From The Shadows (From The Shadows #1) (16 page)

“Yeah, why do you ask?”

“Well I forgot to tell you that Shane called this morning and told me he had a spot free tomorrow because of a cancelation… So are we going to pop your tattoo cherry tomorrow?” He asked with a naughty twinkle in his eyes. So I leaned over and smacked his arm before I gave the idea a thought.

“Hmm.. I guess tomorrow is as good as any day and it doesn’t give me much time to get nervous and back out either.” I told him.

He chuckled at my reasoning “No it doesn’t” He agreed. “And I will be there to hold your hand”.

Remembering our earlier conversation on this subject I decided to tease him a little, so I sat back in my seat and started to pout and told him “Last we talked about this you said you would strip for me if it could make me forget my anxiousness about the needles!”

Nathan then turned his head my way again with a cocky grin on his face “Babe, I will strip for you any time you want” He said as he winked at me with his right eye, which made my lips turn into a broad satisfied smile.

“I will hold you to that, just so you know. But maybe we should keep your nakedness within our own four walls” I told him while I giggled. “I have an idea that Shane might not appreciate it as much as I do”.

“I think you´re right, but the dude is just jealous!” Nathan stated on a broad smile.

“Oh God, you are full of yourself Mr. Mathews” I said, doubling over with laughter. He could be so damn cocky, but I loved when he got like this and I definitely enjoyed that his mood had finally changed.

The rest of the way home went pretty much the same way. We joked around, poking fun at each other as we had always enjoyed doing. There was nothing mean or patronizing in our humor, though anyone else, who might have heard, could have taken it much differently because our humor was so sarcastic and teasing.

When we´d arrived home, Nathan called Shane, right away; to tell him we would be coming in for the appointment he had offered me and that made it real.

Chapter 18

We walked into Shane’s little tattoo shop the next day, around 3pm, and I was overwhelmed by all the amazing drawings and tattoo pictures gracing the walls. If Shane had done all these he definitely had talent and it made me reconsider my choice of tattoo for a split second, before remembering that those big colorful tattoos would never fit my personality or my body, it didn’t mean I couldn´t appreciate them though.

Shane came from the back of the room as he spotted us “Hey you guys” He said before turning to me “Nikki, Nathan said you wanted some script done, so let’s see what you’ve got and then see if I need to change it or if we can just transfer it right on”.

I had been playing around with some script over the last two weeks and had finally, a few days back, settled on the perfect script for it. So I dug into my pocket to retrieve a piece of paper and unfolded it for Shane to see. It said:

Rising From The Shadows

Taking the paper from me he studied it for a few seconds before nodding his head. “I can do this, it’ll be easy, but do you only want the script or do you want to add a symbol to it? Or maybe have it look like it was written on an old script-roll?”

I furrowed my brows in thought, as I tried to picture it in my head. And what I came up with was that I only wanted the script because, no matter how much I tried, I couldn´t imagine anything else being on my body for the rest of my life. Sure it was simple, but it was also me. I didn´t need it to be huge and in techno color for it to remind me of where I was heading and what I was choosing to leave behind.

“I just want those words, in that script, and I would like it right here” I answered while pointing my finger at my right underarm, a few inches over the pulse point. “And I would like for it to be vertical”.

“Awesome! If you walk over to the chair in the corner then I will get the stencil drawn up and ready for ya”.

Shane walked away and just before I went to sit in the chair I looked up at Nathan with a lifted eyebrow, wondering why he had been so silent up until now.

“What? It´s your appointment, so it´s you who need to do the talking. I am just here for support”. He said, answering my unspoken question while giving me a supportive smile. So I just shook my head and headed for the chair.

It didn’t take long before Shane came back, stencil in hand. “So are you ready?”

“Hmm.. As ready, as I´ll ever be. To tell you the truth needles are not really my thing”. I told him.

