“It’s my fault,” I murmured, but I wasn’t sure if he heard me, because we were walking into the nurse’s room and her eyes widened at the sight of Leo.
“Oh my god,” she gasped, acting like she’d never seen blood in her entire life as she ushered him onto one of the three beds she had set up in here. “What happened?”
“Fell,” Leo said before I could say anything. I shook my head and narrowed my eyes at him. He was going to let Knox get away with it, and I didn’t know why the thought of him getting away with this angered me so much. He’d done and said so much worse to me, and yet I took it without a second thought. But this…this wasn’t right. He didn’t get to take his anger out on the fourteen-year-old kid who had no idea what was going on. He didn’t get to use him to vent his frustrations. If he needed to use someone, then it could be me. I could take it. I always took it.
“Elodie?” the nurse asked, turning to face me as she grabbed supplies. “Go and tell the office to call Leo’s mom and tell them about the incident. I think he may need to go home.” She moved back to Leo and started cleaning the blood up. “Then head on back to class.”
I clipped my head in a nod, took one last look at Leo, and walked into the office, feeling like utter shit for deciding to be Leo’s friend. If I had kept to myself, none of this would have happened.
ASHER
“You’re going too deep,” I told Maverick. “You’ll damage the skin, and the ink won’t settle like it should.” I stared down at the pigskin he was tattooing, impressed with how confident his lines were. The problem was depth. It was a leap to go from drawing with a pencil on a piece of paper to using a needle to create the same exact piece of art. You couldn’t learn it overnight, but Maverick had been practicing, even when I wasn’t here, according to Lara.
“That’s it,” I told him, liking how quick he was taking the direction I’d given him. Maverick wasn’t my first apprentice, so I already knew how much work went into teaching someone how to be a tattoo artist. There were so many elements to it, elements people didn’t even realize.
“Think I’ll be ready to do human skin soon?”
I grinned, remembering the anticipation of wanting to tattoo an actual person and not pigskin. “Show me you know the depth to go in at once more, and then you can do a small tat.”
Maverick fist-bumped the air and grinned like the cat who got the cream. “Hell to the yeah.” He placed his machine near the skin again, and just as he was about to start following the outline of the stencil he’d applied, my cell rang. He paused, but I tilted my head to signal him to keep going and took a few steps away from him.
I pulled my cell out of the front pocket of my jeans, frowned at the number I didn’t recognize flashing on the screen, then pressed the answer call button. “Hello?” I stared back at Maverick, watching the concentration on his face. He was committed, and that was half of the battle when it came to a tattoo apprentice.
“Hello. Is this Mr. Asher Easton?” My back straightened at the woman’s voice, and my stomach dipped. She sounded formal, and formal always meant trouble.
“It is.” Maverick stopped and turned back to me, and I held my hand up for him to wait.
“I’m calling in regards to your nephew, Leo Ford. We’ve tried to get ahold of his mother and father but haven’t had any luck.”
“Okay.” My head tilted to the side, wondering what was taking this woman so long to explain why she’d called me. It was about Leo, but what about Leo?
“Leo had an accident not long ago, and the nurse suspects he may have a broken nose. Would you be able to come and collect him so he can get checked out at the ER?”
“I’ll be there in ten,” I said, not hesitating. I ended the call and told Maverick, “I need to go. Clean everything up.” His shoulders drooped, but I wouldn’t explain to him why I needed to leave. All I knew was that I had to get there quickly. I walked through the shop, halted next to Lara, who was tattooing a woman, and told her, “I gotta head out for a while. Close up shop if I’m not back by five.”
“Will do,” Lara said, not even looking up at me.
I pulled my car keys out of my pocket and rushed out of the shop, letting the door slam shut behind me. My car was parked a few spots down from the shop, and I cursed at the fact I could never park in front of my own goddamn shop. The lights flashed as I pressed the unlock button, and within seconds I was pulling out onto the road and heading toward the high school. It was the same school I went to, the same school Belle went to, and the same school Cade had gone to as both a student and a teacher, so it was only natural for Leo to go here too. The problem was he shouldn’t have been coming here until next year, and even then, it should have been as a freshman, but he was too smart for his own good sometimes.
