Sharpening His Broken Talon (Living Art Book 2)

by River Mitchell

  It is all going to be ok Dad.

  Molly has all of us to help, and from what everyone said about Max, he

  seems like a good guy. And now that Hunter offered me a job at his shop, I never have to deal

  with that shit head at work again.

  We can do this as a family, and if today is any indication, our family has more than tripled in size

  with some pretty amazing people in it.

  I watched as my father read what I’d written and maneuvered around on the bed to get into a more comfortable position. My ribs were aching and no matter how gently I moved, I was feeling the pain more and more.

  “Love you, son,” my dad said.

  “I love you, too. Both of you. I’m really sorry, Daddy.” My sister stood in the doorway to my room. Dad looked up at Molly, gave her a smile, and held his arms out to her, which she wasted no time running into. I knew it wouldn’t be long before she came to find Dad. None of us kids liked to feel as if we had let him down.

  “Got room for a little one?” Tristan said, walking into the room and straight over to where my Dad was still holding onto Molly, and I was sitting lopsided on the edge of the bed. I loved that he still called himself the little one.

  Tristan sat down next to me and without making eye contact, whispered, “Are you really okay?” I hated that he worried about me so much. It made me feel so useless that my sixteen-year-old baby brother felt as if he had to protect me. And if I did get hurt, he always felt as if he’d somehow let me down. He should just leave the blame at me; I was the failure.

  Ignoring the pain shooting down my side, I slid my arm across his shoulders and pulled him into my side. I really needed to pull my shit together and be a better big brother and a better little brother.

  I would do better.

  6

  Tate

  “Good morning, folks, and how are we this fine and happy afternoon?” I asked the minute I crossed the threshold of the shop. I have worked at Living Art since the day it opened, and I have loved every single second of it. I get to spend the day with my brothers while doing the thing I love the most.

  “Hey, your appointment just called; she is running a few minutes late,” Drake said as I made my way past the reception desk and headed straight to the back. I nodded to let Drake know I heard him, but nothing was slowing me down, because the moment I entered the shop, I caught a whiff of something delicious, and it was all I could think about. Coffee and donuts, my kryptonite.

  I was so focused on reaching the goodies, I didn’t even notice Fear and Alfie sitting in the corner of the room.

  “Come to papa,” I said, helping myself to a very pretty and yummy looking donut.

  “You’re welcome,” Alfie shouted, causing me to turn and face him and Fear.

  “Thank you.” Because I have manners, after all. “I didn’t even see you two there.” I walked over and plopped down next to them. “What brings you in today?” I looked at the smaller of the two men. Alfie came in and out of the shop often but never on a Monday. He was usually busy with stuff for the little nuggets.

  “Mum has the kids for a couple of days so that I can be here for Talon. He’s starting this afternoon.” Oh, right! I had completely forgotten that was happening today. Just thinking about the silent man brought a smile to my face. I really liked him. The no talking thing didn’t bother me; I actually found it comforting. I hated that Fear needed to offer the job to Talon because of the problems he was having at his previous job. But I did have to admit, though, that I liked the fact he would be the one taking over for Hayley.

  Hayley was in full mommy mode and although she loved us all, we could see that her duties here at the shop kept her from being where she truly wanted to be: with her son. We all told her that we’d be able to cope if she didn’t come in, but she refused to leave us without a receptionist. Yes, we could’ve just hired someone by putting an ad in the paper or however you did those sorts of things, but none of us wanted to do that; this was a family business, and a random person off the street coming and working here wouldn’t sit well with any of us.

  “That’s cool. Who’s on today?” I asked, only half paying attention to the answer Fear gave. My focus was on how delicious the donut I was currently eating tasted. My thoughts quickly shifted from yum to is there another one in the box.

