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“Thank you, Agatha,” I breathed reverently, my fingers holding the pendant gently.
Agatha only nodded.
“Now, girl, let me show you how to look after this very special plant. You will find it produces a beautiful, tempting berry that you can do several things with. Things that will be known to us and no one else. You will grow this plant, and it will love you just as much as you love it.”
“Agatha,” I said quietly, reaching out to cradle one of the remaining purple flowers. “What is it called?”
Looking down at the plant between us, Agatha smiled in satisfaction.
“Belladonna.”
Chapter forty-four
Asher
Istaredather,crouched on the stool next to Javier, and watched as she worked, her face a picture of calm.
I had no idea how she was doing it; I had never been this fuckin’ worked up. Everything in me wanted to explode, to rage against these zip ties and march over to Javier and beat that smug look off his stupid fucking face. I wanted to wrap my hands around his scrawny neck and choke the life out of him for daring to put his hands on Ricki, for daring to evenbreathein her direction.
I wanted to take him out to the farm and bury him in the farthest back corner of the field, then salt the earth around him so that nothing would ever grow there. I wanted him to be buried so deep that he’d never be found.
If I had my way, no one would ever remember this fucking puke.
But, I couldn’t do any of that. I couldn’t do a goddamn thing but sit here, in this busted up tattoo chair, and watch as my girl put her hands on his filthy flesh, giving him a piece of her art—a piece ofher—that he didn’t deserve.
Feeling my muscles clench and knot, I shrugged my shoulders, attempting to shift my position and relieve some of the strain. I had been tied like this for the better part of two days, except for the few times Javier was gracious enough to release me to take a leak.
At gun point.
My movement drew his attention, the gun he had been lazily holding on me suddenly snapping up again as he glared at me.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going,pendjeo?” he sneered, and I saw Ricki pause in her work to look up at me. “You lookin’ to catch a bullet, you keep pissing me off like that. Are my accommodations not up to your standard?”
“Your accommodations?” Ricki asked, drawing his attention back to her. I wished to fuck she’d stop doing that; I didn’t want him to even look at her, but she kept making it happen. Every time I managed to get Javier to pay attention to me, she did something to make sure he was focused on her instead. It was driving me nuts. I couldn’t handle the thought of her being his main target.
If someone was going to get hurt, I sure as fuck wanted it to be me.
“Last time I checked, your name wasn’t on the door, Javier.”
“Yeah, well, we can’t all have our own tattoo shops, now, can we?” he spat, making Ricki frown. “Whose dick did you have to suck to make that happen? You got a sugar daddy somewhere you not tellin’ us about?” He cackled at his own joke, head thrown back as his body shook with his laughter.
As suddenly as it had started, Javier’s laughter cut off, and he scowled down at Ricki again.
“Get back to work, bitch. I ain’t got all night.”
Pressing her lips together in a tight line, Ricki dipped the end of her tattoo machine into the ink pot beside her, then pressed it back against Javier’s leg and started again.
For a while, no one spoke, the steady buzzing of the tattoo machine filling the space around us. I kept my eyes on Ricki, searching for a sign that she was in distress, but she was still nothing but calm.
Alarmingly calm, actually.
Javier was relaxed in the chair, his head leaned back as he stared at me, blinking slowly. As I watched, my gaze shifting from him to where Ricki worked, I noticed Javier’s demeanor suddenly change. He went from relaxed to alert, head up off the back of the chair as he looked around, blinking rapidly as if to clear his vision.
“The fuck?” he asked quietly, using the hand not holding the gun to rub at his eyes. When that didn’t help, he blinked some more, still seeming unhappy with the result. His breathing started to increase, coming out in short, sharp pants as he rubbed his chest in small circles. “The fuck is going on?”
“You having a problem there, Javier?” I asked, not actually caring what his deal was, as long as it didn’t result in Ricki being hurt. He was suddenly sweating like a pig, though, even in his stupid shorts.
“Stay still, Javier,” Ricki admonished quietly, shooting me a look that clearly saidshut the fuck up. “I’m almost done with the rest of the line work. I’ll move on to the shading in just a second.”
