Page 17 of Broken

It’s Shane who sees me first and mouthsoh shit. My eyes move about the rest of the studio. Lucky is sitting on the back of the sofa, with her feet on the cushions. There is a lollipop in her mouth and she’s idly rotating it between her teeth. Phoenix is holding one of the tattoo books open as he stands next to her, looking at the images together.

“Hey boss,” Shane shouts, loud enough that the others hear, and seven sets of eyes all turn to me.

“Hey G, we weren’t expecting you in tonight,” Phoenix says.

I dip my head in the direction behind him and Phoenix spins, looking at Gez. He’s sitting on the sofa opposite Lucky, his arms thrown over the back as he watches everything with a bemused expression.

Phoenix winces, he’d not realized my client was here waiting. What the fuck is going on? He goes to turn the music down. I frown pointedly at Lucky till she climbs off the sofa, she pouts as she approaches me, and I glare back at her.

“Missed you,” she goes up on her toes and kisses my cheek quickly, before practically running behind the counter, not giving me a chance to say anything.

I hide the smile, last thing I want to do is give her any idea I’m not as pissed off as they might believe.

Needles start buzzing again as Shane and Sumner get back to work. Not one word passed my lips, but the whole atmosphere in the shop changed. It’s not that I want to ruin anyone’s good time. This is a place of business, not a fucking nightclub and after the week I’ve had, I just want things to be normal.

I hold up a hand and indicate for Gez to come to my station and apologize for keeping him waiting. I’ve been working on a piece on his back for a couple of months now. It’s a Roman gladiator, the Colosseum in the background, with the male figure taking up most of the image. It runs from the base of his hairline, all the way down to the top of his ass.

While he takes off his top, I get everything set up.

“Holy shit that is amazing.”

The voice comes from behind me. The girl on her side with Sumner.

“All the praise goes to this guy,” Gez answers.

“It looks so real,” she breathes.

Rolling my eyes, I continue with my set up.

“Could I see?” the other woman asks.

Shane stops and she leans around. Gez accommodates her by turning his back to her. He catches my eye and grins. To be fair, he’s a good-looking guy, only a few years older than me. He’s single, so why wouldn’t he be playing up to this.

While they’re all preoccupied, I take a quick look at what Sumner is doing. Looks like a cover up. He’s covering text with two traditional roses.

“Come on then, what’s it gonna be?”

Phoenix is talking to Lucky. My head turns between the two of them.

“Will you do the pin up?”

“With big tits and juicy thighs,” Phoenix winks. “You know I will.”

Lucky rolls her eyes.

“You’re letting him tattoo you?” I ask, surprising everyone in the room.

Phoenix smirks at me. He knows I’ve done most of Lucky’s work. Not that I’ll stop her letting Phoenix work on her. Is it a good idea? Probably not. I see the way he is looking at her. Lucky is oblivious.

“All the girls agreed we’d get a new tattoo tonight, and I didn’t know you’d be in,” Lucky says as she passes me, heading toward his station.

I don’t care who all she is referring to, but I lift my chin. “Let me see it before you put it on her,” I tell my partner.

“Fuck off,” he shakes his head with a laugh. But he will.

Not that I doubt his skill, I just want to make sure it’s worthy of going on her. This all seems rushed, whateverthisis. I fucking hate being away from the shop and not knowing what the hell is going on.

The surrounding chatter continues, and everyone gets overly excited about what Phoenix is putting on the back of Lucky’s neck. Begrudgingly I nod when he shows me, then go back to Gez. This one takes concentration and I’m not going to short-change a regular by letting this bullshit distract me.

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