He chuckled. “Well to tell you the truth a lot of those big tattooed guys hate needles, when we talk doctor needles, but this is a totally different thing”. He assured me, and then he offered to tattoo a little line on my arm without any ink, so I could feel how it was going to be beforehand. Just in case I would change my mind, mid tattoo, because I couldn´t handle it.

“Nope. I need to do this, so I don’t want a chance to chicken out”.

“Okay then, let’s get this show on the road”.

Shane took the stencil he had made and applied it to the spot on my arm, where my tattoo was going to be. He then smoothed his hand over it and removed the paper again; leaving a purple script on my arm. “Take a look and tell me if that is where you want it”.

I did as he told me to and was satisfied with his first try. “Yep, just where I saw it in my head”. Turning to Nathan I asked. “What do you think?”

“It´s definitely you babe” He answered and leaned in to leave a kiss on my cheek.

Shane picked up his tattoo gun and got the ink ready. And then there was no going back. At first it did hurt a bit and I was close to cutting off the circulation in Nathan’s hand when Shane decided that maybe I needed to be distracted, so he began talking again. “So what’s up you guys, have you heard anything from Mike lately?”

Nathan shook his head. “No, it´s actually been days since he showed up outside Nikki’s work”.

Oh shit, that´s right, I hadn´t gotten around to telling him about the other day, when Mike and I had spoken, and I was hit by instant guilt. I had been looking at Nathan when Shane began tattooing me but out of fear that they would read my eyes I looked down at my arm instead. Later I would beat myself up though; asking how I had even thought Nathan wouldn’t notice that little slip up.

“Nik?” He asked with an emotion in his voice that I didn´t recognize at first.

I turned my head back to him and looked into his eyes. Not good, he had caught on and apparently he had guessed why I looked away. “Babe, have you seen Mike since?” He asked with a sharpness coloring his words and his eyes turning hard.

“Ehrmm.. Yea I ran into him the other day, when I was out with Sasha and you were gone on that business trip..” I said, ashamed that I hadn´t just told him off the bat. “He.. Ehrm.. Kinda threatened me”

Nathan’s face got even harder and the anger was shooting out of his eyes. “Why the fuck did you not tell me?” He yelled, making me jump. Thank god Shane had stopped tattooing since Nathan got mad, because that jump might have ruined my first tattoo. “I am going to fucking kill him!” He seethed and let go of my hand. He then turned around and walked out the door.

I looked over at Shane, positive to see his eyes shooting daggers at me as well, but he surprised me. “Let me just finish this up and you can run after him. He won’t leave… But I think he just needed a breather, so let’s give it to him”.

With tears in my eyes I nodded my head, allowing him to finish his job. We didn’t talk much after that but Shane did try to get me in a better mood by poking fun at me and telling me lame jokes, which did put me in a better mindset.

It didn’t take more than 15 minutes to finish up my tattoo and I learned that after a while the pain ceased and the area around the fresh tattoo became sort of numb. Shane dried off the excess ink and patched me up before giving me a small brochure about how to treat a new tattoo, along with a tube of healing cream I was to apply around 4 times a day, or whenever my tattoo was starting to look dry. He told me not to scratch it and in general just to treat it with care and then in a few weeks it would be all healed up. “If it looks like some of the coloring is off when it is completely healed then come back and I will freshen it up” He told me and gave me a wink. “Now go talk that man of yours down, and Nikki, don’t keep shit from him!”

I hadn’t meant to exactly keep stuff from Nathan, but I knew Mike set him more and more off, and I began fearing that the next time Mike showed up Nathan would go beat his ass down. Though I wanted Mike to get off my ass and even hurt a bit, I was just not that sure I wanted Nathan to be the one to enforce that wish.

I told Shane goodbye and walked out of his store to find Nathan. I didn´t have to look for long because he was right outside leaning up against the wall of the store next door. I walked to him, looking at my feet until he spoke. “Nikki, why didn’t you tell me?” He asked in a tired, slightly defeated voice.

