6. Roxy
Roxy
Sliding the red lipstick across my lips, I feel more myself than I have in days.
Something about looking the part makes me feel the part.
I pull back from the mirror to admire myself, rubbing my lips together. I can’t help but grin.
With sharp cat eyes and my black hair slicked back into a high ponytail that falls down my back, my platform Doc Martins giving me some much-needed height, and the black bodysuit that makes my boobs look massive; I look hot.
Therefore, I feel hot.
Yes, I’ve had a hell of a weekend. I can either continue to wallow in self-pity and fear. Or I can get the fuck up and move on.
I choose the latter.
Because I didn’t pry myself from that life just to cower at the first speed bump. And what better day than a Monday to press restart.
I’m booked out today, appointments one after the other starting from the second I open. It’s exactly what I need. Nothing makes me feel better than painting skin.
Visions flash through my mind uninvited. Of hands moving with terrifying precision, of pretty blades and blood-soaked lips.
I shove those thoughts deep down before they take root.
Ink. My studio.
That’s what all need.
The hum of the tattoo machine between my fingers. Getting lost in the creativity of it all, the way I do every time someone is on my table.
Taking one last look at myself, I spin out of the lavish bathroom and grab my bag and Kitty. Swirling her in my hand adds to the feeling I’m trying to create today.
Now that I’m aware of just how dangerous she is, I love her even more. I’ll never go anywhere without her again.
Kai is in the living room; eyes latched on the front door. I frown when I see those arms covered in a long T-shirt today, hands covered in fingerless leather gloves. Still, he’s mouthwatering.
Why does he have to look like that? Seriously. He’s gorgeous. It’s a fucking shame he’s a violent, bloodthirsty asshole.
That leather vest hugging his firm body and the cargo pants wrapped around thick muscular thighs should not still do things to me, after what he did yesterday.
My core gives a needy throb that reminds me how sore I am. It just makes me want more. I shouldn’t want more.
His eyes flick to me, and instead of fidgeting and look away, I stride up to him and tap his chest with Kitty.
“Morning, Sunshine,” I drawl, with a smirk.
Slowly, his eyes slide down my body.
I let him. Let him see that I’m not scared.
Or at least, let him think I’m not.
His gaze is as unreadable as ever, crawling down my throat and over my boobs to the platform boots before dragging back to my face. I square my shoulders, waiting for appreciation of my perfect tits that never comes. Not a flicker of reaction.
Frowning, I cross my arms.
“Oh my God, shush!” I sigh petulantly, tilting my head. “Do you ever shut up! I’m struggling to keep up.”
He gives me a single blink. It makes me grin up at him.
“One day I’ll make you smile, Sunshine.”
“Where are you going?” The deep, gravelly voice catches me off guard.
“Work,” I smile, patting him on the chest. “And I guess you’re my lift. Maybe I could get used to this whole bodyguard thing.”
Sauntering away, my short denim shorts swaying with each step, I feel him fall in step behind me. Yeah, I could get used to this.
The dark truck waits for me, all tinted windows and tires bigger than a small car.
“I thought you lot rode motorbikes,” I wonder out loud, getting comfy in the huge passenger seat.
Tinkering with the buttons, I press one that immediately heats up my seat. I gasp, laughing at the feeling. Like a cat in the sun, I crank it right up.
The truck roars to life.
I swear to God, if there is a dead body still on that floor, I might officially lose my marbles.
Reaching for the visor mirror, I poke my tongue out. The cut is almost non-existent. Just a faint line marking the pink flesh.
Glancing at him sidelong, I chew on my bottom lip.
“Kai,” I murmur, finally feeling nervous. His eyes stay on the road. “What happened to the... body?” I say, whispering the last word as if someone might hear.
“It’s gone,” is all he gives me.
Gone.
A relieved sigh empties my lungs, my shoulders dropping.
The city buzzes around us, shops beginning to open and people making their way to work. It feels normal.
If only they knew nothing was normal in this city.
We fall into silence, and my fingers dance over the wooden handle of Kitty, my red nails sliding up and down.
Unable to help myself, I turn to Kai, staring at his side profile.
