THE WALK BACK TO VOODOO Ink and my apartment seemed to take forever as we dodged the people clogging the streets. No one was ready to call it quits on Mardi Gras, and I knew the party would last until the sun came up, just like it did every year.
After three hurricanes, Eden’s steps were more measured and deliberate as the buzz hit her harder.
“Come on, cupcake.” I swept her up into my arms as she shrieked.
“You can’t carry me all the way back! I’m too heavy.”
“Watch me.”
She wrapped an arm around the back of my neck and with her other hand, stroked my beard. “I like the beard. A lot.”
Immediately, an image of how she’d ridden it popped into my head. I fucking liked my beard too. “Is that right?”
“Yep. You should probably think about taking up lumberjacking as a second career if tattooing ever falls through. Is that a thing?”
“Lumberjacking or tattooing falling through?”
“Either.”
I shook my head. “No way am I gonna go somewhere cold and dress up in flannel in order to chop down trees. If you’ve got a lumberjack fantasy, you’ll have to lock it away for a while.”
She looked up at me, her eyes shining as I turned the down the alley that led to the back of Voodoo, and the crowd thinned out. “Nah, I’d rather have you than a lumberjack.”
“What a coincidence. That can be easily arranged.” I set her on her feet, and she held on to my arm.
“You make me feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life to meet you. Like everything was in a holding pattern until I got here, and now I’m finally getting a chance to live.”
Her words hit me somewhere deep and resonated. I’d been existing, never letting anything go beyond superficial. Eden had plowed through my walls without trying, and from the moment I’d met her, everything had become more vivid. She was the turning point. She was a wild card.
What I didn’t know was if this could ever be more than an adventure for her. More than one of the experiences she wanted to have. She still hadn’t figured out how long she was staying, and as much as I wanted to tell her she wasn’t leaving, it wasn’t my choice.
All I could do was wait and see. And give her a reason to stay.
“Meeting you has been just as much of a revelation for me as it has been for you.”
“Really?” Her dark gaze filled with longing.
“Yeah, cupcake. Really.” I leaned down, cradled her face in my hands, and poured all the crazy shit I was feeling into a kiss.
Even though I was consumed by Eden, a noise grabbed my attention. Yanking my lips away, I shoved Eden behind me as movement came from the shadows of the alley.
“Who the fuck is there?”
The light on the back of the building that should have been shining over this section of the alley was out, but it hadn’t been the night before. No one answered my demand.
All my senses jammed into high alert as I reached into my pocket and pulled out the keys. I held them out behind me to Eden.
“Open the door. Get inside. Single key on the big ring.”
Eden’s hand shook as she picked them out of my palm, but she didn’t say a word.
I heard the door open and said, “Hit the light inside.” I couldn’t make out whoever was in the alley, but I heard footsteps as someone ran for the street.
When the light from inside the tattoo shop flooded a small section of the darkness, I caught a glimpse of the back of a dark hoodie as a guy turned the corner.
I stepped inside the shop. “Go upstairs. I’ll be right there.”
“Are you going after him?” Eden asked quietly.
“Just checking shit out as soon as I can get a flashlight from the break room. I’ll be right up. I promise.”
With a small, uncertain nod, Eden opened the door to my apartment and climbed the stairs as I stepped into the break room and retrieved a flashlight.
The first place I pointed it was up at the light fixture Con had added to the back of the building for security. Power ran up the back in a piece of conduit rather than through the brick.
Crouching down, I checked the wire. Cut.
I locked the door before stepping farther out into the alley. If someone took me out, there was no way in hell I was letting them get to Eden.
The first noise I’d heard had come from near the Dumpster on the opposite side. Scanning the area, I found three cigarette butts in a pile. Someone had been watching. Waiting.
Anger and unease pooled in my gut.
Was my past finally catching up with me? Had they finally decided to collect? Fuck.
I knew I should have taken them out first, but that was like attacking a snake that would regrow three heads when you chopped off one. What was that Hercules shit called? The hydra?
If it wasn’t them, then who? The question gnawed at me as I headed back inside. Fuck whoever that asshole was for screwing with our night. I wasn’t going to let them wreck a goddamned thing.
I’d made promises to Eden, and I was keeping them.