“I.. I don’t know.. I guess because I hate seeing you get upset about Mike.”

He stuck out his hand to grab hold of mine and pulled me into his arms. He then leaned his chin on the top of my head, letting go of a deep sigh. “But babe, I only get this mad because the thought of him ever hurting you again makes my blood boil”. He confessed. “And I don’t like that you feel like you can’t tell me stuff…”

Freeing my head I looked up at him. “Okay I get it, and I will tell you if it happens again. But you have to promise me something.. You have to promise that if Mike threatens me again you won’t do something stupid”.

Nathan looked into my eyes. “I can’t promise you that, Nik. I can only promise that I will keep you safe no matter what! If I feel like pummeling Mike to the ground will help me do that.. Then that’s what I’m going to do, and you can’t stop me. I don’t entirely get why you would want to”.

Now was the time to let out my deeper fears and with it let Nathan into the last corners of my heart. “I don’t care what happens to Mike, exactly, but I do care what happens to you. I know your past and I don’t want something to happen to you because you try to keep him from hurting me”.

It was the first time I had ever dared to air that fear of mine, because though I didn´t think much about Nathan’s past I knew he, like his brother Liam, had done shit when he was younger. I hated to bring it up, because normally Nathan was the calmest and most caring person and you would never guess he had once been a hothead. I even sometimes felt it really hard to believe. I didn´t want to remind him of it and furthermore I didn´t want him to think I had any doubt in his self-restraint. I trusted Nathan with my life, but he shouldn´t be the one to pay for my bad choices in people.

“Don’t go there, I can see it in your eyes and you know I will protect you because I love you” He stated before leaning in to capture my lips in a soft kiss. “But thanks for worrying about me”.

“Now let’s go get some late lunch. Haven’t eaten since this morning and I'm starving!”

“Okay, where do you want to go?” I asked, wanting him to choose, because I could still detect some irritation in his voice and it made me want to just stay quiet. I really did hate conflicts and on top I got why he had gotten mad. I would just have to show him that I wouldn’t keep anything from him anymore, least of all anything regarding Mike. The idea of Nathan even coming close to losing trust in me gave me an unexplainable ache in my heart.

“Would you mind if we went to La Scala? I really could do with a piece of Mr. Leban’s amazing Pizza Marinara.”

“No that’s fine. Then I can pick up my pay check at the same time.” I said on a small half assed smile. I felt at home where I worked, so going there was never any trouble, but it did register in my mind that Mr. Leban would ask what was wrong when he saw me. I however decided to swallow down that worry and hope Nathan’s mood would be back to normal when we got our lunch.

Chapter 19

We got to the restaurant and I found that Nathan had gotten over his irritation, for now. The talk went fluently and my colleagues stopped by to talk. All in all it was a lovely afternoon with good company.

We had been eating and joking for a little over an hour when I had to excuse myself to go to the ladies room, but when I came back I saw Nathan walking for the door. That was strange. I looked over to Sasha “Did Nathan pay already?” I asked with a frown upon my face.

“Nope not yet, but I can bring you guys the check?”

“Hmm sure, but let me just check why Nathan walked out. Be back in a few” I told her as I walked towards the door. When I was a few steps from the glass door I spotted why Nathan had left our booth. There by the light stand, right outside the restaurant, was Mike. Couldn’t I just be without him in my life already? And then, of all days, he chose to show up on a day where Nathan was already on edge because of him.

I took a deep breath and walked the rest of the way to the door and opened it, and as I did Nathan had almost reached Mike. “What the hell are you doing here?” Nathan asked in an angry voice.

“This is a public place; I am in full right to be here”. He answered.

“Yea that might be true but showing up at Nikki’s work place when you know she has a restraining order against you, sure as hell isn’t okay”.

“What the fuck do you care Nate, you aren’t her keeper and I need to talk to her”.