Tattoos never used to do anything for me. I’d admire them from afar, no real desire to add any to my skin. But I got my first one about five years ago—my ribs of all places.
Regina did research and told me that was the worst place for my first time, but weirdly, I enjoyed it. The buzzing of the gun and the feeling of the needle prickling into my skin was therapeutic.
I quietly laugh at myself. Yeah, I’m definitely becoming a psychologist’s dream.
She gnaws her lip in thought. “He won’t be hard to miss anyway, especially seeing as the town’s small.”
“True. What about the kid?” I ask, and she sits down next to me, finger flicking on the tablet screen as she shows me the photo that was sent through.
My heart twists at the little boy.
Dark brown eyes and hair. I hope he’s safe and hasn’t come to harm.
It’s bad enough dealing with trauma as an adult, never mind being exposed to it so young.
I’ll never understand how anyone can harm innocent children, and people would have the audacity to think what I do is fucked up and punishable.
I’m ridding the place of evil, and they’d spend less time in jail than I would, likely getting a second chance to do it all over.
“We’ll make sure he gets home safe,” I whisper, my voice feeling tight.
My phone ringing breaks through my thoughts, and I clear my throat of the emotion coating it, seeing it’s my hyperaware mother.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Hi, honey. How are you?”
Fine, just laying out some plans to kill some corrupt fuck that’s part of a secret society.
“I’m good, how are you?”
Crackles filter through the speaker, like she’s clattering around in the kitchen. “The usual, just wanted to see how my baby is doing…are you out?”
I fix a glare on Regina, a gust of wind blowing through the livestream and filling the living room.
She gently closes the lid on her laptop, slowly manoeuvring herself backwards from the couch.
“Sort of…I’m working.” My voice pitches as a yawn breaks through me, blinking back the tiredness.
No matter what anyone says, stalking a mark is actually quite tiring work.
“At this time!” she squeaks through the phone, and I glance over to see it’s almost 10pm.
“I know, I’m just tidying some things up so I can have a few days off.”
That’s code for, I might be unavailable whilst I plot someone’s demise and act like Rambo to save a child whilst having no idea what the fuck I’m doing on the latter.
“Okay, I’ll let you off.” Her sigh cracks through the phone. “I know you were planning to visit this weekend, but Morgan and I swapped our dates about…I hope you don’t mind, honey.”
Shit, I totally forgot about that.
“Blowing me off for a guy! How dare you, Mother.”
“That’s not—”
“I’m kidding! That’s fine with me, Mom, honestly. Regina and I can make some plans for somethingfun.”
I can feel my mom’s smile through the phone; little does she know it’s not even in the ballpark for what she’d class as fun.
