Beautiful Ink

by Nicole Reed

  “I don’t know what is real and what is fake. I watched you restore that house for hours at a time. Your love for it was genuine. I know it was,” I say, searching his eyes for the truth.

  “It was. My grandfather does own a company that restores old houses. When my mother and father divorced, my mother took me to live with him and he taught me everything he knows. When I needed a cover story, it was a believable one, but I swear to you that my passion for it was real. So real that I want to quit my job now and restore houses for the rest of my life.”

  “Jake?”

  He shakes his head. “Jake was my younger half-brother. Look, I don’t want to discuss all this in front of everyone,” he says, looking around us. “Can you please just come with me? We need to talk.”

  “Hels,” Badger warns behind me.

  I love this man standing in front of me. No matter the circumstances that brought us together, my affection is pure and real, more solid than the bruise that colors my cheekbone or the welts that mar my back. And I know that I would rather die than have any harm come to Luke. I might try to run again, but it will not be with a bounty on his head too. I know how capable my family is. His father has already lost one son because of me.

  “Go,” I say, glancing away from him. “You don’t belong here.”

  “I belong with you,” he whispers, reaching for my hand to link our fingers. “Wherever that is, I want to be.”

  Oh, God! I won’t survive this, but he can. “You lied to me. I can’t do this,” I say, removing my hand from his.

  “Well, damn it. You know what? You lied, too! I told you we built this relationship on shambles and do you remember what I said would happen if it fell apart?”

  I know exactly what he said, but I shake my head. Tears swim in my eyes as I try to keep them back.

  “Yes, you do. I said we would rebuild it again. And if that falls apart, we will keep rebuilding it until it works for us. That is how bad I want this relationship to work. Failure is not an option. Ending it, is not an option. Do you hear me, Helen?” He reaches for me once again, but I step back.

  Every teardrop I release is a tiny piece of my soul, staining the sidewalk. I turn to walk toward the shop. I can’t do this. My mind begs for me to turn back and go with him, but my heart loves him way too much to deliver his death sentence.

  His fingers slide around my wrist, gripping it tightly to spin me around. A ragged cry escapes me. He stands before me, more beautiful than the art that decorates my body, his love shining clearly in his eyes. It outlines my heart and colors my soul: he is my artist. I have to protect him.

  “We are through,” I say, the blasphemous lie torn from the depths of my soul. The words scald my lips with their falsity. I see the anger in his eyes, before he pulls me flush against his body.

  “We aren’t through. We will never be through!” His mouth captures mine, letting me know exactly whom I belong to. It’s not even a competition. Luke owns me heart and soul. And my life has no meaning without him in it. Our tears mingle as they slide down both of our cheeks.

  His hands slip around me and I whimper in pain when he accidentally grazes my injuries.

  “Helen? What is it?” He steps back, his voice sounding pissed and concerned.

  “I…” I start to say.

  The roar of a motorcycle engine shatters the silence. I turn to watch an unmistakable Hold ride down Main Street, stopping directly in front of us. He quickly dismounts from his bike, slinging his helmet to the ground.

  “Get your fuckin’ hands off of her,” he says, walking toward us.

  His eyes blaze with anger, directing them solely at Luke. I don’t know what to say or do. My heart is torn between fighting to be with Luke versus surrendering to keep him safe. The cop and Shady join our tight little circle.

  “You don’t want to do this, man,” Luke says, pointing at Hold.

  “What? You here to bring somebody else in on some bullshit charge? Or you just need the protection, pussy?”

  “No, the officer is only for insurance.” He nods toward Shady. “The same as your boy standing behind you. My business is concluded with your little club… unless I find out you have hurt her in any way. Then I will hunt you down like the dogs you are,” Luke says, stepping toward Hold.

  “Hels, you don’t want to involve him,” Hold says, his threat very clear to me.

  “We need to talk, you and I,” Luke says, looking directly at Hold. “I’ll send my guy back to his vehicle if you send yours. Let’s contain this and protect Helen.” He turns to the cop and nods his head for him to return to the car, which he does.

