Page 51 of Resurgent
“Okay. A talisman then. Charlotte?” She pulls the necklace out of her pocket and hands it to the man. “Do you recognize it?”
He breaks out into a wide smile, revealing several brown-stained broken teeth. “Ah yes. You came with your friend. A tall guy with a tattoo. You wanted the talisman to match his tattoo, yes?”
“Yes!” I want to hug the man and kiss him on both cheeks. “That’s it. On the back, there are some numbers.”
He turns it over, lifts it closer, squints.
“Is that like your signature? Or a lot number?”
He’s looking at me like I’m bat-shit crazy. “I don’t give refunds.”
“No, no, no!” Charlotte says quickly. “He…” She casts a quick glance at me, then, apparently not liking the warning look I’m giving her, rushes on in a tumble of words. “I loved it the first time I saw it. It’s such a unique piece, we just wondered if it was a limited edition and that’s why it had the numbers.”
“Every piece is a limited edition,” he says with a cackle. “But I have no need to number them.” He turns to me. “You asked me to engrave those numbers there.” He looks down and reads them off: “One. Four. Three.” He shrugs, handing me back the medallion. “You here for a tattoo?”
“I… Are you okay?”
Charlotte looks pale.
“I, um, don’t feel so great.” Looking at Imran, she says, “Do you have a restroom?”
He says there’s one next door, and I start to follow her but she stops me. “I’ll be right back. Stay and get the tattoo. Please.”
She rushes out the door and I turn back to Imran. “Sorry, I’d actually planned to, but no tattoo today.” I crane to look out the window, wanting to make sure Charlotte is okay.
“Ah,” he says. “She is the one, then.”
“What one?”
“The one you were waiting for.”
“Waiting for?”
“For the tattoo. When you came in with the drawing of the medallion, I asked if you wanted a tattoo. You said you were saving the tattoo for the woman you love.”
I glance out the window. Charlotte has come back out, but she looks worse than when she ran out of the shop. Turning back to him, I quickly clasp his hand in a quick handshake. “Thank you for everything.”
The woman I love? I’ve always known better than to fall in love. Why the hell would I have said that?
…
“I’ll just go out on the deck while you make the phone call,” Charlotte says casually when we get back to the hotel. Something she ate hadn’t agreed with her, but thankfully she’s feeling better now.
I cross the room and cup her cheek in my hand. “Please stay.”
She looks up at me with those liquid brown eyes. “Are you sure? If you need some privacy…”
I shut her up with a kiss. “Like it or not, we’re in this together. And to be perfectly honest, I’m kinda glad to have that obsessively organized mind of yours help me sort this all out.”
Her smile lights up her face. “Really?”
“Really.” I swat her butt playfully. “Sit. I’m going to put it on speaker so you can hear everything.”
I put in the number Anthony gave me from the information I’d left with him. Gray picks up on the second ring. “Gray here.” The tone is sharp, as if he doesn’t have a second to spare, with a hint of that classic nasally tone unique to Boston evident in those two words. I try to remember something about him, anything, but I’ve got nothing.
“Martin. It’s Liam. Liam Prescott.”
There’s a clatter, a thud, then the sound of footsteps and a door closing. A moment later, he says, “Liam Prescott? Is this a joke?” His tone is clipped, angry.
