Sami, Joe, and Chris, were all sitting around me watching me work. I had actually done a small tattoo on Chris. One of my very first. It was just the letter ‘W.’ I had no idea what it was for; I never asked. The guys all did what they could to help me. Even if Sami was my teacher, the others taught me things as well.
Especially Chris; he often sat with the fake skin on his arm and let me tattoo it. They’d all done it once or twice, but he did it whenever he had the time. The purpose was to give me the feeling of tattooing something that moved underneath the needle.
They were all firm on the fact that even when I worked on fake skin, I had to act as if it was an actual customer. Keep up with all the health codes to make sure it turned into something I did without thinking. I even did it when I had the fake skin directly on a table.
This was the first time Brick and Mac had come to the shop. It was special with Mac; his words had started this. I really hoped he’d ask me to do the Baxter ink if he was serious about wanting it.
Once the lining was done, Brick wanted a break for a smoke and coffee. When he left the room, I looked up at Mac who was still flipping through a magazine while at the same time fiddling with his phone.
“Hey, Mac,”
“Yeah?” he said when he looked up from the phone.
“Thanks again.”
“For what?”
I shrugged and held out my hand to indicate the room surrounding me. “For this. It’s been… I love this. I just, you know, feel at home here. Like I belong. So thank you.”
It didn’t fully explain how fucking big this was to me, how much I loved being here, but I couldn’t think of any other way to say it. What it meant to me to be a part of an environment where I truly belonged and was accepted for who I was.
“You’re here because you’re a fucking talent. These guys all know it, and we all know it,” he smiled. “So I didn’t do shit, babe.”
“I think you did,” I mumbled while I took off my gloves and threw them in the trash before reaching for a bottle of water.
“Ever gonna ask me?” he said, and my eyes flew up to meet his.
I cursed to myself and wondered if he, like, knew I was crushing on him. That I had been when I was a kid and again since he came back from Kansas. It would be so super embarrassing if he’d figured it out! I’d really tried to hide it. Sort of avoiding him to not make it too obvious. Finally, I decided it was best to just ask him what he meant.
“Ask what?”
“If you can ink me?”
I exhaled in relief. That wasn’t so bad. “You don’t ask that. The person wanting the ink chooses, both ink and inker. There should never be any pressure to have it done.”
Sami had taught me that. You could offer if you knew the person really well, and knew they’d choose you to do the ink. But that was it. You didn’t ask otherwise. I knew Dad had asked others to let me ink them, but that was hardly something I could stop him from doing. Besides, I’d seen them get ink from piss-drunk guys. No matter how inexperienced, I was at least sober.
“Okay, Katze,” Mac said with a big smile. God! ‘Katze’ didn’t sound anything like that when Dad said it. Not at all. “Would you do the Baxter Marauder-ink on me?”
“Yes.” I really hoped I didn’t sound as nervous––or eager––as I felt. “I’d like that.” I took a few sips from my water bottle, and then asked without looking at him. “Where?”
“Thought I’d do it on my side. Here.”
“Over the ribs?”
“I know that hurts like a motherfucker. Would you do it?”
I took another big mouthful of water and nodded. There was no doubt in my mind that once I started tattooing it wouldn’t bother me anymore, but there might be some red cheeks before that. Trixie had a point; I should probably just get laid to not keep blushing in front of hot guys. I wasn’t doing it that often anymore, but this was Mac. Which made it different. Since I was, sort of, crushing on him—a little.
“Not sure the design works on the ribs, but I’ll see what I can do.”
When Brick came back, I tuned out the things around me and got back to work.
-o0o—
Bear hadn’t missed it. Vi still had a thing for Mac. Or she had a thing again. He wasn’t sure which, but he knew she’d had it in her early teens, and she definitely had a thing for him now. She was too shy to do anything about it, and Mac was too good of a guy to take advantage of it. If it’d been Mitch she was fawning over, he’d be more worried. Not that Mitch wasn’t a good guy; he just tended to think with his hanging brain a little too often.