The stones on the main parking lot kicked up and clinked against the metal on my truck as I rushed into the first open spot, and then I was darting out of the driver’s door and toward the front of the school. When Belle had put me down as an emergency contact on his school forms all those years ago, I’d never thought I’d actually be called, but now I was here, panicking and hoping he was okay.
I took the main steps two at a time and opened the door to the office. “I’m here for my nephew, Leo,” I told the woman behind the desk.
She pointed at the door with a sign saying Nurse’s Office. “Just through there.”
“Thanks,” I murmured and rushed to the door. I pushed it open and glanced around the room but couldn’t see anyone in the bed in front of me.
“Uncle Asher?” I heard from the left, and I whipped my head around to see Leo sitting on one of the beds behind a half-closed curtain. He had dried blood on his shirt and some crusted under his nose, and an obvious bump on the middle of his nose. I didn’t even need to take him to get it checked out to know it was broken. I’d seen enough of them during my fighting days.
“Hey,” I breathed out, thankful he was at least still breathing. “What happened?” I asked, moving closer to him.
“Got in a fight.”
I halted, my eyes widening. Leo may have gotten his height from the Easton genes, but he was a soft soul, one who wouldn’t hurt a fly.
“You should see your face.” Leo laughed, and it sounded just like Belle’s. He’d gotten his sense of humor from his mother, which meant he was trouble with a capital t. “I fell into a locker.”
“Now, Leo, that wasn’t what your friend said,” the nurse interjected, and I looked over at her. She looked about as young as Leo did. What the hell?
“You have a friend?” I asked, sitting on the edge of the bed and grabbing the straps of his backpack. The thing weighed a ton, and no doubt held books he didn’t even need for his classes. He was always learning some random shit no one else had ever heard of.
“I told you I have a friend,” Leo said, rolling his eyes, then wincing. “Crap. That hurt.”
I chuckled at him and stood. “Come on, tough guy.” The school bell rang out, and I glanced at the clock on the wall, realizing it was the end-of-the-day bell, and we were likely to get crushed by teenagers wanting to get home. “Didn’t time it very well, did I?”
“Nope.” Leo stood and reached for me as he stumbled to the left. “Holy crap, I feel dizzy.”
“Did you bang your head too?” I asked, grabbing him by the shoulders to keep him steady. I looked at the nurse, expecting her to answer, but she simply stood there, her brows raised and her eyes wide. Was she even a real goddamn nurse?
“I think so…” Leo moved left to right, swaying like he wasn’t sure which point he should stay still on. “I fell into a locker with my face, so…yes?”
“Jesus Christ,” I murmured, scrubbing my hand down my face. I wrapped my arm around his shoulder so he could put all of his weight on me.
The door swung open as we stepped toward it, but I wasn’t looking at who it was because I was so focused on making sure Leo was steady on his feet, but the moment I heard, “You okay, Leo?” I halted, my entire
body freezing on the spot. I knew that voice. I fuckin’ knew that voice.
“Dizzy,” Leo groaned.
But I couldn’t work out why the voice would be here, and then I slowly looked up, sure I was hearing things. It couldn’t be her. She wouldn’t be in a school unless she was a teacher and—
It was her. Lotus was standing in front of us, a backpack slung over her shoulder and a makeup-free face. Lotus was here. Why was Lotus here? I’d only ever seen her at the club, and as soon as our gazes collided, all I could feel were her lips pressed against mine.
“Asher?” Lotus asked, her navy-blue eyes wide with shock. Her hand moved to her throat, her fingers starting to shake. “What…what are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” I retorted, wanting an answer to my question first. It had only been last night when my lips had been fused to hers. One night since she drove me crazy with a simple touch. One night since I’d seen her. And now she was standing in front of me, looking like Lotus but also not like her too. What the fuck was going on?
“Uncle Asher?” Leo asked, gripping on to me. “You know my friend?”
“Your friend?” I asked, not looking away from Lotus.
