Inked Persuasion: A Montgomery Ink: Fort Collins Novel Read online

  I blinked at her, then took a sip of my coffee. “We just went straight to castration, then?” I asked.

  “If that’s what we need to do, then I will learn. Do we use scissors, a knife, or a sword? What do they use these days?” Paige asked, and I visibly shivered.

  “We’re not doing that, and you went really dark quickly.”

  “I’m going to blame Archer for that. We watched this medieval show with subtitles. I didn’t understand it, but there was a whole scene about it, and now I’ll never be able to sleep again.” She shuddered, and I took another gulp of my coffee, wondering where I went wrong.

  “You’re scaring me. Archer always scares me, but now you’re starting to scare me, too.”

  “I can’t help it. It was a double date.” She gave me a slow smile.

  “I guess Marc and Colton are doing well?” I asked, wanting to know a little bit more about my siblings’ boyfriends.

  “Well, I can’t speak for Archer and Marc, but Colton and I are doing well. Okay, enough about me,” Paige said, rolling her shoulders back. “Who do we hate?”

  “Jacob Queen moved into the house next door.”

  Paige blinked before plopping down in the chair in front of my desk. “Jacob? That Jacob?”

  “Yes, that Jacob.”

  “Please tell me he’s at least gotten ugly and gross and has lost all of that beautiful hair of his or something. Maybe developed smoking and now has yellow teeth?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know why that matters, but none of those. And because the gods hate me, he’s broader than before, all muscle. And I think he’s taller. Or maybe I’ve shrunk, I’m not sure. But his hair is just as thick as before, wavy at the ends. And he still has that damn jawline. It’s the same Jacob Queen. The only man in the world who hates me.”

  “That was a lot of descriptions for a man you want me to help you castrate,” Paige said nonchalantly.

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “First off, we’re not going to castrate Jacob Queen.”

  “That’s not something I expected to hear today,” Archer said as he walked in, eyebrows raised. “I mean, I don’t know if I should help with that, considering it’d be a horrible thing, but I could. Paige and I recently watched a movie that included it.”

  “Please stop talking about castration,” I snapped.

  “Okay then, it seems I’ve come at a bad time,” Benjamin said, Beckett behind him. I set my coffee down on my desk and put my hands over my face so I could silently scream into them.

  “Annabelle is having a bad day, and we need her to finish that cup of coffee.”

  “How many cups has she had?” Beckett asked.

  “This is her first.”

  “Dear God, get more caffeine into her,” Archer said.

  I narrowed my eyes at all of them as I lowered my hands. “I hate you. All of you.”

  “Not as much as you hate Jacob Queen,” Beckett corrected.

  “Please, stop it. All of you.”

  Another person walked into the room, and I narrowed my eyes at Beckett’s new assistant project manager, Clay.

  “I thought we had a meeting about the upcoming project, but if we’re going to talk about castration, I think I’m going to head out,” Clay said cautiously.

  I shook my head, rolled my shoulders back, and did my best to become Annabelle Montgomery, Lead Architect of Montgomery Builders. Not broken, weary, and confused Annabelle of Jacob’s past. “No, this is a work environment, and we are not going to discuss…that. Instead, we’re going to go through the major projects we have coming up.”

  “First, I want to hear about the fact that Jacob Queen moved into the house next door,” Paige said, and I could’ve thrown my coffee at her. It wasn’t scorching, and it wouldn’t hurt her. But it would startle her and make me feel better. Yes, startling would be nice.

  “Jacob, who?” Clay asked.

  “That Jacob?” Archer inquired. “Oh, God. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s fine,” I said.

  “You know, I’m going to get some coffee. I’ll be right back,” Clay said, turning on his heel and practically running out of the office.

  “Great, we scared the new guy.” I sighed.

  “He’s tough. Storm introduced us. If he can handle the Denver Montgomerys, he can handle us,” Beckett said.

