Page 21 of Ink

“Loco is going to take care of it. They’re cleaning up the bodies as we speak, plus Los Diablos have the police in our pockets. No one is going to arrest you. You aren’t going to prison.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. You're safe.”

Tension eased from my shoulders. Good. Los Diablos would protect me. I believed in that. In him.

“Xiomara…” Ink lowered one of my hands and reached the rag up to swipe the blood from my face. Even in that he was tender and I winced when he went near my eye. “Why did you get fired from your last job?”

Another demand.

I wanted to look away but he commanded my attention until I became lost in him. “My manager felt me up behind the counter,” I confessed. “And then… I blacked out.” At his questioning look, I elaborated. “There’s a rage inside me, Ink. It turns me into a different person. Into someone who beats three grown men to death with a bat. I beat my manager up. He didn’t die, but I wished he had.”

I whispered my confession, wondering if I’d see disgust in Ink’s face. He dropped the rag and cupped my cheek. What I saw in his face wasn’t disgust.

It was reverence.

“I’m sorry my club dragged you into our shit. I promise, I’ll keep you safe from now on. No one will ever mark your skin again.” His hands caressed my body, electrifying every single nerve inside me. “Only I get to do that. With ink.”

My heart sped up. No one had promised me security before. I was independent enough to know I could care for myself, but also self-aware enough to know that I’d craved those words.

“And if you want to quit, I understand.”

My hands clamped against his wrists, tightening despite the ache it caused. “No,” I said. “Please. My family needs me to bring money in.”

“Okay.” His thumbs swiped across my cheeks. “I promise you, Los Diablos has your back. What you did tonight? We will remember this. You will be repaid in full.”

My eyes closed in relief as Ink pressed his forehead against mine.

He breathed deeply and I did the same. Like we were breathing one another in. Like we could taste the salt of each other’s souls, hear the rhythm of our hearts and somehow sync them together.

My heart calmed in his presence, content, and something low in my gut coiled at the proximity. Something new. His promises of protection and sincerity washed over me.

Something I never thought I’d crave until I had it before me. The air shifted. My skin felt electrified, and when I opened my eyes, it was to find him already staring at me.

“I want to kiss you,” he whispered.

The confession felt forbidden in the space between us, and the words startled me, if only because I never imagined him saying them, but they were exactly what I wanted. What I’d craved for the longest time. Perhaps I hadn’t even realized it until right then.

“Yes.”

He leaned close, his lips grazing mine a fraction. The scrape of his beard against my skin. A sigh left me and I leaned closer, waiting for that first touch… just for Ink to pull back.

“I can’t, though.”

I blinked in confusion.

What–

“You’re my employee.”

That statement pulled pain into me. I couldn’t shake it, but I knew he was right. No matter how disappointed a part of me was for that fact.

Maybe it was the moment, the adrenaline crashing from the day. All I knew was that this was a bad idea. He was my boss and we had no business starting something neither of us could finish.

I pulled away. “Can you take me home?”

If he was taken aback by my abrupt request, he didn’t say anything. He took my hand silently and we both stood up.

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