“My clients will probably feel weird with you hanging around like a little ghost. I won’t tell your boss if you wanna go play hooky for a couple of hours.
Catch up on some shopping. Or see a movie. I heard the new Toy Story is great!”
If I’m getting under his skin, he doesn’t show it.
I shouldn’t keep pushing him. Deep down, I know. But there’s something addictive about chasing the tiny reactions, rare as they are.
“Yesterday...” I start. “That was something.”
Tightening his grip on the steering wheel, the leather of his gloves creak and the muscle in his jaw jumps. My lips curve in triumph.
“Did you... like it?”
The car rumbles as he accelerates, and the view from the windows begins to blur. The speed causes my stomach to flip.
I’m not expecting a reply. Minutes tick by, and I’ve decided to let it go.
But when his words come out clipped and through gritted teeth, I shiver.
“What part?”
All of it, I want to say.
Pursing my lips, I think about what to say. But thinking of being tangled in the sheets while he wrestled me and fucked me roughly, does nothing but turn me on. Clenching my legs together, I will the needy feeling between my legs to go away.
“My pain.” I decide. “Did you like my pain?” The way the words come out, raspy and raw, I bet he can sense my desire.
Finally, he looks at me. His devastating midnight eyes make my next breath get lodged in my throat. His eyes scan me, the way they did yesterday. Searching. Always searching.
Turning back to the road, his chest rises and falls, steadily.
I’ll take that as a no.
My studio is coming up and I couldn’t be more thankful. Get me the hell out of this stifling car.
I lean forward in my seat, ready to see my baby. My happy place. But the smile on my face disappears in a second.
“What...”
The word barely leaves my mouth.
The SUV hasn’t even stopped before I see it. My front window is nothing more than jagged teeth, glass smashed into smithereens. Glittering shards decorate the footpath, glinting in the morning sun.
“No...”
Tires squeal as Kai pulls up.
The second the car stops, I reach for the handle. A gloved hand shoots across my chest.
“Wait.”
“What?” I gasp. “No, I need to...”
“Wait,” he repeats, this time quieter. Deadlier.
He scans the building through the windscreen, his eyes searching the rubble of my studio.
Every muscle in his body is still. Like this, he’s a panther, ready to pounce on whatever poor animal he has spotted.
I try to shove his arm away, my heart crack in my chest, but his muscles are a band of steel around me.
“Stay.”
He stalks out of the car, boots crunching over broken glass as he pulls a gun from somewhere I didn’t see before and steps through the non-existent window.
Ignoring him completely, I throw open the door, chasing after him with Kitty in my hand.
The front door that I painted myself hangs crooked on one hinge, splintered and destroyed. The little bell above it lies in pieces on the ground.
“No...” I whisper quietly, my hand coming up to cover my mouth. To stop the sob from falling out.
I step inside. And my entire world caves in.
The artworks that hung on the walls in frames have been ripped down and ruined. Black ink and broken glass stain the floors. Every piece of furniture has been overturned, lying shattered.
Even the smell is wrong. Usually it smells like disinfectant, tattoo ointment and sage. Now, it smells like dust and spray paint.
Kai appears beside me, not making a sound. His eyes sweep the room, taking in the destruction.
“No, no, no...” is the only word I can find.
Crunching over the remnants of the one place that was mine.
I worked so hard for this. So hard for the clientele and the equipment. I remember crying tears of joy when I finally finished setting this place up, screaming a Bruce Springsteen song while dancing around the studio like a mad woman. Feeling free for the first time in my existence.
It was all just a fa?ade.
Now... it’s nothing but destruction. My fingers slide over the ruined surfaces.
Finally, I let myself cry. My body feels like it’s being cleaved in half, and the first sob that slips out is ugly and raw.
Kai stalks through the place, stopping at the back wall. When I see what he is staring at, I freeze.
FOUND YOU, LITTLE TRAITOR.
Red spray paint taints the black wall, crimson streaks running down the bricks like fresh blood.
My stomach drops so violently I think I’m going to throw up. I crouch, arms gripping my stomach as I wheeze, swallowing down the nausea that swirls through me.
