Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
INK
I spend the rest of the day pissed off to no end because my one client of the day isn’t a talker.
That leaves me having to listen to Derrick’s voice all afternoon. Usually, tattooing works out any emotions I have. I get lost in the art. It’s therapeutic.
Not today.
All I want to do is punch that son of bitch’s face in.
Thinking he can hit on my staff like we all don’t know where his trash ass has been. It’s a fucking insult that he even tried it knowing I would never let something like that slide.
Sutton was almost unrecognizable this morning.
When I came out to see who Gage was talking to, I thought it was a walk in.
What kept me in pursuit of seeing her face instead of going back to my room and minding my own business was the hair color.
The black faded into my favorite color, midnight blue.
My brain didn’t have a chance to catch up to my body that was already on the trajectory of seeing what the face of the person with the most gorgeous hair I’ve ever seen looked like.
I know the man downstairs wouldn’t do me so dirty to make the only thing I can’t stop staring at ugly. It looked so thick and luscious. I couldn’t stop picturing all of it wrapped around my hands as she sucks my cock.
But when she turned around?
I felt like I was stuck in a trance because somehow the big, round hazel eyes that trapped me the first time I saw her standing in my lobby snatched my soul. And she has no fucking clue. No fucking clue.
All of this is doing my head in. I’ve never been this guy. I’m the charmer. The sweet talker. The one all the club girls feel like they can be vulnerable with until all they want to do is fuck away their feelings.
I don’t think I’ve ever been unable to form a sentence in my life, especially around a woman, but Sutton did that for me. She looked like a different person but also looked exactly like she should have been looking like, all at the same time.
And I’m sure as fuck not about to let all of that beauty be wasted on a douche canoe like Derrick.
“You ready to head out, darlin’?” I yell to Sutton while I’m finishing up cleaning my room.
“Yeah!” Her soft voice carries from up front.
“Don’t worry about lockin’ up. Gage will do it. His client is still here.”
“Kay!”
A few moments later, Sutton is standing in my doorway with her bag in hand, ready to go. I keep my face even, but I’m shocked she didn’t give me lip about taking her home today.
I knew the blond hair didn’t suit her. She looks so full of life now. A life I know she hasn’t lived.
“Let’s go, darlin’.”
I hit the lights and follow close behind her toward the back entrance. As we pass Gage’s room, I see Derrick is still on the table, staring at us as we walk by .
“You walkin’ home?” Gage asks Sutton as he looks up at her briefly, pausing her from walking by.
“No,” she mumbles. Gone from earlier was the woman who almost accepted the date, and in her place was the Sutton I knew before she dyed her hair.
Taking a larger step so I’m inches from touching her ass, I give him a head nod as I grab my junk just for Derrick, letting him know what’s up. “I’ve got her.”
Fucker.
A satisfied smile takes over my face as I start up my bike, knowing that Derrick hears the pipes loud and clear as we pull out of the alley with Sutton on the back.
This time when I pull into the motel parking lot, I cut the engine.
“How’d you get here?” I ask once she’s off my bike.
Sutton lowers her brow as the confusion sets in from my question. “You just drove me here…”
“No shit.” I smirk. “I meant here as in Ravenna Heights. You’re not from here and you’re in this city with no car and no place of your own. What happened?”
“I have a car.”
I make a show of looking between her and my bike. “Then where is it?”
“It’s out of commission at the moment.”
So it’s a piece of shit. I give her credit, though. It’s obvious she’s struggling, but she hasn’t let on just how bad it is. I wonder if Gage knows about this.
“Want me to look at it?”
“Uh, no,” she quickly answers, fidgeting as she scans the parking lot while spinning that ring on her thumb again. “Thank you for the offer, but I got it covered.”
My brow raises as I search the parking lot with her.
It doesn’t look like she has it covered to me. “You sure? The club has a shop, darlin’. I’m not the best with cars, but I know one of my brothers would have no problem lookin’ at it. ”
“It’s on the list. You’ll be the first person I reach out to when I’m ready.”
I snort. We both know that’s a lie.
“What list?”
“The list of stuff I need to do. I’m not exactly rolling it in.” Her hand flicks out, pointing out the shit hole parking lot we’re standing in.
“Use the cash I gave you.”
Sutton’s nose scrunches up. “Do you want me to hate you? Is that it?”
“No.” I make a show of scrubbing my hand down my mouth and beard to cover the smirk I can’t contain.
She looks like a cute little bunny when she does that.
Looking all sweet and innocent while irritated at the same time.
“But I gave it to you to help. We’ve all been there waitin’ for the first check from the new job after you left the old one. ”
She lets out a long sigh as her shoulders sink, looking almost defeated. “I appreciate it. Once I find an apartment, the car issue is next on my list.”
I have no business butting in any more than I already have, but for some reason I can’t get myself to start up my bike and leave. There’s this pull I can’t explain that’s telling me to find out more. To keep pushing.
“You havin’ any luck on the apartment front?”
“I haven’t had time to look too much, but I have a few places I’m going to check out.”
She isn’t going to be able to afford anything around here working at the shop alone. I don’t pay nothing, but I know it’s not nearly enough to pay all the bills. I bet she’s barely making it at this shit hole.
The logical part of my brain seems to stop working when she’s around, so I ask again, “What brought you here?”
