Lee eyed Calum with what felt briefly like suspicion before she zeroed in on the stag on his hand. “Oooh, so you’re the one with the famous stag? Brix has told us about you.”
“He has?”
“About your hand,” Brix said. “I’ve got the stencil on the wall. Look.”
Calum followed his gaze to Brix’s station and saw that Brix had indeed kept the inky stencil from so long ago, framed it, and nailed it to the wall. “Jesus, it’s been years since I last saw that.”
“How many?”
Calum glanced at Lee. “How many years? About ten, I reckon. Brix?”
“I’d say so,” Brix said.
Lee whistled. “You two are old.”
“He is,” Calum said. “I was always the young pretender.”
“You weren’t pretending at anything that I recall, mate.” Brix folded his arms across his chest. “Smashed every job from the get-go.”
Heat flooded Calum’s cheeks. He turned away from Brix’s piercing gaze and Lee’s obvious curiosity and pointed to the first watercolour piece on Lee’s slice of the wall. “How did you get the ink to drip like that on the skin? The last one I did came out too pale.”
“You’re diluting the ink too much, I’d imagine. It took me a while to get it right, and I only do watercolours. It woulda taken me years if I was doing all that macho black-and-grey shite too.”
“Hey,” Brix interjected.
Lee giggled. “You know I’m taking the piss, boss. It’s just too easy to wind you up.”
“Very funny.”
“I think so.” Lee returned her focus to Calum. “Don’t mind us. He loves me really.”
“Yeah, like a mallet to the nuts.”
Lee ignored Brix’s grumble and pointed at the ink detail Calum had drawn her attention to. “I can show you a few tricks if you want? I’ve got time this morning. I only came in early to order some bits I need.”
Calum glanced at Brix, who shrugged and pushed himself off the counter he’d been leaning against. “Fill your boots, mate. I’ll get your station set up and you can have a play around. I’m sure someone’s got some spare skin you can test the waters with.”
“You can do my foot,” Lena called out. “I’ve got a gap needs filling.”
It was a complaint Calum had heard often from anyone who had more ink than naked flesh, and in spite of the dark mood still plaguing him, the urge to set a needle to skin made his palms tingle. “What do you want?”
“No fucking idea. I’ll harass you later.”
Lena turned back to her work as Brix punched Calum’s arm. “I’m gonna leave you to it for a while. Gotta nip home, then track down my old man. Just let Lena know when you’re ready to take walk-ins. Or not. Do whatever you want. It’s all cool.”
Brix walked away before Calum could answer, striding quickly through the studio and out of the front door. Calum watched him go, struck with a sudden desperation to follow. Being with Brix had been the only thing stopping him losing his mind, and as the studio door swished shut, anxiety clawed at his heart. What the fuck am I doing here?
Lee’s hand on his arm startled him for the second time in ten minutes, and the empathy in her previously sharp gaze surprised him even more. “Don’t fret,” she said. “Whatever brought you to Porthkennack, you’ll be safe from it here. Brix looks after all of us.”
It was lunchtime before Brix made it back to Blood Rush. He appeared at the station he’d assigned to Calum with a weary grin that broke Calum’s concentration.
Calum withdrew his borrowed gun from the young woman’s skin and mopped up some stray blood. “All right?”
Brix nodded. “Aye. You?”
Calum ignored the infinitesimal rush that came with Brix’s gentle Cornish accent. “Am now I’ve got a gun in my hand.”
“Figured as much. Art is cathartic, eh?”