The day after Brick’d had his ink done, Vi came walking into the lot and smiled at Bear when she saw him.
“Hey, Katze,” he said and gave her a hug. “All good?”
“Yeah.” She sat down on a bench, and he got down next to her. “I have today off. Thought I’d go and see Edie.”
Vi still hung out at Dawg and Edie’s place at times, but not as often as before. She simply didn’t have the time. Not even mentioning that baby Travis kept Edie quite busy these days. But Vi still visited them as often as she could.
“Want me to give you a lift?”
“No. That’s okay.” She shook her head. Then she gave him a strange look before clearing her throat. “I can get home by myself, in case you want to… stay here, or something.”
It took him a while, but when he caught on to what she was really saying, he laughed.
“Honey, you really don’t have to worry about me getting laid.” When she blushed, he laughed again. “Seriously, where did that come from?”
As far as he knew, and he was actually pretty sure about it, his baby girl was very much a virgin. He highly doubted she’d even kissed anyone. Besides the people in the club, she didn’t have many friends. She’d never been on a date and had definitely not taken home a guy to introduce him. In fact, she’d never even taken home any friends to introduce them. So, her suggesting he might want to get laid, even if it was subtle as fuck, was a surprise.
“Nowhere. Just, you haven’t been away for the night in a while and… I don’t know.” She looked at her shoes. “Can we just forget I said that?”
“Yeah. Let’s,” he immediately agreed. He got up from the bench and held out his hand for her. “For the record, nighttime is only optional when having sex.”
She was flaming red and glared at him when he laughed again. He gave her a hug.
“That’s not cool, Dad,” she muttered.
“Then don’t bring it up.”
“Trust me, it’ll never happen again.”
They walked towards the clubhouse, and when the door swung open in front of them they were standing face to face with Mac.
“Hey,” he said and looked at Vi. “Uh, you okay?”
“Yeah, she’s just mortally embarrassed at the moment,” Bear said and pulled Vi closer.
“Okay,” Mac said with a laugh. “I sent Mitch out for booze, give him a call if you need anything else.”
Mitch was currently prospecting and was doing surprisingly well. His year was up in a few months. He’d get in, no question about it, and it had nothing to do with whose son he was. Bear enjoyed messing with the kid, though. He’d wait half an hour, until about the time Mitch should be on his way back to the clubhouse, and only then send him a text with what he wanted.
He took Vi inside. He saw her sitting next to Wolf for a while, probably discussing country music, and about an hour later she came to tell him she was on her way to Edie’s. When he hinted that he might stay at the clubhouse, she blushed again, and with a laugh he gave the top of her head a kiss.
Once she was gone, Brick turned and looked at him.
“What the fuck was that about?”
“She hinted earlier that I might wanna stay the night to get laid.”
“Vi?! What the fuck?”
“Yeah. Think she regretted that comment immediately.”
“You do realize it’s probably pretty bad if your daught
er thinks you need to get laid?”
“She’s not really aware it doesn’t have to be night for that shit to happen,” he said to Brick with a smile. “You know, girls like her think it all goes down in darkness and in bed.”
“Ahh!” Brick started laughing. “But really, where the fuck did that come from? Find it hard to believe that our little Vi would bring it up.”
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe she just wanted you out of the house so she could get laid.”
He slowly turned his head and glared at Brick. Brick just kept smiling and downed a shot of scotch.
“She’s not getting laid. She’s seventeen.”
“Very close to eighteen. Remember what you did when you were seventeen? Or what you’ve done to girls who were seventeen at the time.”
“You should drop this.”
“I know. Just couldn’t help myself.” Brick turned around and leaned his back against the bar. “I’m sure she’s going to stay at home, do her homework, and some drawings.”
That was probably exactly what she’d do, and part of Bear was sad about it. She was seventeen, she should be out doing stupid stuff. Maybe not having sex—definitely not sex—but at least sneaking out to be with friends.
