be able to track my pussy every single second.”

  I frowned and said, “Um seriously?”

  Falon grinned down at me and said, “Sounds good when I said that out loud, huh? My pussy?”

  “I will kill you in your sleep if you keep saying that,” I responded and then turned and walked out the door while Falon laughed loudly.

  Chapter Twelve

  Falon

  Sean looked at me as the meeting broke up. I nodded to him and he sat back down and waited. Soon the others had cleared out and I said, “Listen, I need to tell everyone today, something happened before I came in and I think it has something to do with this case.”

  “Okay, so you are finally telling them?” Sean said and I nodded.

  “I told Mel last night,” I admitted and Sean grinned.

  “Pussy whipped.”

  I rolled my eyes and said, “Maybe, just wait until it happens to you.”

  Sean shook his head. “Nah, man, I’m happy with the way things are going.”

  Fin walked back in and hit me in the back of the head. “You fucker!”

  “Hey, I’m not the one who was talking about another woman’s clit,” I argued and he rolled his eyes.

  “Yeah, well Tony is taking Brook home, apparently she has something she wants to tell us, she is cooking dinner and needed to stop at the store,” Fin said absently, I knew the news and also knew what she had planned. I had to admit it was kinda cute. She was gonna make cupcakes and on the top of them she was going to put the word ‘daddy’. Tomorrow should be a good day for the O’Malley clan, another baby on its way.

  “Where are the others?” I said and Fin looked up and frowned.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “I gotta tell you something, and I want to tell you all at the same time, because this isn’t something I can tell you separately,” I said and Fin’s frown deepened more and he nodded slowly, then picked up his phone and texted everyone.

  I walked to the table and sat down. I heard the thumping on the stairs and then Cal and Michael walked into the room.

  “What’s the deal?” Michael said and plopped down in a chair next to me.

  “Falon wants to talk to us all together,” Fin said gruffly and all of his brothers looked at him.

  Bry came in a second later and said, “If this is about the piercing, I had nothing to do with it.”

  “It doesn’t,” Fin said slowly. “Falon said he needed to talk to us all together about something.”

  Bry frowned and turned to me and said, “Why? What is wrong? You had your doctor’s checkup today, didn’t you? What did they say?”

  I sighed and said, “I’m fine, that isn’t what I wanted to talk to you about either.”

  Fin sat down and said, “Okay, what is up then?”

  I looked at Sean who nodded and smiled. I took a deep breath and said, “You all know when we were talking the other day about me keeping a secret?”

  “Yeah,” Cal said slowly.

  “Well, listen, when I was in high school,” I started.

  “Oh my God, you got someone pregnant. Mom and Dad are gonna flip the fuck out,” Fin said and I rolled my eyes.

  “No, shut up, asshole,” I replied and then shook my head. “No, I didn’t get someone pregnant. But I did find what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I just didn’t know how the hell to tell you guys without sounding stupid.”

  Cal frowned. “Stupid? Dude, we wouldn’t have thought anything you were good at was stupid.”

  “Oh really? So when you all gave me shit about mixing colors so they were perfect, you all said I was getting in touch with my ‘feminine side’,” I snapped and Michael smiled.

  “Well, you gotta admit, any dude who knows what the color of lilac is, down to the perfect combination, is just setting themselves up to be given shit,” Michael chuckled.

  “Oh, how about the time I got that award for my tat that looked like a watercolor painting,” I said and Fin smiled.

  “It wasn’t the award, or the tattoo. It was the fact that you knew the name of the artist who did the watercolor and told everyone in the shop the history of the painting and the artist. I mean come on.”

  I glared and said, “This is why I didn’t tell you.”

  “Tell us what? Just spit it out!” Fin said loudly and sighed.

  “Fine,” I said back and then continued with my belligerent tone. “My art teacher told me that I had talent, she showed someone who thought I had talent. It kinda went from there, and suddenly they wanted more and more paintings, I was featured in some group shows. People were buying my paintings, and so the lady at the gallery in New York, the one who my teacher put me in contact with, her name is Mrs. Grossman. She asked me if I had any galleries wanting for me to be the showcase. I didn’t, she said she was interested. So I signed a contract with her, and she took care of putting shows together for me all across the country. The prices went higher and higher. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I mean, I was warned that sometimes artists are a flash in the pan. I didn’t want to tell anyone in case it all fell apart. I mean it could have in the blink of an eye. Well, about five years ago, the gallery owner asked if I was interested in sending some of my pieces overseas to a few galleries over there. I said sure, thinking they may do okay. If I sold one, I was gonna be thrilled. She called me after the first show and said they loved them. All of my paintings sold and sold fast. It was awesome. I was trying to balance everything, I mean we were just coming back home, looking for a place to open Slinging Ink. So I just kept doing what I was doing. Working and then painting at home. I was making money, so I kept socking it away. Then last year Mrs. Grossman and I talked, she wants to retire in a few years, but she wants to make sure I’m covered, you know? She has a protégé she is cool, Mrs. Grossman asked if I wanted to become part owner of the gallery, she doesn’t want to sell it to just anyone. So, I bought half, but I’m a silent partner, like way silent. I only paint and shit.”

