Home > Black Hearts (Sins Duet #1)(11)

Black Hearts (Sins Duet #1)(11)
Author: Karina Halle

I flick my cigarette by the wheels of a parked car and step into the shop.

The chime rings above my head, drawing the attention of a tall, gaunt guy behind the counter, leaning across it like his head is too heavy for his neck. Definitely not Camden McQueen.

“Hey, man,” the guy says while my eyes quickly take in the room. The lights are bright and the place is clean. There are framed vintage rock posters on the walls as if to give it elegance. Nirvana. Jane’s Addiction. Danzig. The shop tries to skirt the lines between young and brash and mature and respectable.

I’m the only customer in here. I have to wonder how much money this place takes in. I’m guessing not enough to pay this fucker’s salary.

I look at the fucker and flash him my most winning smile.

“Hi. Heard this was a great place to get a tattoo.”

The guy nods, brushing his hair behind his ears, and shoots me a goofy grin.

“You’ve got the right place then, my man.”

What a fucking dork.

My smile is tighter now. I nod, pretending to inspect the shop. “Any openings for next week?”

“How about right now?” he asks, gesturing to the empty room.

“Are you the owner?”

He lets out an obnoxious laugh. “No. I wish. Been working here a long time though. My name’s Lloyd. Camden’s the owner, but he takes weekends off. You know, being the owner and all.”

“I’ll wait for him, then,” I tell him, wondering if I should add to that. It’s a risk. “I go to school with his daughter, Violet. She recommended him.”

“And not me?” Lloyd looks like I kicked him in the gut. I’m guessing he’s either oversensitive or he has a fucking hard-on for her. He manages to recover. “Well, any friend of Vi’s is a friend of mine.”

But as he says that, something in his gaze shifts. Not quite the suspicion I would expect. He’s sizing me up. A flicker of jealousy. Wondering who I am exactly to Violet McQueen.

Seems like the guy has a hard-on for her after all. For all I know, they could be together, but from the impression I got from her photography on her Instagram account, I’m guessing he’s not her type. Her work is too thoughtful, stark, poetic. This guy seems too simple for her taste.

It doesn’t matter. Violet isn’t any of my business. It’s her mother that I’m curious about.

“So, how about it?” I ask, tapping my fingers along the glass counter, binders beneath it full of tattoos, both designs and pictures of inked skin. “Does next Friday work?”

Lloyd stares at me for a bit too long and I’m seconds from mad-dogging him but I manage to refrain myself and force that polite full-of-shit smile again.

Finally he looks at his computer and scrolls down the screen.

“Five p.m. okay? You know what you want?”

I nod, since I’m going to just cancel the appointment anyway. “I do. And that’s fine.” I pause. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Tio and Nacho loitering outside. “Have you seen Violet today?”

“No,” Lloyd says, his voice on edge. “She doesn’t come by often and only when the bus drops her off after class on weekdays. It’s Saturday.” No shit it’s Saturday. “What did you say your name was again?”

“I didn’t. It’s Vicente.” I give him my phone number.

“That’s an LA area code,” Lloyd says, squinting at me. “I thought you said you went to school with Violet.”

“I’m from LA. Going back after the semester is over. I haven’t changed it yet.” Which reminds me, I’m going to need another phone with a SF number really soon. The moment I purchased this one in LA, Tio and Nacho scammed the number off me and no doubt passed it on to my father.

Lloyd seems to buy that, though I have no doubt he’ll probably tell Violet about me when he sees her next, probably in some sniveling way. The truth is, I probably won’t be around come Friday anyway, and I’m certainly not getting a fucking tattoo. Everything I plan to accomplish will be done before that.

When I leave the shop I look to my right at the two stooges who are pretending to stare through a shop window. I don’t even know why they bother.

“Hey,” I tell them. “You guys want a tattoo? I could make you an appointment. Get a couple of naked ladies on your arms, closest to a woman you’re ever going to get.”

They stare at me blankly, completely void of personality. It’s their job to watch me and pretend they don’t know me.

I roll my eyes and head out into the street, dodging the headlights of passing cars. It’s completely dark now but the night is buffered by fog, painting everything charcoal, onyx, and grey.

They’re right behind me, wondering where I’m going and if I’m trying to lose them.

I’m not. I need them to follow me.

I don’t know what is hidden in my father’s past. He’s been pretty open about every last gruesome detail of his life, even the less than charming circumstances of how he met my mother. But I know I’m close to figuring something out here. I just don’t know what it is.

I also know that Tio and Nacho are reporting every last detail about what I’m doing and will be doing. Either to my father over the phone and through email, maybe even to my mother. Either way, he’ll hear I randomly went to a tattoo shop.

He’ll hear the name Sins & Needles.

And I’m sure it will ring a bell.

   
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