AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Wrap me up, D, so I can help the girl. You can finish after,” she tells Dayton, whose eyes haven’t left me.
He startles slightly but quickly reaches for the plastic wrap and pulls off a long piece, taping it over the tattoo he was working on. The girl pulls her shirt back on, managing not to flash any of us during the process, then waves to me.
“Come into my lair.” She chuckles, opening a door and gesturing inside. “Make yourself comfortable, and I’ll grab the paperwork.” She disappears, leaving me in the room on my own.
Shit, paperwork. I don’t know what the piercing laws are here in Georgia. I’m assuming it’s eighteen, and my fake ID says I’m seventeen and a half—ripe pickings for the traffickers, but illegal to get a piercing without my parents’ or guardians’ permission. Fuck it, hopefully they won’t be too strict with the age. Maybe I can tell a good sob story and get some sympathy.
I’m biting my lip and looking around the room at the various posters of the different kinds of piercings I can get when Charity returns.
“All right, sweetie, we’ll just get this filled out, and then we can talk about what you want to have done.” She sits down in the chair and rolls it toward the bed, gesturing for me to take a seat.
“Um, so, I don’t have parents to sign the form and, well, I’m pretty sure Mr. and Mrs. Standish won’t sign it either,” I tell her, biting my lip nervously, and she sighs.
“Do you have any ID?” she asks, her eyes softening.
I scramble around in my backpack and pull out my fake driver’s license, handing it to her. I watch her scan it.
“You know what? We usually refuse on the spot, but you’re only a few months away from eighteen, and you look like you could do with a little something for yourself. Let’s just go ahead and put the date on here after your eighteenth birthday, and we’ll hide it deep in the back of the filing cabinet. If anyone asks, it could take us six months to find it.”
She scribbles a few things on the permission slip, putting the date of piercing the day after my fake eighteenth birthday. I make a note to come back and let them know that everything is okay and fill out my real details once this case is over. She’s being so kind, and I have a feeling they don’t often let things slide around here. The last thing I want is for them to get into trouble with any licensing authorities, though if she’s part of the trafficking ring, she’ll be in jail anyway, but a gut feeling tells me her and Kevin are not involved.
“Thank you so much, and you’re right. I really could use a pick-me-up. Life has certainly sucked recently.” I mutter the last bit, but she doesn’t miss it.
She passes me the paper to sign and pats my hand. “Alright, so let’s make this happen,” she says as I sign the papers, and then she whisks them off and shoves them in the back of an ancient filing cabinet she has on the far side of the room. “So what were you thinking about piercing?”
I look at all the posters showing the various piercings and what places on the body you can get them. There is some body modification stuff that makes me feel ill, and I must not be wearing much of a poker face because she giggles.
“We don’t actually do that kind of thing here. It’s just a display more than anything.” She points out a picture of a woman with hooks in the skin on her back who’s hanging from a rope in the ceiling.
“Is there a call for it?” I ask her, unable to hide my curiosity, and she shrugs.
“I’ve had a few inquiries, but when I explained that we don’t do that kind of thing, they went in search of someone who would.”
“But why?” I ask, opening my eyes wide and putting on the air of innocent schoolgirl.
“I actually don’t know, but I know some people find sexual gratification from pain. There are rumors of a sex club here in town, but it’s an exclusive invitation only thing, and Kevin and I haven’t been together all that long to really experiment. Not to mention I’m a bit of a baby. Tattooing and piercing are about all the pain I’m interested in.” Her cheeks have a slight blush as she admits this to me.
This is just what I need, a little segue that will allow me to ask a few more pertinent questions, and she just handed it to me on a silver platter.
Chapter 17
“So you haven’t been working here long?” I ask, a little worried about her performing my piercing now, and she shakes her head quickly.
“Gosh no, I’ve been here for about two years, but Kevin was worried about our age difference, and it took me that long to wear him down.”
“Well, congrats on wearing him down,” I tell her, and she giggles again.
“What about you? Any love interests? I guess not with being new in town.”
I shake my head and wrinkle my nose. “No, not at my school.”
“Oh hey, Kevin’s nephew goes to the high school. Ryland Turner. He’s cute and nice. Maybe I could introduce you,” she gushes, and it’s my turn to laugh.
“Actually, I met him today, and you’re right, he does seem nice,” I reply neutrally. “But I’m like you, kind of like them a little more mature. Where would you suggest I hang out to find them?”
She leans against one of the cabinets on the wall. “Hmm, yes, I totally get what you’re saying. There’s a bar one street over with a dance club above it. I used to love going there when I was younger. I always met a lot of older wealthy men there. You wouldn’t think our town would be a hot spot for night activity, but there was no shortage of men coming through that place.”
Now if that doesn’t scream red flag, I don’t know what does. She’s right, Summerville definitely shouldn’t be a hotbed of nighttime activity. It’s just a little too far away from any of the major cities for it to be worth the drive.
