Heart of a Tattooist: Dark Romance MC Club Alpha Bad Boy Obsession (Tattooist Series Book 3) (5 page)

“Hello?”

“Hey Mitch, your…whatever the hell she is…just got me fired.”

Mitch seemed to choke on whatever he was going to say. “Cara? You okay? Wait. What? Oh shit. Cara, I’m really sorry. Dani’s completely professional, and I’m sure she didn’t mean to. I’ll make it right.”

Cara bit her lip. There were so many things she wanted to say to him, but she didn’t know where to begin. “I’m sure she didn’t mean to. Apparently she and Shane, my boss, have some kind of old beef.”

“Shane?” Mitch sounded worried. “Are you kidding me?”

“No, I’m not kidding you.”

Mitch sighed, the sound pushing through the phone and warming Cara’s ear. “Well that just about sums up my luck lately.”

Cara snarled, “Your luck?”

Mitch laughed. “Yours, too, I guess. I was worried about you. I ran into Bobby over there in Memphis and he told me, well, showed me, what happened…”

“He deserved it.” The words came out in a rush of self-defense.

Mitch said, “Oh I couldn’t agree with you more on that one, but still, that was brave but a little crazy, Cara. I guess if I had to say, that would be just like you.”

She leaned against the wall. The sun-warmed stucco sent heat into her back and bottom. “How would you know?”

“The mountain lions.”

She burst into laughter. “You were pretty scared, weren’t you?”

“I was scared shitless.” There was no shame in his voice. “But it was the coolest thing I ever saw anyone do. I just have to wonder, though, do you really do things like that all the time and if you do, why? I mean, what drives a woman to do stuff like that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I think I need to.”

“Need to what? Get yourself killed to impress a guy?”

The incredulity in his voice brought back her earlier thought about why she had done all the things she had done while she was with Cliff. “I don’t know about that.”

“I do. That’s fucking nuts, and you had me at hello.”

The stucco heated even further. The sun was a huge bloated sphere in the sky, and suddenly she longed for green grass and quiet, for a place away from the crowds. She pushed herself away from the wall. “Look, I don’t know what you want from me.”

“I don’t either. I’m not sure if there’s anything I could give you either, but I would like to see. I mean, I know you’re there and I’m here but…I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m doing here either, Cara, not really. I’ve never chased a woman the way I’m chasing you, and I never went after a woman I wasn’t damn certain wanted me as much as I wanted her.”

Her heart stuttered at his words. She didn’t know what to say. Except there was a smile pushing at the corners of her mouth and it wouldn’t stop.

“I don’t know how to ask you for a chance to get to know each other either.”

“I think you just did.” She was amused in spite of herself.

Mitch chuckled. “I guess I did.”

“So what do we do now?”

“I’m not sure. How about dinner?”

She laughed. “I’m still in Key West, you know.”

“You could come up here.”

The words made her blink. “You mean Nashville?”

“Yeah. It’s a great town. And, no offense, but I hate Key West.”

She looked around at the sweating mobs of people and the pastel-hued houses. She sighed. “I can see that.”

She could, but getting to Nashville would mean booking a flight she couldn’t afford. She had rented a small, and really expensive, room when she’d arrived and she had not yet been able to afford to move out of it.

It was the classic Catch-22. She couldn’t afford the place she was in, and because it was so expensive she couldn’t afford to save up the necessary money to move to a place that was cheaper.

In Key West cheap was relative. Her room was in the seediest section of town and it was still nearly a hundred bucks a day. In New York she had made enough money to afford a decent place and to buy the things she loved or wanted. Ditto L.A. But life on the run had kept her from being able to announce herself or make the money she was used to making. She sighed, “Nashville’s a long way from here.”

“Dani has my personal plane. She can fly you up.”

Cara shook her head. “I’m sorry, did you say Dani has your personal plane?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing fancy, just a little single engine thing but it’s good for one or two-person flight, especially if it’s not a real long one. How about it?”

She considered it. Then said, “Oh, what the hell? Yes, I’ll have dinner with you. But you should know Dani walked off a minute before I called you and she might very well be on her way back there.”

“I’ll get a hold of her,” Mitch said.

