Page 52 of Devoured
CHAPTER 14
Iris
It had taken me a while, but once I found her tattoo work circulating on a social media app, I eventually got in contact with Mel—or, no, scratch that. She wanted to be called ‘Melissa’ now. Melissa hadn’t had a phone in a long time, but I could tell her artwork whenever I saw tattoos with a mix of heavy lines and watercolor edges. I had to ask one of her local fans to tell her to contact me, but it worked. We met at Anchored Hearts Tattoo, a shop in Sage City.I had been there many times before; tattoos were my splurge item. A pink-haired artist there had done the dragonfly rib cage on my torso.
Across the street from the shop, Melissa was leaning against a car, facing the ocean, sketching in a notepad. I expected to see one of her classic ocean paintings, but when I peered over her shoulder, I saw a set of Día de los Muertos skulls with intricate designs. Almost the opposite of what she had painted when she worked at the Dahlia District.
“I can’t believe you found me,” she said without looking up.
“It wasn’tthathard,” I said. Admittedly, it had takensometime. “Your style is pretty distinctive.”
“So that’s what gave me away.” She closed the notepad and grinned at me. “You look good, girl.”
Her hair was the same synthetic fire engine red as it had always been, but she was covered in ink now—not as much as me, but enough to be noticeable. Her skin glowed, hinting that she must have spent time in the sun these days.
“I should say the same to you,” I said. “What have you been up to? You’re right, actually; it wasn’t easy to find you.”
She nodded towards the trees next to the parking spaces. A man leaned against one of the trunks. I squinted my eyes to see who it was, but he was covered in shadows.
“He’s been keeping me occupied.” I didn’t know whohewas, but that didn’t matter. A man was a man, and I didn’t trust many of them.
Maybe one.Maybe.
She leaned back on the hood of the car. “What’s up?”
“How do you feel about the Dahlia District lately?” I asked, trying to gauge how to approach the topic. She crossed her arms over her chest.
“I hated that place,” she scowled. “Why?”
Ah. So there was little chance to save this, then. Still, I had to give it a go. “If there were no debts,” I said. She furrowed her brows at me. “Seriously,no debts, would you consider coming back?”
“Fuck no.” She set the notepad down on the hood of the car and forced a laugh. “Not in a million years.”
I had figured as much, but it was worth a shot. “Did you meet him there?” I pointed at her shadow man. “Maybe he’d want to come back?”
“Rourke?” she asked. He peered out, his face coming into the light. The dark eyes, the deep grooves in his cheeks—I recognized him. He had been to the Dahlia District before. But at the time, he went by another name. It was lost on me now. “You want to go back to the Dahlia District?”
“Not interested,” he said, sliding back into the shadows.
“Why do you ask?” Melissa questioned. “What’s going on?”
“I’m hoping I’ll be the new owner soon,” I said, my cheeks burning, the embarrassment coming out. I was one of the few women in that club who had actuallywantedto do sex work, and at times like this, talking with Melissa, it was painfully obvious. “I want to make it a better place for sex workers.”
“Hah. He’d love that,” Melissa mumbled, glancing at the man in the shadows. “But you know what we can do? We can provide protection. For those just-in-case times, you know? Like when the club members get out of hand.”
“Protection?” I asked. “But we already have security.”
“But do you have securitybeyondthe walls of the club? We—” she glanced over at the man in the shadows, “Well,hecould take care of them for you.”
“Take care of them?” I scoffed. “What do you mean? Are you working for the Adler mafia or something?”
She chuckled. “No. But if they wanted to hire him, they could.”
I rolled my eyes. I had spent enough time with criminals trying to rescue my best friend, Teagen. If only I could find her on social media like I could find Melissa.
“So you’re taking over for Roland Price then?”
I perked up. I was surprised she had heard about him. But I guess he was big news all over the world, not only in our state.