  At first I don’t think that Hold is going to agree. He looks entirely too enraged to discuss anything in a calm manner. My eyes frantically volley between these two men: this volatile situation is on overload, tempers are obviously at peak levels, and I can’t see it ending well.

  “I got this, Shady,” he says, nodding his head at him. “Go inside.”

  Within seconds, the three of us are left standing on the sidewalk, Luke’s hand tightly gripping mine. A delicate silence exists among all of us.

  “I took a chance coming here like this, but you wouldn’t let me see her when I came to your house,” Luke says.

  His words shock and surprise the hell out of me. “You tried to find me?”

  “Of course, I tried to find you,” he says, swinging his head to glance at me. “I will always find you.”

  He turns back to glare at Hold. “I knew this was the only way I could talk to her. I didn’t want to involve the local police, but I also didn’t want to end up a missing person. We both know that I have friends who wouldn’t be very happy about that.”

  “I don’t give a fuck where we are. Business is business and she is mine.” Hold angrily stares back.

  “She was yours. Now she is coming with me,” Luke says, giving my hand a tight squeeze.

  “The fuck she is,” Hold says, his voice lethal.

  “I love her,” Luke says.

  “You love her? You don’t know a goddamn thing about her. She has been with me since we were kids. I fuckin’ know her. I fuckin’ love her,” Hold says, pointing to his chest. He reaches for my arm that isn’t linked to Luke’s.

  Luke steps in front of me, cutting Hold off. Hold’s fist grabs a handful of Luke’s shirt, jerking the material toward him.

  “Go ahead and beat the shit out of me,” Luke says. “It will only land you in a jail cell. Either way, she ends up leaving with me.” Luke doesn’t retaliate by laying his hands on Hold. He calmly utters every word. “I came here four years ago seeking the truth about my brother’s death and when I didn’t find it, I made things hard for your little motorcycle club. And that’s what it is… a small operation. The only reason my department allowed me to investigate you guys is because of your contacts with bigger fish. I walk out of here, you have no more ATF problems, unless you do something incredibly stupid.”

  “Well, hit the road.” Hold’s face contorts with his hatred for Luke as he speaks. “But she stays.”

  “Not going to happen. Do you hear me? I will place myself so far up the MC’s ass that I’ll know every time you take a shit. And if you try to eliminate me, my friends will know who did it and keep coming.” Luke turns his head to me. “Don’t let him threaten you with my life. There is no doubt that he or one of his lackeys can take it, but they’ll wish they never did.”

  I watch Hold become increasingly upset by the second. It scares me because I know what he is capable of, and if not him, any of the other MC’ers inside the tattoo shop. In fact, I would bet there is a gun trained on us as we speak.

  The sound of several motorcycles somewhere in the distance alerts us to the coming danger.

  “God… damn it!” Hold lets go of Luke and steps back. “You fucked up now, Hels. I won’t be able to save you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I will protect her,” Luke says, pulling me beneath the protection of his arm.

  “Oh, y
eah? You’ve done a shit job of it so far. I can see why she should trust you, considering you lied to her and manipulated her. Not to mention, fucked her completely over.” Hold turns to glare at me. “How could you trust this piece of shit over me? I am the one that got you outta here in the first place. And then made it so you could come back without dealing with Ward.”

  My own anger spikes listening to Hold. “You made it so I could come back? Are you fucking kidding me? What you did sickens me, and to know that you took some type of perverted pleasure in it is unforgivable,” I say, pushing away from Luke to confront Hold. “How did you think this was going to work out, Hold? Did you honestly believe I was going to let you fuck me when I loved someone else?” I shake my head. “You should know me better than that. I am through being a whore for you or the MC.”

  “I never asked you to be my whore. I only ever wanted your love,” Hold whispers, his anger dissolving before my eyes.

  “But your mom made it very clear when I was only fifteen what I was to you. And as long as I live here, that will be the case or I risk my life every day.”

