Barber Shop Ink - Book 2: Between a Hedge and a Hard Place

by Penny Blush

  “What the hell is going on?” I asked for what seemed like the millionth time. “I know, I know, ask Memphis.”

  “You know, I think I may have a few questions of my own,” he said slamming a hand on the roof of the truck.

  I was beyond frustrated, and so exhausted. I was mentally and physically done. I just could not think anymore. My mind had officially shut down, and I was on autopilot. I turned and walked towards the back door that led to the shop and my apartment.

  “Cuz, where are you going?” Jax asked.

  “To get the stuff to start cleaning,” I replied, my voice devoid of emotion.

  “Right,” he turned to follow me. “I’ll grab the bleach from the kitchen. We’re going to need it for the wall next door, anyway.”

  “Just grab some hot water,” I said trudging up the stairs.

  “Cuz, hot water isn’t going to get rid of the blood stains,” Jax said looking at me from the bottom of the stairs, “that’s what the bleach is for.”

  “Just get the hot water Jaxon please,” I scrubbed a hand down my face, exhaustion creeping into my voice.

  “It’s not going to…”

  “Jax, please. Hot water. I have something that will work better than bleach.”

  Done with this discussion, I continued up the stairs. I met Jax back at the truck. He had a bucket of hot water, rolls of paper towels, more disposable gloves, and a garbage bin with a dark green liner inside. I held up a plastic spray bottle with a purple-blue liquid inside.

  “What is that?” Jax asked.

  “It’s a unique enzyme that will dissolve the protein chains in the blood.” I shook the bottle up blending the purple and blue components. “When this stuff has done its magic, not even a forensic team will be able to detect a trace of blood.”

  “Why, the fuck, do you have that?” Jax asked, and then thought better of it and sighed, “The Box.”

  “The Box,” I replied.

  “I should have destroyed that fucking thing,” Jax growled, following me back into the empty shop.

  “Yes, but if you did that, I wouldn’t have had what I needed to be able to save Memphis,” I snapped.

  “Yeah, I know sorry,” Jax dragged a hand down his tired face. “Show me how this shit works,” he said indicating to the blood-smeared wall.

  I shook the bottle again and sprayed the wall, within moments the enzyme did its work. As if by magic, the blood disappeared from the wall.

  “Holy fucking shit balls!”

  “Yah-ha,” I said handing him the bottle. “You keep working in here, and I’ll make a start on the truck.”

  “Why don’t you just spray this shit around,” Jax asked spinning the bottle around on his finger, like a cowboy from the Wild West about to holster his gun.

  “Well, Wild Bill. It works faster if you can wipe the surface down first.”

  I shook my head at him as he faced the wall, firing the spray making ‘pew-pew’ gunshot noises.

  “At least someone’s having fun,” I muttered to myself as I headed back to the truck to remove all evidence of this shitty night from its interior.

  By the time, Jax and I had finished, we were both hungry and beat. We were too tired to eat anything substantial, so we just had some toast and OJ. I cleaned up while Jax took a shower, deciding that even though he only lived fifteen minutes away, he was too stuffed to drive. Jax crashed in the spare room, saying that it would be best to stick around anyway, in case I need help with Memphis.

  After another long hot shower, I pulled on a tank top and boy-short pajama bottoms, I said goodnight to Jax and crawled into bed. I clung to the side of the bed, not wanting to bump Memphis and cause him any pain. I lay there replaying the night over and over in my head. I must have fallen asleep because when I woke I was lying in Memphis’ arms using his chest as a pillow.

  Memphis had bruises everywhere, and I couldn’t be certain that he didn’t have any broken ribs, at least not without an x-ray. The weight of my body on his bruised and battered one must be killing him. I shifted as slowly as possible, so as not to wake him.

  “Stay,” his raspy voice crackled, as he tightened his arm around me.

  “Memphis let me move. Baby, I don’t want to cause you any more pain.” Once again, I tried to move, but he just tightened his hold.

  “Stay, don’t… don’t go…” His voice turned into a groaning cough, his other hand clutching at his side. “Stay and you won’t… hurt me.”

