Table of Contents
Author Highlights
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Ink Exposed
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
STORM
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
EVERLY
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
A Note from Carrie Ann
About Carrie Ann and her Books
Excerpt: Delicate Ink
Tattered Loyalties
Love Restored
Ink Exposed
A Montgomery Ink Novel
By
Carrie Ann Ryan
Ink Exposed
A Montgomery Ink Novel
By: Carrie Ann Ryan
© 2016 Carrie Ann Ryan
ISBN: 978-1-943123-46-9
Cover Art by Scott Carpenter
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All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.
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Author Highlights
Praise for Carrie Ann Ryan….
“Carrie Ann Ryan knows how to pull your heartstrings and make your pulse pound! Her wonderful Redwood Pack series will draw you in and keep you reading long into the night. I can’t wait to see what comes next with the new generation, the Talons. Keep them coming, Carrie Ann!” –Lara Adrian, New York Times bestselling author of CRAVE THE NIGHT
“Carrie Ann Ryan never fails to draw readers in with passion, raw sensuality, and characters that pop off the page. Any book by Carrie Ann is an absolute treat.” – New York Times Bestselling Author J. Kenner
"With snarky humor, sizzling love scenes, and brilliant, imaginative worldbuilding, The Dante's Circle series reads as if Carrie Ann Ryan peeked at my personal wish list!" – NYT Bestselling Author, Larissa Ione
"Carrie Ann Ryan writes sexy shifters in a world full of passionate happily-ever-afters." – New York Times Bestselling Author Vivian Arend
“Carrie Ann’s books are sexy with characters you can’t help but love from page one. They are heat and heart blended to perfection.” New York Times Bestselling Author Jayne Rylon
Carrie Ann Ryan's books are wickedly funny and deliciously hot, with plenty of twists to keep you guessing. They'll keep you up all night!” USA Today Bestselling Author Cari Quinn
"Once again, Carrie Ann Ryan knocks the Dante's Circle series out of the park. The queen of hot, sexy, enthralling paranormal romance, Carrie Ann is an author not to miss!" New York Times bestselling Author Marie Harte
Dedication
For those who think they don’t deserve an HEA.
Acknowledgements
It’s time! Alex and Tabby’s book is finally here. I’ve been eagerly anticipating this book since Delicate Ink back in 2014. I knew from the moment I wrote about an organized planner waiting in the wings that she’d be perfect for Alex. What’s funny is that nine out of ten readers thought Tabby would end up with Storm or Wes…or even both!
I knew, though, that Tabby needed someone else.
And Alex needed her even more.
Alex is an alcoholic. That is not a secret nor is the fact that his recovery has been hard. It has been over a year in terms of the characters’ lives so Alex could have time just be him, and not worry about his love life. I purposely wrote it this way because most people say that recovering addicts need that time. I didn’t want to rush him despite the fact that readers wanted his book ASAP.
I’m glad I didn’t.
In order to write this book I couldn’t have done it on my own. So thank you Team Carrie Ann for being amazing. Also, we need shirts that say this. I’m just saying.
Thank you Chelle for not only helping me plot, for editing my words so they made more sense than gibberish. Thank you Charity for being my right hand woman and being the best graphic artist and assistant ever. Thank you Tara for all the publicist and background work that go into each and every release. Thank you Avery Flynn, Kimberly Kincaid, Christi Barth, and Skye Jordan for not running away at the writing retreat when I said I wanted to write Alex’s book and I had a plot idea. You ladies rock.
Thank you Dr. Hubby for not only understanding when I need to work some weekends, but for holding me when I started sobbing writing this book. And thank you so freaking much for being my formatter. You never get annoyed (at least to me!) when I say I need you to fix something in my backmatter…in 55 books.
I love you.
Thank you bloggers and reviewers for helping me spread the word. You guys help me so much with each release and your support matters beyond words.
As always, thank you dear readers for sticking with me and for new ones for finding me!
Happy reading!
~Carrie Ann
Ink Exposed
The Montgomery Ink series continues with the brother that deserves a second chance, and the woman who has always loved him.
Alex Montgomery lost his first love and then proceeded to leave himself in the bottle. Only he and his ex-wife truly know why he fell so hard and so fast down a path he never thought he’d take. Now he’s clean, out of rehab, and learning how to be a Montgomery once again—a task that isn’t quite as easy as some of his family assumes.
Tabby Collins is an honorary Montgomery and the organizational mastermind behind Montgomery Inc., the family’s construction company. She loves her planners, friends, and a certain dark-haired man who’s never given her a second glance.
