Page 8 of Watercolor Skulls

She shifts the bag she brought behind her legs nervously. She gave me a vague answer. I’m assuming it’s the truth, but she doesn’t want to pinpoint an exact location. Interesting.

“Are you going to live at the house alone? No boyfriend? Husband? Kids?” I rattle off the possibilities, paying close attention to her reaction to each. Nope none of the above, she didn’t even flinch.

“It’s just me.”

She keeps her answers short, showing me she doesn’t want to risk revealing anything extra about herself.

As we pull up in front of the local grocery store, I realize I didn’t learn a fucking thing about her other than she is alone, which I already figured, and that she’s from the west coast.

“I’ll grab the cleaning supplies while you load up on groceries.”

She nods, bending over to unzip her bag. She pulls out a wad of cash, handing me the amount we agreed on for the deposit. Then she shoves a few bills in her pocket. She’s carrying an awful lot of cash around. I sigh out loud. This girl isn’t very street smart.

When we meet up at the checkout I notice she hardly bought any groceries. There are a few containers of fat free yogurt, some sort of grainy cereal and milk that comes from a nut. Milk should come from a cow as Gabriel’s god intended.

I glance at the time on my phone, we have thirty minutes before the hardware store closes. “Let’s go grab some paint. That way you can get started whenever you want.”

Lily surprises me by the colors she picks. I like them. She would look at a few color tiles and then close her eyes before nodding her head and telling me which one she liked. We may have gotten a little carried away, but I can always use the leftover paint at our other rentals. We grab a few more supplies and then head back to the house.

“Are you an artist?” I ask. She has a good eye for colors.

She laughs. “No, I’m a kindergarten teacher.” Her hand flies to her mouth like she revealed something without meaning to.

“Hmm, you have good taste in colors. Besides tattooing, I paint, mostly murals but I dabble in other art forms.”

She relaxes when I don’t mention the teacher gig. “Being an artist sounds wonderful,” she says wistfully, her eyes scanning the scenery beyond the window.

“You should give it a try. Just paint something. You don’t have to show anyone. Do it for yourself.”

She smiles wide, dimples I hadn’t seen before gracing her cheeks. Lily is cute as all get out when she smiles. “I just might do that.”

I spot my dad’s truck in the driveway when we pull in. Lily glances nervously at it as well. “My dad is here. He’s the one whose really in charge of the business. He likes to meet all our tenants.”

“It’s a family business?”

“Yeah, well, sort of a club business. RS Rentals stands for Rebel Skull Rentals, but we found people were reluctant to rent from us if we revealed the whole name.”

Her brown eyes go wide. “Rebel Skulls as in the motorcycle gang?”

Sighing loudly, I decide to answer honestly. More than likely I made Dirk bring that bed for nothing. She is going to be running for the hills here soon.

“I wouldn’t say gang, club is the better word. We’ve evolved over the last decade or so. We’re not nearly as dangerous as we once were.” I wink at her.

She drops her head and stares at her hands in her lap for a few seconds before raising her eyes to me. “Sounds interesting.”

I pull my head back. Not the response I thought I would get from this timid little mouse. I chuckle and open my door. “Oh, you’re about to see how interesting.”

She follows me into the house, our eyes dart to the ceiling from all the thumping and cursing going on upstairs. Dirk yells down the stairs, “What fucking room do you want this thing in, Jess?”

I laugh and jog up the stairs, Lily following slowly behind. “Chill out, she hasn’t even had the chance to look at the upstairs.”

Dirk, Raffe and my dad are all leaning against the bed frame in the hallway. Lily stops at the top of the step frozen in her spot. Her eyes dart over the men and her face turns a pasty white.

Chapter Four

Lily

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