  “Memphis, you probably have broken ribs, cracked at the least. My weight on you can’t be helping your breathing.”

  “Just stay.” I lifted myself up so that I could look at him. “Please,” he begged.

  I give him a soft kiss on his swollen lips. “Okay,” I whispered as I settled back down gently upon his chest, neither of us speaking for a while, my ear against his heart. “Memphis.”

  “Yeah, Sweetness.”

  “We need to talk. You have to tell me what’s going on.” I cut him off when he started to reply. “Don’t you dare say ‘nothing’, I just stitched up a bunch of knife wounds, one of them was so profound I had to do internal as well as surface sutures.”

  “I know Baby Girl,” he sounded exhausted. “I am so, so… sorry and you’re right, we… d… do need to talk.” He sighed in frustration. I could tell that he was annoyed by the fact that he could only speak a few words at a time before pain or coughing set in. “But not right now, okay?” He snuggled me in a little closer, “let’s just sleep… for now,” he sighed again, “then we’ll talk… I promise.”

  He had drifted off to sleep again. I sighed sleepily and replied although I knew he was not listening. “Okay, Baby, we’ll talk later, you rest now.”

  With my head on his chest, his arm around me a large hand on my hip and my ear over his heart I let the healthy, steady thump of his heartbeat sing me to sleep.

  Chapter 3 Memphis

  I woke to the sounds of muffled voices arguing. I blinked my eyes open as consciousness slowly crept in and it brought with it pain. Lots and lots of pain, and the realization that I hadn’t been dreaming. Slowly the events of what happened came back to me.

  My stupid mouth had gotten me into trouble again and Vex set his goon squad on me. I had received a phone call demanding payment. The fucking bastard was early, again.

  I drove my truck over to the dive bar to make my payment. It was pouring rain, and I was soaked to the skin in the time it took me to run from the car park to the door of the bar.

  “Memphis, you’re late,” Vex snarled from the raised booth he sat in like a king in his castle. “And you’re dripping on my floor.”

  I looked down at the small puddle on the scratched, scarred and dirty wooden floor - as if a little water is going to ruin it.

  “I’m just here to make my payment Vex, and then I’m gone.”

  “What, no pleasantries?” Vex asked sucking back on his cigar before blowing large smoke rings. “You can’t spend a few moments with your old pal? Memphis you’re always in such a rush, you need to learn to relax my boy.”

  “I’m not your pal Vex, and I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to make a payment and nothing more,” I said digging the envelope full of cash from my back pocket, tossing it onto the table in front of him. “We’re done here,” I turned and headed for the door. I just wanted to get the hell out of there.

  “We are done when I say we are done, Mr Blue, and not a second before,” Vex sneered, thumping a fist on the table.

  What the ever-loving fuck do you want now Vex? You’ve taken all my money. What could you possibly want now? A kidney! I thought standing there, staring daggers at the evil piece-of-shit.

  “Now, sit down and have a drink with me,” Vex indicated to the seat across from him in the booth.

  I’ll have one drink, you ass; then you can kiss mine as I walk out the door. I walked over and slid into the booth accepted my beer and drank. After five minutes, I placed my empty bottle on the table.

 
; “Well, Vex I’ve sat and had a drink with you, am I dismissed?”

  “Well, you’ve just ruined a beautiful moment,” Vex huffed. “Fine go,” Vex said waving his hand dismissively.

  I got up to leave giving him a mocking salute. “Always a pleasure Vex.”

  I had taken two steps towards the door hoping there was half a chance that I could get back to Hedge before she fell asleep.

  Wham!

  I dropped to a knee gasping for breath. I had been slugged in the gut with a baseball bat, the force of the swing driving the air from my lungs. Another blow from the baseball bat across my back knocked me forward on all fours. I saw stars, black spots dancing in my vision, blood roaring in my ears.

  Fucking cowards. I knew Vex wouldn’t take me on himself - fucking pathetic excuse for a human being. I thought that at least his goons had a modicum of common courtesy to fight me like a man, at least give me a fighting chance – pun intended.