Even if Lisa had been easy to handle when she was teenager, but he’d still chased her around town a couple of times when she was Vi’s age. He’d picked her up at an abandoned house once, and it was lucky Brick’d been with him, since he stopped him from killing the guy she was there with.
Vi never did stuff like that, but he didn’t want to nag about it either. At least she seemed happier these days, and that was something.
CHAPTER TWO:
He’s Not Alone
-o0o—
IN A VERY DRUNKEN state, Bucket was trying to tell me the benefits of drinking Tequila rather than whiskey. Since I was more than three years away from being legally allowed to drink, and since I liked Bucket and didn’t want Dad to kill him, I left him on the couch. It didn’t seem likely he’d notice me being gone.
It was Mac’s birthday, and it had been just over two weeks since I did the Baxter-Marauder ink on Brick. It was healing up nicely, and I was pleased to see I’d done it dark enough. Sometimes I didn’t do the shading properly, which could make it look faded once the tattoo healed. That was still easier to fix than if I made the opposite mistake.
Despite it being Mac’s birthday, I’d hardly seen him, and since it was getting late people were getting drunk. I just wanted to go home, because I wanted to get away before the birthday guy got busy. I’d never seen that, but I’d heard about it, and I didn’t want to see Mac… get busy.
I went to find Dad to ask him to take me home. He wasn’t at the bar, and as I ventured towards the dorms, I felt a hand close around my wrist.
“Where are you going, Katze?”
I took a deep breath. Only three people called me Katze, and this wasn’t Dad or grandma. It was Mac, and he once again managed to make it sound so… hot.
“Just trying to find Dad. I’m on my way home.”
“I’ll take you home.”
“No, that’s okay, it’s your birthday and everything. You should stay. He’ll take me.”
“Baby, he’s not alone.”
It took me a few seconds, and then I blushed, like, half burned up. Dad was… ohmygod! That really wasn’t something I wanted to think about. It wasn’t the first time Dad hooked up with a sweetbutt, and me knowing about it. I knew far too much about Dad’s preferences, since those stupid bitches weren’t discreet about it. Dad liked stuff I didn’t even wanna think about, and now he…
The sense of detail that helped me draw from memory, was sometimes a curse. I looked up at Mac’s face. He was still smiling.
“Really, it’s okay,” he said. “I’ll take you home. They’re all too drunk to even notice that I’m gone.”
“No, you should stay. I’ll walk.”
“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. You’re not going home alone in the middle of the night. No fucking way.”
I looked at him and then nodded in agreement. “Okay, please take me home.”
He laughed and took my hand to guide me through the clubhouse. It felt nice, and when he stroked my hand with his slightly calloused thumb—it felt really nice. He turned around when we reached his bike.
“Where’s your helmet?”
“It’s on Dad’s bike. I’ll get it.”
By the time I’d returned to Mac, it had dawned on me what I was about to do. Ride—with Mac! He’d already started the bike and was waiting for me to get up behind him. I quickly braided my hair. Without thinking too much about it, I put the helmet on, put my foot on the pedal, and threw my leg over the bike. I hesitated for a second before putting my arms around his waist.
It was very different compared to being behind Dad or Brick—those were the only ones I’d taken rides with before. Mac was skinny, but had a lot more muscles than I’d thought. I could feel them clearly even through the sweatshirt. With Dad, I could barely get my arms all the way around. That wasn’t a problem with Mac, and he smelled awesome—really fucking awesome. I wished we lived further from the clubhouse, but Dad wanted us close to it, which made the ride annoyingly short.
Once we were by the apartment building, and I was standing next to the bike, he surprised me by turning it off.
“Could you tell Dad that you took me home?” I asked him. “Just so he knows, I don’t want him to worry when he remembers he forgot me.”
“Of course, Katze. I’ll let him know.” He pointed at his cheek, but I wasn’t sure what he meant. Finally he laughed. “Think you can give me that ink next week? As a birthday present.”
“Sure. I’m working Thursday to Sunday. I can call you tomorrow and tell you when it’s okay to come.”
