Heart of a Tattooist: Dark Romance MC Club Alpha Bad Boy Obsession (Tattooist Series Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

fast.
    And she needed on a soul-deep level to tat again too.
    She headed for a tattoo shop, shaking her head when she caught sight of herself in the single plate-glass window.
    She’d given up on trying to do anything with her hair, which frizzed often in the wet heat. She had it cut to her shoulders then dyed it a stunning blue, deciding the long platinum hair she’d once sported was too visible. She’d also lost weight she couldn’t afford to lose.
    She’d sold a few of her corsets in Atlanta, at a motel down the street from a strip club, and while she had mourned the loss of the expensive leather and lace things for a little while, she could not now imagine herself ever wearing them again.
    She was as far removed from the woman who’d worn those corsets as she could be. The only thing left of that Cara was a burning love of the art she had stopped practicing months before.
    She’d learned plenty over the last few months. She had learned that she was tougher than she thought. She’d finally seen that there was a life outside tattooing. It wasn’t a life she wanted to live, no, but it was there and it could be lived if it had to be.
    As she passed through the doors of the shop, she winced. It was a gritty place, flash art hanging on the walls and one private room. There was a man getting a tattoo in a chair right near the front.
    Small, cheap, and fast… The kind of shops she had worked in before making her reputation and name.
    She stopped and stood at a respectful distance as the artist at work finished a colorful mermaid on the customer’s leg.
    He got bandaged and a quick aftercare spiel, handed over a few limp twenties and a fifty, and went out the door, giving her a long appraising look as he went.
    The artist gave her an equally appraising look. She sized him up too: Tall, muscular, and with really good ink on his arms. His hair was short, almost military in cut. There was something about the way he stood; his bearing told her that he might actually be ex-military.
    He spoke in a low smoky tone, one that had a long drawl in it. Texas, she guessed. “What can I do you for?” His eyes took her in again.
    She knew what he saw. Slim, average height. Full-sleeved tattoos. She took a deep breath. “I need a job.”
    His eyebrow tilted. “It’s Key West. If you’re going to live here, you probably need two.”
    “I’ll settle for one that will keep me under a roof.”
    His eyes didn’t change. She noticed than that they were a deep chocolate-brown, much like Mitch’s eyes.
    Mitch.
    Why couldn’t she shake him from her head? She said, “I tat. I tat well too.”
    “You got a name?”
    She sighed, “Yeah, but I’d rather folks not know it was me just yet.”
    His expression didn’t change, but his eyes became slightly more guarded. “You running from something?”
    “Isn’t everyone?” Her tone was as guarded as his eyes.
    He said, “Could be. But if you’re going to work here I need to see your work, and I need to know what I’m letting myself in for.”
    She cleared her throat. “You from Memphis?”
    He gave her a look that said plainly he was wondering if she were sane. “No. Tyler, Texas.”
    “You know anyone in Memphis?”
    “No, but I’m guessing this has something to do with Memphis, so why don’t you spill it and let us get down to whether or not you can actually tat?”
    She drew a deep breath and pulled her phone out. She clicked on the footage from that day in Memphis and then handed it to him. He watched the video. She said, “I should have warned you…”
    “Don’t worry about it.” His voice held amusement. “I don’t believe in forcing women or walking out with someone’s time and ink and not paying.”
    She sighed. “Look, I don’t need trouble and I’m…I haven’t tatted since then, so…”
    “Because you’re scared they’re still looking to retaliate, or because you are afraid you’ve lost it?”
    “I’m afraid of them.” Her voice dropped. She bit