“Hey.” He nods at me, coming up behind Jasmine in line. “Jas.” He recognizes her. His eyes on her ass.
“Grave.” She observes, turning and looking him up and down.
He smirks at her. Grave is six two but still the shortest of all the Kings. He has that cute baby face and panty dropping smile. His eyes are blue like his brother’s but they’re softer. More approachable. Bones’s are always hard and intimidating.
“I see you’re still alive.” She takes a sip of her drink and pulls her lip back after swallowing. Clearly she doesn’t like what I ordered her.
“There’s always tomorrow,” he states.
She rolls her green eyes and heads over to our table.
“What do you want, Emilee?” he asks, looking down at me.
“Have you seen Titan?” I ask.
He chuckles. “Did he ghost you already?”
I place my hands on my hips. “No.” He was already gone when I left this morning to go see my mother. And when I returned to meet the girls, Nigel said he was out for the day. He didn’t mention anything about going anywhere to me.
He pulls his ringing phone out of the back pocket of his shredded jeans. I don’t think Grave owns any type of business attire. “He’s up in The Palace.”
“Palace?”Where have I heard that at?
He nods. “Sixteenth floor. Code 1275.”
I go to ask him what the code is for, but his cell rings once more. “I have to take this.” And with that, he dismisses me.
I sit down and have my drink with the girls. But the entire time my mind is on Titan. Is that here in Kingdom? The girls and I hang out for about thirty minutes and then I tell them goodbye.
I go to the main lobby where the elevator banks are and wait with the crowd of people. I step in and frown when I don’t see an option for the sixteenth floor. “Excuse me,” I say and squeeze my way out before the door closes. I try five other ones, and none of them stop on a sixteenth floor.Strange.
Getting impatient, I turn in a circle, trying to think where the other elevators are that I could use when I see the tattoo shop. I walk over to it and enter.
“Hello. How may I help you?” a girl asks with a smile on her face from behind the counter.
“Is Cross here?” Cross is a tattoo artist among many other things. He opened this place up inside the casino when they took over. From what I’ve heard over the years, he does really good work. I wonder if he has given the Kings any of their ink.
Her smile drops, and she crosses her arms over her chest.Bitch mode activated.The spike between her eyes and hoop that hangs from her nose doesn’t help to make her look any friendlier. All she’s missing is the smoke coming out of her ears and she’d look like a cartoon bull about to charge me. “Do you have an appointment?”
“No. But he is here?”
“He’s not available. For you,” she answers slowly as if I’m hard of hearing while her hazel eyes sweep me over. Obviously judging me for what she sees—lack of ink and piercings I’m sure.
I push off the desk and walk down the narrow hallway.
“Hey, get back here,” she calls out.
I ignore her.
“Hey … I said he’s unavailable …”
Taking another turn, I walk past the open doors. The last one on the right is closed. I shove it open without knocking.
A woman lies on her back. Her legs up in what look like stirrups. All she wears is a pair of soft pink underwear from the waist down. Her jeans lie over the back of a chair in the corner of the room. And Cross is between her legs tattooing her inner thigh. “Oh my gosh … I’m so sorry …”
“Emilee?” He looks up at me. “What are you …?”
“I told her you were busy,” the young girl snaps, coming in behind me.
