Forty-Five
I tracked down Has-Been, nodding hello to Elise as he opened their door and let me in. I guess she hadn’t gone to lunch with the other old ladies, or she’d come back early, but then, it wasn’t really my fucking business was it? We had another issue to deal with first.
“Everything okay, brother?” Every time I saw the guy, it was a shock to the system, because I’d known him for years, and he’d always had those blonde dreadlocks, and now he just had short blonde stubble on his head, not even quite a buzzcut yet, and it was most often covered with a beanie. He ran a hand self-consciously over his scalp when he saw me staring.
“I was too warm for the hat,” he said sheepishly, glancing around him for it.
“I just figured you were trying out looking like me, man. It looks good on ya, but you need a scalp tattoo to really pull it off.”
He smirked, pushing aside his hair worries, and pointing to the sofa, while Elise scurried into the kitchen.
“I’m making coffee, do you want one, Torch?”
I shook my head, and remained standing.
“I won’t be here long, Elise, but thanks, darlin’.”
“So what’s going on?”
I sat down after all, because I realised this might not be a two minute chat, like I’d hoped.
“Rocket cornered me downstairs, and he’s concerned we’ve all got a beef with him, or our old ladies don’t like him.”
Has glanced over at Elise, and sat down across from me.
“Because of the tattoos? I can’t let him tattoo her, she’s my fucking everything. It has to be my ink on her.”
The guy wasn’t being unreasonable, because in his position, I’d feel exactly the same way. The trouble was what this was doing to another brother, because in his position, I’d feel like a fucking leper too.
“He feels like he’s never allowed to tat the women, because we all think he’s a psycho like Micro or something.”
“Jesus, fucking Micro . Will that fucker ever not be screwing up our club? He’s done them before though, right? I’m sure he has.”
“Yeah, twice, he says. I can’t really remember, because they weren’t my old ladies, so my focus wasn’t really on who did what.”
Has scrubbed a hand over his buzzed hair again.
“Jesus, yeah, I can see why he’d think that, but he’s not doing Elise, man. Anyone but her.”
“So he has to do Grace? Jesus, bad enough you putting your fucking hands on her, but him instead? I don’t not trust him, but I’d rather none of you fuckers were doing it.”
Has rolled his eyes, taking a coffee from Elise as she sat beside him, and tucked her legs under her.
“Thanks, darlin’. We’re just talking about Rocket.” She nodded.
“I heard, and I can see why he feels like he’s not trusted. Is Grace set on Has doing hers? She doesn’t really know either of them that well yet. Maybe she’d be comfy with whoever it is, because both are trustworthy, right?” She was right about that, and also, I could see it was my job to make sure she knew that Rocket was a good guy, so I guess that was a conversation I was about to have.
“Right now he’s saying you can do all of them, including your own, man.”
Has snorted, pointing at his chest. “I’m supposed to see my own chest to do it? Fuck that. I’ll talk to him, man, but if Grace is okay with him doing hers, it’ll go a long way towards helping him feel like less of a monster.”
I guess I’d have to suck it up and give her the option, even though I’d wanted to take the high handed route, and just fucking declare it. She was afraid enough of having a tattoo, so would this just add more pressure for her?
Grace
I was having such fun with the other old ladies, who were all the sweetest people, but I had a sense that they’d be just as ruthless as their men if they had to. The first good piece of news was that Ally was being released from hospital, probably tomorrow, and the girls were planning a welcome home celebration for her.
The second piece of news being talked about, and I couldn’t avoid it even though it was freaking me out, was the old lady ceremony for myself and Elise.
“I can’t wait. It’s been too long, and I just really need his name on me,” she said almost dreamily, having only stopped by for a little while before she was going back to wait with her man.
“There’s so much about that statement that should bother us,” Cammy said, “but I totally get it. Having Stitch’s name tattooed on me was like being married all over again.”
“You were married first? I thought this old lady thing was the marriage really, and it came before?” I asked, because I was still learning, and this seemed like the best place to learn.
“Oh… it’s a long story, but we were doing bucket list stuff, and we spontaneously got married, and then went on honeymoon, and did the old lady thing after.”
“Seth… I mean Stitch, it’s still so weird calling my brother that, well, he was waiting for some important test results, and got it in his head that his days were numbered, so they did all kinds of weird shit.”
“Accidental dogging, you mean,” Lissa said with a giggle, then ducked as Cammy swatted at her shoulder.
Elise groaned and headed for the door, to meet up with her man.
“On that note, I’m out, because I know my brother’s a married man, but I don’t need to hear details,” she said with a soft giggle, waving and leaving us to our discussion. The term ‘accidental dogging’ returned to my mind, and I frowned at Cammy.
“Accidental… ugh, actually, never mind. I’ve never even seen one of the old lady tattoos, can anyone show me, or is that really intrusive to ask?”