  “Tell me then, Hels, how do I let you go for good? When I look at you, I see my future. I swore that if I got you back, I would never let you out of my hands,” he says, moving to stand in front of me, placing his mouth inches from mine. “How do I say goodbye when I love you so damn much?”

  His words normally would soften my heart and mind, but he broke something inside of me. Any emotional bonds left from before were severed with every lash he gave me.

  “Please let me go,” I beg softly.

  “It’s not up to me. You know too much… you’re a liability we don’t need,” he says, stepping back, retreating behind his emotionless mask.

  “I’ll never tell him or anyone what I know. You should know that by now. My feelings for you right at this moment aren’t in a good place, but I couldn’t live with myself if I got you in trouble. That isn’t something that I could ever do. Hold, you have to realize that if the club keeps dealing in illegal stuff, that something bad is going to happen. I will be the least of your worries.”

  We all turn when a handful of motorcycles blocks the entire road, and the MC crew swings off of their rides in unison. Luke’s police officer gets out of the car and all of the men inside of Hard Ink file outside. I automatically back up to stand beside Luke and he reaches for my hand.

  “It’s going to be okay,” he says, trying to reassure me.

  I don’t voice my opinion that it’s not in our favor to walk out of this alive. Ward and Sandman are at the head of the group that walks slowly toward us.

  “Well, what do we have here?” Sandman says, looking over at Luke. “Seems like Mr. ATF Agent has come a callin’ on his girlfriend, our recently returned little queen.” His head turns to me. “It was nice seeing you the other night, Hels. You sure have grown up,” he says, with a smirk on his face and a wink of his eye.

  My stomach revolts at the mention of what Hold did to me the other night. I remember seeing Sandman’s facial expression and the thought that he enjoyed it sexually seriously makes me ill.

  “What we got here, boys?” Ward steps out in front. “I thought you were headed out of town after not finding any gun shit on us?”

  “I lost something and came back to retrieve it. Now that I have her, my business here is concluded. We will leave your town,” Luke says, not backing down from Ward.

  Ward laughs. “She belongs to the MC. I’m sure you saw her tattoo. We’ll give you a pass this time, considering you don’t know what that certain tat means, but know that it marks her as one of ours. And I think she’s smart enough to realize the ramifications should she forget what that tattoo means,” he says, shifting his beady eyes to look at me.

  I don’t miss his veiled threats and neither does Luke. His body stiffens next to me. My hand grips his tighter, trying to convey to him to be cool about this. This is all I have ever known. Threats and intimidation have been the only love this family has given me, and I now use that to my advantage.

  “You know, Ward, my family taught me to keep my mouth shut and I have done that my entire life. It would be a shame, though, for that to change. I am sure I can find a whole network of people to listen.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I see Sandman moving to position himself beside Luke. Ward’s face turns several deep shades of purple. He is completely surprised by my threat—I’m not the timid girl he used to know. Ward’s eyes stray down to Luke’s side and my eyes follow. Sandman has a gun pressed secretly to his ribcage. He hides it from the police officer in plain sight by the angle at which he stands.

  Luke doesn’t look concerned. He turns casually toward Sandman. “Get the goddamn gun off of me, before I bring all kinds of hell down on your town. Don’t be stupid.”

  “We’ll take out the cop before he even knows what hit him,” Ward says, leaning in to whisper to Luke. “You and Hels here will come with us, quietly or in a bloody spectacle—your choice. Tell the cop to get in his car and go. You don’t need him anymore.”

  I am unbelievably calm, Luke’s strong presence beside me a factor in my bravery. He gives me strength not to roll over for the MC.

  “You going to shoot us in the middle of the road in broad daylight? Seems to me you’re getting sloppy, Ward.” My words hit their mark, enraging him, I can tell, by the not so subtle facial expressions.

  “You fuckin’ bitch. I should have killed you the moment we found you. But I may get my wish after all.”

  A black, unmarked van pulls up on the other side of the motorcycles. The side door slides open and the black-tinted window rolls down for me to see that Mikey is driving it.