“Mitch?”

“Yeah?” His voice sounded so sexy with the single word.

“Is Bobby okay?”

“He’s fine. He was worried about you.”

“I guess it’s safe to let him know I’m okay now.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

Relief filled her. How long had it been since she had heard those words, and from someone who meant them?

Dani came striding back to where Cara still stood on the sidewalk, less than five minutes later, her face wearing a grim expression. Her eyes travelled up and down the length of Cara’s body. “Do you want to go home and change?”

Cara didn’t want anyone to know just how dire her current circumstances were, but she blurted out before she could halt her tongue, “I’m going to have to take my stuff with me. I didn’t get any work in today and… well…” She shrugged.

“You spend a lot on the lam,” Dani said with an understanding nod. “I get it and, hey, who knows? You might find a job in Nashville you like better.”

Cara shook her head. “I don’t want to be disloyal to Shane. He took a chance on me.”

Dani slipped her phone into her back pocket. “So call him and tell him you’re taking care of this like he told you to, and then go from there. For all you know, you might be right back here tomorrow.”

Cara sighed. “There is that. Come on, I’m down the street there.” She started walking and Dani kept a step just slightly behind her, so silent Cara almost wouldn’t have noticed her there if she didn’t know Dani was with her. “Can I ask what’s between you and Shane? It’s probably none of my business, but since I got caught up in it I figured I’d ask.”

Dani stared straight ahead, her face completely unreadable. “It’s not a secret. We used to be together. Now we aren’t.”

“Why not?”

Dani’s smile was hard. “Some people can’t walk off the guilt. Some can. Shane hasn’t and he’s pissed at me because I did. Now shut up. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“You’re pretty rude.”

Dani nodded. “I get ruder the less coffee I have in me. Is this it? I’ll wait down here until you get your stuff.”

“Here, hold my ink case. I’ll be back in a moment.” Cara went up the rickety stairs and grabbed her meager belongings. She had lightened her load repeatedly and now all of her possessions fit into a single solitary duffel bag. The utter unfairness of that struck her all the way to the heart.

Once upon a time she had been successful. She’d had the world at her fingertips. She’d left that behind in New York and tried again in L.A., even though she knew that city had never brought her anything but misery.

Only, from the moment she had stepped off that plane at LAX everything had begun to crumble. Mitch wanted the successful, famous tattoo artist he’d met in L.A. He wanted long hair and tight leather. He wanted crazy and wild and sexy.

He wanted Cara Van Tear.

She didn’t know who that person was anymore.

Somewhere between Memphis and Key West, Cara Van Tear had vanished and Cara Jenkins, the girl she had once been, had resurfaced with all her fears, insecurities, hurts, and doubts.

And who wanted that kind of girl?

Nobody.

Nobody ever had.

Maybe it would be better just to call the whole thing off. Tell Dani she couldn’t go or had changed her mind, and go beg Shane to let her work a shift so she could pay her rent.

She had nothing to offer to a man who’d already made his way in the world, and she damn sure didn’t want him to think she was just one more broke ass gold-digger like his ex.

She frowned and stared at the duffel. Stay or go. See Mitch or don’t.

The choices were simple, but ever so complicated. She took a long breath and picked up the bag.

Shane was cool, and she liked him a lot, but she had a feeling he was no more interested in having her there than she was in actually being there. He didn’t need her in his shop, and, while he was a good guy, she was not as interested in the work he did as he was.

She walked out of the hotel, her bag in her hand and a rueful grin on her face. Mitch would probably take one look at her and tell Dani to put her back on the plane and haul her right back to Key West.

Well, if he did, she would know exactly what kind of guy he was. Just the same as the rest.

**

Mitch stared around at the walls of his home office. The gold and platinum records shone, and the awards sat on shelves. His Emmy, won for his work on television, was on the fireplace mantel. He kept pacing the room, excited to get to see Cara again and nervous as hell.

He had everything he needed. Right?

Money, fame, and a good life.

Everything.

Everything but a woman he could trust with his heart.

He paced the confines of the room, thinking hard. Once upon a time he had thought that April, his now ex-wife, was the best person he had ever met. It hadn’t taken long for him to figure her out, but by the time he had he was already married to her, and her whole host of friends and family too.

