Page 69 of Cover Up

“I’ll be in touch,” Ethan said after a long silence. He gave Dei’s shoulder a last squeeze, then left the room.

The door shut with a firm click, and Dei let out a heavy breath before bracing himself on the arm of the chair and pushing up to stand. He shuffled closer, ignoring all the pain zinging through all the wrecked parts of his body, and he leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead.

“I’ll be back soon,” he murmured.

Once again, she didn’t move, so he backed away, grabbed his cane, and got out of there as quickly as he could manage.

20

“Just use the goddamn gun. I’ve seen it done on TikTok, okay? Stop acting like I’m being unreasonable!” The voice was loud and piercing, the tone of someone being entirely unreasonable.

Felix pushed his way through the swinging doors and came to a stop near the back stall. He blinked and tried to let his brain calibrate since he’d been in the drawing room for the last two hours, and it took a second for him to recognize Rafe and Jamie, who were hovering near him, watching the scene play out at the front of the shop.

“Wanna get in on the bet?” Jamie asked.

Felix raised a brow as he looked from the woman to Linc, then to Zeke, who was standing a few feet away with his arms crossed over his massive chest. “Are you betting that Zeke’s gonna grab her by her ponytail and drag her into the street?”

Jamie choked on a laugh, slapping his palm over his mouth as Rafe grinned and said, “That’s my bet. Jamie thinks Zeke’s going to cave.”

“What’s happening?” Felix asked.

“This lady wants her nose pierced with a piercing gun. I don’t think Linc even owns one, and she threatened to report him to the FDA,” Jamie said from behind his fingers.

It took all of Felix’s control not to laugh. “Seriously?”

Jamie shrugged. “I think Zeke should make Linc do it. She’ll be the one to pay the price.”

“Linc values himself and his job way too much for that,” Felix said, then turned his attention back to the trio. The woman’s voice was rising, and he could see Zeke’s face going a little redder, which meant he was reaching the end of his patience.

“And it’s time for you to leave now, thank you,” Zeke said. He took a step closer to her, and the woman whipped out her phone with shaking hands and pointed it at him.

“You’re seriously kicking me out of here because you don’t want your employee to do his job?” she screeched.

Zeke pinched the bridge of his nose and glanced over at Linc, who hadn’t moved a muscle the whole time Felix had been watching. “I’m asking you politely to leave my shop since you don’t want to comply with our policy.” He took another step closer to her.

“Oh my god! Don’t touch me! Don’t hit me! I’m being attacked!” She started to scream at the top of her lungs, and before Felix could react, Eve jumped over the counter, grabbed her by the arm, and shoved her through the door before locking it.

The woman started throwing herself against the glass as Eve backed up a few paces. And then, in the stunned silence of the shop, there was the sound of a small child crying.

Felix’s eyes went wide when he realized there were customers, and one of them was a kid. “What the fuck?” he whispered.

Rafe pointed to the front stall where Paris worked, and Felix brushed past them both and came to a halt when he saw a dad in the tattoo chair with his leg half-done and a boy of about five sitting in another chair next to Max, who had his machine hooked up to a ballpoint pen.

“Hey, kiddo,” Felix said. “Are you getting some ink like your dad?”

The kid sniffed and looked over his shoulder at the sound of the woman still hitting the glass. “Um.”

Felix looked up at Linc, who had his phone to his ear, then back at the kid. “Do you like painting?”

The kid nodded.

Felix looked at the dad. “I’ve got some really amazing fingerpaints in the drawing room. Think that sounds like fun?”

The dad’s face fell in a look of relief. “What do you think, Connor?”

“I’ve only got maybe ten minutes left,” Paris said. “It could be fun. Maybe Max will go?”

Max set his machine down and used a dry paper towel to wipe the kid’s arm in a mimic of what Paris was doing to his dad. “You’re all done anyway, champ. We can get a snack too, okay?”

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