Shattered (Koa #5)

6. Lila

Chapter 6

Lila

I called in sick today, thankfully getting Dr. Parr’s answering machine. After all the shit that went down yesterday, I knew there was no way I could sit at a desk for eight hours and not explode.

When I park in front of Neela’s house and lightly honk the horn of my SUV, I spot Ty and baby Marina in the window, Ty helping Marina wave at me. I wave back to Marina as Neela exits her house and enters my vehicle, greeting me with a smile. She’s wearing shorts and a T-shirt that display her dozens of colorful flower tattoos, and her long brown hair is up in a messy bun.

While I drive, Neela leads the way. She knows all the best places to shop because she’s an interior designer. She wants us to check out a few shops in Madison, the nearest city, about forty-five minutes from Alton. Neela wastes no time once we’re on the long stretch of highway.

“Alright, what’s going on with this neighbor of yours?” she asks.

When Neela first moved to town, she was pregnant with Marina but didn’t want anyone to know. She was a patient at the clinic where I work with Dr. Parr, so I knew, but I would never tell anyone. She was scared of me, and she’d lash out. Now, I consider her one of my best friends. She’s an easy person to confide in; she doesn’t judge.

“You can’t say anything to anyone about this.” Juliet’s a loudmouth, and Macy wouldn’t understand. And Allegra… Well, she doesn’t need to know about this.

“I promise. I’m also very intrigued. Go on…” she says theatrically.

I chuckle. “Alright. Well, these two guys, Asher and Bane, moved in next door to me. They stole my chairs and wouldn’t turn off their loud music. So, I may have yelled out the window at them, and Asher challenged me to go down to them naked.”

I’m keeping my eyes on the road, but I can see Neela’s eyes widen in my periphery.

“He tried intimidating me by flirting, but I didn’t fold. Macy was over, so she called Edgar, and he came and pulled me out of there.”

“Probably a good idea, by the sound of it.” I can taste the sarcasm in her voice.

“Yeah, well, there’s more. When I told Juliet, she wanted me to make her a sex tape to make me feel better. Fucking woman.”

Neela smirks. “And that surprises you?”

“Well, I may have sent an old video… But to the wrong person…”

“Who?”

“Asher. ”

I can’t look at her, but I see her jaw hit the floor in my periphery.

“Uh…” she starts before three more words come out garbled together, probably the beginning of three different questions. After some weird as hell noises, she manages to spit out a single word. “HOW?”

“He tried to intimidate me! He wanted to put his number in my phone in case I wanted some cock, so I let him, and then I told him I was going to block him.”

“And you sent him a sex tape instead!?”

“And then I went to get it back. He and his friend were watching a movie, and I stormed in. Asher was being a dick, so I made a low blow of a comment. He snapped and choked me and pinned me to the wall.”

All the sarcasm and shock dissipates from her voice, leaving only concern. “Are you okay?”

“Physically… When he grabbed my throat, I may have moaned, and it was all downhill from there. He let Bane watch my sex tape while he trapped me against the wall and fingered me, and I came twice…”

Neela pauses again, though I think she’s waiting for more. “What happened after that?”

I shrug. “We fought some more, and I left.”

Neela goes quiet for a while as she digests my story. “You know that’s not okay, right?”

“It was weird… He told me to admit I was a dirty slut, and he’d let me go. I refused, that was so not happening.”

“So you got orgasms instead.”

She bursts into laughter, and I join her until my stomach hurts. It feels so good to break up some of the tension in my body. Despite two fucking orgasms, I’ve been on edge since running out of that house.

“You like him?” Neela finally asks.

“FUCK no. I hate his fucking guts!”

“Mhm, that’s what I said about Ty. Then I got to know him.”

Neela is a genius.

When we finish shopping, my SUV is packed with various decor materials. We decide to get everything done now since I’ll need help. Ty is off today, so Neela’s in no rush to get home to Marina.

It’s around three by the time we finish, and we stand at the curb in front of my house to admire our handiwork. It really does look like the sun threw up.

The yellow house was our foundation, but it’s almost swallowed by everything else. An enormous sunflower wreath covers the front door. All the front windows were covered inside with yellow decals: sunflowers, sunshine, buttercups, lemons, bumblebees, you name it. We found some yellow and green garland that we wound around my mailbox, and a half-sunflower decoration is nailed on top. The giant sun already on the front of the house is completely overshadowed.

We absolutely FILLED my gardens with yellow. There are two, uniform on either side of my front door extending to the sides of the house. Neela tends to them occasionally since she loves gardening, but it’s mostly filled with green that manages itself. We filled the empty space with stakes and hung up every garden flag with yellow that we could find, some mounted yellow butterflies and dragonflies, and some beetles in the dirt. The icing on the cake is an enormous, almost fluorescent yellow butterfly positioned on the left side of my house, pointed right at Asher’s, taking up a considerable portion of bare siding beside my bedroom window.

“I’d call this mission accomplished. What do you think?” Neela asks.

“I think I love you, for starters.”

Neela glances over at the dark house next door. “Well, your place will stand out, that’s for sure.”

“How can I ever repay you?”