He winced. He had always been a careful man. Raised in what amounted to poverty, albeit rather genteel poverty, his family had never been wealthy or well-known, and while he had plenty of money now they wanted little of it. They loved him, not the persona of Mitch Rider.

He’d bought his parents a house and saw his siblings set up in business. He’d offered more but they had refused and he couldn’t figure out how he had wound up not noticing that April’s family had always been standing around with their hands out. She had always insisted on filling those hands as often as she could talk him into it.

He sighed.

Cara was not April.

Cara was tough and almost unbelievably fragile, all at the same time.

It was a complete contradiction and he was pretty sure that that was part of what drew him to her. Under her hard and cold exterior there was the woman he had met that night, one with a genuine laugh and love for life. She’d been wounded and she had gotten back on her feet, and not just once either.

Well, it was just dinner, and she had probably just agreed to it so she could haul ass back to Key West and be rid of him forever.

“I’m going to have to work really hard to change her mind on that one,” he muttered.

The tiny little light plane landed. Cara, who hated to fly under the best of circumstances, released her white-knuckled grip on the ‘oh-shit’ handle and heaved a huge sigh of relief. She swallowed, trying to quench the dryness in her mouth, and focused on bringing her heart rate back to some normal rhythm as Dani drove the plane to the proper hangar.

Mitch stood on the tarmac, dressed in a black shirt that hugged his gorgeous frame perfectly and a pair of jeans that looked tailored just for his sexy legs and ass. Even his sunglasses looked sexy on him.

And a hat.

Hot. Crazy hot.

Cara’s eyes went back down to her shorts and top.

Great
.

If she hadn’t looked like shit before, she did now. She’d sweated like a dog on that flight, while Dani looked like a painting by Titian.

Mitch came toward them as the engine cut. His face creased into a broad grin. The man looked unbelievably hot, and not just because it had to be over a hundred degrees out there on the tarmac either. He looked sexy and fuckable. The jeans clung to his long legs and narrow hips. The shirt outlined the flat planes of his stomach and the broad width of his shoulders. He grinned as he opened the door for her. “There you are.”

She grimaced. “Yeah. I’d have dressed up but…”

Dani walked past, her head high. She ignored the two of them, hopped into a BMW sitting by the gate, and drove off.

Cara frowned. “Did I do something wrong?”

“She and Shane…well, it likely shocked the shit out of her to see him again.”

“It’s pretty shocking to see you again too.” It was. She added, “I know I don’t look much like I used to. I’m…”

“No, you don’t. I love the hair.” He reached for a blue strand and tugged it playfully. “It suits you.” He tucked it behind her ear. “I’m glad to see you’re not hiding anymore.”

She blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

He gestured toward a black SUV that she recognized from L.A. They headed for it and Mitch said, “I mean the whole corset and leather thing, and all that makeup…it felt like you were trying to hide behind it.”

“Really? What would you know about hiding behind things?”

He stopped and faced her. “I know. I hide behind a cowboy hat. It keeps people from really seeing my face. I hide behind my guitar and my music and, hell, I even took a job acting because that way I could hide behind the character I played.”

He started walking again and she fell into step beside him. She wanted to hug him, or kiss him. Or just curl up next to him and go to sleep for a long time—after they had made love for a very long time.

She was confused and shaken. The sun beat down on them but she could see it shading toward dusk in the corners as they headed away from the small semi-private airstrip. “What about the plane?”

He shrugged. “There’s a skeleton crew that works there. They’ll take good care of her.”

“Is it always that easy for you? Just have other people handle everything?”

He sighed. “No, it isn’t always that easy for me, Cara.” His hand rested on the gear shift and she reached out and took it.

Her hand met his and warmth spilled all the way through her. “I didn’t mean to sound like a bitch. I’m pretty confused.”

“Me too,” Mitch admitted. “I mean, you came off that plane and my whole heart hurt. I always knew you were beautiful, but I didn’t know how beautiful until just then. I don’t want to come off like a teenage boy, but damn if that isn’t how I feel right now.”

