“Don’t say that. Timing is never right in life.”
Eden smiled again. She looked into Dimitiro’s kind brown eyes and bit her bottom lip. She opened her mouth to say something but her words were stolen with the sound of a gun.
By the time Eden managed to scream, Dimitiro was on the floor, dead.
*
As her scream started to ease, running out of breath and sound, there were three men hovered around her. She couldn’t stop looking at Dimitiro’s dead body on the floor, blood pooling all around him. The three men were in leather cuts and wore black masks. One of them slapped her across the face and she looked at him, seeing nothing but the white of his eyes and the brown color of his iris.
“Fuck!” another yelled. “The bitch really is here. Our work is cut out for us now.”
“Clean it all out,” the third ordered.
“What about her?” the guy that slapped her asked. He grabbed her arm and forced her to stand. One swipe of his hand cleared off her station and he pressed his body to hers, forcing her against it. “She’s fucking gorgeous. I’ll love to have my way with her.”
“No evidence,” the first guy said. “Move. Now. Get all the cash we can.”
“What do you have in your hand, girl?” the guy asked.
“Fff… fuck you,” Eden said.
The guy grabbed for the letter and Eden hurried to slap him. It did nothing because the guy was wearing a black mask. It distracted him enough that Eden was able to lift her knee into his groin, sending him stumbling back. She lunged forward and someone else grabbed her left wrist. This time when Eden swung, she did so with a fist, hitting the second guy with a punch. He jumped back, grabbing for his face. The third guy, the ring leader, he simply just blocked the way, crossing his arms.
“Let me go,” she said. “I have no idea who you are. You killed Dimitiro.”
“Fuck him,” the man said. “Fucking filth.”
Eden tried to make a run but the guy had his arms around her in a second. He lifted her up and twirled her around, laughing as he did so. It was a deep laugh, throaty like he was sick. It instantly stuck into her mind. He then let her go, sending her flying through the air. She smashed into a wall and then fell, the letter floating in the opposite direction. He walked over to the letter and picked it up.
“Get the fuck out of here,” he said. “Of all goddamn things…”
As the guy read the letter, Eden spotted the picture of her pregnant mother and her father kissing the round belly. She reached for it, able to get it, and she quickly tucked it into her back pocket. She then jumped up to her knees, palms on the floor, and started to crawl toward the back of the shop. There was a security alarm she could hit, alerting the need for help.
Scrambling, she heard the ripping sound of a gunshot as it missed her by no more than six inches, hitting a wall. She quickly rolled to her right and kicked back, putting herself against a wall in another tattooing booth. Reaching up, she grabbed the tattooing gun and knew she wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
None of this made sense and maybe it never would. They were three thugs looking to knock off a tattoo shop. But why kill Dimitrio so fast?
Tears filled Eden’s eyes as she saw the man turn the corner, gun and letter in hand. He slowly walked forward.
“Hey!” he yelled. “You two fucks up there! Clean out everything. If it’s worth anything, I want it.” He then set his eyes on Eden. He shook the letter. “This true?”
“I guess,” Eden said. “Who are you?”
“You don’t want to fucking know. Tell me this letter is true.”
“I said I guess. I haven’t talked to him or her. It came almost a year ago.”
“And you’re still reading it?”
“I was asking Dimitrio for advice before…”
Eden felt her lips quiver.
“Aw, sweet thing,” he said and crouched down. “When I’m done with you, you’re going to wish all I did was put a bullet in the side of your fucking head.” He then took out a lighter and lit the letter on fire.
Eden leaned forward and the guy pointed the gun at her, winning the battle easily.
The letter burned into nothing, all the words from her father gone. They were, of course, locked in Eden’s memory, but that too seemed to be counting down to an end.
“Now that we have that gone,” the guy said, “you can decide how you want to take this. Turn around and give it to me or I’ll knock you out and take what I want.”
“What do I have to do with this?” Eden asked.
“You’re now my enemy. For where you came from. The cunt you crawled out of and the cocksucker that put you there. Talk about bad timing. Bad luck. Goddamn, girl, has anything gone right in your waste of a life?”
The guy laughed again. Eden saw the gun move away from her.