“Yeah. She’s the one who helped Mom with the cupcakes.” Leo leaned more of his weight on me, but I didn’t move a muscle.
“I’m so goddamn confused,” I gritted out, fully aware there was another person in the room who was watching with interest. “What are you doing here?” I asked Lotus for what felt like the thousandth time.
“I go to school here,” she whispered, her shoulders drooping. And if I was a man who didn’t act on emotions, I would have been able to see how hurt she was, but I wasn’t that man. I felt what I felt, and I wasn’t afraid to show it. So as the words sunk in, my stomach knotted, and my pulse thrummed.
“What?” I ground out. “I…” I had no idea what to say. What to do. How to act. Lotus was a stripper. A stripper who I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about. A stripper who didn’t act like the other strippers she was surrounded by. A stripper who was also a fuckin’ high school student.
“Jax know about this?” I asked, immediately thinking about what he would think. She was under-fuckin-age.
“Yeah,” she murmured. “He was the one who offered me the job. We erm…he and Al used to stay in a trailer two down from mine.”
“Trailer?” I asked, but I wasn’t expecting an answer. I couldn’t put all the pieces together, and all I could think about was the kiss last night. Fuck. I’d kissed a high school student. Fuck.
Leo groaned, and the sound brought us out of our stare-off. I didn’t have time to try to work out what the fuck was going on. I didn’t have time to overanalyze it all because I needed to get Leo checked out.
“We gotta go,” I said, but I wasn’t sure if I was saying it to the nurse, Lotus, or myself.
“Call me when you get home, Leo?” Lotus asked as we walked past her. And for a second—a split second—I hated that she was underage, because fuck, I really enjoyed that kiss last night.
“I will.” Leo patted her shoulder, and I gritted my teeth at him touching her. “It’s not your fault, Elodie.”
Elodie?
“It is,” she ground out, her nostrils flaring, and it was then I understood there was more to the incident than I’d realized, but I couldn’t get over her being here. I couldn’t see past it. So instead of mulling it over and driving myself crazy, I pushed it to the side, choosing to deal with it when I wanted to rather than when it needed to be.
It wasn’t like we’d done anything else. We’d only kissed. And if Jax knew she was underage and that was how he wanted to run the club, then it was his choice. At least, that was what I kept telling myself as I helped Leo to the car. I repeated over and over again not to get involved. Not to think about her. It was a blip. The kiss was nothing. She was a mistake I could easily move past.
But as I reversed out of the spot and looked back at the school, seeing her standing in the doorway, I knew I couldn’t. She’d had a pull on me from the moment I’d seen her at the club, and seeing her outside of that environment only made it worse. The jeans stuck to her legs like a second skin were even sexier than the skimpy underwear she’d worn last night.
And—fuck. Fuck. I couldn’t think about that, not right then.
I shook my head, took one final look at her, and drove away, determined not to think about the girl with the navy-blue eyes again.
I was a fool. If only I’d known.
Chapter Seven
ELODIE
I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t had to keep a secret.
Don’t tell Dad I bought myself some new shoes.
Don’t tell the dealer I went to someone new.
Hide the rent money.
Pretend we’re not home.
It had been drummed into me from an early age, so living what felt like two lives felt natural to me. During the day, I was a high school student and Knox’s girlfriend, but at night, I was Lotus, the exotic dancer who was comfortable in her own skin.
It was a big secret. There was no doubt about it. But I hadn’t thought the two worlds would collide. I’d made strict rules for myself when I’d first started dancing at Pink Feather after Jax had offered me the job, but I hadn’t stuck to them. I’d let myself get carried away the moment I met Asher. I’d fooled myself into believing I was Lotus, and not Elodie, the high school student who also had a boyfriend. But I hadn’t been able to stop myself. I hadn’t been able to say no. I hadn’t been able to ignore the way he made me feel.