She burst into laughter. Real and healing laughter that lifted her spirits until she was, finally, able to breathe. “I feel pretty silly too. I mean, the last time I went on a date I wore a full leather cat-suit and dyed my hair green.”

“Who were you dating? Marilyn Manson?”

She chuckled. “No, a hairdresser. Turned out he was gay.”

Mitch snorted, choked, and then roared laughter. He finally managed to get out, “Who knew?”

“Not me. I must be the only woman on the planet who can’t tell a gay man from a straight one. It seems he thought I had great hair—and I did have great hair because he did it—and he wanted to show off his work so he could get more clients. I think the leather cat-suit scared him into confessing he was gay.”

“It would have convinced me to go the other way if I was gay,” Mitch said with a wicked grin.

They rode in comfortable silence and Cara looked out the windows with real interest.

Nashville itself was huge, with lush rolling green hills and mountains to one side. The traffic was light as they headed out of the suburbs and into the city proper, passing by Green Hills and then bursting into the Downtown section.

Mitch parked his car in a condo’s parking garage and she asked, “Do you live here?”

“Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes the traffic’s heavy or I work late here in town, especially when I’m recording, so driving back to the house can be a pain in the ass.”

“That makes sense.”

They walked out of the garage and she asked, “Don’t you have a bodyguard? I mean, I know you had one in L.A. but he wasn’t always with you, or so you said.”

“I have to have one from time to time but usually, here in Nashville, I can get by with just hanging to without Roger.”

“Roger?”

“Yeah, he’s Dani’s brother.”

“Oh.” She tamped down her surprise and a sudden flash of jealousy as well. “So you and Dani go way back?”

“Yeah. I’ve known her since she was a snot-nosed little kid. Sometimes she still is.”

“What’s the deal with her and Shane?”

Mitch took her hand and led her down a street filled with honky-tonks and restaurants. Nobody even noticed them, and if they did they pretended that they didn’t. “They were in a combat unit together. There was a really fucked-up firefight and everyone but the two of them died. It was the end of them as a couple too.”

Cara swallowed hard as horror and pity warred within her. “I see.” She decided to change the subject. “There’s no paparazzi here, is there? And people don’t mob you either.”

“Nope and nope. In Nashville people are too polite to bother us, and the paps generally get run out of town pretty fast. Nobody wants them here.”

“This place has its own vibe.”

“It does. Did you like Memphis?”

She nodded. “I did. It was funky and gritty and fun—well, until the end there.”

He chuckled. “I can see that. Here. Let’s get some dinner.”

The place he steered her into was dim and quiet. Everyone inside was attired much like she and Mitch were. Nobody batted an eye at her shorts and tennis shoes or his hat and boots.

They took a seat near the back and the server handed them both a menu and Mitch asked, “Would you like some wine?”

She’d love some food. She hadn’t eaten since way earlier in the day and she was famished. “Yes, please.” She perused the menu. The prices were good, beyond good, to her relief.

The wine came and Mitch poured them both a large glass and asked, “See anything you like?”

Yes. You. Her face heated and she looked away from him quickly. “How’s the chicken salad?”

“The best in the country. I mean that too.”

“Then that’s what I want.” She laughed, “You invited me for dinner and I show up in shorts and order chicken salad. You must be so impressed.”

He set his wine aside and leaned across the small table. His cologne eddied across the air to her nostrils. “I am,” he said softly, seriously. “Very impressed.”

He was the most confusing man she had ever met. “Why?”

“Why? Because you are so unlike every other woman on the planet.”

She shook her head, “No, I’m just like every other woman on the planet.”

His eyes were hooded. His mouth, that full sensual mouth, pursed slightly then he said, “I don’t think so. You’re a rare and unusual woman, and I’m glad as hell you came to dinner with me.”

“I’m glad you found me.” She was. She honestly was now that she’d had time to think about it. If she was being brutally honest, she might as well tell him everything. “I thought about you a lot but…but I didn’t know how to get a hold of you and even if I had …well, I’ve changed a lot.” She sucked in a slow shaky breath. “So if you’re expecting…I don’t what you’re expecting, but I can tell you the woman you met in L.A. isn’t here anymore.”

