I took a deep breath and answered on the third ring.
“Hello.” I tried my best to act like everything was normal.
My heart raced in my chest because my paranoia told me he knew I found the flash drive. I didn’t know how he would be able to tell, but I still was nervous.
“You good, Munch?” The huskiness in his voice made me close my eyes.
I wanted to tell him so bad but couldn’t, at least not yet.
“Yeah. I’m okay. Was just thinking about my brother.” That wasn’t a complete lie.
“Damn, I’m sorry. Have you eaten dinner yet?”
On cue, my stomach growled, reminding me I hadn’t eaten since lunch. Since my parents weren’t home, my mom hadn’t cooked, and I hadn’t had time to.
“No, not yet.”
“Come fuck wit me.”
The way he said it left me no room to say no, so I climbed off my bed and grabbed a hoodie from the closet.
“Where are you?”
“At my tattoo shop. I’ll send you the address. We can figure out what we are going to eat when you get here.”
I pulled the phone away from my ear when I felt it vibrate. It was the address to his tattoo shop, and I put it in my GPS and saw it wasn’t too far from my house.
“Okay.” I put my hoodie on, then headed downstairs.
I didn’t want my parents to worry, so I left them a note to let them know I would be out for a while.
Kane told me he would be waiting for me, and I hung up. I made sure my location was shared with Candace before I left, just in case. I didn’t want to tell her where I was going, but I knew if something happened to me, she would know where I was.
I locked up the house and headed to my car.
My fingers stayed on the necklace around my neck as I drove. I was filled with anxiety, and I needed to relax before I made it to Kane, and he picked up on my mood.
It didn’t take long for me to arrive at the shop, and there was a parking spot right in the front.
Loud music and the sound of tattoo guns greeted my ears as soon as I entered.
“I see you made it in one piece.” Kane walked toward me but stopped before he got too close. “You been crying, Munch?” As usual, he had a toothpick in his mouth.
Initially, I hated the name, but it grew on me.
“I was, but I’m okay now. Are you going to show me around?” I tried to quickly take the attention off me.
“I can.”
I was surprised when he reached for my hand. We walked past a desk that had multiple books on it and pictures of a family. I assumed it was the family of whoever he had as a receptionist. We walked past a couple of rooms, and he quickly introduced me to a guy named Deuce, who was in the middle of tattooing someone. Past that room was another room, and he introduced me to a chick named Sasha, and she was also in the middle of tattooing. He showed me the room for the piercer, then we reached his private suite. The other rooms were a decent size, but Kane’s was the largest. He had a couch in there and a comfortable looking tattoo chair. Different pictures of people with fresh tattoos were on the wall.
“You did all of these?” I asked as I walked around the room and admired his work.
“I did. You got any ink?” He leaned against the wall as I continued looking at the pictures.
Some people had small tattoos, some had ones that covered their entire backs or legs. It was quite impressive.
“No. I would like to one day. Maybe get something in memory of my brother.”
