Page 35 of Hart of Darkness
Syd handed me a bottle of water. “I would give you the hard stuff if I had any in the shop.” He snatched Grace’s picture and handed it to me. “That’s the name she gave me. She’s also self-conscious about her birthmark. So I tattooed and blended the mark into a colorful bird.” He grinned as though he were remembering his art.
“Let me guess. A hummingbird?” Grace loved those birds and how they would frequent the flowery trees we had in our backyard.
Syd nodded several times. “I’ve done quite a few of her tats.”
Whoa!“Has Grace been in here recently?” My stomach clenched.
“You mean Emily.” He shook his head. “Not lately.”
I shoved my fingers into my hair, grabbed a bunch, and yanked while I tried to get air in my lungs.
“Dillon, you stiffen when he says Emily.” Maggie’s tone held concern.
I shuddered. “Emily is my mother’s name.” I was stumped as to why Grace would change her name. The only thing I could think of was that she didn’t want to be found, or maybe she just didn’t like the name Grace.
Maggie gaped. “For real?”
I twisted the cap off the water. This one time, maybe a sip of alcohol would have calmed my nerves. Nevertheless, I chugged the warm liquid, which did nothing to soothe the fire in my throat.
Syd raised a finger. “You know, let me check my records to see the last time she was in.” Syd’s big body vanished behind the curtain.
I threw my head in my hands. My pulse bashed in my ears.Boom. Boom. Boom.
Maggie rubbed my back. Her efforts did nothing to douse the raging fire going on inside me.
Grace is alive. Grace is alive.Those three words blared in my head like a tornado siren.
I hurtled upright, grabbed the back of my neck, and walked over to the exit. Cars idled on the street, waiting for the light to turn green. Pedestrians went about their day as though they didn’t have a care in the world. I would’ve given anything not to have lost sleep night after night, wondering if Grace was alive when, lo and behold, she was. I couldn’t process the information. I didn’t know how.
“Six months,” Syd said at my back. “She was in six months ago.”
I clenched my fists. I flared my nostrils. I tensed every muscle in my body.
She was at this tattoo shop six months ago. Six months ago.Six months ago.
I was never one to panic. I was never one to fly off the handle. I was never the person to punch first and ask questions later.
But I was on the verge of becoming someone I wasn’t. I was on the verge of blowing a hole in the glass door with my fists. I was on the verge of losing my fucking mind. I should’ve been thrilled that my baby sister, the one I adored, the little girl who’d trusted me, was alive and had been for all these years.
I had scoured the streets, night after night. I’d practically lived at the morgues. I had put my heart and soul into finding her, and she was alive.
Maggie hovered close to me, but not that close. It was as though she were ready to catch me if I fell.
“If it’s any consolation,” Syd said in a somewhat tender voice, “Emily never appeared hurt or scared. She also didn’t seem like she was running from anyone either.”
The jagged jaws of a vise clamped down on my stomach, tighter than ever.
Duke’s words flashed like a neon sign in my head.“Maybe she doesn’t want to be found.”
Why the fuck not?That was the burning question.
“So you never saw bruises on her?” Maggie asked. “Or any tats that indicated she’s part of a gang? Say the Black Knights.”
I could see Syd’s reflection in the glass, and he shook his head. “No.”
I should have taken comfort that she hadn’t followed in my footsteps and joined a gang. Yet the word gang was becoming synonymous with sex trafficking, and the thought of Grace being involved in that felt as if someone had driven a dagger into my chest.
Crushing Grace’s photo with my left hand, I pivoted on my heel and stifled every ounce of emotion I could. “Do you have any contact info on my sister? Or was she with anyone when she came in?”
