Page 1 of Ink & Reina

Chapter One

Ink

“Yo, Drew!”

I sighed, annoyance burning through my veins.

Fucking hell.

I slowly turned my head, watching as Johnny strode up the hall towards me. We’d been paired together for a stupid ass science project. I hadn’t bothered to stick around to hash out any details with him. I was ready to get the fuck to lunch. We could figure everything out tomorrow in class. I wasn’t interested in having any kind of discussion with the jock outside of class time.

My stomach rumbled, reminding me I needed to eat something before I became even more of an asshole than I already was.

Johnny Richards was nothing but trouble. Being the son of the mayor got him out of a lot of shit, and then being the prized football star on top of that made him nearly untouchable in this school. Teachers hated him because he was just a regular jock, but the majority of the student body loved him.

I found the way he could do anything and not get any shit for it fucking annoying, just as the faculty did.

I normally kept my distance from him. There wasn’t any bad beef between us, but I was doing my damnest to be better than my older brother and my father. Getting caught up with Johnny was asking to get my ass put in a cell next to my father.

And that wasn’t on my list of things to do.

All I wanted to do was graduate and prospect for the Savage Crows MC. That was it. No college—none of that bullshit. I just wanted to take Blink—the president of the SCMC Texas Charter—up on his prospect offer. Being part of the club, even as just a prospect, would ensure I always had a roof over my head and brotherhood to fall back on.

I needed somewhere to belong because all I was doing anymore was fucking drifting. And drifting was gettingold.

“Hey, you forget about the project that damn fast?” Johnny asked me, adjusting his letterman jacket as he drew closer. I arched an eyebrow at him. I never thought Johnny actually gave a shit about school, to be real. Just always seemed like he thought he was above doing any kind of schoolwork. Wasn’t like his rich ass father wouldn’t make sure he wouldn’t graduate with a 4.0 GPA anyway.

God forbid the mayor’s son be seen as anything other than the golden boy.

“Shit; yeah, I forgot,” I lied, turning to face him completely. “Can’t meet at my place, so what do you suggest?” I asked, instantly putting that boundary out there. Living in a foster home prevented me from bringing people over. My foster parentshatedvisitors. They barely tolerated me, but that monthly check from the government normally kept them quiet.

And normally, I wouldn’t give a shit about a project, considering I didn’t particularly care about school, but this was a huge project worth a good chunk of my final grade in science.Since I wanted to graduate before I took Blink up on his offer of prospecting for the Savage Crows MC, I knew this was an assignment I couldn’t let slip by.

Blink told me I could begin prospecting now, but I at least wanted to graduate before I did. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do better than both my father and my older brother, both of whom never made it past their sophomore year of high school before dropping out.

Being a member of the SCMC had been my dream since I was fifteen, ever since I saw them all together for the first time. There was brotherhood there—structure—that I craved.

But school, at the moment, took precedence over that.

“My place is fine,” Johnny said. “You know where it is, right?”

I blinked at him for a moment, wondering if his question was a legit one because who the fuck in this town didn’t know where he lived?

Instead of offering my normal sarcastic ass response, I nodded once. “Four,” he told me. “Got shit to do at six.”

With that, he strode off. I glared after him. Johnny was a cocky son of a bitch, and I already knew that shit was going to wear on my nerves fast.

Shaking my head, I finished shoving my shit into my locker before I spun on my heel and headed for the cafeteria, a burger and fries on my mind.

With a tired sigh, I slid off my bike and set my helmet on the seat. The bike was a gift from Blink for my eighteenth birthday. He said every boy deserved their own bike, and while I hated the boy part of that whole thing, I’d been fucking ecstatic over thegift. Blink and Sabotage, his adopted son, taught me how to ride, and within days, I had my motorcycle license.

I owed Blink a hell of a lot, though I knew he’d never let me repay him.

Sighing, I eyed the white, two-story house in front of me. The shrubs along the side of the house were trimmed to perfection, the grass in the yard all one length with perfect swipes back and forth. Flowers were planted along the white picket fence, set the exact same amount of space apart.

Money was the dividing line in this town, all starting with the fucking mayor himself. Being here made my skin feel too damn tight because I didn’t goddamn belong.

With a grunt, I adjusted my leather jacket and strode up the stone steps to the massive front porch. Ceiling fans were spinning above my head, offering a cool breeze against the heat in the air. A porch swing was hanging on one end of the porch. Two pristine, white rocking chairs were on the other end. Flowers were placed in random places, but I knew with every fiber of my being that the mayor had paid an obscene amount of money to make it look perfectly placed. Because they weren’t set in a random disarray; it was more of a random sort of perfection.

---