Page 37 of Bullet
“Hey, can I borrow you for a bit?” Tara asks.
I look over at Claire.
“Yeah. I can totally spare you. I still have quite a while before this bun comes out of the oven,” she says, patting her belly.
I laugh. “I’ll be right next door if you need help.”
“Go on now.” She shoos me away.
I wasn’t sure about helping out at the club businesses at first, but when Midnight explained his receptionist was pregnant and would need to take time off later in the year, I felt like maybe it was meant to be. Sure, I didn’t need to train right now, but I felt like less of a burden and more of a helper.
Then Tara popped up and said that she could use some help, too. She has only hired one other employee, and the shop gets to be too much sometimes for her. That’s how I found myself bouncing between the tattoo shop and the bookstore that share a wall.
“Thank you. I just got a shipment of books in that I wasn’t expecting, and it is going to take days if I try to do it myself. Usually, I make Wrath come help me when they come in, buthe’s got club shit today. I appreciate you being willing to help,” she says, opening the front door of her shop for me.
“No problem. Where do you need me?”
For the next several hours, we break open every box, cataloging those that need to be sent back due to damage or misprints. Once that’s done, I take a box of the new stock out to the main area and start to set it out.
I don’t know what I want to do with my life yet, but I like this. Having something to do. Maybe that was one of my main problems the last two years. I didn’t have enough to occupy myself with.
The doorbell rings, so I turn to greet the person.
“Hello. Welcome to Tara’s Book Nook. Is there anything I can help you find?” I ask the young woman.
She smiles. “I’m just browsing. I’m new to the area, and I’m looking for a place that I vibe with.”
I laugh. “You found the right place. This place has a little bit of everything. What do you normally like to read?”
“Smut.” Her cheeks turn red. “I mean romance.”
“Hey. It’s okay. We all need a little smut in our lives. Let me show you where the best ones are.” I stand from the non-fiction section and lead her to the back wall.
“They are all sorted by sub-genres rather than author name. So this whole section is MC romances. This one is reverse harem. Tara also personally reads every book that she puts on the shelf, so she has made trope cards to go with each book. Her little extra touch.”
“Wow. This is amazing. I have never seen anything like this,” the woman tells me.
“It’s something, isn’t it? This is Tara’s passion.”
The doorbell rings again, so I excuse myself. “I’m going to go greet them. Come find me if you need anything.”
“Will do.”
I walk back toward the front and see Bullet. I smile at him, happy he is here, until he looks at me like he is panicked. That’s when I realize he isn’t wearing his cut, nor did I hear his motorcycle.
Something is up.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him.
Before he can respond, Tara is calling me.
“Harlee, can you come help? It’s urgent.”
I frown at Bullet, but take off toward the back. She sounded a little worried, and I would rather her not get hurt.
When I round the corner, I find her standing there with her cell phone in her hand. She looks nervous.
“What’s wrong?”