  I threw my hands up into the air. “Okay, we’re going to put this out there into the world, and then we’re not going to talk about it again.”

  “Why don’t I believe that?” Beckett asked.

  I pointed my finger at him and narrowed my eyes. “No. Stop it. No sarcasm.”

  “That’s just not going to happen in this family,” Archer said, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

  “Anyway,” I said, ignoring my twin, “Jacob Queen moved into the house next door. And he still hates me. Told me to my face. And almost said no to donuts.”

  “From the pink box place?” Paige asked, her eyes wide.

  I gave a tight nod. “From the pink box place.”

  “That’s sacrilege,” Archer whispered.

  “I know. He took them, but I’m pretty sure he probably tossed them. He didn’t want them, didn’t want me in the house. Though after he started yelling, he didn’t want to deal with cops more, so I followed him in. The donuts were still on the entry table when I left.”

  That made my brothers blow up, and all of them started shouting at once.

  “I’m fine,” I yelled over them.

  “Excuse me?” Beckett cut in. “That asshole had the nerve to yell at you, and instead of dealing with cops, something we’re going to talk about, you just walked into his house?”

  I grimaced. “It’s not how it sounded. I was perfectly safe. He didn’t even lock me in.” I blinked as Beckett’s, Benjamin’s, and Archer’s eyes all narrowed.

  Paige winced beside them and shook her head, mouthing, please stop.

  Archer might be my twin, and I might be a couple of minutes older than him, but they all acted like my big, overbearing brothers sometimes. It was a little ridiculous. Paige and I had to deal with them and their macho tendencies in many instances. Usually, I could deal with it, but I was a little shaken after seeing Jacob that morning and discussing what had happened with Jonah. But now, I had a feeling I would have to discuss it again.

  “You guys do not have to do anything. I promise. We talked it out…sort of. He’ll likely continue to hate me, but we’ll just deal with being neighbors. Not everybody has to like who lives next door.”

  “He has no right to hate you,” Benjamin growled.

  “No right,” Beckett repeated. “I’m going to kick his fucking ass. He treated you like shit after everything happened with Jonah. And it wasn’t your fault.”

  I held up my hands, holding back tears. “I’m fine,” I said, my voice cracking.

  “That’s it, now I’m going to kill him,” Archer said, rolling up his sleeves.

  “Please, stop. We’re adults. We can handle this. Sure, it’s a lot of emotions. And none of us knows exactly what happened during everything that went down. None of us talked about what happened. Hell, in this family, we do an excellent job of not talking about the fact that I’m a widow.” They all went silent as they looked at me.

  “Seriously. I lost my husband. Yes, he was my best friend, but he was my husband in the eyes of the law. That meant I had to go through the paperwork of death when it came to losing an eighteen-year-old to cystic fibrosis. I’ve dealt with that. I’ve dealt with my emotions, and I handled what I had to do with the rest of my life, trying to figure out how to grow up with part of the world watching me. I dealt with it. But we don’t ever speak about it. And that’s okay. We don’t have to discuss my past in excruciating detail. But if we don’t talk about it, you sure as hell know that Jacob and I have never talked about it. I don’t know how he feels about me, really. I don’t know exactly why he hates me, other than the fact that I took time with his brother away from him.”

 
“Jonah wanted an escape,” Benjamin said insightfully. “None of us were sure about you marrying a kid when you were a kid yourself, but we understood why you did it.”

  I flinched at that, but knew he was right. “I know nobody wanted me to marry him—other than his parents and Jonah. But I did. I wanted to make Jonah happy.”

  “And you did. He had happiness leading up to the wedding and the days you had left with him,” Paige whispered. “And I’m sorry Jacob was hurt, but he doesn’t get to treat you like shit.”

  “You’re right. I told him he didn’t get to, and we’ll deal with it.”

  “Are you still going up to see his parents?” Beckett asked, his gaze on mine. I shrugged.

  “Yes. I eat there almost every Sunday. And you know with Kelley being sick, I just need to be there for them.”

