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“Dayuuuuum,” I heard a voice behind me shout. “Look at that ass.” My shoulders drooped and then a pair of arms wrapped around my waist from behind, and I was yanked into a chest. A chest I knew well. “Fuck, El, you look damn fine today.”
I pulled in a breath and got a lungful of cologne, too much cologne if you asked me. “Hey, Knox,” I murmured, turning around in his arms. I’d known Knox since I was in pre-K, and somewhere along the way, we’d graduated from friends to boyfriend and girlfriend. I wasn’t sure when exactly it had happened, but it evolved, and now it just…was.
“Feels like I ain’t seen you in forever,” he ground out, pushing his face closer to mine. Knox was half a foot taller than me, so at five foot three, that made him almost six feet. He wasn’t the tallest of the guys in our school, but he had the personality of a beast. No one fucked with Knox, and I didn’t want to admit that was the main reason I’d gone along with us merging into boyfriend and girlfriend. High school was a battleground, and anything I could do to make it easier was a blessing in my book. And although Knox made it seem easier on the outside, what was on the inside between us felt rotten to the core. But I couldn’t escape it—not yet anyway.
“Sorry, I’ve been busy dancing and working.”
His eyes glazed over at my words, and I could tell he wasn’t listening any longer. He didn’t care to hear about my everyday life. All he cared about was strutting around with me on his arm and getting exactly what he wanted when he wanted it. It was easy being with Knox.
And right then, in the world I lived in at home, and the fight I had every day just to survive, easy was something I needed. Easy was something I craved.
Easy was my way out.
* * *
ASHER
The buzzing of several tattoo machines mixed in with the music playing on the rock station, and I closed my eyes, soaking it all in. There had been a time in my life when I’d been surrounded by entirely different sounds. Gunshots, cries for help, and shouts to watch my back had been my daily soundtrack for two years while I was away on tour with the Marines. It had been so long ago—seven years—but it felt like it was only yesterday. I could still feel the heat on my skin, sweat slicking down the side of my face, and the constant noise.
It had never been a plan of mine to go into the military. I’d always imagined myself going to art school or competing in professional MMA fights, but when I didn’t get into the art college I’d dreamed of, the military felt like my only viable option. And although I’d loved MMA fighting, it wasn’t something I wanted to do as a career, so I’d gone with the most natural choice. My dad had wanted me to go into the force and follow in his footsteps as a DEA a
gent, but it had never appealed to me.
So, I’d taken a leap and joined the military. I’d never forget the time I spent there from the age of eighteen to twenty-five. They’d shaped me into the man I was today, and made me realize I didn’t need a degree from a fancy college to tell me I could draw—I already knew that. But there had been downsides to going to war with the people I considered family. I’d lost so many of my brothers. I’d seen things that could never be erased from my memory. I’d witnessed pain and solitude, and worst of all, death. But I could also acknowledge I’d gained too. I’d created a family with the men who were in my unit, and although we weren’t all still alive, the ones who were spoke at least once a week.
“Hey, Asher?”
My eyes sprang open at the sound of Maverick’s voice from the other side of the shop, and I shook my head, trying to dispel the memories and thoughts that had overtaken me. It happened less often than it used to, but I still found myself planted in the past more often than not. I’d been through therapy and didn’t shy away from how I was feeling, but it didn’t mean I didn’t feel lost sometimes.
“What?” I asked him, letting go of the pencil gripped between my finger and thumb. I’d been squeezing it so hard it had left imprints. The edges of my vision blurred, and I knew it was because I was still partly stuck in the past, a past I was afraid I’d never fully escape.
Maverick held the handset to the phone up from where he stood behind the front desk. “Your mom’s on the phone.”
I glanced down at the notepad I was drawing in, and my gaze traced the lines of the lion’s back. I found animals more fascinating to draw than anything else, but not many people wanted them tattooed on their skin permanently. The lines and shading made an animal drawing come alive, and although they were difficult, it eased a part of me—it always had. Planting my feet on the floor, I then pushed off my stool at my workstation and made my way through the shop—my shop.
The other two tattooists—Jez and Lara—had clients at their stations. I glimpsed at what they were tattooing. They both had different styles of tattoos they specialized in, and they were damn good. Lara loved to do watercolor pieces, and Jez was more old school with Jerry Sailor–type drawings, which made the three of us a perfect mix because my passion was portraits and modern black-and-white styles. I liked to play with different ways to shade and come up with my own collection of styles. I wasn’t one thing or another, but I always preferred to work in black and white for maximum effect.
I halted at the front desk, took the handset off Maverick, and told him, “Set my station up. I have a client coming in ten minutes.” He’d been my apprentice for the last four weeks, and although drawing came easy for him, he wasn’t afraid to put in the hard work and do the shitty jobs.
Maverick nodded and walked toward my station as I pressed the handset to my ear and murmured, “Hey, Mom.” I kept my back to the shop, my gaze focused on the blacked-out windows with white writing on the front, showcasing the logo I’d drawn myself. East Ink was my baby, a pipe dream I hadn’t thought I could make a reality, not until I left the military and realized I only had one life, and I had to take every chance available to me.
“Finally!” she screeched down the line, and I could imagine her shaking her head and the straight line of her lips as she scolded, “I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for three days, Asher.”
“Sorry.” I gritted my teeth and pushed my hand into the front pocket of my jeans. “I’ve been busy with clients.” It wasn’t a lie. I had been busy. I’d struggled after the Marines for a few years, but I’d opened this shop two years ago, and I’d never imagined the number of hours it would take to get it off the ground and up and running. The clients came in a steady stream, and we were only just now in a place where our seats were full around sixty percent of the time. There was so much more to giving someone a tattoo than only the actual tattooing. You had to research and draw and go back and forth with designs.
“You work too hard,” Mom admonished, but I didn’t answer her. It didn’t matter whether I’d been in a war zone or had my face beat in at an MMA fight, I’d always be the baby of the family she felt she had to protect, no matter how old I got.
“Mom, I’m at work—”
“I know you’re not about to give me the ‘I’m busy’ line again, Asher Easton. I cooked you for nine months inside my body and raised you for eighteen years. The least you can do is have a five-minute conversation with me.”
I blew out a breath. “Okay, okay. Sorry.” I was always thinking about what I had to do and the next task at hand. Standing still and talking to someone felt like I wasn’t doing everything I should be.
“Damn straight you’re sorry, which is why you’ll come over tonight and keep me company while your dad is out of town.”
My shoulders straightened at her words, and I pulled my hand out of my pocket. “Dad’s out of town?” She rarely stayed on her own when Dad wasn’t there, but it wasn’t because she didn’t feel secure on her own. I think she felt safer with someone else in the home, especially after the number of criminals my dad had sent to prison. I was sure he’d lost count at some stage in his career in the DEA.
“Yep.” She sighed. “He’s giving a speech at that conference in Washington.” She paused. “And I’m all alone. I’m so lonely in this big house on my own, Asher.”