  One of Vex’ goons kicked me hard in the side knocking me to the ground, and that’s when they got excited and really started in on me. They came at me with hits from the baseball bat, kicks, and finally using their fists. I had my hands up over my head trying to protect my brain while fighting to get my breath back, coughing, and gasping against the worn floorboards.

  There was little I could do to defend myself with them coming at me two against one. The first hit from the bat scrambled my brain making my reactions slow. Everything started going dark, and light spots danced in my eyes. Blood roared in my ears, and I’m not a hundred percent sure that I didn’t lose consciousness at some point.

  I had just regained awareness of what was happening when pain exploded through me as the upswing of the bat slammed into the side of my face. I had heard an audible crack before a burning, searing pain erupted from my ribs after a kick with a steel-toe boot.

  I don’t know how long the beating lasted, but my body felt like it weighed a tonne. I could barely move my arms to protect myself. I rolled over moaning spitting blood on the floor.

  “Get him up,” Vex commanded.

  Thing One and Thing Two dragged me to my feet. I could feel my eye and the side of my jaw starting to swell. I groaned in pain as my lungs and ribs screamed.

  “I can’t have people disrespecting me Memphis.” Vex stood in front of me straightened his jacket as if he had somehow exerted himself.

  I thought that Vex was finished. I figured it was over, and that he was going to let me go. But it seemed Vex still had a point to make, a very sharp point.

  At first, I thought that he had just punched me a few times while his goons had my arms restrained. Then white-hot searing pain sliced through me. Literally. I cried out in agony, looking down seeing red bloom across the front of my shirt.

  “I don’t want to have to make my point again Memphis. That is if you survive this lesson,” Vex said stabbing at me again then pointing at me with his knife. A knife stained with my blood. “Boys get this waste of space out of here.”

  Vex’ goons dragged me outside as droplets of my blood fell to the floor. It was still raining as they threw me out the door of the bar. My entire body ached, and my limbs felt like lead making my movements and reactions sluggish causing me to land heavily in the muddy car park.

  “Memphis just stick to the rules. Okay, Buddy?” Thing One said standing over me.

  “Next time he won’t let us go so easy,” Thing Two added as they left me bleeding in the mud.

  Fuck me, if that was easy, I don’t even want to contemplate what hard would be. Pressing my hand against my stomach trying to stem the bleeding, I managed to drag myself through the mud to my truck. It felt like weeks before I got myself up and into the driver seat slamming the door behind me, shutting out the weather.

  “Fuck!”

  My shirt drenched with blood, I grabbed a beach towel from the back seat holding it to my stomach. I turned over the engine and cranked the heat. I was wet, bloody, and cold. I just wanted to go to sleep.

  “No. No! Sleep is bad. Come on Memphis. It’s just shock - you’re in shock. You need to get your ass home.”

  Holding the rapidly soaking towel to my stomach, I put the truck in gear and drove towards home. Well, if you could call sleeping in the vacant shop next to Barber Shop Ink home. I had moved out of my house and started renting it out to make some extra cash as every single cent I made was going to paying bills and keep Vex, the fucker off my back.

  I made sure that I was the first one in and the last one out at the shop to avoid questions.

  I knew that every single one of them would have offered to help, whether it was a place to crash, money or both. I am not a charity case, I have never asked for a handout and I never will.

  It is my problem, my family’s problem, and I will be the one to fix it.

  It wasn’t the best solution, but it was working, sleeping on a crappy mattress on the floor, showering at the gym. Although lately, I didn’t have to stay at my shitty home, because most nights I was staying with Hedge. I slept soundly in her giant comfy bed, with her wrapped in my arms, her using my chest as a pillow.

  That night I just wanted to make it back to the shop in one piece. Get inside undetected and then wallow in the shittiness of my situation while trying to patch myself up.

  I honestly don’t know how I managed to make it back without killing myself or someone else for that matter. I was losing blood, a lot of blood. My right eye had swollen completely closed, and the vision in the left eye was blurry. Taking anything other than shallow breaths was excruciatingly painful.

