The Harder He Falls
Sidney Bristol
So Inked, Book 2
A woman who doesn’t have time for love…
A hot night full of hotel-destroying sex was all Kellie wanted from her client-turned-sex god. Between family and work, there isn’t room for love, just hot, sweaty lust. An arrangement for mutual gratification is exactly what Kellie wants, but every kiss, each mind-blowing orgasm twines her heart around a man she cannot have.
A man building a new life…
Quinton’s assumptions about the So Inked shop owner are turned on their head after one session under her tattoo machine. Kellie’s not the vandal he’s looking for, but she’s the woman he wants. In his bed, on the desk or under the stars, he’ll take her any way he can get her. But Quin has secrets and someone is out to destroy him. Someone who has their sights set on Kellie now.
A Romantica® contemporary erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave
The Harder He Falls
Sidney Bristol
Dedication
For Grandpa. You never knew me, but I knew you.
Thank you to all the readers who wanted to know what happened after Under His Skin. It took a village and several boxes of tissues to get me through this book.
My critique partners, Suzan, Lea, Rebekah, Sophia, Carolyn and Jessica, you guys were patient as I worked through this story.
Alice and her mother Janet, for all of the super serious conversations about cursing in Spanish.
Lastly, my editor Jillian, who teaches me something new with every book.
Chapter One
Dragons—In Japanese culture and tattoos, these symbolize balance and wisdom. There are six main dragons used in traditional body art. Han-Riu, Kai-Riu, Sue-Riu, Ri-Riu, Hai-Riyo and Fuku Riu.
Kellie ducked, barely missing the wok pan that sailed through the space her head had just occupied. She winced as the pan crashed into something made of glass and clattered to the floor. Her grandmother stood in the middle of the kitchen, brandishing a rolling pin and a feather duster.
“Grandma, please stop,” she yelled in Korean over the little woman’s shrill voice.
Grandma Cho Hee shuffled toward her, a dirty housedress hanging off one shoulder and her glasses tilting dangerously on her nose. Kellie wanted to sit down on the floor, wrap her arms around herself and cry, but she didn’t have that luxury.
She rushed at Grandma, hating how the older woman’s face contorted into a mix of fear and confusion. Her eyes widened and she sucked in a breath for a scream, dropping the rolling pin as Kellie wrapped her arms around her, hugging the frail woman who’d raised her, trapping Grandma’s arms. Kellie pressed her face into Grandma’s graying hair and smelled the same fragrance that had clung to Grandma all her life, a combination of herbs and flowers that was uniquely her.
“Grandma, it’s me,” she said as calmly as she could, though her voice wavered. She stuck to Korean these days when talking to Grandma because that was all she understood now. This was getting to be too much.
The old woman squirmed in her grasp, but Kellie was bigger, stronger and had gone through this same song and dance before. Gently she rocked her back and forth, as if she were a baby.
“Once there were three bears,” she sang, squeezing her eyes shut. “Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Baby Bear. Papa Bear was chubby and fat. Mama Bear was slender and tall. Baby Bear was the cutest one of all. That’s because he was so small.” The old Korean nursery rhyme had been sung to her as a child. Grandma had changed the Baby Bear to a girl, but she was too far gone to accept the deviation from the original verse.
Grandma stilled in her arms.
Leaning back, Kellie gazed down at her creased face. There was a glimmer in Grandma’s eyes, as if she were surfacing, or trying to. It broke Kellie’s heart, watching Grandma slip further and further away and not being able to do anything to stem the tide of Alzheimer’s.
She straightened the glasses and smoothed Grandma’s hair back behind her ears. “Remember me, Grandma?”
For a long moment they studied each other. Grandma slowly shook her head. “Aniyo.”
Kellie’s breath caught in her throat. How long had it been since Grandma had said yes? Kellie had marked it on a calendar in the kitchen, but while she’d been at work one day, Grandma had burned the calendar to make tea. The girl who’d volunteered to watch her hadn’t even noticed.
Kellie patted Grandma’s shoulders and reached for the feather duster. “It’s okay. I’m someone who loves you very much. I’ll never leave you.”
Holding her breath, she waited for what Grandma would say next, but she merely blinked.
Glancing around the kitchen, Grandma muttered something under her breath and turned away. She shuffled through the kitchen and disappeared into the living room. If she followed her normal routine, she’d watch TV for a while before getting frustrated by the English-language shows.
Kellie picked up a magnetic letter from the floor and stuck it to the front of the refrigerator. Grandma had taught her to spell in English with the old plastic letters while Grandma cooked. Kellie had brought them back out in the hopes they would trigger a memory, but they’d been ignored.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. This was not how she’d wanted to begin the day. Rubbing her temples, she glanced at the mess of rice and sauce smeared on her shirt. Stripping it off, she tossed it through the open door into the miniscule laundry room and retreated to her bedroom. She’d been getting ready to leave, so she’d already locked the door.
She’d tried to leave her family home relatively unchanged in the hopes that it would jar Grandma’s memories, but even that wasn’t helping anymore. The lock on her bedroom had been one of the first alterations she had to make, both for her sanity and Grandma’s safety. Kellie and her partner weren’t completely moved into the new tattoo shop, and she still had tattoo equipment stored in her bedroom.
