No matter it was they needed her for.

Chapter Three – Star

I breathed arduous, attempting to disregard the throbbing in my wrist, as I listened to the door opening and a few males coming into the tattoo store. I knew I ought to have picked someplace extra out of the best way, however after I noticed this place, Darkish Canine Designs, I had simply felt this pull, like one thing in me was telling me to hop in and get this tattoo executed.

The previous few days, I had been staying in a crappy little motel on the unhealthy aspect of city – nothing fancy, nothing particular, simply someplace I might cover out whereas I waited for the warmth to die down. I’d tossed my cellphone and spent what little cash I had on a brand new one, and, between that and the room, I didn’t have an entire lot left.

However I knew I needed that rattling tattoo. Silly, most likely, however God, it simply appeared like an opportunity to truly make an announcement to myself – to them, to my mother and father, to anybody else who occurred to be paying consideration. That I wasn’t going to let anybody else determine how I lived my life, and I used to be going to do that all by myself phrases, as soon as and for all.

My father would have flipped his shit if he knew I’d gotten a tattoo. Regardless that he had a pair himself, he hated them on girls, at all times advised me they appeared actually trashy and solely the bottom of whores would select to have their pores and skin marked like that. His phrases precisely. I had been racked my mind, attempting to consider the largest assertion I might make to them, and it was the very first thing that got here to thoughts. A tattoo. One thing on my pores and skin that may make it unattainable for them to see me as the identical little woman they had been keen to govern like that they had earlier than.

I had been principally maintaining myself to myself the previous few days since I’d made my escape, however the few occasions I had snuck out of my room to seize some snacks from the merchandising machine on the finish of the hall, I had seen a few males hanging round exterior. At first, I believed it was only a coincidence, that there was no actual purpose for them to be right here – however then, I observed one among them peering at me, watching as I headed again to my room. I looped across the hall, attempting to throw him off the scent, my coronary heart racing. Who had despatched them? My mother and father? No, Lombardi, certainly – my father had promised him one thing, and he wasn’t going to again down till he received it.

I couldn’t even take into consideration my father with out feeling a deep pang of harm. I simply couldn’t imagine he had executed what he’d executed to me. I used to be his daughter, for God’s sake – daughter of Sal Salina, one of the vital highly effective males within the metropolis. If anybody ought to have been secure right here, it ought to have been me, however no, he had put me up on the market like chattel.

And now, these males had tracked me to the tattoo store. I had no thought what the probabilities had been that this random man would cowl for me – shit, in the event that they supplied him cash, I received the sensation he would take it and promote me out. However there was one thing concerning the cautious manner he had touched me when he had been tattooing me that made me really feel like…oh, I wasn’t certain precisely put it into phrases, however he made me really feel like I used to be secure right here.

“We’re in search of a woman,” One of many males introduced gruffly, because the tattoo artist slipped behind the counter beside me. He leaned on it casually and shrugged.

“No ladies in right here.”

“We noticed a woman after we walked previous,” the opposite man interjected. I squeezed my eyes shut. Oh, shit. I ought to have requested to be taken to a again room, the place they wouldn’t see me, but it surely was far too late for that now.

“You actually assume that is the type of place ladies go to?” The artist chuckled, gesturing round. I peered up at him – he had darkish blue eyes and barely overgrown dirty-blonde hair, the muscle mass beneath his shirt flexing as he moved. Had he handled males like this earlier than? He was speaking like he had, with a cool, calm confidence that didn’t appear to waver within the face of no matter they had been throwing at him.

“Look, man,” One of many males interjected, leaning ahead. I flattened myself towards the counter, praying they wouldn’t catch sight of me below right here. “We’re not in search of any bother. We simply need to discover her. Be certain she’s secure. Alright?”

“What does she seem like?” he requested, taking part in dumb.

“Blonde,” he replied. “Early twenties. Blue eyes.”

“Any tattoos?” he requested, smirking barely. My eyes widened. What was he taking part in ay? He was flying manner too near the solar, he wanted to tug again…

“None,” the person replied. “You seen somebody matching that description?”

“Nope,” he replied, with a shrug.

Out of the blue, the door behind me opened – and one other man stepped out. He glanced down at me for a cut up second however didn’t present any shock on his face.

“What’s occurring, Jaxon?” he requested the artist who had tattooed me. “Who’s this?”

“They’re simply asking round about some woman,” Jaxon replied, waving his hand like he didn’t get what they had been doing right here. “You seen any ladies round right here currently?”

“Nope,” the opposite man replied with out lacking a beat. Whoever these guys had been, it was clear they knew deal with a tense scenario like this.

“I believe I’d do not forget that,” he replied.

“Precisely,” Jaxon agreed, turning again to them. “So that you guys can transfer alongside.”

“Can we take a look round first?” One among my stalkers requested. A silence fell between the 4 males. I held my breath. There was no manner they wouldn’t see me below right here, it wasn’t precisely a good hiding place…

“No,” the older man replied. “That is our enterprise. And we satisfaction ourselves on our privateness.”

Jaxon and the person glared again on the males on the opposite aspect of the counter, like they had been daring them to take one other swing at them – daring them to push this additional than they already had. I squeezed my eyes shut. Please, please, please, simply go away, simply go…

“High-quality,” the person snapped. “However in the event you see something, you name this quantity, okay?”

He pushed what I assumed was a card throughout the desk in the direction of Jaxon, who picked it up with out taking a look at it.

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