  The heavy rain pelting against the windscreen, the lightning forking, and thunder crashing all around me was making visibility essentially non-existent.

  I kept going. I had to get home, if I could just make it back, it would be okay. I drove on autopilot, trusting that my truck knew the way home. I stopped once inside the fence behind the shop. I killed the engine and just sat for a moment, catching my breath. I was soaked in blood, sweat, and mud and thoroughly exhausted.

  “Get-Moving-Memphis,” I commanded my unwilling limbs to cooperate.

  I think I must have blacked out from the pain and possibly blood loss because my next conscious thought was that I was still in the truck and hadn’t moved.

  “G… get… moving… she… she can't… f-find you… l-l-like this.”

  Just the effort of talking was sucking my remaining energy. I pushed a shoulder against the door and fell out of the truck onto my damaged side. Landing in a giant puddle, dirty water splashing into my face.

  “FUCK!” I cried out in agony coughing and spitting dirty water out of my mouth. “FUCK!”

  Fuck me. I'm so fucking tired and unbelievably angry. God, I swear if I live through this, I am going to kill that motherfucker I thought, dragging myself up on my hands and knees clutching at my side.

  “Oh fuck.”

  I slipped and fell again, splashing down into the mud, trying to drag my sorry ass to my feet. I used the last of my energy reserves getting to my feet stumbling to the door of the empty shop.

  Hunched over holding the dirty towel to my side, I managed to make it to the door. The rain and weather had swollen the wood, making it stick. I shoved it with my less damaged shoulder.

  “Come… on… fucker!” I threw all my weight at the warped wood, hoping it would move. “Move… you… prick!” I shoved at the door again, and it budged just enough to let me see inside. I dropped the now pointless, saturated and dirty towel to the ground. “Christ… Fuck … Damn!”

  Lightning flashed, and thunder crashed around me as I begged and pleaded with the door to move just a little more. I just had to get inside then I could lie down, get some sleep and hopefully stop hurting.

  “FUCK! Please… God damn it. FUCK!”

  The door moved slightly with a screech from the wood catching on the linoleum floor. I lay my body weight against the door, one more time and finally, it shifted. The door moved just enough, making enough room so that I coul
d stumble my way inside.

  “Fuck,” I muttered.

  I tripped and fell into the wall. I dead on my feet, my legs giving out. With an agony filled groan, I slid down the wall, landing heavily on my ass. I was fading in and out of consciousness only fragments of events registering in my awareness.

  Black

  Lightning

  Black

  Hedge

  A brief recollection of an argument with Hedge about calling an ambulance and going to the hospital, then agreeing to let her call Jax.

  Black

  Jax

  Black

  Standing

  I had a vague remembrance of a discussion about moving me upstairs to the apartment.

  Pain

  Black

  Stairs

  Black

  Kitchen

  “I … I just need him to be okay Jax, you know.”

  I lay there listening to Hedge and Jaxon talk. I could feel bloody chunks of my heart breaking off before it shattered. All the anguish, worry and hurt in Hedge’s voice, that was on me. I put that there. Right then, I fucking hated myself. I heard the bathroom door clicked shut before revealing that I was conscious. I took a shallow enough breath that I could force words painfully between my teeth.

  “Is… is she… Okay?”

  “Memphis, you know, I’m getting sick of you asking me that,” Jax muttered.

  He sounded, sad, angry and tired. I knew that his anger was because of me. I lolled my head to the side looking at him, “Jax, please.”

  “Memphis, you know I consider you my brother, and I love you, but honestly I don’t like you right Now.”

  “I don’t… like me much either.”

  Trust me you couldn’t hate me any more than I already hate myself. I closed my one functioning eye, turning my head to stare up at the ceiling, gathering my thoughts, trying to figure out a way to make all of this better.

  “Jax, is she okay? Tell me… She’s okay.”

  The thought of Hedge being in pain, the idea that I am the cause of that pain, ground my battered heart into dust. A single tear slid escaping the tight hold I had on it.

  “It was Vex, wasn’t it?” Jax asked rhetorically. “Damn it Memphis; you have to talk to her.”