Page 32 of Then and Now (The Edge of Retaliation 3)
His hair is dark, maybe a chocolate brown, maybe even closer to black, it’s hard to tell. It’s thick and it’s long, flowing down to his shoulders in that messy, sexy, Viking kind of way. He is sporting a heck of a beard, which only adds to his masculine, dangerous features. His lips are full, his eyes are the palest and yet most stark green I’ve ever seen, and he has a scar running down his left cheek, it’s not overly pronounced, but it sure does add to his look.
He would be a perfect match to be on Game of Thrones, only they’d probably kill him off too quickly, so I’d say that’s a very bad idea.
He’s too sexy to be killed off.
The best part? Oh, the best part is … He’s part of a biker gang. Yep. A motorcycle club. A bunch of gorgeous men, who all look like him, at least, that’s what Jo told me, and they own a chain of tattoo shops. This one being the main one. When I first found out, I freaked out, until Jo told me that she’s perfectly safe working there, and that the club business has nothing to do with the shop.
She likes it here.
I can see why.
Alarick. That’s his name.
That’s his damn perfect name.
Alarick.
Shivers.
I glance at him as he walks over to us and stops, crossing his big arms. Jo told me he’s the President of the club, I don’t know the name, but oh boy, imagine him leading a pack of wildly gorgeous men on bikes? That’s something I’d like to see, no doubt about it. Alarick doesn’t say a lot, and he’s super broody, but he’s fair and that’s all Jo cares about.
I wonder if their club is bad? Do they murder people?
God. How exciting.
“You ready?” he asks her, in that rumbling voice that goes right through you.
I stare at his inked arms, with the biceps showing, and the way his waist narrows down nicely to those incredibly well-fitting black jeans. God damn.
I need to stop.
“I think so, if it goes wrong, it’s only Callie.” Jo laughs nervously, then looks at me with a sympathetic smile.
“It’ll be fine,” I say to her. “Come on, let’s do this.”
Jo glances at Alarick again, and he simply gives her a nod and takes a seat, crossing his arms over his chest and spreading his legs as he lounges back in the chair, watching us.
“Well, that’s not much pressure,” I laugh, then glance at Alarick who is watching me, expressionless.
Oh, boy.
He is intense.
I wonder if he knows how to have a conversation? Probably not. Maybe all bikers do is grunt at each other.
Like a bunch of leathered up cave men?
I sit on the chair and Jo prepares my wrist for the tattoo she designed. She cleans my skin and then gently places the inked stencil down so it’ll leave the outline for her to follow. She pats it with her hands, and then peels it off, glancing at it before saying, “Have a look—if it isn’t how you want it, we can change the position.”
I look down at the outline on my skin, and my heart skips a beat. It does every single time I look at the flowers with a name set amongst them. A name that will forever hold more power in my life than any name ever will. Celia.
I swallow and look back up to Jo, “It’s perfect,” I say, my voice a little thick with emotion.
“Are you ready then?” Jo smiles at me, her eyes warm.
“I’m ready.”
She prepares the tattoo gun and then looks over to Alarick who gives her the go ahead with a short nod. She fires up the gun, takes a deep breath, and gets to work. The first touch of the needle to my skin makes me grit my teeth. The sharp pain that almost feels like a knife being dragged along my skin. After a few moments though, the pain becomes almost familiar.
Funny how pain does that.
Becomes familiar. So familiar it almost doesn’t hurt as much anymore.
I feel that every single day.
Every day that I think about the life we left behind three years ago. When I think about the moment I took my phone, everything that could connect me to my old life, and I tossed it. I deleted Facebook accounts, social media accounts, I changed passwords, got new cards, a new number, everything.
I began again.
Driving out of that town was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Knowing that I was leaving behind Ethan, my longtime friend, Tanner, the man I had fallen for, and all the memories of Celia and my life there. It was hard. For the first week or two, Jo and I barely spoke as we processed what we had done.
I wondered how long it took people to realize we had gone.
