Pretty in the Dark (Dark and Wild #2)

Chapter 2

2

JUNIPER

T he buzz of my tattoo gun filled the shop, accompanied by the occasional grunt of pain from the large man in my chair with his shirtless back exposed to me. I lifted my gun, dipping it in more ink. The tattoo could have been finished half an hour ago if the giant baby—who kept his eyes squeezed shut the entire time, had stayed still and stopped squirming.

“John, sit still. I swear you’re acting like you’ve never done this before.”

He gave me another grunt and opened his eyes. “Well, you’re practically on my damn spine!”

The shop door jingled, but I didn’t look up to see the customer who walked in. “Be with you in a minute!” I called out.

Bending my head back to my work, I finished the delicate outline of a tiny robin hiding within the tree boughs. Whoever this new girlfriend of John’s was, I hope she knew how lucky she was. I also hoped she’d be the last. He was running out of available skin to get the name tattooed of every new girl he fell in love with.

The branches of the tree dipped and swirled almost as if by chaotic design. But it was all an illusion. Her name was there within the bend of a branch, the shading of leaves, the twist of a vine. For being a cover-up and a name, it was some of my best work. I couldn’t help but smile and admire it. John had better not get his heart broken by this one.

John left, and I pulled off my mask and gloves as I approached the woman who was standing in my waiting area with a smile. She was pretty, a little older than I was, with silvery blonde hair and wide, baby-blue eyes. There was a pinched look around her eyes and a nervousness in her gaze that made me think she might be a first-timer.

“Hey! If you’re looking for custom work, I’m booked solid for the next two months.” Even saying that felt surreal. In the last few weeks since the Emporium had opened, I’d been flooded with custom requests and tattoo bookings. It was to the point where I’d wondered if I might need to hire outside help. And it hadn’t only been my shop, the entire Emporium had been flooded with business. So much so that I’d barely seen Vy, Lacey or any of the other ladies. “But if you want some quick flash, you can pick one of the pieces from my book on the coffee table.” I nodded to an old table I’d pulled from a garage sale a few days ago, it displayed some of my custom flash pieces.

The woman shook her head and offered me a shy smile. “Thank you, no. I’m not here for a tattoo. I’m actually here to talk about the Wild One’s Foundation. Are you Juniper?”

Understanding dawned. She wasn’t nervous about a tattoo. She was here to seek help. That was another development over the past week. After announcing the foundation and its mission, we received an overwhelming number of calls from women and other organizations inquiring about what we could offer them. The only problem was, that it had been hard to get them the help that they so desperately needed. The bureaucratic red tape surrounding the acquisition of the land and building for the foundation's shelter, was so extensive that not even my last name could expedite the process. It had been frustrating for all of us.

I felt my heart sink a little as I took in the woman’s hopeful expression, noting the dark circles under her eyes. She needed our help. I just didn’t know if we could provide it yet.

“That’s me.” I held out my hand, and she took it.

“Leia.” She said, and I noticed there was a determination in her grip and her gaze. No matter what limited resources we had, I knew the one thing that could always help was a listening ear. My stomach rumbled. I needed a break and maybe a snack. An idea dawned.

“Do you like brownies?”

Leia gave me a confused look. “Well, yes…” she trailed off and watched me in confusion as I switched off the lights and flipped my sign from open to closed .

“Well, come on then. My friend Vy makes the best death-by-chocolate brownies, and I know the look of a woman who needs a good brownie when I see one.”

“I’m sorry. What does this have to do with the Wild One’s Foundation?” She asked, as I opened the door and motioned for her to exit.

“Everything. You’ll see.”

We made our way down the faux cobblestone street and I waved to a few vendors who were tidying up outside their shops. Here in the emporium, it was like the outside world didn’t exist. Every time I opened its doors and stepped inside, my problems slipped to the back of my mind and for a little while, I could forget. Seeing the women who ran the shops, working on my art or pieces for my clients, knowing that everything we did here was for something greater, made it all disappear. For a while, at least.

Until I went home and stood in the dim interior of my father’s study, hunting for whatever the key that I found would unlock.

Dean and Bess thought I was crazy. They didn’t say it, but I could see the look in their eyes every time they walked past the open door and found me knocking on panels, pushing on bricks, or pulling down all the books on the shelves. Not that Dean talked to me, anyway. After the argument we’d gotten into the other day, he’d gone back to being silent and sulky. I’d tried to talk to him once again this morning before I left for work, reminding him we had a meeting with the principal today, but all I’d gotten out of him was a short. “Fine.”

Cade hadn’t been much better. For all his talk about not going anywhere, he’d been silent as a ghost, only asking me if I had found the picture I’d mentioned to him, but when I told him I couldn’t find the old photo album anymore, he’d just grunted and hung up. Part of me couldn’t help but feel the hurt of his absence. His words from our night together and the way he’d made my body come apart at the seams, still played on an endless loop in my mind. But then, so did the conversation I’d overheard. A conversation I wasn’t meant to hear and one he’d never apologized for. I wasn’t so sure that his silence wasn’t for the best.

One night of amazing, mind-blowing, best sex I’d ever had, did not make up for years of lies and hurt. I bit my lip, worrying it between my teeth as we approached Vy’s bakery. Especially considering the things he’d confessed he’d experienced at my father’s hands after I’d left. All because I’d been forced to choose between him and my brother. All because the lie had been easier than the truth.

The smell of chocolate and sugar hit my senses as I push open the door and beckon Leia to follow. Warm, brown eyes greeted me as one of my oldest friends looked up from the counter where she was icing cupcakes, and I smiled. Leia wasn’t the only one in need of one of Vy’s famous brownies. My own heart could use a little chocolate remedy as well.

A couple of hours later, Leia left with a bright smile and a visible weight lifted off her thin shoulders. A weightlessness that all of us, Lacey, Vy and myself, felt as well. Finally, something was going right for us and the Wild One’s Foundation.

Lacey would call it fate, or manifestation, or whatever spiritual mumbo-jumbo she’d learned from some great granny of hers. I wasn’t sure what divine force, if any, influenced the sequence of events that led Leia Morrow to our door, but I was grateful.

After finding out that she’d been a successful marketing director of a large corporation, and hearing her heartbreaking story of loss, we knew she’d be the perfect person to pitch our dream to the powers that be, moving it beyond an idea and into a full-fledged organization. The idea that not only would she be helping us, but we’d be helping her out of her shit situation, also attributed to the lightness in my step. A lightness that I carried with me all the way to the middle school parking lot where I sat inside my car and steeled myself for the meeting that was to come.