by K. J. Dahlen
“Yes, insane,” Raine agreed.
“Will you spend the next three days with me?” she barely had the courage to ask.
“Where else would I be? We need to cram a whole lotta life and loving in three short days.”
She was almost asleep when he asked, “Would you do something for me?”
“What’s that baby?”
“Would you wear my patch?”
“What?” She turned her head to look at him.
“We don’t have time to get you a vest or get married, so what I’m asking is if you wear my name tattooed on your body?” Raine asked. “I want the whole world to know you belong to me.”
Cricket felt fresh tears flow down her face. “Of course, I’ll wear your tat. Can we get it together today?”
“Yeah, we can get it today and I want to be there when you get it.”
“Ok.”
“That way, I can get your name tattooed on my skin too,” he whispered in her ear.
Turning her head, she stared at him. “You would do that for me?”
“In a heartbeat.”
“Oh, my god,” she cried out. “I love you so much.”
“I love you more.” He got up and pulled her out of bed. “Come on, let’s do this. I know just the tat I want you to get. I’ll get a matching one.”
Cricket groaned. “Ok, ok I’m up. Where are we going anyway?”
“The club has a shop and the best ink artist available. You’ll love him. His name is Rip.”
Cricket giggled while she put clean clothes on. “Do I want to know how he got his name?”
“Umm…” Raine hesitated. “No not really.”
Cricket paused for a moment and thought about her secret then decided not to share it. It would be hard enough to have to say goodbye herself in three days’ time, she didn’t want to make it impossible.
A half hour later, they were in a tattoo shop. The place was clean and sterile and the walls were tastefully done with artwork displayed. Cricket couldn’t believe it when Raine told her the artwork was all tattoos of one kind or another.
There were several areas to sit and look at the different designs available for the artists to put on your body. There was a counter complete with cash register and several items for sale, including smoking materials. Since she didn’t smoke, she couldn’t hazard a guess as to what the pipes and other parifinialla was used for.
They’d only been standing there a few minutes when this giant of a man joined them from one of the back rooms. He was very tall, around six foot eight inches at least and bald. Dressed in jeans and a black wife beater t shirt he was also tattooed all over his upper body.
From what skin Cricket could see he was also ripped as far as muscles went. She could see his right ear was pierced. The man had dark eyes that missed very little if he missed anything at all.
“Rip, my man,” Raine greeted him. “How the hell are you?”
Rip grinned and held out his hand. “I’m alive man, I’m alive.”
When the two men shook hands then bumped shoulders, Raine turned to Cricket. “Sweetheart I want you to meet my buddy, Rip. Rip this is my old lady and she wants my name tatted on her sweet body.”
Rip grinned. “You returning the honor?”
“Yup.”
The single word answer seemed to impress the hell out of Rip. He turned to face the short hall and yelled, “Rembrandt, get your ass out here.”
A moment later, a tiny woman joined them. Small and compact she also wore a black wife beater t shirt and was adorned with tattoos all over her visible skin. Her dark hair was tied back into a ponytail and her dark eyes sparkled with annoyance as she glared at Rip. “You bellowed?”
Rip grinned then leaned over and kissed her lips. “Sorry honey, but these folks need our skills.”
The small woman turned to Cricket. “And what are we gonna paint their bodies with today?”
Cricket nodded at Raine. “I want his patch.”
Rembrandt smiled. Rubbing her hands together she said, “Shall we get started then?” She motioned down the hall to her station. Once they got to her room and closed the door behind them, the artist known as Rembrandt turned to Cricket and asked, “Honey I have to ask, does he know you’re pregnant?”
Cricket forgot to breathe for a moment. “I don’t know that myself, not for sure.”
“But there’s a chance you could be?” Rembrandt pressed.
Cricket didn’t say one way or the other, she just shrugged.
Rembrandt sighed. “Ok, then we can’t do this the regular way. The ink wouldn’t be good for the baby.”
Cricket shook her head. “But I want his name on my body before…” Her eyes filled with tears.
“Before what honey?”
“I have an appointment in three days that I may not survive,” Cricket told her. “And I want to claim him as mine.”
Rembrandt knew she couldn’t ask anything more. Sometimes bad shit happened to good people and Rembrandt knew this woman was good people. Even the MC was good people, some weren’t but the Sin’s Bastards was. She’d been around this town long enough to know that. “Well, there is one way we could go.”
“Oh and what would that be?”
“So many of the people we tat can’t take the ink. I’ve been working on a more natural staining medium. The ink most ink shops use is harsh to the human body, some people break out from something in the ink. I’ve got a sample of the natural ink we could use and it shouldn’t hurt the baby.”
Cricket nodded. “I’m not even sure there even is a baby yet but that would be great.”
“Ok, let’s get things started then.” Rembrandt rubbed her hands together. “What exactly do you want and where do you want it?”
“I want a property patch and I was thinking the lower back,” Cricket told her as she sat down on the table.
“I can do that.” Rembrandt got her needles out and laid them out on a small table. Then she reached up on her shelf for a bottle of her special ink. She positioned Cricket on her belly and loosened her jeans, pulling them low enough to have a clear area to work on. She flipped her shirt up to uncover the lower half of her back.
