Page 1 of Inked Persuasion

Chapter 1

Annabelle

Iwas going to shake my hips, dance, and drink the night away. Okay, perhaps not the last thing, but I would drink a little.

I grinned over at my sister, Paige, who smiled widely back. I gave her a little wave. She leaned into her new boyfriend, Colton, joy evident in her expression. I didn’t know this Colton, but he was brave for coming to a Montgomery event so fresh into their relationship. Even at a bar on a weekend night—seemingly an innocent time. But when it came to the Montgomerys and how we circled our prey, no time was innocent.

“You are staring at Paige like you are ready to grill her new boyfriend.”

I looked up at my big brother, Beckett, and smiled. “Maybe I am. After all, this is the first time she’s brought him to a family event. It’s a big thing.”

Beckett shook his head and pushed his dark hair away from his face. He needed a haircut, so did his twin, Benjamin, but the two of them seemed to be going for a mountain man look. Soon, their beards would be annoyingly bushy, rather than what was on-trend these days. Of course, we were in Fort Collins, Colorado, not in Boulder or down in Denver with some of the other Montgomery cousins. We had standards when it came to facial hair. Not that I actually believed that, but I knew some of our friends did.

“Now you’re grinning. Are you thinking of something evil?” Beckett asked.

I leaned my head on his shoulder and sighed. “Just thinking about the cousins.”

“Which ones?” He sounded a little nervous, and I frowned, looking up at him. “We like all of our cousins. I can’t even saymostbecause weactuallydo like them all. What’s with the tone?”

He shook his head, wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and pulled me closer to him. He smelled like sandalwood and soap. He must have showered before he came out to join us at Riggs’. He had been out on the grounds all day, all of us working hard to finish up the last bit of the leading project before we started on the new, larger one that had also been keeping me up at night.

“Dad was grumbling about something the other Montgomerys did, and I’m not in the mood to talk about it. We are here to drink, have fun, and grill not only this new Colton but our baby brother’s new beau, as well.”

“Did you say ‘beau?’” Benjamin asked, frowning as he walked toward us. Beckett flipped him off.

Benjamin was the mirror image of Beckett. Why my parents decided to give both sets of twins similar names, I would never know.

Beckett and Benjamin had been born first, and then Archer and I came next. If anything, they should have given the older brothers names starting with A, and then Archer and I should have gotten B names. But wanting to go alphabetical had not been in the cards, apparently.

Our baby sister Paige was the only one of us without a twin. And, sadly, she did not have a name that started with a C, much to her consternation. She’d even tried to go as a Chloe or Christine for a while when we were younger, but she always ended up as Paige.

When Beckett and I didn’t answer him in time, Benjamin cleared his throat. “What are you guys talking about?”

Beckett shrugged. “Nothing, just Dad being a jerk. And now I am getting ready to be by Annabelle’s side when we grill the two new people who’ve joined us tonight.”

Benjamin shook his head and raised his brow at his older brother. “You know, you said the wordbeau, and that’s not a word I think has ever left your mouth before.”

Beckett’s lips twitched, and I grinned. The two of them usually took turns being the broodiest. Generally, they had scowls under those beards and rarely smiled or laughed. I wasn’t sure why they were always so serious. Maybe they’d been a little less severe as babies. And then Archer and I had shown up and probably terrorized the twins. I might not be as wild as Archer, or as carefree—I couldn’t be, not after everything that had happened—but I still smiled a lot more than Benjamin and Beckett did.

Paige was a unique delight. Which was exactly how she liked and wanted it, even if shehadsaid at one point that she wished she had a twin. She was the brightest one of us all, the happiest, and the sweetest. At least that’s what I thought. Paige called me sweet, though usually when she was making fun of me for being weird. Because Iwasweird. I couldn’t help it. I was a Montgomery.

“Okay, there’s Archer and his boyfriend, Marc. Now we have the two youngest and their newbeaus,” Benjamin said, and Beckett flipped him off again.

“We’re not actually going to terrorize them, are we?” I asked. “Because I kind of want our siblings to be happy.”

Beckett raised a brow and shook his head. “Oh, they can be happy—once they pass our test.”

“We’re still learning how to do this whole big brother and sister thing when it comes to our siblings’ relationships,” Beckett explained and then held up three fingers, getting the bartender’s attention. Riggs gave Benjamin a wink before pouring three shots of tequila.

I shook my head. “I swear, everywhere you go, everyone loves you.”

Benjamin didn’t smile, but he did snort. “No, that would be Archer. I just learned how to give that come-hither look to bartenders from our baby brother.”

Beckett and I burst out laughing.

“And if you ever tell anyone I said that, I will hunt you down,” Benjamin warned.

I shook my head, picked up my shot, and downed it. I closed my eyes and winced but didn’t reach for salt or lime. Doing a tequila shot with the type of tequila Benjamin liked did not usually require salt or lime. And the twins would make fun of me if I asked for them. Of course, it was all out of love. But still, I wasn’t about to open myself for teasing.

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