Page 93 of Menace

Lucky was about to explain he was already doing it but his prez held up both hands. Obviously he thought he was going to disagree, he was wrong.

“Brother, believe me, I know how hard this is. Both Grave and I know what it’s like to have to back off your woman and let her believe you’re not interested. It fuckin’ kills, but in the end, it means they’re safe from our enemies. Harper doesn’t need more fuckers wantin’ to take down her ass than she already has. Do you get me?”

Unfortunately he did.

He nodded his agreement.

His little cat was going to rip him a new asshole when this was done.

Fuck, he just prayed once it was done she would give him a chance to explain this bullshit.

TWENTY SEVEN

Harper

I woke up with a jerk and for a moment didn’t know what had woken me. Then I heard my phone buzzing and I grabbed for it, only to make it skitter away from me before I finally got my hands on it. Thank heavens it hadn’t woken Ry. It would have pissed me off as I only got him to sleep about an hour ago. He’d been fussing all night.

My heart dropped when I saw it wasn’t Lucky. Three days since I last heard from him. Not that I was waiting or anything. Okay, that’s a lie, but whatever.

My early morning caller was Mark.

“Morning.” I mumbled sleepily while checking the time. It was seven thirty. What the hell? The studio only opened at ten.

“Morning babe, sorry to wake you but we have a bit of a situation at the studio. Some fuckers spray painted the outside of the shop and Ink has closed the studio for the day.”

“What?”

I was instantly wide awake, sat up fast, swinging my legs off the side of the bed. I had to put my hand out to steady myself as I swayed, suddenly incredibly dizzy. It didn’t last long but it was enough that I missed some of what Mark was saying.

“…the cameras were sprayed as well so the cops don’t have clear pictures of the bastards. Ink is pulling in some favours with the neighbouring shops to see if any of their cameras caught anything. As I said, we’re closed until the mess had been cleaned up. I’m busy contactin’ all our clients to let them know and I’m rescheduling all appointments. I’ll keep you updated as the day goes along.”

“Why would someone target us? We’ve been open for a while and it’s not like we’re a threat to a neighbouring store. Why would we get tagged?” I asked.

Mark was silent for a few seconds before he answered. “In between the really terrible graffiti there were some threats but the cops and Ink are on it. I’ll be keeping everyone updated and as soon as the cleaning company gets done I’ll let you know when we’ll reopen.”

My head was stuck on the threats.

“What threats?”

Mark snorted. “Some stupid fuckin’ shit not even worthy of repeating.”

I echoed his snort. “Repeat it, I want to know.”

“It was nothing, Harp, nothing to worry about. According to Ink it’s jealous fuckers trying to fuck with our shop. The competition in the city is fierce and it’s obvious someone is pissy because we’re kicking their asses. Don’t worry about it.”

“The more you tell me not to worry the more I’m worrying. Tell me. What did it say?”

He sighed. “It’s stupid actually. It says ‘get out or else’ and ‘go home or else’. Like I said, it’s stupid childish threats. They aren’t even scary or shit, it’s just annoying.”

I frowned because it really didn’t sound that bad and I told him so.

“It really doesn’t sound that bad. Why close the shop? We can just carry on working while the cleaning crew takes care of the shit. Surely our clients would understand.”

Mark snorted. “You obviously don’t know Ink’s controlling ass very well yet. He’s fuckin’ livid and wants the shop pristine before bringing the clients back in. We’re going to lose today but I’m sure we’ll get caught up in no time.” He laughed. “Use your unexpected day off to laze around or to catch up on some drawing. Just have fun spending time with that giant baby of yours.”

I made a scoffing noise. “My baby is not a giant. He’s a perfectly normal baby.”

It was his turn for the scoffing noise. “Yeah, and I’m ugly.”

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