Page 18 of Baratta's Darkness

Blood looks over to Baratta, “You heard my sister. Hurt her and you are a dead man.” Then he storms out the door.

Baratta doesn’t say a word; he just pulls me into his arms and holds me. After a few moments I swear I hear him say, “Thank you.” but I don’t know what he is thanking me for, so I say nothing.

My phone pings telling me I have a text so I untangle myself from his arms to check my phone. It’s from my brother.

“Be at the shooting range at 9 a.m. Saturday. Prove to me you still got it.”

It’s time to open the shop, so I grab my keys and we head down stairs. “Baratta, I need a shop key for Lily and Arin.”

“No”

“What?” I stop and ask him.

“I have a set, you have a set and your brother gets a set. Nobody else.”

“Why?”

“Because people lose keys all the time, and I do not know them. Therefore; I do not trust them. Tell me about Lilly and Arin.”

“Well Lily came to me about six months after the Inker’s expo. She was working for a sexist pig at a shop in Sacramento. She’s been with me ever since. Arin is a local; she graduated high school last year and has been taking art classes at the community college.”

“This Lily chick, she just ups and moves, following you around like a lost puppy?”

I completely lose it and get in his face. “Lily is my ride or die! She is an adult female with no family and nothing tying her down. She can do whatever she damn well pleases. And just so you know, so can I!”










Baratta

Damn that fire in her eyes when she’s standing up for her friend makes my cock, hard as a steel pole. Once she gets the door unlocked and goes into the shop I get my laptop out of the car. I plan to do some research while she works.

She has a sitting area with a table and couch for people waiting. I choose that as my work space. I find it interesting that Lily followed her from New Orleans, so I have to find out more about this woman.

I start at the Inker’s expo Facebook page and dive into the pictures from when Fiona was there. Almost every picture of Fi has either Lily or some guy in them.

The guy looks slightly familiar but his features seem to be distorted somehow. “Hey Fiona.” I call out and she pops her head up from where she is inking Wrench.

“A little busy here.”