Dark Ink Tattoo: Ep 3 Read Online Free Page A

to protect me. When you have more friends than the bullies do, you’re usually all right.”
    Rabbit considered this. “I hang out with Michael and Chapman, we try to protect each other.”
    “You’re on the way then. I bet you’re not the only kids Molly’s mean too. Find out the other ones and help them out.”
    Rabbit nodded, shoving a forkful of spaghetti into his mouth. “This is good Mom.”
    I looked around the table at my motley crew. “Yeah, it is.
    * * *
    Once dinner was over, I had time to trim the flowers he’d brought. My mother’d made a show of going back to the TV to give us ‘privacy’ and Rabbit wanted to play Minecraft online with this buddies upstairs.
    “You shouldn’t have,” I said, clipping the second to last rose.
    “Hey, if they’ve been watching you, they know we’re dating. And me being here gives my driver an excuse to stay in the parking lot.”
    “Your driver?”
    “A friend of mine.”
    “Watching out.”
    “Precisely.”
    I felt bad for him, whoever he was, trapped outside in the cold in a car. “Should we take him some spaghetti?”
    “He’s made arrangements, trust me.”
    I settled the roses into a vase. “Did I overhear you telling my son to form a gang?”
    He laughed. “Not in so many words, no.”
    “Just checking,” I said, smiling over the roses at him. There was still the unopened bottle of wine. “Should we?” I asked.
    He gave me a wicked smile. “I’m not going anywhere.”
    “Then open this while I get Rabbit into the bath.” I handed him the bottle and a corkscrew and walked upstairs.
    * * *
    I herded Rabbit back and forth between his bedroom and the bathroom, until he was finally tucked in bed.
    “Mom,” he whispered, as I walked for the door.
    “What?” I’d already read him a short book – if he asked for a longer one I’d have to put my foot down.
    “What about my vitamins?”
    I stood there with my hand on the light switch. The temptation to let him skip a day was huge – I didn’t want to run down and then back up, that might invite questions. But I knew how bad my wolf was after a day. One day off, and I bet his wolf would have him egging Molly on, hoping for a fight.
    “Sure thing, baby, I’ll be right back.”
    I went downstairs and found my mother and Mark in deep conversation, waved to show I wasn’t done yet, grabbed the silver, and raced back upstairs to give Rabbit his eyedropper full. He still didn’t like them, but he liked being babied by me, he was still my little boy. I smooched his head, and turned his light off, and listened at the door until I was sure he’d stayed in bed.
    When I came back down the stairs my mother made a show of being tired, out-stretched arms, oversized yawns and all, taking herself off to her room to sleep, as I settled down in a chair.
    “Could she be any more obvious?”
    “I like her. I like him.” He reached for the bottle and poured me a glass. I eyed the bottle to see how far ahead of me he was, if my mother had driven him to drink. “Your mother told me where these were,” he said, pushing one over. “And now that we both have glasses, I want to propose a toast.”
    “Oh?”
    “Cento di questi giorni,” he said.
    “What’s that?”
    “To a hundred days like this.”
    I looked over at Mark, appearing content inside my kitchen. “Indeed.” I clinked my glass to his, and sipped. 
     

Chapter 5
     
    The night air didn’t phase me. I lay down on the stripmall’s roof, staring up at the clear Vegas sky, lit by the belly of the moon. Murphy was still behind me, pacing, smoking, pacing again – I’d always know where he was as long as I could smell him and his cigar.
    Had there been a cigar scent at Bella’s? No. But I was okay with creating some collateral terror as I worked my way back to killing the right Pack boss. To my mind, all of them had been involved.
    I watched the stars turn until my flesh was almost as cold as the night itself, when I heard Murphy prepare