  “You will get in the van, or I promise that everyone you have come in contact with these last several years will die. I will make it my personal mission in life,” Ward says to me.

  No! I can’t risk my friends’ lives. My eyes shift worriedly to Luke’s.

  “What do we do?” I can’t ask him to give up his life for people he hardly knows. But I know that I can’t leave here if there is a possibility that I could inadvertently cause Ginger’s, or Malik’s death.

  “I won’t leave you,” he says, turning toward the cop. “We are all good here. You can go on back to the station.”

  Nobody in his right mind would believe a word of that, so either the cop is stupid or he’s already on the MC’s payroll because he turns to get in his car.

  “Smart man,” Ward says, looking at Luke. “Stupid bitch,” he concludes, staring directly at me. “Let’s take a little ride.”

  “You heard the man,” Sandman says, poking Luke in the side with his gun to guide him toward the van.

  Luke grasps my hand tightly as we slowly move away from the sidewalk. My heart sinks when I think about what is happening. He can’t die because of me. I turn to see Hold walking beside us. He stares at me and I try to plead with my eyes what I can’t say out loud.

  My feet stumble clumsily over the hard concrete, and I intentionally fall into Hold, letting go of Luke. Our stomachs touch as he holds me close with one hand. His gaze encompasses so many emotions, but out of them all, I see love. This is the one person who has been there for me, protected me, when everyone else has left.

  “Please,” I quietly beg him. Looking into his eyes, I visually see the internal struggle deep down in his soul. Our hands touch between our bodies, and he presses something heavy into mine. My fingers wrap around the cold metal. A gun. I glance up into Hold’s blue eyes. The tears he will never release tell of the toll our love has cost him.

  “Go with Mikey,” he mouths back.

  My heart aches with the weight of the moment, but I don’t have time to say what is left to be said between us. I don’t hesitate, turning swiftly, and moving behind Ward. My fingers tremble with what I hold in my hand, but I don’t stop what I plan to do. I push it noticeably into Ward’s back, letting him feel exactly what I have against him.

  “You gonna shoot me, girl?”r />
  “Maybe,” I say, maneuvering Ward so that my back is to the hard door of the van. “Drop the gun Sandman. I am not afraid to use this.”

  “I don’t believe you, little queen,” he says, smiling at me, while keeping the gun on Luke.

  Almost on instinct, I whip the gun out from behind Ward and shoot at the ground at Sandman’s feet. The bullet pings loudly off of the cement, ricocheting into Ward’s motorcycle. Small hard chunks of cement spray those standing near. The sound of all the men cursing fills the air. Luke doesn’t waste precious time, slamming his fist into Sandman’s face and taking his gun.

  “Get into the van,” I yell at Luke, as I climb in, too. I point the gun at Ward daring him to follow us. Luke slams the door shut and Mikey takes off like a bat out of hell.

  “I hope you know where you’re going, because in two seconds we’re going to be swarmed by motorcycles,” Mikey says, from the front seat.

  “Head straight and take a right at the corner,” Luke says, reaching for his cell phone to call someone. He speaks loudly into it. “Plan B is in play. Yeah, not too good. I need a roadblock at the end of Dade Street. Now! No, I need a car waiting and call the airfield to have a plane ready for takeoff. Thanks.”

  When he looks at me after getting off his cell, I raise my eyebrows at him.

  “Hope for the best and plan for a fucking catastrophe,” he says, shrugging his shoulders while answering my unasked question.

  We hang precariously on to the back of the seats inside the empty cargo hold. Mikey drives the van like a racecar, speeding around every corner. Each bump jars my aching body, but everything is happening so fast that my injuries are the least of my worries.

  “Why are you helping us?” I quietly ask Mikey, knowing that Luke can hear me.

  “Not for you. For Hold. He told me that if anything went south, it was my duty to protect you, no matter what. Ward didn’t know that when he asked me to drive the van. If you’re harmed by the MC, that fucker will lose his shit and no more Hell’s Highwaymen. He will burn our chapter down to the ground,” he says, looking in the rearview mirror. “We got company.”