Alex is slowly re-immersing himself back into the world, but the demons he faced before aren’t out of the picture, and he’ll have to learn to rely on others to make it out whole. When Alex discovers that Tabby’s life is in danger, he not only finds a way to help her but also learns the true woman behind the soft smiles he’s always seen. Their romance won’t be an easy one, but nothing this passionate and heart-pounding ever is.
Chapter One
Alex Montgomery didn’t need a drink.
But he fucking craved one.
This feeling wasn’t new, of course. The craving was always there. It burned in his gut, spiraled up his spine, and parched his throat. It clawed at him, seduced him, rammed into him like it couldn’t help itself. It was like an angry linebacker, screaming in one ear while a seductive temptress whispered sexy innuendos in the other, both of them telling him to just take one drink.
It would only be one drink, they taunted. Just one.
Only it never ended at one drink.
Because Alex was an alcoholic. He hadn’t had a drink soothe his parched throat, or tried to drown his demons in over a year. He still couldn’t quite believe it sometimes, and yet, other times it felt as if it had been so much longer. Sixteen months sober, but an addict nonetheless. No matter how many days passed and how many drinks he didn’t imbibe, he’d always be an alcoholic. That was something he’d learned to face over the past few months, but sometimes knowing it didn’t make trying to live a normal life any easier.
“You’re here early,” Marie Montgomery said as she made her way to his side. He’d been standing outside even in the cold Denver air, but his mother had found him anyway. He loved the scent of mountains and comfort that seemed to permeate his childhood home, and just looking at the woman who’d raised him made him feel that much closer to what he’d lost…and that much farther away from where he’d started.
His mother had aged well, he thought. To the point he wasn’t sure she’d aged at all. If her genes were what the family could go by when they got older, then most of his siblings were going to look just fine as they entered their fifties and sixties. Alex had probably pickled his liver during his depression so he figured it probably wouldn’t be quite the same for him. He’d more than likely end up harder-edged than his already edgy siblings. But that had been his choice at one point, and then out of his hands after he’d fallen too hard. Now, he’d face the consequences of his decisions. And it was about time he faced the aftermath according to his sponsor and therapist.
His mother wrapped her arms around his waist and held on tightly. He ignored the way his stomach tightened, and hugged her back, the action almost rusty. It hadn’t been easy these past few months to remember how affectionate his family had once been with him. He’d pushed them all away over time, and he was just now learning how to come back—if there were a way to come back. When he closed his eyes and inhaled the scent that had once calmed him, he prayed that one day he’d find himself tranquil again.
He used to drink to forget, and then, because he didn’t know anything else, he’d kept drinking. But now, he needed to remember, damn it.
He kissed the top of his mother’s head since she was so much smaller than he was and took a step back. She was a few inches shorter than all of her sons and even a couple of inches shorter than her three daughters. How Marie Montgomery had been able to raise eight kids as well as all of their friends who’d come to their home day after day was beyond him.
“I’m glad you’re here, though.” She patted his chest and looked up at him with worried eyes. She always held that worry now; and he knew it was his fault that it was there.
“I wouldn’t be anywhere else,” he said honestly. His mother’s eyes softened, and he figured he’d said the right thing. “I know the family dinner starts in a couple hours, but I wanted to come early and see if I could help.” Though their family was considered huge in this day and age, the immediate family members all lived within thirty minutes of each other in the Denver suburbs. Some of them had moved away for a year or two for school or life, but they’d all come back to Denver in the end. Once he’d gotten out of rehab, he’d considered moving away and starting over, but he’d just be hurting those who had loved him through all his crap. They’d stayed with him, pushed him toward the decision he’d had to make for himself, and now, he was glad he’d stayed in the city.
At least, that’s how he felt in that moment. With the way his mind kept going in a thousand different directions, he could change his mind again soon.
Since his parents were ecstatic that all of their babies were so close, they held family dinners twice a month. Sometimes, they made it happen more often; sometimes, they could only get everybody together once, but all of Alex’s siblings tried to make it when they could. Add in the fact that the rest of his family had been having children at an alarming rate recently, and their family dinners were always loud, full, and exhausting.
Once again, he ignored the tightening in his stomach.
I can do this, he told himself again.
He’d been normal once. He could try to at least play at being normal again.
“Anyway, you could have come right into the house, Alex,” his mother continued. “You didn’t have to come in through the backyard. You could have just come right in through the front door. No need to even knock since you’re one of my babies. Since the chemo and radiation treatments are over, your father wasn’t taking a nap like he used to.”
Alex’s father, Harry, had battled prostate cancer the year before when Alex had been going through his own self-induced downward spiral. Alex hadn’t been in any shape to be the kind of son Harry needed when he’d faced death and won. Thankfully, Alex had four other brothers who were far stronger than he was, and three sisters who kicked ass at anything they did.
