She smiled, though he only knew she did because her eye crinkled at the corner. Unwilling to miss that smile, he reached up and swept the hair back from her face so she could bless him with the beauty of it. It was a rare thing, a genuine smile on Starla’s face. He didn’t want to miss a single one.
Before long, she dozed off, but Jared had too much energy pent up to sleep. Which was odd, because sex like that should knock a man out for the night. Instead, his nerves were vibrating under his skin, and this woman was doing it to him. He felt alive for the first time since…well, for the first time in a long, long while. He pulled on his jeans and threw on a T-shirt, then headed to the living room to do something; he wasn’t sure what. Maybe crack open a beer and sit out on the back deck, or find something to watch on TV. When he picked up his cell phone from the coffee table, though, he knew exactly what the night had in store. There was a message from Ghost, received about fifteen minutes ago.
If you still want to do this, I’m at DM. Leaving at midnight.
It was exactly the opportunity he’d been waiting for. All of Starla’s troubles, a majority of his dad’s objections, and the danger to his girls, if it existed, could all be eradicated with the slam of jailhouse bars behind a certain slimy individual. The faster Jared could make that happen, the happier and safer everyone would be. If he had to work with a sworn enemy to accomplish it, so be it.
DM. Dermamania. Jared tapped back: I’ll be there and went back to his bedroom to change. Somehow he expected the occasion might call for all-black attire, even though they were just looking for the guy, not breaking and entering. A stop by his gun safe wouldn’t be unheard of either. Better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it. In his bed, Starla slept deeply, the covers rising and falling with her easy breath. He wasn’t going to disturb her, especially about this—she would either try to talk him out of it, or she would stay up worrying all night. Or she would even want to go with him, which he would never allow. If all went according to plan, he could wake her up in the morning with the good news: all her troubles were over.
***
The lights were on at Dermamania and Ghost’s car sat dark and alone in the lot, so Jared parked a few spaces down and walked to the shop’s front door. It was ten till midnight, so maybe Ghost had finished up already. The door was locked, but after a moment, he appeared to let Jared in, not looking at all happy about this whole thing. He wasn’t the only one.
“Yeah, gimme a minute,” Ghost muttered, then headed back toward one of the stations. “I just finished with a client.”
“No rush.” Jared glanced around the tattoo shop, wondering where Starla worked—but he found it quickly because, well, she had a black wooden name plaque over her station with teal starbursts painted on it. Her workspace was tidier than he had figured it would be, bottles and ink all lined up neatly along the wall, waiting for her to come back. He’d never been inside a tattoo parlor before, but the black chairs made him think of the dentist’s office. He imagined sitting in that while Starla created art on his skin, discovering to his surprise it wasn’t an unpleasant thought in the least. It was a nice place, walls painted a tasteful dark red and gray and decorated with brooding art. Probably Brian’s. Jared had always heard the guy was an exceptionally talented artist. He really hoped he was back up and running again soon—no one deserved to go out like that.
While Ghost finished his duties and turned off the TV in the corner, Jared walked over to Starla’s area and resisted the urge to touch anything or nose around her stuff, but he would have liked to pick up some of the pictures she’d placed on an accent table nearby and see them close up. One of them looked like a group shot of the entire Dermamania crew. Another appeared to be her and Brian arm in arm. Still others were of people he didn’t know—her family, maybe, though she didn’t seem to be very close to them.
“All right, done.” Jared looked to see Ghost striding toward the door, keys in hand, but he also noticed Ghost hadn’t looked at him once. “Let’s do this if we’re doing it.”
“What exactly are we doing?” Jared asked, following him out and waiting while he locked up.
“This is your show.”
“I know that, but I figured you might know more about where he might be or how he operates.”
“Oh, I know how he operates, yeah.” He came to a dead stop as they turned the corner and their two vehicles came into view sitting silently in the parking lot. “Jesus Christ, man. We’ll take mine.”
“All right. But why?”
“Dude, your truck is huge and red. Where we’re going, it’ll stick out like a dildo in the salad bowl. Probably get us pulled over by the cops.”