“Payment?” she laughs. “The friend discount, of course.”

“Obviously. What else?”

She considers it before a big smile spreads across her face. “Alright, come on,” she says, heading back to my vehicle.

Asher and Bane’s house was quiet when I left this morning, and no vehicles were in the driveway. Where do two assholes spend their day?

I end up right across the street from my workplace in front of a dingy old building with a new sign I’ve never seen before. Alton Tattoo.

“We have a tattoo shop?” I ask as we park right beside the door.

“It’s new; I’m not even sure if it’s open yet. But I saw the sign yesterday and figured I’d check it out.”

I chuckle. “Do you have any skin left?”

“I’ll find some,” she says with a wry smile .

There are only a few small windows up front, so we can’t see inside as we exit my SUV and approach the door. Neela grabs for the handle, but it’s locked.

“Must not be open yet,” Neela says.

Before we can leave, the door swings open. Bane takes in Neela first, and when his eyes flicker to mine, he smirks. Bastard.

“Hey, Lila.”

“Bane,” I grumble.

Neela’s eyes jump between us. “What? This is your new neighbor?”

“This is the milder one,” I say simply.

“Asher’s not here, but he’ll be back soon,” he warns.

I roll my eyes, but he’s not looking at me anymore. Whatever amusement he had with me is now focused on Neela.

“Nice ink. You’re covered.”

She grins. “Thanks. I was hoping to book an appointment when you guys open.”

Bane considers for a moment before stepping aside. “Come on in.”

Though Neela hesitates, I motion her forward, and she slowly enters the shop with me at her heels. It’s clearly not ready yet. It smells like fresh paint, and the furniture is scattered away from the walls.

“Don’t touch anything,” he says as he steps behind a desk by the door. He pulls up a heavy binder and gives it to Neela, so casually, as if I didn’t get finger blasted in his living room against my will last night.

“You want more flowers? I have some you’ll like,” he says as he flips the binder open. “Color, right? ”

“Yes,” Neela says, as though it should be obvious. Her eyes light up as she takes in the designs I can’t see from here.

“This one suits you, and it looks great with the others,” Bane says. “Here, let me show you my portfolio first.”

Bane shows Neela some of his past work, and she likes what she sees.

“I should tell you too, I’m still technically an apprentice,” Bane says.

“Oh, I don’t mind. The work you showed me looks great, and an apprentice in Fairway did most of my tattoos. She was amazing. I love that floral piece you showed me. Can I have that blown up on my tailbone, maybe eight inches across?”

“Course.”

Neela practically vibrates with excitement. “When are you opening?”

“Hopefully, in a few days.” He hesitates, glancing behind him at the shop before turning back around. “I’ve been dying to tattoo this one… if you’re okay with the mess in here, I can do it today, and I’ll give you a bit of a deal. The station will be clean, of course.”

“Done.” Then she turns to me. “I can get someone to pick me up after if you want to go.”

“I’m not leaving you here,” I insist, my eyes flickering to Bane, and he notices.

But he doesn’t bother reassuring me.

It takes a while for Bane to map out the tattoo. He prints the design in a few different sizes on some special paper. Once it’s transferred onto Neela’s tailbone, she approves it in an oversized floor mirror. Then she lays on a big table on her stomach, with her shirt pulled up to her mid back and her shorts down a little. With her face in my view, I sit beside a table with more binders.

I don’t have any tattoos, and I’ve never been to a tattoo shop. I have nothing against them; it’s just not something I’ve ever looked into. But as soon as Bane turns on his machine and starts inking Neela’s skin, I can’t peel my eyes away.

“Can I watch?”

“Yeah, just stay out of the way and out of my light,” Bane says casually.

I didn’t expect Bane to be so professional, but he is. He seems to be treating Neela like any other customer, and he didn’t address last night in any way.

I stand up from my chair to approach the table. A lamp is on, shining directly on Neela’s back, so I stand on the other side. Bane starts with black ink, which I can only guess is to outline the flowers. He pours some from a bottle into a tiny little plastic cup. Once he has everything ready and clean, he warns Neela before starting. I focus on Neela’s face as he applies the first contact, and she winces. It’s clearly uncomfortable, but Neela tolerates it well, eventually relaxing a little on the table. I wonder if getting tattooed puts her in the same high as subspace.

The high I feel watching the machine work on Neela is entirely different. Watching the ink pierce her skin, leaving a permanent, unforgiving mark, makes my head rush with awe .

After watching Bane outline over the red stencil, I sit back in my chair, grabbing one of the binders beside me. It’s labeled ‘Asher - Flash.’

I open the binder to the first page and find a series of skulls outlined in black on white paper, with a signature that must be Asher’s. The skulls are 3D and detailed, some with flowers behind them or in their mouths. When I flip the page, my jaw hits the floor.

It’s a full-body tiger in a pouncing pose; its back end is high, and its front end is low as it hits the ground. The slightest snarl of its teeth gives it a vibe of danger. Badassery.

No one fucks with a tiger.

I flip through the rest of the art, amazed at Asher’s skill. Though I hate to compliment him, it’s clear this is pure passion, and I can’t belittle it. But I keep going right back to that tiger.