  I could have heard a pin drop when I finished. My brothers looked at me in shock. I felt like I had to say something else so I said, “Oh, and Sean knew about it. He didn’t tell you either.”

  Bry, Fin, Michael, and Cal swung their heads to Sean who was smiling and he held out his hands and said, “Hey, I can’t help it if you were all blind to what our brother was doing. I mean it was obvious. He is just always so easy to blame, to push to the side because he is never serious. Hell, thinking he was doing something instead out fucking a woman was so hard to believe.”

  Fin looked back to me and said, “Dude, I have no words. How in the fuck could you not tell us about this. You are an artist, like a well-known one?”

  I shrugged and Sean smiled. “Yeah, he is.”

  Bry shook his head. “I’m shocked you kept this from us, but it is cool. So, what kind of paintings do you do?”

  I sighed and put my hand on the table flat and said, “Abstract mostly.”

  Cal said, “Why now? I mean, you could have kept on going and we would never have found out.”

  I nodded. “Okay, that is another part of this. So Mrs. Grossman called this morning, said a client wanted to meet me and talk to me about s
omething. I went in and strangely enough, it was Bogdan Elson, the son of the man in the ER Mel was getting info on. Well, ole Bogdan wants me to paint them a family portrait because apparently the old man is a fan, but he is sick, his son wanted him to have something to make him happy.”

  Fin frowned and said, “Wait, are you shitting me right now?”

  I shook my head. “Nah, I am serious. Weird, huh?”

  “What did you say?” Fin asked and I shrugged.

  “I said no, I don’t do portraits.” They were silent again and I continued, “But they did give me a card, you know in case I changed my mind, he said his father would be over the moon if I did.”

  Cal said, “Would you feel comfortable, I mean, if we could get inside their house without alerting them that we were looking at them for all of this, it would be cool.”

  Once again I shrugged. “I could, I don’t usually do portraits but I have done them in the past, like a long time ago. They were okay, just not what I liked, you know?”

  “I gotta ask,” Fin said. “How in the hell did you hide this from us for so long if you are that good? I mean, we should have heard about you at some point.”

  I grinned. “I paint under an alias.”

  “An alias? Like a pen name?” Cal asked and I nodded.

  “What is your name?” Fin asked and pulled out his phone. “I wanna look you up.”

  I chuckled and said, “J. Holmes.”

  Sean laughed loudly and all of my brothers turned to look at him. “What?” Cal said and Sean hit the table with his hand while he laughed.

  “It was how I figured out it was actually Falon.”

  Fin frowned and punched in the name J. Holmes into his phone and I waited. I knew my stuff was at the top, mostly because Google went by dates and searches.

  “Hey,” Fin smiled and turned his phone around. “Look at this shit, you have your own Wikipedia page.”

  I nodded and said, “Yeah, I have a site as well, you can just click on it and see some of the painting and who owns them now. Some pretty big names on there if I do say so myself.”

  Sean laughed. “Come on, guys.”

  Cal frowned and then Bry said, “I don’t get it.”

  Sean sighed and then looked at me and shook his head. “You know, it is almost embarrassing to be their brother sometimes. I mean really? It is obvious.”

  “Not really since I’m not seeing what you are laughing at,” Michael said and Sean leaned forward and grabbed Fin’s phone and looked for a second and then put it on the table.

  “Just scroll down.”

  Fin picked it up and then did what our brother asked. More of my paintings, I knew, and I watched his face carefully so I knew when he hit it. His face turned red and then he burst out laughing. In fact, he laughed so hard Fin fell out of his chair and Sean joined in. Bry, Michael, and Cal looked confused but they pulled out their phones and then did the same search Fin did. It only took a second and then Bry laughed loudly and Cal looked at me with a shocked expression.

  “Please tell me you did not use that name for the reason I think you did,” Michael snapped and I shrugged.

  “Well, Mrs. Grossman asked me when I was like twenty for a name. It took me months thinking of one, none of them seemed to fit. So, when she ran out of patience, she called when I was sitting in a strip club and honest to God, they had a stack of videos running on the cameras, I looked up, and damned if I didn’t just blurt out the name that was flashing on the screen before it started.”

  Cal shook his head. “Man, I wanna be there when you tell Ma.”

  I frowned and then shook my head. “She won’t know who that is, I bet you twenty bucks she won’t.”

  “You do realize, he was big in the 70’s right? I mean, that is when our parents were young and shit. If we know who it is, they will too.” Cal laughed and Fin popped his head up and stared at me for a second before falling back to the ground and laughing harder.

  “Come on!” I snapped. “It’s not that funny.”

  Sean wiped his face, he had tears rolling down his cheeks. “Man, I have waited for a long time for you guys to figure this out. Do you know how hard it was to keep this shit to myself?”

  “Okay,” I growled. “Really, it isn’t that funny.”