Sutton stares off into the distance, lost in thought at the question. Part of me thinks she thought I wouldn’t pry after she avoided it the first time, but the longer I wait, the more lost she looks, almost as if she doesn’t really know how she got here.
“I was chasing a fairytale and found myself in a nightmare,” she says so quietly after a long moment that I have to strain to listen. “Goodnight, Ink. Thanks for the ride home.”
She doesn’t give me a chance to respond before she’s walking through the front entrance of the motel, leaving me to watch the ass that’s burned in my brain swaying in those ugly fucking khakis. If I ever get those off of her, and believe me, I will. I’m fucking burning them.
Opening the door to DD’s, I head inside. Without waiting for my eyes to adjust, I make my way to the office, slapping the few that greet me on the back as I go. Delaney is manning the bar with no Wren in sight, which is who I needed to talk to.
Rapping my knuckles against the door to the office in the back, I wait for Cain to answer. The last thing I want to do is walk in on Cain and Evan again . I’d like to keep my balls.
“Yeah?” Cain calls.
Cain looks up from the paperwork laid out on his desk as I step in, closing the door behind me. “What’s up?”
“Wren work tonight?” I ask as I lounge back in the seat across from him.
Cain opens up the top left drawer, pulling out a small humidor. Flipping open the lid, he takes out two Cubans. After cutting and lighting his, he tosses the guillotine and lighter to me.
“Nope,” Cain says on a long drag, blowing the smoke straight up in the air. “Matteo has her down to one day a week. I bet next month she won’t be workin’ anymore. You know how he is.”
Borderline psychotic is what he is.
I’ve never been as nervous to tattoo someone as I was tattooing Wren. Even the first time I was on my own, I wasn’t that fuckin’ nervous. Inking the girl who belonged to the head of the Italian mafia in Ravenna Heights is on my list of things I never want to fucking do again.
“I wanted to see if he had any apartments available. Nothin’ serious.”
“You movin’ into Forest Glenn?” Cain snickers as he pulls an ashtray out of the same drawer, setting it down in between on the desk.
“No.” I roll my eyes, exhaling smoke. “Someone I know is lookin’ for a place.”
“Does this someone happen to be your new front desk girl with the rack that Cyrus hasn’t shut the fuck up about?”
My empty hand tightens on the armrest of the chair.
Cyrus makes it very hard not to kill him sometimes.
“Yes,” I grunt. “She’s been stayin’ at the motel until she finds somethin’ else.”
Cain’s top lip raises in disgust as he taps the cigar, watching the ash float into the tray.
“Rats shouldn’t be allowed to stay at that fucking place.
I won’t even ride past it anymore. The air around that area smells like nasty pussy and an STD that’s been brewing for a while. She’s new in town, right?”
“Yeah.” Or so she says. I’m still trying to piece everything together. It feels like each day I see her I collect a new piece to the puzzle that doesn’t connect to any of the ones I already have.
“What’s her story?”
I shrug. “Don’t know. She’s not exactly forthcomin’ when I ask a question.”
Sutton avoiding every question I ask is starting to get old real fast. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone so reluctant to accept help and that’s saying something considering what everyone went through between Evan and Wren.
“They never are.” Cain snorts. “She ask you to find her a place?”
I take another long drag before answering. “Not exactly. ”
“Is this your way of pulling out whatever’s been lodged up your ass the last few months?”
I look up from the spot my eyes were locked on the desk to see Cain’s assessing gaze. “It’s giving me a distraction.”
“A distraction from what?”
“Feelin’ stuck,” I finally admit.
Cain doesn’t say anything as he lets out a long exhale of smoke, this time in my direction. Neither of us says a word until the cloud clears.
I figure this is going to go one of two ways. He’s either going to ream my ass for not telling him I’ve been feeling like this, or he’s going to move on, letting me have this.
“I’ve known you a long time, brother. When I created this club, it was because I never wanted to feel stuck or without a purpose again.
I also wanted a sense of family who understood that.
Go ride. Go do some art shit. Fuck, I don’t know.
Do whatever it is you need to do to not feel like that, but you’ve got to know every single brother here will back you.
We all get it. But this asshole you’ve been lately?
That’s not you. It’s me and Hash’s grumpy ass.
And I’m takin’ it back, so you better get the fuck over whatever it is.
If you need to talk it out, I can’t say I want to sit around like a bunch of bitches and listen for hours, but I’ll make an exception for you and give you twenty. ”
I snort to cover up the ball that’s formed in my throat that I can’t swallow down.
Cain has a reputation of being the biggest asshole around.
It’s why very few have the balls to cross him and the club.
Very few people get let in enough to see Cain caring about something.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget you’re not alone in this life.
“Appreciate it. Sorry I’ve been a fuckin’ dick. Hash already reamed my ass, but I’m workin’ through it.”
“I figured something had happened between you two. You care for her?”
“Sutton?”
Cain raises one eyebrow in a look that says, obviously .
I hesitate before answering. “I wouldn’t say I care for her, but I am concerned about the stuff I’ve found out.”
“Take my advice and don’t do anything they don’t ask you to do. It’ll piss you off to no end. And nothing is a bigger pain in the ass than a woman you care about not listening to a single thing you fucking say. Trust me.”
If only that was easier said than done.