“Sounds great.” I was waiting for him to say ‘bye’ and be on his way, but he kept talking. “Why does he call you Katze?”
“It’s German for cat. My grandma on Dad’s side is half German. She called me that when I was a kid. She thought I stretched like a cat when I woke up.”
“Do you?”
“Everyone stretches when they wake up.” I was quiet for a while. “And because I’m small.”
“Small?”
“I’m sure you’ve noticed the rest of my family being really tall. I got grandma’s height and build.”
“Lisa isn’t that tall.”
“Maybe not compared to you or Mac, but she’s not exactly short.”
“If you say so. Now, this,” He tapped his cheek again, “means I want a kiss because it’s my birthday, for giving you a lift, and saving you from years of therapy after seeing your dad—”
“Eww, don’t say it,” I interrupted him and took a step forward and leaned in to kiss his cheek. I closed my eyes. His beard tickled my lips, and he smelled even better up close. I could feel butterflies in my stomach. I’d always thought it sounded stupid when people said that, but it truly felt like butterflies. I opened my eyes and took a step back again. “Thanks, it was really nice of you. I could’ve walked, you know. It’s not that far.”
“Yeah, because me telling your dad I let you walk home alone in the middle of the night, that would’ve gone over so well.” He was still smiling. Then he pointed towards the house. “Get in, I wanna make sure you’re safe inside before I leave.”
“Night,” I mumbled and walked towards the house and up the stairs.
I turned around while opening the door to the apartment, and he waved at me. Once the door was closed and locked, I heard him take off. I still had the warm, fuzzy feeling of butterflies in my belly. Kind of like the feeling Bucket had talked about when he told me what it felt like to drink Tequila.
-o0o—
Bear woke up when someone slammed his door repeatedly. He pushed the girl aside and got out of bed. He tried to find his jeans among the piles on the floor, but finally figured that anyone who might knock on his dorm room door in the middle of the night
had probably already seen his dick, so he opened it.
“Mac?”
“Hey, man.” Mac didn’t even seem to notice Bear being naked. “Just wanted to tell you I took Vi home.”
“Fuck! Fuck, how the fuck do you forget your daughter?”
He was such a fucking idiot, but he’d been horny as hell. Really horny, and he knew that this girl, Amanda, was up for what he wanted to do, and he liked her. When she came over to sit in his lap, he’d taken her to his room as soon as possible before someone else got there before him.
“She’s kind of quiet and invisible—easy to miss,” Mac smiled. “It’s cool, though. She came to get you, so I stopped her and took her home.”
“Shit, man, I owe you one.” He looked at the kid. He’d taken his girl home, leaving his own fucking birthday to do it. “Mac, I’m really sorry. You should’ve just banged on my door.”
“It’s okay. I didn’t miss much, and I figured you needed to get laid,” Mac shrugged. “She’s fine.”
He still felt like shit, and once Mac was gone he picked up the phone to call her. Being the great girl that she was, Vi laughed when she answered.
“I’m fine Dad, don’t worry.”
“Really fucking sorry, Katze.”
“It’s okay. I get it, and Mac stopped me before I needed years of therapy.”
Years of therapy for sure. Walking in on your dad taking woman up the ass wasn’t something anyone should see. How the fuck did you explain that to your virgin daughter? It wasn’t that fucking deviant, actually not deviant at all, but to a girl like her it probably was.
“Go to bed, baby. I’m on my way.”
“Don’t be stupid. If you’re drunk enough to forget me, you’re too drunk to ride, Dad.”
“I can’t—” She wouldn’t let him finish.
“Dad! I’m almost eighteen. I can manage a night by myself. I do it when you’re on runs, you know.”
“I’ll pick you up for breakfast, baby girl.”
“Make that lunch. I love you.”
“I love you, too. You’re amazing in more ways than I can count.”
He hung up and turned around, and his eyes fell on the naked woman in his bed. Since he’d messed up, he might as well get the most of a full night at the clubhouse, and he lay down next to her. He stroked her back, and she turned around with a smile.
Perfect Collision Page 5