Welcome to the 415 Ink Hellion Tour! My name’s Rhys Ford and thank you for stopping by! First off, thank you to all the blogs who participated in this tour and also, a huge shout out to all of the readers who wanted to hear Ivo’s story. It was great being able to write something about the baby of the 415 Ink crew and well, he probably turned out to be the biggest surprise while writing him. So sit back, grab a bit of Ivo’s past on this tour and I hope you’re ready for his debut on Sept 17th!

 

Ivo, 18 • Part One

 

“Wait, what?” Ivo wasn’t sure if he heard Bear right. “Try that again?”

 

“You’re doing the flash walk-ins today,” his older brother repeated, his back to Ivo as he rifled around the shelves in the storage room, pulling inks for a custom back piece he’d scheduled that morning. “Whole shift. Any flash that comes in, it’s yours. What part of that didn’t you get?”

 

Ivo sucked in a deep breath, working through the emotions and words coming up at him from the back of his brain. It was his first day at the shop as an actual tattoo artist and he’d come in hot, slavering at the idea of finally getting to do some actual skin work. Paid at least. He’d been a part of the brothers’ shared ink, illegally putting needles down on his extended family’s skin but this time it was different. No more pig skin, no more ad hoc under the table work. He’d earned his place in the shop, or at least a chair in one of the general stalls and with enough time, he’d get his own spot with his name on the post and his art hanging on the wall.

 

Until then, he was going to be doing flash and apparently liking it.

 

Bear’s gaze fell on him when his older brother turned around, that steady patriarchal calm cloaking the steel will of a man who’d wrangled four wild foster boys into productive and decent human beings. There was no talking back at that moment, no wheedling to push his portfolio into potential walk-ins who wanted something outside of the flash folders.

 

Doing flash work was a necessary evil. Walk-ins paid the bills. Every single tattoo artist worth their salt and Ivo had been at the front lines of 415 Ink’s reception desk as soon as he was able to see over it. All of the people in the shop took turns doing flash work, especially if they didn’t have anything lined up for the day and during holiday weekends, usually the low artist on the totem pole          was tapped to do them all, leaving the senior artists to do the large pieces.

 

He didn’t want his first official piece to be flash but Bear was right. Ivo was going to have to pay his dues even if he owned a fifth of the shop.

 

“No problem,” he replied with a shit eating grin.

 

“You are such a liar,” his older brother said with a chuckle. Wrapping Ivo into a one armed hug, he squeezed until there was practically no air left in Ivo’s lungs. “Just go and have a good day. And don’t accidentally tattoo on somebody’s face.”

 

“Flash is fine. I can do flash.” Ivo glanced at the rows of black binders and art covering the walls near the reception desk. “It would be even better if you let me put some of the flash I’ve done up. I mean most of that shit up there is like five hundred years old.”

 

“Five hundred?” Bear shot back.

 

“Okay so not five hundred but you know what I mean.” He tossed his hair back from his face, nodding at the books again. “Admit it. I’ve got stuff that’s good and it’s easy to follow. Even Luke said so and he only likes doing flash.”

 

“Luke can only do flash, remember?” His brother shook his head. “I’d be impressed if Mace could do it.”

 

“Mace can’t even walk a straight line much less draw one,” Ivo snorted, knowing full well Bear couldn’t argue that point. “Just let me try.”

 

“I am,” Bear replied. “That’s why I’m giving you the flash walk-ins. You do those for a couple of weeks without fucking up or pissing off customers, then we can talk about changing stuff on the wall. But for right now, little brother, you’re on probation. Just like every newbie that’s ever walked through that door.”

 

The door bell sounded off and a woman stepped in, her silhouette dark against the noon sun coming through the storefront’s windows. Their current intern stepped up from her stool at the desk and welcomed her, falling into a quick discussion about tattoos and then out came the dreaded black binders of flash.

 

“Looks like you’re up, kid,” Bear said softly. “I’ll go talk to her and give you some time to get yourself together. Just breathe and remember, whatever you do is going to be there forever. So don’t rush things and if you run into trouble, scream. Injured pride’s easier to fix than a fucked up tattoo.”

 

He was nervous. As stupid as it was, Ivo was nervous. He’d spent more time in the shop that he did in school. He’d cleaned every inch of that shop, painted its walls and assembled shelves for the stalls. He’d broken down and cleaned Bear’s and Gus’s machines, fixing the centrifuge when it went wonky. Flash inking was a piece of cake, something he could do in his sleep.

 

So then why did his hands go all sweaty when Bear called out his name, motioning him to escort a young woman towards the stall he’d been given for the day.

Hellion by Rhys Ford

 

From the moment SFPD Detective Ruan Nicholls meets Ivo Rogers, he knows the tattoo artist is going to bring chaos to his neat, orderly life. A hellion down to the bone, Ivo is someone Ruan not only doesn’t understand, he’s not even sure he needs to. Everything about Ivo is vibrant, brash, cocky, and arrogant, and Ruan wants no part of him.

 

Or at least that’s the lie he tells himself when he damps down his desire for the social wild child life tosses into his path.

 

For Ivo Rogers, life revolves around two things—his family and 415 Ink, the tattoo shop he co-owns with his four brothers. His family might be stitched together by their battle scars from growing up in foster care, but their brotherhood is tight—and strong enough to hold Ivo together during the times when he falls apart.

 

Now Ivo faces a new challenge when he falls for a cop with an old-school mentality on how a man looks and acts. Ruan is the promise of a life Ivo thought he’d never have, but their clashing perspectives threaten any chance of a relationship. Being the family’s hellion makes it easy to be misunderstood, yet Ivo has faith Ruan will not only embrace who he is but love him as well.

 

Purchase Links

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon 

Kobo

 

Catch the rest of the tour here. And be sure to enter at each tour stop’s giveaway!

Sept

12        Joyfully Jay

13        Love Bytes

14        (Breathe! It’s almost release day!)

15        The Blogger Girls

16        Boy Meets Boy

17        It’s About the Book

About Rhys Ford

Rhys Ford is an award-winning author with several long-running LGBT+ mystery, thriller, paranormal, and urban fantasy series and is a two-time LAMBDA finalist with her Murder and Mayhem novels. She is also a 2017 Gold and Silver Medal winner in the Florida Authors and Publishers President’s Book Awards for her novels Ink and Shadows and Hanging the Stars. She is published by Dreamspinner Press and DSP Publications.

She’s also quite skeptical about bios without a dash of something personal and really, who doesn’t mention their cats, dog and cars in a bio? She shares the house with Harley, a grey tuxedo with a flower on her face, Badger, a disgruntled alley cat who isn’t sure living inside is a step up the social ladder as well as a ginger cairn terrorist named Gus. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird and enjoys murdering make-believe people.

 

Rhys can be found at the following locations:

Blog: www.rhysford.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rhys.ford.author
Twitter: @Rhys_Ford
On Your Alexa device on the Alexa Skills at: https://www.amazon.com/Witlingo-Rhys-Ford-Casting/dp/B07N7MJ7C8/

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