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“It is strange how he left town with nothing to his name, yet he came back to Rose Valley rich and pursuing his passions instead,” she murmured, watching her feet as she walked across the rocky path ahead. “There has to be something else to it.”
Something moved through me then, and that idea planted itself in my mind. It was almost too perfect.
“You might be onto something.”
Sara gave me a curious look. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, it’s too much of a coincidence that he became successful seemingly overnight. What work did he get himself into, and how did he do it as a young man with no prior experience?”
“You’re alluding that he potentially got into some shady work.”
I nodded. “Exactly. Or he got involved with shady people. Maybe he did something that wasn’t so savory, and that’s how he got himself a small fortune.”
“There’s a chance that could be true. There are interesting people in the city,” she added, seemingly not looking into it as deeply as I was.
“Maybe there’s someone who knew him from the city who has information about what happened,” I considered, mind running with the possibilities.
If there was someone from the city I could link to him, then there was a chance I could ask them questions and expose any potential sketchy dealings he was involved with. After all, the locals didn’t know much about Liam aside from his new business venture.
He did tend to keep things under wraps. He seemed like someone with things to hide.
“That’s some kind of revenge,” Sara chuckled as she continued walking along the stream.
She was right. It would be the ultimate way to get back at Liam.
I was a journalist first and foremost, and if a potential criminal was living in their midst, wouldn’t the people want to know? Would they want to support someone who may have done some nefarious dealings to get ahead?
Of course, I didn’t have any proof of anything yet, but if I managed to find something, I wasn’t sure if I could keep it to myself.
I did have the local paper at my disposal.
But that doubt came swimming back. I was a journalist, and I took my job seriously. That meant not abusing my position and working with integrity. It would be disingenuous if I published a hit piece on him just because of our past.
Still, I wanted him to hurt as badly as I did. I wanted him to know that he couldn’t walk all over people forever and expect to get away with it.
He burned me all over again, and it wasn’t fair.
Despite myself, getting revenge didn’t seem like such a bad idea.
Chapter 11 - Liam
The studio was busier than I anticipated, nearly full wall-to-wall with locals who came to visit on opening day.
I expected only a handful of the guys to swing by and ask me some questions, but there were even witches and humans around, too, all just as curious about the place.
Many of them sifted through my portfolio of sample work, along with stencils I had prepared for walk-ins. I had limited space for walk-ins that day, and they had been claimed within the first hour, to my surprise.
It seemed there was a significant demand for tattoos in town, and my intuition had been correct.
With the buzz of my tattoo gun, some stood around and watched as I worked on the current walk-in, carefully applying the linework. They asked questions, wondering how their own prospective appointment might go.
The others looked around at the art hung up on the walls, helped themselves to refreshments, and chatted among themselves. Overall, the energy was high, and I had no doubt in my mind that I already had a successful business on my hands.
It reassured my slight apprehension, and I couldn’t help but look forward to what was ahead.
Once the small tattoo was finished, I gave it a final wipe-down, and the client was already smiling ear to ear. After I gave her the go-ahead, she jumped to her feet and hurried over to the full-body mirror, and closely inspected the new ink on her thigh.
“This looks amazing!” She cried, over the moon with the tattoo. “Thanks so much!”