“You just want the words “Property of Raine” or did you want something more?”
“Could you add the tiger emblem of the Sin’s Bastards on one side and three roses on the other side?” Cricket asked.
Rembrandt nodded and for some reason her throat tightened. “Yeah, I can do that.” She didn’t know what this girl’s story was and it wasn’t her business, but like everyone else, she knew she had a story.
Rembrandt sat down and began to picture inside her head what the tat would look like. Lowering her needle to Cricket’s skin she got busy.
Three hours later, Rembrandt lifted her needle gun and wiped the last of the blood from the tat. It was her best work yet. Maybe it was because of the back story and maybe it was something else but the tat was a thing of beauty. She picked up her phone and snapped a picture of it before she went any further.
Before she could go any further, there was a knock on the door. Rembrandt yelled enter and the door opened.
Rip and Raine came in.
Rip came over to where Cricket was lying and studied the tat for a moment then whistled in appreciation of the piece on Cricket’s back while Raine looked stunned by the art.
Cricket turned her head and looked at Raine. “Well baby, what do you think?”
“I think it’s gorgeous,” Raine told her softly.
Rembrandt smiled at Cricket. “Do you want to see it?”
Cricket nodded as she wiped a tear away. When she took Rembrandt’s phone, she looked in wonder at the tattoo on her back. Her hand came up to cover her mouth when she saw the work of art she now sported. “Oh my, that’s beautiful.”
Rembrandt smiled. “Yes, it is. Would you mind if I displayed it?”
Cricket nodded her head “It’s really a great tat. Thank you.”
Raine helped he
r sit up and then he held her while Rembrandt finished up.
She put a film of petroleum jelly over the piece then put a clear saran wrap over the top to protect it and taped the edges. “You probably don’t want to put too much pressure on that spot today,” she warned them.
Cricket wasn’t paying attention to what she was being told, instead she was searching Raine’s chest for his tattoo. Finally, she glared at him and said, “Come on let’s see it. I got mine now show me yours.”
Raine grinned and lifted his shirt over the top of his head. On the left side of his chest, he wore the white tiger of the MC. Underneath the tiger was the name of the club, Sin’s Bastards MC. On the right side of his chest, he now wore a heart shaped strand of barbed wire outline then along the inside edges of the barbed wire it said Property of Cricket in bold letters underneath. Under her name were three tiny drops of blood.
Cricket gasped and her fingers reached out to touch his chest. They didn’t quite make contact with his skin, instead they traced the art work Rip had done. “What do the drops of blood mean?” she whispered.
“They represent the past, the present and the future,” Raine told her.
“Oh.” She swallowed hard then raised her eyes to stare into his.
Raine growled. “Let’s get the fuck out of here, we got things to do and places to go.” He turned to Rip and held his hand out to the man. “Thanks, as always you guys did a righteous job.”
Rip wrapped his arm around his wife and nodded. “Good luck man. It was our pleasure.”
Raine led Cricket out to the main lobby and then outside.
Cricket stopped him to ask, “Did you pay the man?”
Raine snorted. “Of course, I paid him.”
“But you didn’t even see my tattoo before you came into the room.”
Raine shook his head. “I didn’t need to see it before I paid for it. I knew it would be a work of art. Rembrandt is the best there is next to Rip.” He urged her along the street. “Now woman, I’m hungry. Let’s grab some lunch.”
They walked down the street to the Subway shop and went inside. Raine walked up to the counter and ordered a sandwich for both of them to go. Then he grabbed her hand and pulled her from the shop to where his bike was.
“Come on I want to show you something.” He got on the bike and waited for her to settle down then he took off. Parking at the back of the cycle shop, he grabbed the food and her hand and dragged her to a ladder at the back of the building.
Cricket went up the ladder first. She wasn’t sure of where she was going or why but she kept on going. The ladder looked old and she wasn’t sure she trusted it to hold her weight but then she noticed someone had made repairs to it recently, so she figured it would work. It was a long climb but when she reached the top and glanced over the edge, she gasped in delight.
Raine tapped her bottom and she climbed the last few feet to the rim of the roof. Stepping over the edge, she got a better look at the oasis that was waiting for them.
“Well, what do you think?” Raine asked her quietly.
“It’s beautiful.” She took in everything she could see. Someone had taken the time to make the roof a patio of sorts. They had paved at least part of the roof with tiles and laid the base for an awning to go in at some future point.
They had lounge chairs up here and a cooler for drinks. There was even a grill off to one side. Cricket turned to him and asked, “What is this place?”
Raine shrugged his shoulder. “It’s sort of our getaway place. See that door over there?” He pointed to a door in the distance. “That leads to the third floor storage area. It’s nice and quiet up here so we’ve been using it for lunch breaks and to take a few minutes away to destress when we got a big job going. We’re still working on fixing it up but I wanted to show it to you.”
“It is quiet up here isn’t it?” She swung around in a circle. “I can see the benefits of having this place.”
“I thought maybe we could have lunch up here and just talk.” Raine nodded.