  Everyone knew the chocolate ones were for me and my sweet tooth. It was a most heinous of crimes to even attempt to pick up, much less think for a second that you could get away with taking that which was rightfully mine. I’d always been this way; the guys knew the routine. Even Griffin and Lily knew the rules. Neither one of them were chocolate donut fans so I didn’t have much of a worry when it came to those nuggets, but still, if an eight and four-year-old could get it...

  Were there times that people slipped through the cracks? Yes, I was sure there were. I just couldn’t be everywhere at all times no matter how badly I wanted to protect my chocolaty goodness.

  But I felt for sure that no one would be stupid enough to try and take my donuts while I was there in the room. Watching EVERYTHING!

  I was, however, VERY wrong because before I could even move a muscle to check the donut box, James walked in and without any thought of anyone else but himself and his greedy selfish needs—or maybe he was having a brain fart—he TOOK MY CHOCOLATE DONUT.

  “James?” I called out.

  “Yeah,” was all I got back. He didn’t even look at me. Too focused on MY donut!

  “Is that a chocolate donut?” I asked, attempting to keep my voice even and non-threatening. He caught it, though, the warning in my question. I bet he didn’t even know that I was here. Now he did. He slowly raised his eyes to meet mine, the donut suspended in the air between the box and his mouth. I could see him trying to figure out if it was worth it. Would he be able to eat it? Would he be able to make to the door before I could reach him?

  “There’s another one in there,” James lied. I could see it in his eyes, he was holding the last chocolate donut. I didn’t feel the need to verbally reply to his lame attempt to lie his way to what was rightfully mine.

  I saw the moment it happened, the exact instant he decided he was going to risk it. He shoved my chocolaty goodness into his ogre-sized mouth and ran from the room like the coward he was.

  “This shall not stand,” I shouted after him. I could hear Fear and Alfie laughing at my misery, but I was too intent on distributing justice that I didn’t even waste my time in giving them both the stern and scathing look they deserved. Unfortunately for me, he was a fast fucker and I couldn’t catch up to him before I heard the door chimes, letting me know that he had made his escape. Dammit!

  I still ran to door and shouted to his receding back, “Don’t you come back without a replacement, James! You won’t like it if you do.” James was so far down the street I wasn’t even sure he’d heard me. He knew, though. I hoped he knew.

  Still distracted from my brother’s betrayal, I hadn’t noticed the huge man standing just outside the door with a very bewildered and, if I was not mistaken, amused expression on his face.

  “He ate my chocolate donut.” I shook my head. “Can you believe that?” Not giving him the chance to respond, I continued with my rant. “He knows any and all chocolate donuts within a thirty-foot radius are mine by default. It’s the law.” I finally looked at Talon for the first time since I’d started rambling on. He gave me a small nod that I am sure was just to humor me. Oh, what’s the point; no one understood the betrayal.

  Shaking my head again, I told Talon to follow me and led him back to our large break room, or should I say the scene of the despicable crime. Damn, I really wanted that donut; I was in such a good mood when I got here, too, and now I was going to be in a donut funk for the rest of the day.

  “This is the break room. We all come back here between clients or when we just need a little time out. Drinks, food and…FOR THE LOVE OF… Well, congratulations, you have scarred your brother for life. I ho
pe you’re happy with yourselves. Wait until I tell Mama Sheri,” I shouted as I tried to cover Talon’s innocent eyes from the sight before us.

  “Fuck, I’m sorry, T… We weren’t expecting you for another hour,” Fear attempted to explain. I looked over at Alfie who was attempting to put his dick back in his pants on the sly. Good luck with that one, buddy.

  “I’m really sorry. We thought you would be chasing down James, especially with your client calling in late. Drake is up front and no one is due in for a couple of hours. We were trying to fit in a quickie,” Alfie said without a hint of embarrassment. “And we would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for you meddling kids,” he finished with a raised shaking fist to add to his ridiculous statement. I couldn’t stop the laugh that snuck out even with my glum mood even I wanted to.