  Bry hit the table laughing loudly and Fin sat up again and they all looked at me before Bry said, “Dude, you named your alias after John Holmes, the porn star who everyone thought had the biggest dick ever. How is that not hilarious? Fuck me, I wanna be there when you tell Ma too.”

  Fin smiled and said “Come on, let’s tell them at Sunday dinner, it’s only a few more days, everyone will be there.”

  “Fuck no,” I snapped. “I wouldn’t do that to them, I told you guys together, and I will tell Mia and the parents together. Now, shut the fuck up.”

  Michael shook his head and said, “Oh no, we are totally getting a video of this shit.”

  I stood and shook my head and then turned to the door. “Nope, you aren’t invited.”

  “Come on, this is like a once in a lifetime deal.” Fin laughed loudly. “I mean come on. Only you would use the name of a porn star as an alias.”

  I stopped and turned back and smiled. “Yeah, well, we had something in common you know. He had a twelve-inch dick and well…” I said and pointed to the front of my pants.

  My brothers all fell out of their chairs laughing and I shook my head and walked out of the room. I really didn’t want to know WHY they were laughing, it could go either way really.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Mel

  I glared at Petal as she grinned and shook her head at me. “You know, being pissed at me because I have quick reflexes is not really rational, you know that right?” she said and I snapped.

  “That is not right, I mean come on, you stab my coochie with a fucking needle and I don’t even get the pleasure of hitting you for causing me pain.”

  Petal grinned bigger and said, “I told you, it was your choice, I could have changed out the one on your nipple, or done one somewhere else. You made the decision, don’t hit the person who did it.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Just saying, that was probably the worst pain I have ever felt,” I grumbled.

  Petal chuckled and said, “Maybe, but the good part is, not only can the guys track you, when this is over, you and Falon can have awesome sex. You have no idea what having that is gonna do to your sex life. My guys love it.”

  “Shit, after this, Falon is gonna be lucky if I ever let him touch me again,” I said and Petal laughed loudly.

  “Girl, trust me, you will.”

  “Are you done?” I heard Falon yell from outside the room.

  Petal put a hand over her mouth and whispered, “Don’t hurt him yet. And make sure you tell him no sex, read the directions on how to take care of it.”

  I glared then grabbed the doorknob and opened the door to find Falon leaning against the wall, looking devastatingly handsome, something that right now pissed me the fuck off. I walked slowly out of the room. I was hurting, maybe I needed an ice pack like Petal recommended.

  “Hey,” Falon said seriously as he looked closely at me to see how I was dealing with the pain. I could see the concern in his eyes, dammit, why did he need to be sweet right now, I would prefer if he was an asshole, it would give me a reason to punch someone. Hey, I could always go and find Jet, he was a dipshit.

  “Hey,” I said softly, now that I had a plan to hurt someone other than Falon. “You know, I am pretty sure that whoever the bastards were that thought it would be a good idea to pierce a chick’s clit, seriously was a masochist. Plus, you know there is no sex, right?”

  Falon laughed softly and shook his head. “Yeah I know, sorry, baby.”

  I allowed him to take me into his arms and give me comfort. Dammit, Falon made it impossible to keep him at arm’s length, which was really annoying.

  “Do you want me to take you home? I need to go to my parents and tell them about the art thing. Yo
u left before I told them who the person was that requested me to come to the gallery. It was the son of the man in the hospital that night with Bob,” he said and I looked up.

  “The son? Seriously? What the hell was that about? And what did the doctor say?”

  “Cleared for driving.” Falon chuckled. “Fucking finally. And I am gonna call the guy back, he wanted me to do a portrait for his father. The guys think it would be a good way to get into their house, snoop around. Sean is going to be my assistant, at least that is what they were saying a few minutes ago.”

  “You are going to go into the house of the people we suspect to be the head of the Russian mob and snoop around?” I snarled and Falon looked down at me and grinned.

  “Aww, are you worried about me?”

  “Are you fucking serious? You aren’t even healed from those bastards shooting you. Plus, just two of you? Going in? How in the hell are you gonna have backup?” I half yelled.

  “Babe, calm down. The guys will make sure everything is okay, Bear and Bob are staying for a while, no one knows him. Fin talked about checking with him to see if he could help us out,” Falon said softly. “But it is cute as shit you are worried about me.”

  “Cute? You think this is cute? Falon, you need to think about this,” I said just as softly. “These guys are fucking serious, and you are at about seventy percent of your normal self. Which means you would still have a hard time fighting your way out of a paper bag.”

  Humor flitted through his eyes and he laughed. “Wow, come on, I think I can get out of a paper bag. Even the doctor gave me more odds than that. Come on, I got to get to the parents’ house before my brothers do. I really don’t want them to video my parents’ reaction.”

  I grinned and nodded. “I will come with you, but you still need to promise me you are gonna do everything you can to stay safe.”

  Falon turned and had a serious look on his face and looked down at me and said, “Baby, I will be fine, and everything will work out the way it’s supposed to. I can take care of myself, I know everyone thinks I am a goof, and I really don’t give a shit. However, I give a shit about your opinion, I need to know that you trust me to take care of you and me.”