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I shook my head, took a breath, and figured it was now or never. Drawing on everything he’d ever taught me, I laid down clean, straight lines, and to his credit, he didn’t flinch.
CJ and Andromeda kept to themselves and handled the customers who came in, giving me time, which I knew I was taking way too much of. But it was my first tat on a human being, and it was on my brother. I wanted it to be halfway fucking decent.
By the time I got to coloring in the phoenix, I’d lost most of my nerves as the joy of creating art took over. Tobias had been right all along. This was in my blood, and while I may have more to learn to get the techniques down, it was damn fun watching art come alive on flesh, and the perfect therapy after the day I’d had.
I took my final swipe, then sat back to examine my work. “I think we’re done.”
“Not fucking bad, dude.”
I snapped around at the voice to find CJ hovering over my shoulder with a grin. “Damn, man. I didn’t even know you were there.”
He looked my way as Tobias sat up. “Seriously, Adam. My first tat looked like total shit. That’s really good.”
Tobes stood and made his way over to the wall mirror and turned to look over his shoulder. I waited anxiously while he examined the piece. Finally, he turned back. “Honestly?”
I nodded. “Of course. Tell me.” I needed to know how to improve.
“No blowouts. The linework is almost all smooth. The color blends are sweet. You keep this up, you’re gonna be one hell of a tattoo artist.” He looked again. “I’m proud as shit, little brother.”
A ball of emotion curled up in my throat and I swallowed it back. “Thanks, dude. I had a great teacher.”
CJ chuckled. “Enough of the sappy shit. Wanna give me one now?”
I glanced at Tobias, but he just shrugged.
“Uh, I—” My phone buzzed with a text, and I held up a finger and pulled off my gloves to check the message.
Mateo:What did you do to Faith?
I frowned down at my phone and texted back a series of question marks.
Mateo:Grace just said Faith is upset and she wants her to stay with us.
Mateo:FIX THIS.
What on earth? When I’d left her that morning, she was asleep in my bed, looking like an angel that had fallen to earth. A well-fucked angel, but still.
Me:Is she still there?
Mateo:Yes.
Me:I don’t know what happened. When is she leaving?
Mateo:Not anytime soon, man. They’re eating everything in sight.
What the fuck?
Me:Well, I have the damn dog, so she has to come back sometime. Let me know when she leaves, and I’ll take care of it.
I had no idea how I’d take care of it, or even what was wrong. The only thing I could come up with was maybe the sex had hurt her more than she’d let on and now she needed to get away from me. Fuck. The last thing I’d ever want to do was hurt Faith. I’d take any pain in the world to spare her. Give up my life for her. Surely, she knew that.
“Is everything okay?” Tobias asked.
I glanced up. “Not sure. I may need to head out later to take care of something.”
He frowned.
“With Faith,” I clarified.