  Alfie was always finding ways to insert movie lines or captions into scenarios, often at inappropriate times but always with humorous results for those who were around to witness them.

  Fear finally made his way over to us and pulled his brother in for a hug. I noticed that his cheeks were tinged red, clearly embarrassed about having been caught. Alfie, though, looked like he didn’t have a care in the world. I guess being raised by Mama Sheri made you immune to that type of thing.

  “You want a donut?” Fear asked his brother.

  Talon’s eyes quickly swung to me as if I was going to tackle him if he even thought about just looking in the box.

  “Help yourself. I only lay claim to the chocolate ones, and that cowardly bastard just ran off with the last one,” I explained.

  Nodding his head, he took a donut from the box. I could see he was nervous and was trying to hide it. I really did like this guy and not just because he was Fear’s little brother. Something about the silent younger man soothed me in some way.

  “Everything go okay when you quit your old job?”

  Talon nodded and started writing on a notebook he pulled from the back pocket of his jeans.

  * * *

  My boss apologized and said he understood why I would want to leave.

  He gave me some money for my troubles and promised a great reference.

  He is a really good man. It was only his son that wasn’t.

  Just glad I never have to see him again and deal with his shit every day.

  * * *

  I read the note he handed me and smiled. I knew that the guys and I still wanted to meet this guy, but having Talon here was going to be good for all of us. I could just feel it.

  The next few hours were spent prepping for my late client. When she arrived, I wished she had canceled all together. Fuck, was she annoying. She was like a cat in heat. There was a point that I felt for sure that she was going to start humping Drake’s leg.

  When she noticed she wasn’t getting anywhere with Drake, she moved on to Fear. That lasted all of a second. One look at his face and she changed target to Alfie. The monitor in the break room gave me the opportunity to watch everything unfold. I think she thought she was on to a winner with Alfie until he grabbed Fear and kissed his face off. Slutty’s—whose real name was Melinda—face went through a multitude of emotions: shock, anger, jealousy, and lust to name just a few. She had bunny boiler written all over her.

  When I called her back to my station, she moved her attention to me. The pouty lips were bad, the squeezing her breasts together was worse, but her nasally voice and what I assumed were meant to be sexy one-liners were the worst. I was two seconds away from calling it and running for the hills.

  I felt like hours had passed, and I was still trying to go over the stencil I had drawn up for her, but sadly she was so focused on her goal of getting into my pants, she wasn’t letting me.

  There was no way in hell that her moves would work. Let’s just forget for a second that I am gay and she does not have the right equipment. Let’s also forget that her make-up was caked on so thick I could’ve made a finger painting in it. And let’s even forget the fact she was wearing something that a teenager would wear. “Hellooo, your granddaughter called and she wants her clothes back.” Yes, those three things alone were bad enough, but her real crime, the crime that was unforgivable. I was no one’s last choice, DAMMIT! She went through everyone until she targeted me. For shame.

  “I am going to make you feel so good.” Oh geez. This was just getting worse and worse.

  “You are barking up the wrong tree, darlin’.” I figured the best offense at this point was just to lay it out.

  “You got yourself a girlfriend, huh? That’s okay. We can keep it our little secret. I am not sure that you would want to go back to her after a night with me, though,” she said in a really annoying and what I assumed she thought was a sexy voice. What the hell was wrong with this woman? I have had to stop her touching me at least ten times. This was getting old.

  “Okay, I am going to ask this as nice as I possibly can. Are you on something?” There was no way that this could be normal.

  “WHAT?” Here we go.

  I have no idea who booked this crackpot; I do know that it had been on my book for months. Since I was the portrait specialist, any fine line art was usually sent my way. Today, though, I wished it had been sent somewhere else.

  “How dare you,” Slutty screeched at me. Fucking hell.

  “Ma’am, I cannot tattoo you if you’re under the influence of drugs or alcohol. It’s our policy and was stated clearly on the paperwork you were asked to fill out.” There, that was polite.