Months of skipping meals. Months of working in questionable bars and living in rooms as big as closets, so that I could make this place what it was. Drawing on napkins and my own skin in any spare time I could find.
“Fuck,” I whimper, reaching down to pick at a sharp piece of glass.
Lifting it in front of my face. A feral wail rips from my chest, and my hand curls into a fist around the shard. I barely feel it pierce my skin. Barely notice the blood trickling from my grip.
All I see is ruin. Havoc that feels familiar.
Boots crunching over the wreckage step towards me, stopping where I’m crouched on the ground. Blood drips from my shaking hand. Drip, drip, drip. Pooling into a crimson puddle at my feet. Almost beautiful if my heart hadn’t just been ripped out.
When he reaches down and lifts me as easily as if I were a tiny kitten, I don’t fight it. A tiredness weighs on my shoulders.
One hand circles my wrist. The other pries open my fingers, still curled over the glass, revealing the gash in the middle of my palm.
His long fingers pluck the stained glass from my palm. On the precipice of falling the fuck apart, each breath I take shakes on its way out.
“This place was mine,” I whisper, finally looking up at him. “I’m fucking stupid for thinking that they wouldn’t find it.”
He gazes down at me through his lashes, still holding my hand between us.
My lip shakes, and I hate that this man can see how weak I am. “Why can’t they just leave me alone?”
The hand circling my wrist tightens, just as a tear falls past my lashes. His eyes follow it all the way down my cheek, something flickering in his eyes as it falls onto my bloodied hand.
Bringing his other hand up, he pushes his thumb into my cut, and I hiss at the flare of pain. His grip remains strong when I try to wrench my arm free, this thumb continuing to prod at the wound.
“The fuck...?” I grit out, shoving at him.
He doesn’t so much as flinch.
“You asked if I like your pain,” he murmurs, rubbing my blood between his fingers and staring at it hungrily. “My answer is yes.”
I gasp, eyebrows rising as he brings his thumb to his lips, licking the crimson red of his skin.
It shouldn’t make me feel the way it does.
Instead, I’m frozen to the spot.
His throat works as he swallows, never taking his eyes off mine. My pulse stutters.
“You’re...” I breathe, the words getting lodged in my throat.
Strange.
Twisted.
Beautiful.
Dangerous.
Kai lowers my hand, blood continuing to bead from the cut.
“Stay,” he demands again.
He wanders into my makeshift room, the small office with a tiny mattress.
I barely have time to be embarrassed by it when he returns, holding my first aid kit, and drops it on a ruined bench beside us.
Things spill from the container before he finds what he is looking for, and he tears open a packet with his teeth before taking my wrist. His skin is warm against mine.
I flinch as he cleans the cut with an alcohol wipe, hissing through my teeth. His thumb settles against the inside of my wrist, holding it steady.
As if he’s done this a thousand times before, he covers it with a dressing and wraps a bandage around it. His breath kisses my cheek, and I can’t help but inhale his scent. Leather and something muskier has my eyes wanting to roll back into my head.
Just his nearness makes my heart pick up its pace, distracted from the wreckage around us. His touch holds a heat in it, and I fight a shiver. It’s strange how this mundane little task feels more intimate than the way he took me last night.
Biting my lip, I gaze at him through my lashes. Tracing the soft freckle beneath his eye and his olive skin. His long lashes, and pitch-black eyes.
When he’s finished, he smooths the edge of the bandage flat with his thumb. Just one whisper of a touch.
Then his hand disappears, along with his warmth.
Reaching into his pocket, he dials someone and mutters a few words I can’t grasp. Because my attention turns to the FOUND YOU, LITTLE TRAITOR.
The taunt landed exactly as they expected it to.
Kai reaches for my baseball bat, sliding it into my hand.
“We’re going,” he says simply.
“Wait!” I gasp, backing away from him. “I can’t go to the apartment. Not yet. I’ll drive myself fucking crazy.”
Slowly, his head turns in my direction. Cold eyes search mine.
“Where, then?”
My eyebrows rise. I wasn’t expecting that. My mind races, the limited options swirling. Other than calling all of my clients and cancelling their long-awaited appointments, there is only one other thing I can think of.
“I need a fucking drink.”