Page 36 of Ink

“Answer me!” he yells inches from my face. Little specks of spit pepper my cheek and nose. The stench of his breath is embedded in my nose, making my brain short circuit as it tries to figure out how to gag while not being able to breathe.

“No,” I gasp the second he lets up slightly.

In the past, it was always best to give him the answer I knew he wanted to hear. Arguing never got me anywhere. In fact, it only made things a million times worse for me.

Not this time.

This time, I can feel the rage seeping out of his body, blanketing the room. It’s almost equally as suffocating as his hand around my throat.

“Don’t lie to me!” he roars, throwing me back into the wall behind me by my neck. My head cracks against the wall, snapping forward as it bounces off it. I don’t have the strength to pick my head up, nor do I want to. My head is swimming as I slump to the ground, waiting for the next blow to come.

He crouches down next to me, yanking my head up by my hair, so I have no choice but to look into those cold, brown eyes I never wanted to see again.

“You got here on your own. You can get home on your own.” My breathing is coming in short pants through my nose as I try to regain some control of myself. “If you’re not back at the house in a week with your hair back to normal, I’m coming for you. And trust me, you don’t want me coming for you again.”

He gets off on seeing me desperate and scared. Thrives on it.

I don’t say anything as he releases my hair and throws my head back into the wall one last time. I can feel a knot already forming.

“I think it’s cute you got a little job. Found your cash stash when I was waiting for you to come back.”

My heart stops at what he just said.

This time, I lift my head on my own and meet his gaze. Tears pool in my eyes as I pray there’s one last string of hope in my life where he won’t take the money.

Hope has never been on my side.

I watch hopelessly from my spot on the floor as he lifts up the mattress and tucks the envelope of cash into the interior pocket of his suit jacket.

“You look as trashy as the biker that dropped you off with your hair like that.” He said the word biker with the same amount of disgust as someone would a serial killer. “You’ll get rid of him, too. And Sutton?” He stops with his hand on the door. “If I find out that you’ve fucked him, there will be hell to pay like you haven’t seen. I promise you that.”

My eyes close as the door to my room slams shut.

I never wanted to involve anyone else in this mess. All I wanted was a way out. My stomach rolls as all of the emotions catch up with me. I don’t have the strength to get up and make it the last few steps to the bathroom before I’m throwing up the contents of the day all down the of front of me.

Violent tremors are raking through my entire body. I can’t tell if it’s from seeing him again or vomiting up everything I’ve eaten and drank today. Probably a mixture of both.

And that’s how Ink found me.

Chapter

Fifteen

INK

“Don’t forget we’re partying tonight for Hash’s birthday,” Scotch says as I come downstairs from my room, taking the steps two at a time as I shrug on my cut.

“Here or DD’s?”

“Here. I figured we’d keep this one more low key and personal with the usual crowd. He hasn’t seemed in the mood to go all out like we usually do.”

I nod. I’ve been meaning to ask him about that, but I’ve been too wrapped up in my own shit. Now I feel like a fucking dick.

“Sounds good. I need to run into the shop, but if anyone needs help with somethin’ today, just holler.”

“Later, brother.” Scotch slaps me on the back.

A short while later, I’m parking my bike in the back alley behind the shop and heading in. I don’t have a client today, but knowing that Sutton is working today has me itching to be here the entire time she is. I keep telling myself it’s to make sure Derrick’s sleazy ass doesn’t come back to bother her, but deep down I know it’s more than that.