Kellie unlocked the padlock and stepped inside. Grabbing one of her white So Inked tank tops from a laundry bin next to the door, she pulled it on and glanced at her reflection. A navy bra with its smattering of pink flowers showed through the thin fabric, but she couldn’t muster enough energy to care. She locked the door and tiptoed back to the kitchen. Since Grandma’s hearing wasn’t so great anymore, Kellie could get by with sneaking around the house.
Her sitter for the day should already have arrived. It wasn’t like Grandma Gang to be late.
Scooping up her bag, Kellie escaped into the sweltering heat. Perspiration broke out along her spine and hairline immediately. Texas was in the grip of summer, cruel mistress that she was.
Kellie managed her grandmother’s condition with the aid of a small army. When the home-care workers couldn’t be with her, the Korean community stepped in. The women congregated at her house and prepared food or did crafts with the children during the day. Without them, Kellie wouldn’t have been able to keep Grandma in the home she’d built with Grandpa after arriving in America. Still, it was a juggling act and with Grandma’s deteriorating condition, it was getting harder.
Today was one of those days.
Usually Kellie paid a home-care worker named Natalie to care for Grandma and supplemented that care with Grandma’s oldest friend, Sang Hee Gang. But Kellie didn’t like to leave the elderly woman alone with Grandma for more than a few hours, especially as Grandma became more confused. Throwing things was new and worrisome. Today Kellie didn’t have much of a choice. Natalie was unavailable and Kellie needed to go to the shop to do tattoos for some much-needed cash.
They’d been expecting a drought—no work and a hundred things to pay for. Instead the tragedy brought in a whole new wave of business. They d
esperately needed it to make the new shop a success and pay the bills.
Sometimes being self-employed sucked. There were no benefits to fall back on, but they’d each scraped together what they could to make it work.
Kellie dropped her bag in her Scion Cube and cut across her yard to Grandma Gang’s. Oddly, the cars were all gone.
She knocked on the door and waited but no one answered.
“Well shit,” she grumbled, digging out her cell phone.
Grandma Gang didn’t have a cell phone. She barely deigned to use the cordless phone in her house, or cable or the new electric stove. If she had her way, nothing would have changed since her days as a young woman in a bright new country.
Kellie punched in the number for Shin, Grandma Gang’s grandson and possibly Kellie’s least favorite person, then hit the call button. Since she’d lost the bid on acquiring the gym her grandfather had owned, Shin had hassled her numerous times to try again. She might be a whiz with numbers, but even she couldn’t make money appear out of thin air.
Time ticked by. Time she needed to get to So Inked and set up for her three o’clock appointment.
The line rang and rang. It was an odd role reversal. Usually she was the one ignoring Shin’s calls. She left a quick message and shoved her phone in her pocket.
“Well hell,” she muttered.
What did she do now?
There was a slight chance Grandma Gang could be in the sunroom at the opposite side of the house. Her hearing had deteriorated lately. Deciding to take a chance, Kellie let herself into the backyard.
There were boxes of spray paint, sporting equipment and other odds and ends tossed in old milk crates next to the house. Four generations lived in the Gang house and they overflowed the house and garage.
She peered into the back windows but no lights beckoned and no people moved around.
Sometimes her life seriously sucked.
Kellie sighed and trudged back to her car, rolling her choices around in her head. She couldn’t leave Grandma alone. It would be irresponsible. People didn’t leave their toddlers alone, and the same went for her grandmother.
She leaned against the Cube and dialed her best friend.
It rang once.
“I’m going to shove a chainsaw up Mr. Fucking Ricky’s ass.” Mary, the co-owner and Kellie’s best friend, continued her tirade from there in Spanish Kellie couldn’t follow.
Kellie chuckled and shook her head. Lately Mary’s son Sam was having problems with his economics teacher. Every day seemed to bring some new quality to light about the decrepit Mr. Ricky.
“Hey, senorita,” Kellie bellowed over her friend.
Mary stopped speaking.
“What the hell happened?”
Mary blew into the phone. “Aye, hurry up and get here, okay? Brian and Pandora just pulled up, and they’re going to make me sick with their mushy crap.”
Kellie chuckled. “Want to place a bet on how long it takes those two to shack up and put one in the oven?” Although Kellie loved Pandora as if she were a kid sister, it was hard not to be either jealous or sick of her very involved relationship with the former rock star.
“Díos, please let it be soon. I’ll see you in a bit.”
“That’s what I called about.” Her stomach plummeted. If Pandora was at the shop, she must have an appointment.
“What now, chica?”
“I don’t have anyone to watch Grandma today.” She sighed and scrubbed a hand over her face.
Mary muttered something under her breath. “What do you need me to do?”
“Can you get that client’s number from the system and reschedule him for me? I’ll be there Sunday but I have a pretty full day. If he’s willing to come in late I’ll make it work, but the best time would be later in the week. What’s the guy’s name anyway?”
“Quin Berkus. Never heard of him. I’ll take care of it.” She paused and Kellie knew what was coming. “How bad are you off?”
