Page 50 of Fallen Ink

When the cops came, they took in the scene, and Adrienne knew that things would finally get back to normal—however normal things could get with the Montgomerys.

She’d fought back, she reminded herself. She’d won. And Mace being there was just icing on the cake.

* * *

“I’m fine, Mom, stop hovering.” Adrienne leaned into Mace’s side, her good shoulder against his firm skin. Daisy sat on his lap and moved over every once in a while so she could kiss Adrienne’s boo-boos. Adrienne had fallen in love with the kid, and she hadn’t even processed it, but they’d have time to figure it all out.

“You are in a sling for your shoulder and bruised from where that bastard threw you into the wall.” She winced and looked down at Daisy then at her granddaughter, Livvy, who was hiding behind Shae’s legs because she was being shy today. “Sorry. He got me all riled up. Don’t listen to me when I say bad things, honey.”

Daisy just smiled shyly before burrowing into Mace and reaching out to play with Adrienne’s hair.

“My shoulder will be fine in a couple weeks. I can still work some, just not as much as I want to, but there’s plenty of admin work I can do while the guys pick up the slack. I didn’t tear or break anything, just tweaked it.” She wanted to say more, but with Daisy in the room, she was afraid of things that might scare her.

“Hey, Daisy, can you show me your new toy box?” Roxie asked. “I didn’t get to see it before you got it. Want to come, too, Livvy?”

Daisy nodded and wiggled off Mace’s lap before taking Roxie’s hand and leaving the room. Livvy had taken Roxie’s other hand, and now it was only adults in the room who could speak freely about what was going on.

“I still can’t believe all of this happened,” Thea said. “And Dimitri and I feel horrible that we were right there and didn’t even know until we saw Mace running. I’m so sorry we didn’t get there earlier.”

“You might have ended up hurt, too. I’m fine. The shop is fine. And Isaac Crawford is behind bars. Or will be once they repair his ruptured testicle.”

Her brother, father, and Mace all winced, while Shae, Thea, and her mom did a group high-five. They were as bloodthirsty as she was, and she liked it.

“So, this man was an asshole,” Shea began. “A rich asshole, who didn’t like the idea of a dirty tattoo shop on his precious, clean street.” She spat the words, and Shep wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head.

“That sounds about right,” Mace put in. “Apparently, as he was screaming that his balls were bleeding—ouch by the way—he told the cops everything.”

Adrienne growled. “He hired people to damage the building and used his connections to call into sanitation to try and get us closed down. He never imagined that any respectable tattoo and piercing shop would be cleaner than most buildings in the city. We have to be. And ours is damn clean, thank you very much.”

“And he called the cops with a fake report on drugs? Or did he hire that out?” Thea asked, her arms wrapped around her middle.

“He did that himself and told the cops that he’d hired out for some things but didn’t think it was illegal to be sure there weren’t drugs in his nice and family-friendly community.” Adrienne rolled her eyes. “Uh, idiot. False claims aren’t something you want to deal with, thank you very much.”

“And he did all of this because his platform for being a leader in the community was safe and clean and as mundane as you could possibly get,” Mace put in. “We didn’t know who he was because he’s not a leader of our community, but apparently, he’s a big deal or some shit.”

“I don’t care how big he is. He got caught, and he might lose a ball. Fuck him.” Adrienne gave a quick nod as she said it, and once again, the men in the room winced. They would just have to get used to it because she was damn proud of what she’d done, even if she’d never been so scared in her life.

Okay, she might have been more scared when Daisy was sick, but that was another matter.

The rest of them talked about what they were going to do and how they might have another grand opening party to celebrate the fact that they’d survived Crawford’s assholery and would try to remove the taint of what the man and his ideas of clean and safe had done to the building as a whole.

She listened with half an ear as the people she loved most talked about her dreams and her shop and leaned into Mace even more, knowing she was safe. She had the man she loved, a future she could count on, a family that cared for her, and a business she could call her own.

In the end, Adrienne Montgomery was one lucky woman—sling and all.

“I love you,” Mace whispered. “So damn much.”

She looked up at him and smiled. “I love you, too.”

The resulting awws in the room forced her to roll her eyes, and she ducked her head as her family laughed. There were some things that would never change, and her family embarrassing her because they loved her was one of them.

And she wouldn’t change it for the world.

Chapter 18

“That’s it, move back on me, let me see you ride my dick. Take it all in.” Mace growled the words softly as Adrienne knelt on all fours in front of him, fucking herself on his cock. She was just so damn sexy when she did this, and he knew they were going to have to wake up in either this position or something similar for a long time to come.

“Hurry up and make me come already, we’re going to be late, and I’m shaking.”

---