Page 128 of Imperial: The Corvidae Family
He took my hand and guided me through the crowd to where he found the person he was looking for.
Tali was at a station in the back. When we approached he looked up, spotting Emir first, then me. He laughed and shook his head.
“Damn,” Tali said, setting his machine down. “I guess that shit is true. Somebody really locked you down.”
“Why the fuck people sound so surprised about that?”
Tali wiped his hands on a paper towel and raised a brow and Emir smirked but didn’t say anything else about it.
“You taking people?”
“You got an idea or you just gonna let me freestyle?”
Emir pulled his phone from his pocket and scrolled for a second before turning the screen toward him. Tali studied whatever was there and nodded. “I can work with this but it has to be my design.”
“I fuck with it.” Emir agreed.
“Give me a few minutes to sketch it.”
“What is it?” I leaned in, trying to see the screen, but Emir turned his phone away before I could get a good look.
“You gotta trust me.”
I folded my arms, narrowing my eyes. “This is permanent and you want me to trust you?”
“I do.”
I plopped into the chair he motioned to. He settled next to me while Tali grabbed a sheet of paper and started sketching. The buzz of the other tattoo machines around us filled the space, making me more anxious.
After a few minutes, Tali held up his work.
I grinned big as hell. It was a gun. Simple and clean design but it wasn’t justagun. The way it was drawn meant it would be inked ontobothof us. Half on Emir’s trigger finger, the other half on mine. When we aligned it would form a full weapon. I was always calling myself a shooter, when clearly I wasn’t, and it was now our inside joke.
“You aresounserious.”
Emir grinned. “You’re my shooter, beautiful.”
His lips were on mine and Emir kissed me hard, completely unbothered by the fact that we were in the middle of a crowded warehouse.
Tali groaned. “Aight, aight. Y’all can tongue fuckafterI get this ink in your skin.”
Emir pulled back and let his eyes lock on mine for just a second longer before he sat up, dragging his thumb along my jaw and resting his hand on my thigh. “You first.”
“Why me? You might bail.”
“You know better.”
I did.
Tali set up and prepped my hand while I rested my forearm on the padded armrest. The cool swipe of alcohol across my skinmade me more anxious followed by the stickiness of the stencil being pressed down. When he peeled it away, the outline of the gun’s half sat perfectly along the side of my trigger finger.
He looked up and jerked his chin. “That placement good?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it’s perfect.”
He adjusted the tattoo gun in his grip and got to work.
I flinched as the needle pressed into my skin, tensing from the sting. It was a little more intense on my finger. Emir sat beside me, but his presence settled me. His hand stayed on my thigh with his fingers moving absentmindedly while Tali worked.
