Page 67 of Ink

I shake my head. “No, thanks. I already took some. I’m hoping it will take the edge off before I get to the shop.” I don’t know how well I can customer service when I feel like I’m dying inside and any small movement could make me throw up without warning.

Evan’s look is sympathetic as she shoves an ice-cold diet coke into my hands. “Drink this. It will make you feel a million times better, I promise. Do you need a ride to the shop? The guys must still be held up because Cain didn’t sneak into bed last night.”

I shake my head again. “Ink called this morning and told me he asked Gage to pick me up.”

Evan’s eyebrows raise. “He’s cute. I’m surprised Ink’s letting him pick you up.”

“Why wouldn’t he?” I asked, genuinely confused.

“The type of men we’re with don’t exactly like… how do I put this without it sounding totally barbaric? You know what? Fuck it. It is completely barbaric. They don’t like anything with a dick to so much as look in our direction.” Evan rolls her eyes.

“I’m not with him in that way, though,” I remind her.

I still don’t understand what he wants from me. I know what he said before he left, but he doesn’t seem like the type to want commitment in the sense of a woman. Part of me wonders if he just likes the chase and he’ll drop me like a hat once he gets the prize.

“That’s what they want you to think. Then the next thing you know you’re in so deep that you don’t remember how you got there,” Evan says just as a horn honks outside, making Hades let out a loud bark. “Quiet,” she scolds. “That’s probably Gage. I left a key in your purse so Ink doesn’t fuck up my locks and you don’t feel like you have to wait on me. Have fun at work and don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do.”

“Something’s telling me that isn’t much,” I call over my shoulder as I head out the door. I hear Evan laughing wildly as I shut the door.

Gage lets out a low whistle as I open up the car door and slide in. “Looking good, babe.”

I had to do a double take because for one—I was expecting him to pick me up on his bike, and two—I wasn’t expecting a man covered in tattoos who also tattoos people that probably have felonies to drive a Honda Civic that looks older than my Grand Am.

I sink into the cloth seat, the springs long gone, making me feel like I’m sitting on the floor of the car.

Gage throws the car into reverse as he wags his eyebrows at me. “Buckle up, babe. She’s a speed racer.”

Oh, sweet baby Jesus.

A speed racer?

“What happened to your floorboard?” I ask, looking down at my feet that are currently resting on a metal stop sign that was most likely stolen.

Gage shrugs. “A giant chunk fell out one day when I hit a pothole doing donuts in a parking lot. I think it adds character.”

Adding character is one way to put it.

I can’t talk though because my old car won’t even start.

“What happened to your bike?”

“Still got it. Ink would have my ass if I picked you up on it, though. I don’t have a lot of junk in the trunk, but I need to keep what little I do have intact for the ladies to have something to grab onto.”

I can feel my face heating at his response as I turn my head and look out the window, avoiding eye contact. I shouldn’t have asked.

“You all good?” he asks. I can feel him looking me over out of the corner of his eye.

The bruises around my neck are still raging and sore if I turn my head just right. I used the last bits of what was left in my tube of concealer to cover them the best I could, but if you look closely enough, you can tell I’m covering something up. My plan is to keep my hair over my shoulder, just in case.

“Yeah.” I place my hands under my thighs as I squirm in my seat, feeling awkward from the subject change that I knew was bound to happen. “I’m sorry for not showing up and making you worry.”

“Babe, don’t apologize for that. We all have shit happen from time to time. I’m just glad Ink was able to help. He was more worried than the rest of us.”

I side eye him.

“He was?”

“Yup. As soon as you didn’t answer when he called you from the shop phone, he was on his way to look for you. Dude wasn’t wasting any time.”