We’d renamed the shop Blazing Inx not long after it’d all gone down with River, meshing together our names. I loved the place, and I loved helping people like Sienna get rid of ugly memories by covering them with something beautiful. I’d never done a tattoo like hers, though, and I was determined to get a photo of it for the wall if she’d let me.
Maybe I could get it printed on a large canvas and make it a feature with the other smaller pictures around it?
“Yo!”
Sighing as the door yelled at me, I got up and walked out to the reception desk. Ramon was with a client and the guy wanted a Prince Albert done, so there was no way I’d expect him to leave him in the room while he dealt with the customer.
Blaze was already talking to a pretty, petite woman with a mass of burgundy hair in long curls down her back when I got there. Hearing my boots on the tiled floor, she glanced over her shoulder and shot me a smile.
“There’s Jinx,” Blaze muttered, raising his eyebrows at me over her head. “Someone’s here to see you.”
“Thank you, Mr. Blaze. I appreciate your help,” she said to him, then walked over with her hand outstretched. “I remember you from school, Jordan, but I don’t know if you’ll remember me.”
It seemed like I’d locked up all of my high school memories because she looked familiar, but I was in another Sienna situation—I couldn’t figure out why.
Shaking her hand, I watched her as she glanced around the room, fidgeting with the strap of her purse.
“Are you here for a tattoo?”
Laughing, she murmured something under her breath to herself, then looked up at me again. “My name’s Madison Shepherd. We went to high school together, but I usually hung out with Sienna, so you probably never knew my name.”
Blinking a couple of times, I did my best to place her. Her face was familiar, but I was drawing a blank.
Picking up a chunk of hair, she snickered, “I had short dirty blonde hair back then.”
That’s when it clicked. “I remember you now. You used to sit next to Sienna in homeroom.”
“I used to sit next to her in every class, except PE and art.” She said the last bit to herself, her lips pinching slightly on the last subject. I knew why now, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t had to fight the same reaction every time I’d thought of the class since I’d seen Sienna.
“Sienna told me about that yesterday. I hate what Hazel put her through.”
Drawing in a deep breath, she nodded her head. “That’s why I’m here. As you know, she’s been through more than most people do in a lifetime. There’s bullying, and then there’s outright attempted murder.” When I flinched, she held her hand in the air. “I didn’t mean that directed at you, it’s just I want to protect her from getting hurt again.”
I knew where she was going with this and seeing as how it looked like the words were being tortured out of her, I decided to help her out. “I promise that I’m not looking to add to what she’s already been through. In fact, I can swear my bike on it. I want to help her get on her feet properly so that she isn’t scared to do something like buying groceries at the store.”
“I see she told you about that, too,” she said, looking surprised. Then, squinting slightly, she looked at me from head to toe and back again before deciding on something. “I also believe you when you say that. What I’m not sure about is you…” she cleared her throat, “jerking her around.”
“Just said I wasn’t going to do that,” I pointed out, frowning.
“I meant romantically,” she mumbled it so quietly, I had to tilt my head to hear her.
I could understand a friend taking another’s back, I’d done it countless times for my brothers in the club, but I didn’t want to discuss this with her. I didn’t know Madison enough to open up, and I just wasn’t that type of guy, so I stayed quiet.
Finally, she threw her arms up in the air. “Okay, Sienna’s my bloom from another womb, you dig? She’s gone through a lot of fuckery, and I just don’t want her to go through more.” When I didn’t say anything, she growled.
“Do you know how hard it is to tell a hot guy off? To lecture him on not letting his dick make promises he won’t keep? Because I can see that yours would do that.” When she said the last bit, she glanced down at my crotch, then blushed and looked at the wall over my shoulder. “Definitely not the shadows.”
I would have laughed normally, but Sienna was one of the most serious topics I could think of right now.