  “How dare you!” She screamed in my face and before I could even blink, she strutted out of my station and continued her screaming at whoever was at the front desk. I knew that I should have followed her out and tried to calm the situation, but really, her voice was making my brain start to liquefy. With the tattoo now firmly out of the question, I started to pack up all the shit I’d already prepared. I needed a minute and was putting off going out there for as long as could.

  7

  Talon

  “Why are you just looking at me, you freak? Answer me. What are you going to do about the fact that a member of staff was throwing accusations? I could sue this place for slander. Hello, you retard, I am talking to you.”

  I could feel myself retreating and shutting down, and I was fighting against it as hard as I could, but I knew it would pointless. Her words were already on repeat, going round and round in my head.

  Fear had been called into the back when a delivery had come and Alfie had just gone to the bathroom. Drake was on a break and Tate was back at the stations. I thought I would be okay for a couple of minutes. I couldn’t even handle that without messing up. I wanted so badly to be able to show Fear that I wasn’t the fuck up. That he would not regret giving me this opportunity, that I would not humiliate him for being related to me. Fail on all accounts.

  “What is wrong with you? Should you even be working in public?” I could hear the words being screeched at me but I was falling so far down the tunnel now that I wasn’t even in the room anymore. It was almost as if I was watching the whole thing from the other side of the room.

  “Talon, you okay?” No, no, I wasn’t. I had managed to fuck up my brother’s business in the same time as it took you to take a piss. I had let everyone down yet again.

  “Excuse me, I am the customer. Should you allow retarded people to work in this environment? I have been trying to make a complaint and all he did was sit there and stare at me, the freak. People like him should be locked up.” I was useless. Hunter was never going forgive me for this. How could I have gotten this so wrong, so fast?

  “Talon, look at me.” Alfie ignored the lady and focused completely on me. It took a while. A lot longer than it should, but eventually I managed to claw my way back to at least acknowledge a very worried-looking Alfie and raised my eyes to his. “There you go.”

  “I am so sorry, Talon; this is all my fault. I should’ve dealt with crazy lady myself. I am so sorry,” Tate spoke up. I had no idea he’d arrived, but it calmed me i
nstantly knowing that he was there. He seemed to get me, understood that some situations were just not going to end well for me. He was obviously trying to make me feel better by taking the blame. It wasn’t his fault that I was a complete waste of space. If I had been normal, I would have been able to cope with this. I should be able to cope. I couldn’t believe how badly I had let Hunter down already. I wasn’t helping him. I was a complete hindrance.

  My mother’s words started getting louder again. I knew that even though I had been hanging on and trying to remain in the present, my grip was slipping, and I couldn’t hang on much longer.

  “What is all the shouting about?” I heard the question asked. I knew who it was; someone else was there to witness my humiliation. It was the last straw for me, and I lost hold and slipped into the whirlpool of insults and pain.

  Tate

  “Who are you? This has nothing to do with you,” Melinda shouted at Sheridan.

  “Oh shit,” I heard Alfie mutter. I could not agree more, I thought to myself.

  “I walked into my boys’ place of business and find you yelling at my son, you better believe your skanky arse that whatever has your knickers in a twist, is my business.” Sheridan’s tone oozed with authority.

  “Well, your boys’ place is a joke. First, they accuse me of being on drugs. Then, when I try and make a complaint, I am faced with having to deal with a defective freak who does nothing but sit there and stare at me.” My client from hell was gearing up to say more, but it was clear that Sheridan had had enough and cut her off.

  “Okay, stop. Your voice is physically causing me pain...” She emphasized her point by shaking her head and rubbing her ears. “And more importantly, and I say this without a smidgen of kindness but a whole lot of honesty, call one of my boys defective again and this conversation is going to be taking an unfortunate turn for you.” Sheridan’s words were said calmly and her voice wasn’t raised, but the threat and intent were as clear as day.