“I wanted to walk the long way before I made it inside.” He shrugged, and she gave him a curious look. He sighed and pointed to one of the picnic tables on the large patio his father and his brother Austin had built over a decade ago. Austin was a few years older than Alex and had always been good with his hands. Yet it had been the next two siblings in the line, Wes and Storm, who had joined Harry in his construction company. While Austin had opened his own tattoo shop with their sister, Maya.
“I brought my camera in case you wanted photos or something and figured I’d see if anything caught my eye out here.” He didn’t look in her direction as he said it, suddenly self-conscious. He was a photographer and photojournalist by trade, but he’d lost many of his contacts when he found himself at the bottom of a bottle. He’d spent the past year trying to atone for his sins, making new connections and repairing the ones he’d broken, but he wasn’t quite there yet.
His mother put her hand on his forearm, and he looked down at her again. “I think that would be wonderful. Nothing formal I suppose since we didn’t warn anyone, but I’d love some shots of the family being who they are and just enjoying themselves. You were always talented at capturing that.” Tears filled her eyes, and she blinked them away, though not fast enough for him not to feel like a heel for putting them there. “I look forward to seeing what you come up with. You’re so talented.”
He nodded, swallowing hard. Maybe one day he wouldn’t feel like a stranger in the home he’d grown up in, but today wouldn’t be that day. Hell, he felt like a stranger in his own skin, let alone allowing space for anyone else to see who he was.
He didn’t even know who he was anymore.
“Mrs. Montgomery?”
Alex turned at the sound of the soft voice behind him, his heart suddenly beating just a bit faster, though he didn’t know why.
Tabitha moved toward them, a hesitant smile on her face as she studied him and his mom. She wore her light auburn hair up high in a ponytail, but he was pretty sure at one point she’d been blonde. Though it might have just been a trick of the light. If he were honest with himself, he couldn’t quite remember much of the past couple of years. She was a little above average height and all legs—legs he’d checked out more than once in the past year.
But he’d always pushed those thoughts aside, just as he would now. He was in recovery, damn it, and though he was past the year mark that most people suggested addicts wait to start a relationship, he knew that Tabitha wouldn’t be the woman he started up with once he was ready.
She worked with his brothers, Storm and Wes, at Montgomery Inc. She was the administrative assistant for the construction company his parents had started before he was born, and he was pretty sure she ran the company with utmost efficiency. Wes might be super organized and diligent, but Alex knew Wes and Storm wouldn’t be able to function without Tabitha.
“Tabby!” His mother moved forward and brought the other woman into her arms.
Tabitha smiled fondly, this time not as hesitantly, and hugged his mother back. “Hi, Mrs. Montgomery. I thought I’d come a bit early and see if you needed help cooking today. Mr. Montgomery let me in and I saw you guys out here through the window.”
Alex stuffed his hands into his pockets and watched the way his mother fawned over Tabitha. He couldn’t really blame her either. There wasn’t a bad bone in Tabitha’s body, and every time he saw her, she was always put together and helping someone. He didn’t know if she had anyone at home waiting for her or family around here, but he knew the Montgomerys had taken her in anyway. They tended to do that to anyone they liked and admired who came near enough to their web.
“How many t
imes have I asked you to call me Marie, Tabby?” Marie held Tabitha’s hands and shook her head, though he could tell his mother was smiling.
“Every time I see you. But I have a bad habit I can’t seem to shake.” Tabitha looked up and over at Alex and smiled, though it wasn’t the same smile she’d given his mother, and he couldn’t quite read it. “Hi, Alexander.”
“Hi.” He always found it weird that they were the only ones who called each other by their full names but it had been one of those things that had stuck years ago, and he didn’t know how to change it. And frankly, he didn’t want to.
“Anyway, it’s Storm’s turn to help me in the kitchen if you want to join me,” Marie put in. “The rest of the kids and their babies will be here a bit later.” She looked over her shoulder. “Alex, honey, grab your camera and come inside. If you’re bored, you can help us start cooking.”
His stomach did that tightening thing again at the thought of being included, but this time, it didn’t hurt. No, it was more a warmth he couldn’t quite place. He kind of liked it.
“I can do that,” he said softly then went back to get his camera. He jogged to the picnic table and picked up his bag. His hands shook, and he forced himself to take a deep breath and count to ten.
“Are you okay?”
He turned on his heel, his eyes widening. He hadn’t heard Tabitha came up behind him, and he swallowed hard, his heart racing. “Yeah, just picking up my camera.”
She tilted her head, studying his face. “Okay. Your mom went into the kitchen to get her lists. Storm will be here in a few minutes, apparently. I hope you don’t mind that I came early to help out. I didn’t know you’d be here ahead of time, as well, and I didn’t mean to break up whatever you and your mom were planning.”
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