Page 18 of Evil Beautiful

Today was my last day, unlike the other days I only had one client booked. It was for a back piece that I had been working on for several months. Usually he flew down to Cape Town but this time I was in his city and he jumped at the chance to have me finish it.

The day slipped by in a haze of ink, music, several breaks and the buzzing of the tattoo gun in my hand. I inked the final shadow and wiped the ink and blood away then sat back to look at my work. It looked fantastic and I was pleased as hell. Pleased it was finally done and with how the work had turned out.

“Stay like that for a minute I just want to take a pic for my portfolio.”

Brian, my client, grunted his reply, still very much spaced out after our long session. He had one hell of a pain threshold.

Everything went quickly after that. Once I cleaned his back and covered it up I gave him the usual directions for taking care of his ink. I knew he didn’t need to be told but the rules were the rules, and I stuck to them religiously.

Escorting him to the front of the shop I waved him off then returned and thoroughly cleaned the guest station I’ve been using.

“Kell!” DC called out. “I have a beer with your name on it out here.”

I grinned as I made my way to the front of the shop where everyone was hanging out. There were several bikers standing in front of the windows as if guarding them while the rest of DC’s crew were lounging on the couches. Everyone was relaxing with whatever they were drinking and talking shop or just chatting about whatever interested them.

DC handed me my beer and I clinked it against her glass that looked suspiciously like she was drinking sparkling water with lemon in it. No alcohol.

I was about to ask but let it go when she called for attention and it went quiet.

“I want to thank Kell for stepping up on very short notice to take over for me so my old man and I could go on a well-deserved holiday.” DC bumped her shoulder against my arm. “Not only did he take over for me, he did so well he had to extend his stay with us because our clients were queuing up to get inked by him. And because it wouldn’t be cool to send him home without a little present to show our appreciation we got together and found something that will remind him of his stay here with us.” She laughed and wiggled her eyebrows at me.

The laughter from the men and women sounded a bit evil and I braced.

Without a shadow of a doubt I knew the present was going to be something fairly personal. It would be considered personal if we were normal people, but we weren’t. We saw half naked and naked bodies and private parts every single day and we discussed each other’s ink and piercings all the time.

Grace, the youngest person in DC’s shop held a small package wrapped in silver paper in her hands and I had a faint suspicion about what was in it. My attention was divided between that small package and DC.

“When we were talking about piercings the other day you said you were thinking about having some more done. So, we decided that as a going away present our gift to you was going to be a piercing of your choice. But then Grace said she knew what you wanted and we left the choice of jewellery up to her. Nadja will gladly put it in for you.” DC winked at me and her old man who was easily as big as a bloody house growled at her. He literally growled at her, and the woman just grinned cheekily.

I smiled as I accepted the package from Grace and she went bright red.

Shit. I had noticed that she was a bit nervous around me and now I knew why. She had a bit of a crush. Damn. In the first place I wasn’t interested and secondly I didn’t play where I worked.

Ripping the silver paper off I opened the little box and stared down at the jewellery for a stunned second, then looked up at the grinning assholes around me and shook my head. No way was I getting this piercing today.

“There is no way I’m having my dick pierced and getting on a flight right after. It’s not going to happen, you bastards. I have to walk through a metal detector and what if they ask me to remove all jewellery? I will be swollen and sore and no one will be touching it. Thanks for the gift but it will have to wait until I’m back in Cape Town and not walking through a bloody metal detector.”

The men in the group nodded in sympathy but the damned women laughed as if it was the funniest thing they had ever heard.

“Oh come on, sweetie, be a sport. March your pretty ass back there to my cubicle and let me stick a hole in your cock to hang your jewellery from.” Nadja teased raucously, her old man laughing as hard as she was at my stunned expression.

“No one will be touching his cock.” An icy cold voice had the laughter petering out and the bikers going rock solid. From one second to the next they went from relaxed to ready to break heads or something equally as violent.

In the open doorway dressed in black from head to toe stood Gideon bloody Acheson. His face was expressionless but his eyes were burning with rage.

What the hell was he doing here? And who the hell did he think he was telling people no one was going to touch my cock? If I wanted them to touch it they bloody well could.

Only once I thought about it did I realise how crazy it sounded.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to take you home.”

His cold hard voice had shivers of trepidation sliding up my back. But I wouldn’t let that stop me from asserting myself. No way in hell would that dark angel of a man tell me what to do.

“No need. I have a flight booked for later tonight. You can go back to whatever business you came up here for. I have a ride to the airport and my friend Strange will be picking me up when I land.”

His head tilted to the side and gave me a narrow eyed look.