Mitch’s gaze didn’t waver. “I wasn’t expecting her. I was expecting Cara. You.”

“How would you know there was a difference?” She’d barely realized it herself. How could he see it, even before she did? In one night?

“I was
hoping
you wouldn’t be the same.” He smiled. “You were there, Cara. The night we met, it was just all the layers on top that I had to look through to find you.”

There he went, catching her off-guard again.

“I can only run into so many mountain lions.”

She bit her bottom lip, a little frustrated and a lot perplexed. “If you didn’t like me on the outside, why chase me down?”

Mitch leaned across the table and took her hand. The touch of his fingers sent a bolt of electricity through her. “Cara, I was attracted to you then, yes. Something about you captured me. It sounds like a country song; running with mountain lions, capturing my heart.” He grinned and picked up a napkin and pretended to scribble it down. “Seriously, though, I wanted to get to know the woman who laughed and talked to me that whole night.” His tongue ran over his soft lips and her gaze dropped to watch a moment, almost disappointed when it disappeared back into his mouth. “I won’t bullshit you. Meeting you was like being hit by lightning, especially when you drove me up into the mountains. But sitting around with you, talking about everything else, and just being with you, that was what made me come after you—not the rest of it.”

It was flattering. Crazy flattering.

But did he mean it?

She wanted to believe it but that same old doubt and insecurity came rushing back in. If she wasn’t the woman she had worked so hard to be, who was left but the young girl and woman who’d had to change herself almost completely just to be loved and wanted by anyone?

Thankfully their food came. Cara took a bite out of her chicken salad sandwich. “Wow, you weren’t kidding. It’s delicious.” She was thankful for the distraction and having to react to Mitch’s words. They hardly knew each other and he sounded like he was ready to fall in love with her. Was she ready for something like that? She took another bite of the sandwich and focused on that.

It was so good. The tender chicken was layered with celery, chopped nuts and grapes, smoked aioli, and then served on a freshly baked roll. It was accompanied by crisp kettle chips, still warm, lightly kissed with sea salt and garlic, and tart and perfectly crisp pickles spears.

They chatted over their meal and as they did, Cara began to relax even more. Her guard, held so firmly in place for so long, dropped slowly but as it did she opened up more.

She set aside her personal insecurities, told herself to enjoy the evening with Mitch. After dinner, he asked if she wanted to walk around the downtown. The streets were filled with men who wore the same type outfit that Mitch wore, and it seemed that his clothes and slightly tilted downward head served as a perfect disguise because, again, nobody bothered them.

They walked through the bustling downtown and she commented, watching all the people, “There’re more tourists than I expected. Do you know, I think every city I have ever lived in has had tourists?”

“I think every town in the country, heck the world, hopes to draw a crowd. Tourism is a huge business.”

“That’s true.” His shoulder bumped hers then his hip did as well. Desire which had been stirred into being at the first glimpse of him began to burn even higher in her body at the slight contact.

They wandered into a slightly less touristy section. Mitch pointed to an upcoming building and said, “See those apartments there? I lived in that one, over there at the corner, with four other guys for two years.”

She stared at the plain building. “Four?”

Mitch nodded his head. “Yeah, in a two-bedroom place. We were all working our asses off. Luke was a songwriter trying to make it. I was a singer-songwriter trying to make it, and Hal and Jack were in a band.”

Cara slowed her steps, letting his body collide gently with hers again. Another thrill shot through her body. “What about the fourth guy?”

Mitch chuckled. “He was a used car salesman without a single shred of musician-based ambition. I was pretty sure for a long time that of all of us he would be the only successful one.”

Cara leaned into him slightly as they came to a halt in front of the apartment building. The touch of his body, hard and strong, against hers, made her nipples stiffen and her legs shake a little. Her breath came in a harder rhythm.

Mitch’s voice dropped a little, turning huskier and richer than before, and betraying his desire. “He owns a couple of car lots around town, so I guess he did pretty well for himself after all.”

Her heart beat faster as their heads bent toward each other. His body came into closer contact, then closer still as he gathered her into his arms. The kiss was soft and sweet, but searing and filled with all the things neither of them could or wanted to say, at least not in words.