Jaxine grinned and patted her friend’s shoulder endearingly.“Sure you are.”The old woman winked.“What are you thinking about getting?”
Lola leaned in, anxious to see how Maddie would respond, but she never heard the answer.
“You ready, Lola?”Kian asked.
Lola’s head snapped back around, and she looked up at him.“This is weird.”He was already walking away, and she hurried to follow.He kept going until they were in the farthest corner of the room, well away from her friends, who were both sitting in stations at the front.
“There’s that word again– weird.”He gave her a grin.“Have a seat.”
Lola stepped around the back of the chair and then lowered herself slowly down, as if the seat might explode as soon as her butt hit it.“I just mean it’s strange to be here, seeing you.You didn’t bother to mention that you worked here.”
“I just started,” he said absently, grabbing a pad of paper and pencil.“You’re my first.”
Lola froze, her hands gripping the armrests of the chair and her backside hovering in mid-air, nearly touching the seat.“Umm, what?”
Kian’s head tilted back as he laughed.“Kidding.”He sat on a rolling seat and faced her.“I tell all the nervous ones that.Makes them panic every time.”
She let herself fall into the seat.“Funny,” she said, the tone of her voice showing it was anything but.
“Well, I did just start working atWild Ink, but I’ve been doing tattoos for as long as I can remember.
“Do you make them look 3D, like the ones your friends had?And that one on your neck?”She motioned to the location, her eyes wandering down his torso wondering if he had any other ink considering his arms were bare.
Kian must have realized what she was thinking because he unbuttoned his black shirt.
“Oh, um, no, don’t,” she began, but stopped when he pulled his shirt aside just enough for her to see the tattoo there.It was a another black panther, just like the ones she’d seen on his friends, and similar to the one on his neck.She narrowed her eyes.The color of the panther’s eyes were not the same color as the one on his neck and it seemed to have a more feminine quality.“Are you guys in some sort of gang?You all have the same tattoo.Why panthers?”She leaned forward, her hand reaching out before she knew what she was doing.
A loud crashing sound, came from behind a door bearing a sign that read ‘Employees Only’.Along with the crash came a vicious-sounding snarl.Lola jerked her hand back as her head whipped around.
She felt it again, the eyes that had been tracking her for days.She hadn’t sensed the watchfulness at all today, but now she could practically feel the person’s breath on her neck.“Is someone back there?”
“Just my cat.”Kian’s voice sounded a bit shaky.“He’s a little possessive.Doesn’t like anyone touching me.”
Lola felt her face heat over the fact that shehadbeen about to put her hand on his bare skin.Then her mind focused on his other words.“Your cat made that noise?And it’s possessive of you?”She looked back at Kian, but she still felt the eyes on her.
“He’s a strange cat.And bossy.And he’s been acting a tad unhinged lately.”
There was another snarl, but this time there was no accompanying bang.
“See?”Kian nodded.“Unhinged.”
Lola’s mouth opened then snapped closed when he started drawing.Apparently, he was finished talking about his odd cat.She watched in awe as his pencil moved quickly over the page, but she couldn’t see what he was drawing because he had the pad tilted away from her.She hadn’t given him any indication of what she wanted, but that didn’t seem to be an issue for Kian.
After a few minutes, he stopped, looked at it, tilted his head from side to side, and then started drawing again.
“Are you gonna show me what tattoo you seem to have decided for me?”Lola’s fingers tapped on the arms of the chair.
“One sec,” he muttered.
“Why are you even drawing when we haven’t even discussed what I want?”
“Sometimes I just get a feeling of something that I think a person will like.”His focus stayed on the page.“Call it a gut feeling or sixth sense.”
“At this point, it wouldn’t surprise me,” she mumbled, leaning back in the chair and resisting the urge to glance back at the door from which she could swear the intense gaze emanated.
“Okay,” Kian said after several more minutes of silence.He appeared perplexed as he stared at the page.His brow furrowed even further, and his eyes flickered up to the door behind her, where the crash had occurred, and then back to the page.“By Visata” he muttered, his gaze fixated on his drawing.
“Is something wrong?”she asked, getting a little worried his sixth sense had led him to draw a picture of his own emotionally unstable cat that apparently had attachment issues.Is that why he looked at the door?And why is he looking at it again?Dude, stop looking at the damn door.