  “That’s why Jacob moved here,” Paige said, her eyes wide as it dawned on both of us.

  “Damn,” I whispered. “They never mentioned it to me.”

  “They’ve had a lot on their minds,” Archer said, wincing.

  “Or they didn’t want to bother me with the fact that they knew their son hated me. Still does. It’s fine. I’ll deal with it. Jacob must be here to help his mom, and that is an admirable trait. He was always great for Jonah. So, yes, we will find a way to make it work. Now that it’s out in the open, nobody needs to go and kick anyone’s ass or castrate anyone.”

  “What’s this about castration?”

  I looked up at my father and groaned. “I swear, we need to close the door the next time we talk about this.”

  “Or we can just not talk about it ever again,” Beckett said dryly.

  I snorted. “Hi, Mom and Dad, come on in.”

  “I take it you’re talking about something weird since your little assistant is out there hiding?” my dad said, and I grimaced.

  “He’s the assistant project manager,” Beckett said through gritted teeth. “He’s not my little assistant.”

  “Not that there’s anything wrong with an assistant,” Paige said. “But I prefer office manager.”

  “Because that’s your title.” I shook my head.

  As Clay walked into the room, we all got to work. Montgomery Builders was now in session. Montgomery Inc. was down in Denver, along with Montgomery Ink. The one with the K was a tattoo shop that some of my Denver cousins ran. Another tattoo shop called Montgomery Ink Too was located in Colorado Springs. I figured once the next generation of Montgomerys aged, they would probably start popping up new Montgomery Inks and Incs all over the state and world. It would be nice. However, our family was none of that. We were Montgomery Builders, something that came from my dad’s Montgomery side, not my mother’s. When my parents got married, the family joke was that it was nice that my mother didn’t have to bother changing her name. They were not blood-related or cousins, even fifth removed. At least from what they could tell. But the union was still rife with family tension. My father did not like his brothers-in-law—my uncles.

  Therefore, he did not like that there was another construction company in the family. Montgomery Builders did not work with Montgomery Inc., and had nothing to do with my uncle—or now my cousins—who ran it.

  And that was all due to my father. I loved the man, but he could be a righteous asshole sometimes. Okay, most of the time. And since he was currently taking over the meeting during this project, this was one of those times. Officially, my mother and father didn’t have roles with Montgomery Builders. They oversaw everything we did and held the purse strings, but they’d handed the reins to us over time as we grew into our roles. We could have gone into any other field, but all of us had fallen in love with the family business and had followed our goals towards being part of it.

  I was an architect and helped design every single project we worked on. Benjamin was our landscape architect and had a whole team for himself. Paige was our office manager and pretty much kept us running—and on our toes—while Archer, much to my father’s dismay, was our lead plumber. Dad had wanted my brother to be an electrician or maybe an architect or something, but Archer wanted to be a plumber. And that was what he had ended up going to school for, and what he worked his ass off doing now. Beckett was our construction project manager and currently butting heads with my father on yet another item.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “We’ve already decided what we’re doing on this line item,” I said. “Beckett’s right.”

  Beckett gave me a tight nod, and I looked at my dad, trying not to wince. One did not argue with Russell Montgomery. But I was doing so. We were adults here, and my parents would simply have to learn to deal with their kids being in charge. Or back off. I hoped they’d retire soon, because we could not keep doing this.

  Though I wasn’t sure how we would get them to do that.

  “I’m just saying. It would make more sense to do it this way.” My father started outlining a whole new plan that would radically shift how we worked towards green materials and stayed on target. I shook my head. “No, we’re trying to go into the new world. Global warming is an issue. We’re trying not to build to the point where we hurt our ecosystem. Plus, we’re in Colorado. We may not be in Boulder where they’re completely crunchy granola, but those in Fort Collins can hold our own.”

  “I don’t understand you Millennials,” Dad grumbled.

  “I think I might be a Xennial,” Paige said, looking up from her notes.

