Dark Ink Tattoo: Episode 2 Read Online Free Page B

waited.
    Just past downtown, I felt a tug. Like someone was pulling a string tied around my chest. I flipped my turn signal on and followed it.
    The dowsing pulled me away from the strip and further out, into the endless suburbs on Vegas’s other side, until it led me into a parking lot and faded. I was circled by off brand restaurants, used clothing stores, cash-checking places -- and a dive bar with all sorts of motorcycles parked out front. Hogg’s Heaven, with the image of a happy pig – like it used to be a BBQ joint, except now the ‘hog’ referred to all the bikes parked outside. I got out of Paco’s car and walked in.
    I was plenty used to these kind of places. But I’d borrowed a shirt for the sleeves, I didn’t want to make identifying me later any easier than it was, and the magician’s starched collar made me look a little stuffy. Maybe that was a good thing and I should go with the whole tourist shtick. So instead of my usual swagger, I paused at the outside of the line of motorcycles and swallowed nervously, appearing to gather my strength before I pushed through.
    My nose told me this was the right place, as soon as I walked in. The scent of a working shop and that animal undertone hovered in the air. How would I know who it belonged to? One of the people casting me glances and pretending not to, or one of the people giving me outright glares? I couldn’t go around sniffing people, so I walked over to the bar, where the bartender ignored me.
    I knew he could see me, I was the only person here not wearing some sort of leather, and I might’ve been the only person to put on deodorant. The men around me, in conversation with one another and/or their beers, ranged in age from early twenties to late fifties, but the one thing they all had in common was that they all looked muscled and angry. The fewer women present had the same age range as well, only they went from nubile to weatherbeaten. Sunscreen was clearly not popular among this set.
    One of the younger women broke away from a crowded pool table and walked over. “Can I help you?” Paco’s blood just kept on giving.
    “He was on his way out,” answered the bartender for me. There was an angry scar from his eye down to his neck.
    I turned toward her and smiled like I’d won the lottery, letting all of my magnetism beam down. “I was actually looking for a friend. About this tall? Dark hair? Curvy?” I used my hands to show the space Bella would occupy. “I met her, and she said she comes here.” I did my best to sound missed-connections, not stalkery.
    A frown crinkled her face. “Yeah, um, I haven’t seen anyone like that in a while now.”
    She was pretty by Midwestern standards, shoulder-height to me, petite all around, perky-breasts under a patterned-T, with a denim mini and low-cut cowboy boots to show off all the leg in between. There was something earthy about her though, a little too weary and a little too wise, and I knew she was lying about seeing Bella.
    “You’re sure?” I pressed, positively glowing at her. I saw something flicker in her eyes, some doubt or uncertainty, but then the bartender answered.
    “She’s sure.”
    “I’ll have to drink her away then.” I sank against the bar dramatically, playing the mortally wounded tourist. “She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Present company excluded, of course.”
    The girl’s eyebrows rose and she laughed, turning back to the bartender. “Come on, Wade. Let him have just one beer.” Wade’s leather vest had a patch that said Davis on it – so clearly he and she were on a first name basis.
    I came forward, wallet at the ready. “Only if I can buy one for my champion too.”
    She bit her bottom lip for a second. “Any of these guys here can buy me beer anytime,” she said, gesturing to the surrounding men, several of whom were keeping an eye on us. “But you can only buy me one if you go to the jukebox and pick the right song.”
    And that…was