When I was dancing, the crowd blurred, and I didn’t see any of them as individuals. I took myself off to a land where I was in a room on my own and only doing this for me. But when I’d come out on stage and saw him sitting in a back booth, I knew he was different. It wasn’t because he had muscles on top of muscles, or the tattoos scattered all over his skin. It was the way he’d watched me but then turned away as I was about to take my last piece of clothing off. He hadn’t wanted to see me completely naked. There was something about that action which called to me. He called to me.
That had never happened to me before. Men came here to watch women get naked, and here he was, not wanting to see me like that. He was the first man I knew who didn’t want to view me like a piece of meat. He had seen me, really seen me for the woman I was and not the body parts I had.
And then the kiss. Damn the kiss. In the back of my mind, I knew I shouldn’t have done it, knew I shouldn’t have pushed him to the point where he didn’t want to back down, but I hadn’t been able to stop myself. Knox hadn’t entered my mind at any point…
Until the next day when he’d pulled into the lot.
I was keeping secrets from everyone. I’d been stupid to think I could keep this secret forever. And now I had no idea what to do. I’d told Asher Jax knew I was underage, and he did, but now that Asher knew, would Jax fire me? Because there was no way I could lose that job. No way in hell. I needed the money more than anyone knew. Without that job, I wasn’t sure what I’d do, or where I’d end up. And the more I thought about it, the more anxious I became. I’d allowed myself to get caught up, and now I was afraid I’d have to pay the price.
My next shift wasn’t until Friday, and the days seemed to blur into one another. I had dance practice for the competition this weekend, and my classes were as boring as ever. Leo still hadn’t come back to school after what Knox had done to him on Monday, and I was back in a cycle of following Knox around and jumping every time he told me to because the alternative wasn’t something I had the energy for.
And before I knew it, I was pulling up outside and staring at the bright pink letters above the door. The lights weren’t switched on yet because it was still light outside, but the security guard was in front of the door, waiting to let people in.
I took a breath, pushed everything to the back of my mind, and made my way inside. The dancers were all talking as I walked to my station backstage
. Usually, I would have made small talk with them, but my nerves for the competition tomorrow were taking over. I was finishing work early, choosing to do my set two hours earlier than normal so I could meet Aleste at the studio and we could travel together. It would save on the cost of gas, and I’d get some much-needed sleep on the five-hour drive.
My stomach rolled as I wondered if Asher had told Jax about seeing me at school. The conversation had been stilted and full of confusion on Asher’s part, but also mine. Leo was supposed to be my friend, and I’d kissed his uncle. My eyes widened at the realization. I’d kissed my friend’s uncle. And more than that, I’d liked it.
“You’re up, Lotus,” Reign said as she came off the stage, and I shook my head and darted to the side as the first beats to my song started to play. I zoned out—just like I always did—and sauntered onto the stage, knowing my routine inside out. I didn’t put a foot wrong, and by the end, I was only left in a skimpy thong, but at least it was something covering my body. Some nights I ended up fully naked, but if I didn’t think about it, it didn’t matter.
Backstage was pumping by the time I walked back there, but I didn’t have time to join in on the fun tonight as I got dressed and took my makeup off. I had fifteen minutes to get out of here, drive to Aleste’s studio, and move all of my things from my car to hers. I was doing good for time, but that didn’t mean I was scot-free. I still had to make it out to my car yet, and—
“El?” Jax called, and I turned my head to see him leaning against the wall in the back hallway, which led to the back exit.
“Hey,” I breathed out, halting in front of him. I smiled nervously, wondering what he was about to say. Had Asher already spoken to him? What if he was about to fire me? What if—
“Good luck tomorrow.”
My shoulders slumped at his words, and my breath whooshed out of me. Jax had been there for me at times when it felt like I was entirely alone. He’d rented a trailer a couple down from me after he came back from tour with the Marines, and Al ended up being over there all the time. That had been a few years back, though. Jax had moved out nine months ago, and since then, the trailer park was so much worse, just like the trailer I lived in. But I never told him that. It wasn’t like he could do anything about it anyway. He was letting me earn amazing money thanks to the tips, and it was all I could ask for right then.
Burned Duet: Asher & Elodie: Fast Burn & Deep Burn (Easton Family Duet Boxsets Book 4) Page 9