  I winced. “Not the time, Paige.”

  “That’s true,” she said, going back to her tablet.

  “Fine, do it your way. But just remember, our name is on everything we do.”

  “We know,” Beckett said, and Benjamin leaned back in his chair, shaking his head.

  “This is a big project,” my father repeated, and I rolled my shoulders back. “If we don’t get this right, we’re not getting bids for anything else in the city. If this is the project you want to put your new twist on within the operation, then it needs to be perfect. Any errors or mishaps will ruin the company and this family.”

  My mother nodded as if they weren’t cutting down their children with their high expectations. We should have been used to it by now, but it still wasn’t easy.

  Our parents loved us. They just enjoyed the competition with my mother’s siblings more. They wanted to do things their way, and while their way had made our family what it was, and was perfectly reasonable and sustainable, my siblings and I knew we needed to change a few things to help keep us healthy, relevant, and helpful.

  And, deep down, I knew it wasn’t the fact that we wanted to change things. No, it was the fact that my cousins down in Denver were doing the same things. We had all come together and decided to work towards a better future for our community and our families.

  And my father wanted nothing to do with that or them.

  “Okay, that’s good for now,” my mother said, tapping my dad’s knee. He looked at her, gave a tight nod, and stood.

  My mother loved her brothers, but she loved her husband more. So, she was constantly engaged in a tug of war between them. And while I understood, it was exhausting being in the middle, especially when you were a child and didn’t want to be part of any of it at all.

  Dad looked at each of us. “Okay, get it done. Montgomerys forever.”

  We nodded, though refrained from saying it back. The rest of the Montgomerys had a special tattoo, a family motto of sorts called the Montgomery Iris, a little M and I surrounded by a circle and flowers. My siblings and I had those tattoos in secret, mostly because if my father ever found out, he would probably disown us. The other cousins had gotten them, too, all taken care of and inked by one of the three tattoo artists in the family.

  Mine was on my hip, where no one could see it unless I took off my bathing suit. And I would not be showing anyone that flesh anytime soon, thank you very much.

  We had wanted to show solidarity with the whole set of Montgomerys, ignoring my dad’s rage. Therefore, we did not say “Mont
gomerys forever,” because we knew he wasn’t talking about the other half of us.

  It was such a strange way to live, but we were so used to it after all these years, it rarely even fazed us. However, my dad was right, this project was massive, and if we failed at it, we could put the business in the red. It was a different time for our company, and we understood it. All of us did. We worked hard to make sure that we were doing things the right way and safely. Though, sometimes, my dad made things a little more complicated.

  Paige and Clay left with notes, Beckett trailing them as he went over what they were doing for the day. Archer smiled at me, waved, and then went off to his project site for the day. I looked down at my notes, knowing I needed to get some sketching in before I went to one of the sites. I looked up at Benjamin. He smiled at me, and I frowned.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I know today was your day to have the meeting in your office rather than in one of the main rooms, but I wanted to say we’re going to be okay. We’ve got this.”

  We rotated where we had the meetings, ensuring that each of our offices ended up being the corporate head office at times, even if only in our heads. Sometimes, we met in the main meeting room, but we liked to change it up because it helped us creatively. At least, that’s what we told ourselves. I just thought we liked moving around to annoy my dad—not that I would tell him that.

  “We’ve got this,” I said, standing up to hug him.

  Benjamin kissed the top of my head and squeezed my shoulder. “And if you need us to castrate Jacob Queen, we will,” he said, deadpan. I punched him in the gut, but considering my brother had an eight-pack, all it did was hurt my hand.

  “Go dig something. That hurt.”

  “You shouldn’t have hit me,” he said lightheartedly and then strolled out of my office, leaving me with a smile on my face. Truthfully, after that morning, I honestly hadn’t thought I would be able to. Likely, that’s what Benjamin had wanted.

  My family might be loud, rambunctious, and a little nosy, but I loved them more than anything.