Numbers scrolled by in her head. Medicine. Health care costs. Food. Equipment. It all added up, but subtracting that from her bank account left it in the black. If it were any other person Kellie would tell them to go fuck themselves before she talked money. But Mary was closer than family. “Not bad, just not comfortable.”
“Let me know if you need anything. We’ll make it work.”
“Yeah, I know.” Kellie chewed her lip for a moment. “Heard from Autumn?”
“No. Have you?”
“Sure,” she lied and a little piece of her died. If Autumn kept missing work, Mary would show no remorse in cutting her loose.
“Okay. I just hope she gets her ass in here.”
“Hey, I’m going to let you go and see if I can’t scrounge something up. Maybe one of the gym guys will want something I can do at home.”
After a quick goodbye, she hung up with Mary. Whatever funk Autumn was in needed to get fixed soon. Kellie couldn’t keep covering for her. It was adding up to too much on her plate. Grandma, Autumn, So Inked—if Kellie didn’t work some stress out soon she was going to go crazy.
Usually her solution for anything of this nature would be to put in a few hours at the gym, beat someone senseless in the ring and call it a day. But the gym was no longer an option. At least not the one her grandfather had built with his blood, sweat and tears. Grandma had sold it to a close friend when Kellie was a little girl.
She’d tried to get them to diversify, offer yoga and Pilates classes next to the traditional tae kwon do and mixed martial arts training. After all, with big organizations like the Ultimate Fighting Championship making people interested in all types of martial arts, boxing and wrestling, they needed to capitalize on the popularity. And fighters had girlfriends and wives who wanted to work out too. But the owners had been traditionalists, unwilling to bend on what they thought the gym should be. With the recession, they hadn’t stood a chance.
Grabbing her bag from the Cube, she made her way back to the house.
Her phone rang halfway to the door. She glanced at the display and steeled herself before answering.
“Hey, Shin.”
“Good afternoon, Cho Hee,” Shin said in Korean.
There were plenty of people in the local community who preferred their native language, but for some reason the musical words rolling off Shin’s lips bugged her. Not to mention that he never actually called her by her chosen name. She’d thought it cute when they were kids, but there were a lot of things Kellie had grown out of. Her mother and Shin’s parents had pressed on her that they were the perfect match. As traditionalists it made sense. Kelli wasn’t a traditionalist. The short time her father had been alive during her life bore his mark.
“Hey, I didn’t see your grandma around. Do you know where she is?” Just to spite him, she stuck to English. Kellie had never been very good at being anything but herself.
“Mother took her in to see the doctor this morning. She was complaining of chest pains. It’s probably indigestion.”
The flippant way he spoke of his family’s health sparked the urge to punch him between the eyes. Grandma Gang might not be related to Kellie, but the woman had always been kind to her, a half-breed, when others snubbed her for having a white father. Sometimes she was ashamed that she’d caved to pressure and taken her Korean last name instead of her father’s. It was also one of the reasons she’d entertained the idea of a life with Shin for so long—getting another grandma in the bargain—but nothing was worth the misery putting up with Shin would bring.
“I hope she feels better soon. I’ll be sure to drop by later and see how she is. Well, that’s all I wanted—”
“You didn’t work hard enough to buy back the gym,” Shin spat, anger boiling in his voice.
Weren’t they through with this argument? Kellie dropped her bag next to the front door and pressed her back against the wall. The house provided just enough shade to cover her and no more.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I did look in
to it.” Why was she explaining herself to him?
“I can’t believe that you would allow the Nahm family legacy to die like this.”
Guilt ate at her stomach. She could only be so many things before she lost herself in the demands of others. In a perfect world she could co-own the tattoo shop and the gym, but even with her mad number skills, it wasn’t possible. Plus, the gym had already been flipped and reopened, but she wasn’t going to tell Shin that.
“I’m sorry that you feel that way, but it’s out of my hands now. I’ll catch you later.”
“You should reconsider my offer for marriage.”
Kellie snorted. Her? Married to him? He’d wreck her bank account and trash her grandma’s house. Not to mention they couldn’t stand to be in the same room together for more than five minutes. “Not going to happen. I really don’t get this fascination you have with self-torture. Go find yourself a bride somewhere else.”
“Wait. We can still—”
“Bye, Shin.”
She clicked the red button and never felt more relieved about cutting someone off mid-sentence.
Fuck Shin.
Fuck his expectations.
And fuck this day.
* * * * *
Quin held up the boxing mitts. “Imagine it’s Greg’s face right here.”
Mouse’s attention strayed over Quin’s shoulder. “Man, your baby mama’s headed this way and she looks pissed.”
Quin glanced behind him and, sure enough, Penny was headed straight for them. He grit his teeth even as the fighters paused in their training to watch her pass. Her scowl was enough to ward away even the most seasoned man training today. Too bad Quin didn’t have the option not to deal with her.
“Keep them going.” He jerked his head toward the group running through wrestling-style takedown drills. There were four different stations in today’s mixed martial arts training routine, and enough going on that he didn’t need Penny being a distraction.
The Harder He Falls: 2 (So Inked) Page 1