Chapter 26
Six weeks later
“I can’t believe I’m about to get my first tattoo!” Nora said, her gray eyes warm as she held Angel’s hand in hers while lying in the tattoo chair.
Angel had picked out Nora’s angel wings, while Nora had picked out the flames that represented a jump fire.
“I need to talk to you,” Dragon said to Angel after storming inside the tattoo parlor.
“What’s up?” Angel asked.
Dragon ignored him and walked straight into the back of the shop.
“I’ll be right back, darlin’,” he said to Nora before he gave her a kiss on the lips.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of my girl,” Mia said.
Angel smiled. “I’m sure you will.”
“If only you’d take care of me,” some biker wannabe said in the store”s front while pumping his hips into the air.
“That’s it. You’ve got three seconds to get out or I’ll strap you to one of my chairs and tattoo ‘limp dick’ on your forehead,” Buzz said.
Both Mia and Nora burst out laughing, but Angel held his breath, knowing how Buzz had been on a roll these past six weeks since Mia started at Valhalla Ink.
The guy quickly ran towards the door, not looking back over his shoulder at his friend while he ran out of the shop.
“Get lost,” Buzz said to the friend that got left behind.
“But I didn’t do anything,” the guy said.
“Fuck off,” Buzz said as he held the door for him.
Angel figured it was a good thing that Valhalla Ink had enough customers through their MC since Buzz hadn’t been very customer-friendly these past few weeks.
“What’s the motherfuckin’ hold up?” Dragon roared from the back of the shop.
Angel rolled his eyes and smiled at Nora, who giggled at something Mia said.
He kissed her cheek and said, “I’ll be right back, Love.”
He’d started calling her that right after they got back in the clubhouse after they’d rescued Nora, Rosie, Millie and Piper.
It was a no brainer for him. He loved Nora. She loved him. They were meant to be together. He’d made sweet love to her that night after promising to never keep anything from her ever again.
He’d been sharing stuff ever since and told Nora some thing or two about his past before she would sleep in his arms every night.
“What’s up?” Angel said after joining Dragon in the back of the shop.
“How did you get Nora to accept you?”
Angel furrowed his brows. “Excuse me?”
Dragon fisted his sandy brown hair while pacing the back room.
“She went from a quiet little mouse, afraid of her own shadow, to this woman getting angel wings tattooed above her tits.”
Angel blew air through his nose. “Why do you care?”
Dragon narrowed his eyes as he stopped dead in his tracks. “Help me understand.”
“Does this have anything to do with Joelle, by any chance?”
“What do you think?” Dragon slammed his fist through the drywall.
“Oi! What the hell?” Buzz said as he walked into the back room.
“He’s frustrated about Joelle,” Angel said to Buzz.
Angel hadn’t been the only one noticing Dragon and Joelle gravitating towards each other during their lockdown following the rescue of Nora and the other girls. But he might be the only one stupid or brave enough to say something about it in Dragon’s face.
“Joelle is like Fox’s daughter, man. That’s not okay,” Buzz said.
“Did I ask you for advice, asshole?”
“You’re here in my shop, pumping your fist into my drywall, aren’t you?” Buzz yelled.
“Fuck this. I don’t need this shit,” Dragon said. He shoulder-bumped both Angel and Buzz on his way out, but they both let him since they all knew that the man was beside himself.
“Poor fucker,” Buzz said.
Angel knew like no other what love could do to a man. He shrugged and walked out of the backroom to check in on his girl.
“Looking good, Love,” Angel said to Nora.
“Thanks,” she said as she looked up at him with those same trusting eyes that made him fall in love with her months ago.
“Marry me,” he blurted.
Mia stopped her tattoo gun and waited for Nora’s reaction, just like Angel did.
“Y-you want to marry me?”
He palmed her cheeks, leaned in and said, “Marry me. Have babies with me. Grow old with me.”
She simply looked up at him with those trusting eyes, but didn’t reply.
“Oh my God, Nora. If you don’t marry him, I will,” Mia said.
Nora”s giggles warmed his thawing heart even more.
“Yes!” Nora suddenly shouted.
Angel kissed his Old Lady while the few customers in the shop hooted and hollered.
“For a minute, I thought that you’d turn me down,” he said.
“Never. I just couldn’t believe that you asked me to marry you.”
He brushed a lock of hair from her face. “You’d better believe it, Love. I’m a changed man.”
She held his eyes and said, “I know. I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
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