“What are you looking for?” I ask the girl with the braids.

“Not me. Her.” She points to her friend.

The blonde shows me a little sun design she brought in and I give her a quote. When she agrees, I tell her, “Cool. I’m Bee. This is Maddox. He’s learning the biz.”

Braids eyes him. “Hi. I’m Christine and this is Aimee.”

“Hey.” Maddox nods at them and then turns to me. “I’ll get the equipment set up.”

We go through our usual routine and it’s not long before I’m sitting down and tattooing a sun on the swell of Aimee’s breast. Maddox sits close like he always does, studying what I’m doing and asking questions. I can still feel the heat rolling off him.

“So you’re looking to get into tattooing?” Christine asks him.

Obviously.

“Yeah.”

“That’s cool. You’ve had some nice work done.”

“Thanks,” he tells her. And on and on and on. She wants him. That much I can tell and she has every right to want him. I’m not one of those girls who’s going to hate her because she has eyes in her head and knows a good-looking guy when she sees one. Plus, Maddox isn’t mine.

Even though he’s giving short answers, he’s not being a dick to her. He’s into watching Aimee get tattooed. That’s what he’s here for. Every once in a while, I glance his way and honestly, I can’t even tell if he realizes this woman wants him. I don’t mean that I think he’s oblivious to things, it’s… I don’t think Maddox works that way. He doesn’t run off emotions unless it’s for his family. He keeps his distance, which means he’s not paying attention.

Whoa. Why do I suddenly think I know him so well?

I pull the tattoo gun away from the client’s skin to wipe away some of the excess ink.

“It looks good,” Maddox tells me. “The white around the sun makes it stick out more. I was iffy about it at first.”

“You don’t trust me?” I try to tease him, hoping it will get my thoughts away from things that are real.

But when he replies, “More than I trust others,” my heart stumbles. I put my needle back to work on Aimee’s tattoo as his reply rolls over and over in my mind. In the same vein, I almost feel like I trust him more than I do others too. The way he still stays here watching me tattoo and the easy set of his body tells me he didn’t mean anything by his comment. It wasn’t some big declaration, but still, it feels like something. I’ve had too many of those moments with him.

When I’m finished with the tattoo, Christine says to Maddox, “I’ll have to come back when you’re tattooing. You can give me my first one.”

Hello, flirty.

Again, she’s not doing anything wrong. More power to her for going after what she wants but I still find myself feeling pissy when I grit out, “He won’t be here when he’s on his own. Masquerade is mine.”

Maddox’s face flashes a different kind of fire than the look he gave me by the desk. This one is hard and I know it’s my fault. I have no idea what’s gotten into me; I only know I don’t like it. I’d turned the atmosphere in the room to awkward as hell.

Without a reply to me, or Christine, Maddox heads over and starts taking care of the equipment. My brain keeps telling me to take the words back, to apologize to the customer, and to Scratch, but I can’t make my mouth listen.

As soon as they leave, Maddox is grabbing his stuff. He didn’t even have to stay here this long, I remind myself. He helped me this morning and we did three tattoos on a day we weren’t supposed to do any.

“Hey,” I start to say to him as he’s heading toward the door.

“I gotta run. I didn’t plan on being here this long.”

“Maddox…” I’m sorry. I’m freaking out and I don’t know why. “I’m—”

“Don’t,” he cuts me off.

“Don’t what?”

“You’re honest—that’s what you are. You told her the truth. It’s important that we both remember that. I’ll see ya later.” After that, Maddox walks out of my shop.

Guilt trickles through me before becoming a massive waterfall. I jump when my cell phone vibrates on the desk. “Relax,” I mumble as I walk over to look at it.

MOM lights up on the screen.

I wait, telling myself I’m going to pick it up on the next ring. I don’t. And then I don’t again. Finally it stops. It’s not the first time her call has gone unanswered since we spoke about my sister.

It’s another reason to feel like crap.

And then I remember the vision, memory, whatever I should call it about being grabbed and wonder if it’s real. I shiver. A flash of sitting in the corner, scared, floods my vision. I never had any of those memories, dreams, before. And if they are real, I know it had to be from when I was taken from the person whose phone calls I ignore.

What’s wrong with me?

Chapter Twelve ~Maddox~

“I love Chinese food.” Laney takes a forkful of her fried rice and then smiles at me.

I shake my head. “You have food on your lip.” She wipes it off before grinning again. Crossing my arms, I rest them on the picnic table where we’re eating lunch. Fall’s setting in and the weather’s cooling down slightly, but today’s a pretty decent day. She puts another bite into her mouth happily as though everything is right and perfect in the world.

Sometimes I wonder how we can be siblings. She’s always been like that in a way. Laney’s been through a lot like me and she’s grown up fast because of it, but she’s also always had this sunshine and happiness outlook that I’ve never come close to having. She’s emotional and takes things to heart yet still can see the beauty in things that I couldn’t give a shit about.

It’s part of the reason I’ve always wanted to shelter her from the bad. Why try and taint that good? There’s enough negative in the world already. Plus, she always got the shit end of the stick when she didn’t deserve it. Everything that I got I had coming to me because I kept my mouth shut about Dad.

I’m still keeping my mouth shut to protect myself.

“How’s your tattoo?” I ask her.

“It’s awesome. I love it. You freaked for no reason, Maddy. I don’t get you sometimes.”

Yep, she’s right there. I know it was for no reason, but I don’t say it.

“And school?”

“It’s great. I love my classes. Lots of prereqs right now. I can’t wait to get into more of the nursing stuff.”

When we were kids, I thought I would be in the NFL and she always wanted to be a nurse and take care of little kids. It fits her and she’ll make it happen. I’m glad she’ll get her dream, though mine is such a distant memory. I don’t feel like that same person anymore.

In reply to her, I nod.

“What about you? How’s the tattooing going?”

This time it’s my turn to take a bite of my food. I knew she’d ask, like I’m sure she knows I don’t want to answer. The why of it I don’t get myself. Even while I’m shutting her out, I always feel like shit about it.

“Good. You’re doin’ it all okay? With work and school?”

Laney sighs and pushes her dark hair out of her face, looking at me with the same gray eyes I see in the mirror every day. “Yes.”

“What about money? You’re working part-time—”

“Yes, Dad.”

My body turns to stone at that. He’s the last motherfucker I want someone to call me, though maybe it’s not really far from the truth.

“You know I didn’t mean it like that, Maddy.” She read my mind. “But it’s ridiculous. You worry about me, not yourself. You want to know everything about me but don’t want to tell me anything about you. We need… we need to try to move past it, ya know?”

There’s the logical part of me that knows that. Fuck, Adrian’s son is dead. He’d do anything for my sister though. “We’re not all built the same way.” I shrug. It’s the only answer I have. My instincts are to keep myself closed up. I don’t do the comforting thing, and it’s not something I can decide to change and do it. Hell, I don’t even know if I want to. “Just because I’m different than you doesn’t mean I’m not over it.”