“Is that a problem?”Twisted drawled as he made his way to the counter.
“No, sir, I simply didn’t know who I was putting ink on.George Bell is a good moniker.Why haven’t I heard it before now?”Silly lifted the pass-through out of the way and gestured him through.“Come on back.You know where my chair is.”This wasn’t the first time she’d been asked to tattoo the President of IMC, and more importantly...Jock’s MC, but those appointments had been made face-to-face so she had an idea of what she was doing.She was going into this one blind.
“Do you know what you want?”Silly tapped the chair as she pulled her stool over.She grabbed her sketchbook from the table that held all her ink bottles.It was a workspace for sketching as well as staging her tools and ink for tattooing.
“Yeah, I want my old lady’s name tattooed on the inside of my arm.Close to my heart, and all that jazz.”
“Oh, cool.What kind of font did you want to use?”
“Something classy, like Penny.”
“Classy?What does that mean to you?”She shook her head and pulled out her phone.“Let me show you some examples of the different fonts.”
“Classy.I don’t know.Just classy.”
A loud growl filled the space, and Silly was on her feet in an instant.Out in the hallway Maynard was nose to the floor in front of the door leading outside, growling like a fiend.Tank joined him, and the rumble immediately grew louder.
“What’s going on with them?”Twisted had followed her into the hallway.He’d pulled a gun, had it angled down beside his leg.“Did anyone know I was coming in today?”
“What?No, I didn’t even know you were coming in today.”She undid the bolt on the door and pushed it open a couple of inches.“There’s nothing—” The door slammed in her face, and she rocked backwards, nearly falling.If it hadn’t been for Twisted grabbing her arm, she would have landed on her ass on the floor.“What the fuck?”
“Let me go out front.I’ll check the alley that way.”Twisted pointed at the side door.“Lock that deadbolt again, Silly.Don’t open it for anything.”
He took off at a jog to the front of the building, and Maynard and Tank tore out after him.
“Don’t let the dogs out,” Silly called, setting off in a run to the waiting room to find Twisted already outside, both dogs worrying at the door that had been closed in their faces.“Thanks,” she told the empty room.In fact, except for the dogs, she was alone in the shop, not something that would usually happen, and not something that would usually bother her, but it did right now.
She stopped between the dogs and grabbed their collars.“Come, boys.”She put them in the big kennel she’d placed in the large breakroom at the back of the shop and latched the door, locking them in the kennel and then in the room.“Warranted.Maynard is a sneak.”He was, because he’d escaped from his kennel at home several times, and the last two times, he’d opened Tank’s kennel too.
Phone to his ear, Twisted came back through the front door and turned to lock it.“Pony, tell me what kind of security we’ve got on the tattoo shop.”He stopped walking, angling his head down and rubbing his forehead with the back of his gun hand.“Pony.”He sighed and rolled his shoulders.“Pony.Stop.No, man.Stop fuckin’ talkin’.You had to take all the security out for the TV show.I get that, but brother, that show ended months ago.”
Silly stepped forwards.“I have two cameras, one at the front here and one on the back door.Nothing for the side door, though.And nothing outside.”
“You get that, brother?”Twisted paused and nodded.“Can you send him your—fucking hell, you tell her.”He put the call on speaker.
“Hey, Silly.Who’s your internet through?”
She told him and then went through the brands and models associated with her cameras and hub.
“So the good thing is, you’ve got a decent start.But we’re going to want more.There’s no coverage for some critical spaces and places.I’ll be there in about four hours to start the install.”
Silly sighed.“I suppose I should call Jock and tell him.”
Twisted shook his head.“I already called.”
Of course you did.She didn’t generally mind the club mechanics.In fact, she largely loved how the structure helped Jock cope with his PTSD.But sometimes they could be pushy to the extreme.“And I haven’t gotten a call, so that means he jumped on his bike and is roaring over this way.All without knowing that it’s all fine.”
Twisted pointed to the side door.“I was right there when the dogs alerted to something outside that door, and that same something slammed the door before you could get a glimpse of whoever it was.Those dogs alerted hard too.That was danger, just a door away.Fuck yeah, I called your ole man.”
“What kind of door do you have side and back, Silly?”
That she could answer, “Steel doors, both of them.Heavy bastards.The front is a typical store door.Glass.”
“Shatter monitoring.Got it.How long will Twisted’s tattoo take you to do?”
“I don’t know if he even wants it now.”
“Oh, Twisted still wants his fuckin’ tattoo.We’re about to look at fonts again.”
