“I’ve had enough to know that the tattoo I’m about to get won’t hurt that bad.” She winked at me and sauntered toward the front door. Without looking over her shoulder, she asked, “You coming, Rome?”
I let out a string of curses as I went after her. The woman was more trouble than I ever wanted to be associated with—and I killed people for the mob.
Why the fuck was I following her in the dead of the night?
“You’re asking for a problem tonight, Katalina.” I growled her full name. It rolled off my tongue like an intoxicating drug, one I was scared I would never want to quit.
Her long nails, painted some dark color, waved at me as I caught up to her. “Don’t follow me, then. I don’t mind walking alone.”
“I don’t mind you walking alone either. In daylight,” I spat back.
“I’m carrying and have a few tricks up my sleeve.” She shrugged as we rounded the corner. One street light flickered in the night.
I had a chain and a trick up my sleeve too, but I was sure none of it would save me from the one thing I was in danger of.
Her.
7
Katie
“Unless it’s a damn taser and a bodyguard, you’ve got nothing,” he argued, like he truly believed there was no way I could be prepared if someone jumped me.
“I take self-defense classes. Dante’s been training me for years. I’ve been in enough dicey situations to get out of most of the ones I encounter now. If not”—I shrugged and reassured him—“I’ll live. Because if I don’t, I’ll die, right?”
He grunted at the words he’d said to me so long ago.
They’d echoed through me. They’d ricocheted around in my head for years, even in the darkest nights when Marvin and the men who paid him stood over me, when Jimmy held me down, when I was sure death would be a better option than life.
The tube lighting of Crowned Ink glowed a bright red as we neared the shop. Their logo was a red crown with bold colored skulls in a pile below it. I pushed open the heavy glass door but didn’t hold it for Rome.
He grunted, but I ignored it. I took in the wall of magazines and, next to it, a large display of tattoos. All of them were intricate, popping with color or navigating the darkest shadows.
The leather seating didn’t look too inviting, but I wasn’t here to sit. It was late enough that no one else was in there getting work done. When I tapped the bell on the lacquered counter, I heard someone from the back immediately start shuffling toward us.
“This is a bad idea,” Rome warned from behind me. He stood so close I smelled the mint on his breath.
“Then, leave. I don’t need you here if you don’t want to be.” When the tattoo guy rounded the corner, I glanced back at Rome. “Okay, now I really don’t need you here.”
He growled at my wink, but my attention was back on the tattoo artist. His greenish eyes popped against the bright green of the walls. Black designs on his neck contrasted with the white collared shirt he wore.
He opened the laptop on the counter. “What can I do for you two tonight?”
“I just want a little writing on my ribs. Adding something to what I’ve already got.”
“I’ve seen a little of it.” He said, staring at my ribcage. I lifted an eyebrow but let him continue. “Exactly what is it that you already have?” Rome asked.
The tattoo artist nodded. “Can I see what you already have?”
I smirked at them both and stepped to the side. The black tiling on the floor shined with cleanliness—a much better establishment than the knock-off shop Jimmy’s son had taken me to. They’d done my flowers with the jewels strung around them, even though I was underage. I’d told them I wanted it to look like the flowers were tangled in them, like the beauty was almost suffocating.
Every time I looked at it, the art made me want to cry and rage all at once. The piece was stunning, a testament to the fact that you could even find an artist in someone’s basement.
I lifted my shirt to show them both. The art wrapped from my back diagonally forward down to my hip.
The green-eyed man stepped forward to examine the work and hummed low. “That’s some good ink.”
“I know.” I bit my lip and shrugged when he raised an eyebrow at me.