“That would be great.” Cricket walked over to the lounge chairs and sat down on one.
Raine sat down on another one and opened the bag from the sandwich shop. He reached down into the cooler and brought out two cans of soda. Popping the tops, he began eating his sandwich.
While they ate, nothing disturbed them, not even the traffic from the street below.
When she was finished, Cricket laid back in the lounger and closed her eyes.
“So tell me something,” Raine stated.
“Sure,” she replied without opening her eyes.
“What was the one thing you wanted the most when you were a kid?”
Cricket froze. She didn’t acknowledge his question in any way outwardly but her heart began pounding in her chest. She could feel her throat tighten. “What?” she asked as she opened her eyes and stared at him.
Raine sat back in his own chair. “Didn’t you ever want anything so much when you were a kid that you thought you’d die if you didn’t get it?” He nodded. “I did. I had my eye on a sweet little ten speed bike. One of the other kids had one and I told my dad that’s what I wanted.” He chuckled as he remembered back to his childhood. “My dad told me if I could earn half the money for it he’d put in the other half and I could get the bike.”
Cricket relaxed and sat back in her chair. “Did you ever get it?”
“No, I worked my ass of all summer and by the time I had half the money saved up I had something else in mind that I wanted. I remember I was fourteen years old that summer and I decided I wanted a cycle. The ten speed didn’t have enough power for I wanted. I wanted to join the MC my dad belonged to when I got old enough.”
Cricket smiled. “And did you? Join up I mean.”
Raine settled back and smiled. “Yeah, I did. I had to finish growing up some but the day I turned eighteen, I joined. I was a prospect for over a year by that time but six months later, I joined them. Of course, a couple months after that I enlisted in the army and did a four year stint in the military but when I got out, I came home and took my place in the MC.” He chuckled. “The day I came home was the proudest day in my dad’s life. He said another son followed him into the MC. Of course, with five boys, every time one of us joined he was just as proud.”
Cricket closed her eyes and thought about what he’d said. She had to wonder if her parents would have been proud of her in the same way.
“What about you,” he asked. “What did you want more than anything back then?”
The answer just popped out of her mouth, “I wanted a puppy of my own. A puppy that would grow up to protect me. A puppy I could name Max.”
Raine turned his head and stared at her for a moment. “A puppy? Why a puppy?”
“I had a kitten once, I think I was five years old at the time but Cordy didn’t like cats. The kitten just disappeared one day. I looked for her for a long time, then without saying a word to me, Cordy pointed out a mound of dirt in the backyard. I stopped looking for my cat that day.”
Raine’s fingers curled into his hand. After everything Cordy had done to her little sister, this was almost the worst he’d heard yet. Swallowing the bitterness, he felt he asked, “What kind of dog would you want? And why the name Max?”
“I’m not sure what kind of dog, but a big one. After all, he was going to grow up to protect me from everyone.” She shrugged. “I don’t know why I always liked the name Max for a dog. He would have been the best dog though. I would have trained him to follow my every command.”
“Did you ever tell your parents about the dog?”
Cricket shook her head. “No I never did. Mom got sick about that time and Dad wasn’t around much after she died. I never told Cordy about it either. She probably would have killed it too, if I ever got him. I’d learned by that time that my dreams would never come true. Cordy wouldn’t let them, unless they were her dreams too. She made sure of it.”
Raine had to count to ten before he said an
ything. His blood boiled. Then he turned his head and gazed at her. “Was there ever a time in your childhood when you were happy? Even for a little while?”
“I didn’t know what happy was until the day Dusty was born,” she whispered. “Then I knew happy again when I met you. Loving you made loosing Dusty not so bad.”
Raine felt his heart breaking. He never knew he could feel anything this painful. He just couldn’t accept this ending she’d chosen for herself—for them.
5
“What else was on your bucket list as a kid?” Raine asked.
“My what?”
“Your bucket list, you know the things you always wanted but never got?”
“Umm, I really don’t think that’s a bucket list,” she pointed out. “That’s more of a wish list.”
“Ok then, what else was on your wish list?”
Cricket had to think about it for a minute, then she reached over and took his hand. Tangling her fingers in his she told him, “I just wanted to find a man who I could love and who loved me back in the same crazy way. I always kept that dream to myself. I couldn’t even dare to dream it out loud. I didn’t think I could ever say the words except in my head.”
“Well, that was one dream that came true,” Raine whispered.
“Yeah, it sure did,” Cricket whispered back.
“Can I ask you something else?”
“Ask me whatever you want, sweet man.”
“Why did you ask for those three days?”
Cricket was quiet for a moment then told him, “Tomorrow is my birthday. I’ll be twenty four years old at four o’clock in the morning. I wanted one more day after my birthday, just one more day.”
Raine got up off the lounger and walked over to the door leading to the third floor of the shop. He wrenched open the door and slammed it shut behind him.
Cricket sat there and let the tears fall down her face. Hanging her head, she knew she never should have told him the real reason she asked for the three days. But in her heart, she knew she’d do it again given the same choice. Next time though, she wouldn’t tell anyone why.