Cammy, Lissa, and even Tori, willingly showed theirs off, and they were beautiful, pieces of art, really, and I think it helped to see them, to know that they wouldn’t be amateurish or inelegant. Lissa’s had an icy theme to it, and Cammy’s had little stitches down the letters.
“Who did them?” I asked next, because I couldn’t tell if they were all one person’s work or not.
“Has-Been did mine,” Tori said, and Lissa confirmed the same, and Cammy rolled her eyes.
“And he’ll be doing Elise’s, of course. Rocket did mine, and I think he did an amazing job of it. I don’t know who’s doing yours, but both of them are genuine artists.”
A knock on the door revealed my man, looking sheepish, but asking to speak to me, so I said thanks to the old ladies, and followed him back to his room, our room, I guess now.
“Babe, sit down. We need to talk about the tattoo you’re having.” Uh oh.
“Will it have torches or something in it, or is that too cliché?”
He blinked for a moment, then grinned.
“Well, I mean, it needs to have something to tie it in to my awesome road name, but nothing that shows what I actually do with torches.”
“Ugh, agreed. So what’s up? I was talking with the girls and they made me feel a little better about having this done. Theirs are really beautiful.”
“Thank fuck for that. Look, I know when we talked about this, I said that Has would be doing yours, and I meant it, but… Jesus, I think I was being a bit of an ass to just decide that for you. We can show you some stuff of Rocket’s-”
“I saw Cammy’s tattoo, and it’s lovely. Torch, are you saying you want me to have him do it instead?”
Torch sighed, sitting beside me on the sofa.
“He’s feeling a bit like we don’t want him touching our women, because Has usually does the women’s ones. I don’t want you to do anything you don’t feel comfortable with, but if you’re open to him doing it, I’ll allow him to touch you just this fucking once, but not your tits, or anywhere near your fucking pussy.”
“Wow, how quickly you went from reasonable to caveman, Torch. I think that was a new record, even for you. I’m cool with it being Rocket though, because I liked the style of Cammy’s tattoo, and honestly, I don’t really know either of them that well, so it doesn’t make much difference who does it, in that respect.”
“Yeah? Great, now we just have to get him to agree, because he’s declared that we can all fuck off, and Has can do them all.”
Ugh. Men . “Do you want me to ask him if he’ll do mine?” I was sure I could think of a way for Torch to repay my kind gesture later, right?
So a few hours later, I approached Rocket in the bar, where he was nursing a beer, on one of the old leather sofas.
“Hi, you’re Rocket, right?”
He lifted his head, offering me a small smile.
“Yeah, you’re Grace? Torch’s old lady?”
I pointed to the seat beside him, and he nodded, gesturing to the bar first, but I shook my head.
“I’ve literally consumed my bodyweight in coffee today, but thanks. Listen, I know this is a little forward, since we don’t really know each other, but would you be willing to do my old lady tattoo please?”
He groaned, setting his beer down.
“Torch put you up to this, right? You don’t have to do this, just to try and heal my male ego.”
Men , like I said.
“Actually, I was talking with the old ladies earlier, and they were showing me their tattoos. I really liked the one you did for Cammy, with the little stitches in it? If you did mine, you’d have something relating to Torch’s road name? Flames or something?”
He grinned, his hackles going back down a little, at my words.
“I was working on something, yeah, but then I heard he was asking Has to do yours.”
“He thinks he’s the boss of me, but he’s not. I make my own decisions on who puts permanent designs on my skin, even though I’m really nervous about having one at all.”
He dug his phone from his pocket, and flicked through something on the screen.
“This is what I was mocking up, but I stopped when I thought I wasn’t doing it.” It was beautiful. The overall design was similar to the other ones I’d seen, presumably because it was a club tattoo, but there were tiny flames licking their way up the letters of Torch’s name, discreet enough that they didn’t obscure the letters, but visible enough that they enhanced it.
“It’s gorgeous. I never thought I’d beg a person to tattoo me, but please, will you do this for me? I’d really appreciate it.”
“You’re sure Torch didn’t send you?”
I rolled my eyes at him, as I stood back up again.
“I’m not into ego stroking, Rocket, so either you want to put that piece of art on me, or you don’t. I don’t beg either.”
“Not strictly true,” Torch said, coming up behind me, his arms moving to drape over my shoulders. “She begs a lot in bed, but that’s for my ears only. Babe, I turned my back for one fucking minute.”
Rocket stood up, shoving his phone back in his pocket.
“I’ll get this finished now. Torch, whether you were behind this or not, I don’t care, I’m doing this.” He nodded at me and strode out of the room, presumably to get on with my future tattoo design.
“Thanks, babe,” Torch whispered in my ear, as he led me to the bar, and placed our order for dinner.
“My skin, my decision, Torch.”
“I’ll be all over that skin in an hour, babe, and that’ll be my fucking decision.”