I didn’t ask why they believed this. The club had resources, including tech whizzes like Hawk. I trusted the members of this club. If they said he did it, that was good enough for me.
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
“We can’t go after him for retribution until we know his plan. Taking him out before then is reckless.”
“So…undercover work?”
Ryder smiled. “Exactly.”
Now, as I sat in my sunny kitchen eating a second bowl of cereal, the heaviness of that conversation felt unreal, but I knew what was expected of me.
No one wanted to put me in danger, so I was to keep doing the same thing I had been, to avoid suspicion. I had to keep going to the fights a couple of times a week. But now, I had to snoop around to see what I could find out about Luca. There were always dozens of people in the crowd, and surely one of them knew the man well enough to provide answers. I just had to find him and get him to talk.
I fired off a text to Alex, asking him to come with me again on Saturday. Trainer wanted to come to watch my back, but I was worried about bringing yet another new face to the warehouse. It might look suspicious. Of course, Alex might say no. He’d been in a pissy mood the last time, so it wouldn’t surprise me. He didn’t reply right away, so I slipped on my boots and headed out the door.
It wouldn’t do to be late on my first full day of work.
I owned a motorcycle and a car, but I rode the bike as much as possible. Nothing could compare to the feeling of being on a bike. It was exhilarating, a thrill that I didn’t get from any other mode of transportation.
When I got to Ink Envy, there was only one other car in the lot, and I recognized it as Brie’s. Sure enough, when I walked inside, she was in her spot at the counter, flipping through a magazine.
“You’re here early,” she said, looking pleased.
I glanced at the clock on the wall. “Don’t we open in ten minutes?”
“Yeah, but the girls like to show up at the last minute.” She seemed unconcerned about that.
I headed back through the curtain and into my workspace. I had left my portfolio behind yesterday so that I had it on hand for clients that wanted to see my work, but I already had two people coming in today for large pieces. It was amazing how easy it was to advertise for this kind of thing online. When I worked at the tattoo shop eight years ago, social media wasn’t nearly as popular as it was today.
I had just sat down when I heard a commotion at the front of the shop. Before I could go investigate, the red curtain was ripped open, and a Barbie wannabe came marching through, followed by a harassed-looking Brie.
“You can’t just come back here like that,” Brie told the skinny blonde.
“She’s really not here?” The girl sounded confused as she looked in the direction of Kat’s workspace.
“I told you that,” Brie said, crossing her arms across her chest.
“But she has to do something,” Blondie said, her voice took on an unappealing whining quality. “The tattoo doesn’t look right anymore. She must have messed it up.”
“Maybe I can help you,” I offered. I barely knew Kat, but I bet that she wouldn’t take kindly to the suggestion that she had messed up. If I could diffuse whatever this situation was before she arrived, that might be for the best.
“Do you do tattoos?” she asked as her eyes flickered over me. I could see the interest in her expression as her gaze took in my muscular arms.
“Yep. So, why don’t you take a seat and show me the problem, Miss…”
“Ashlynn,” she beamed as she walked into my work area. “Call me Ashlynn.”
“Okay, Ashlynn, take a seat.”
Brie mouthed athank youto me before walking back to the front of the shop. It looked like I’d just earned a few brownie points from the boss.
Ashlynn didn’t say another word before she reached down to the hem of her shirt and whipped it off over her head. My eyes darted to her chest—I was only human, after all—and I saw a hot pink bra, but I quickly returned my attention to her face.
“It’s on my shoulder,” she explained, turning to show me the wordsLive, Laugh, Loveon her shoulder blade in big, curvy letters with a pink ribbon woven through them. It wasn’t exactly the most complex tattoo I’d ever seen, but Kat did a good job with it. It was nice, clean work.
“Do you see how faded it is?” Ashlynn asked, looking at me over her shoulder. She had abandoned the whining and was acting like a damsel in distress now. I had a feeling that she thought it was seductive. Maybe that worked on other guys, but not me.
“I see a little color fading, but this looks fresh,” I said as my eyes traced the edge of the tattoo, where the ink met her untouched skin. It was reddened and a little swollen. “Make thatveryfresh.”
