Riley glanced at her watch to find it was a quarter past one. Thorn Tattoo kept late opening hours, catering to individuals whose lifestyles encouraged them to stay up late and sleep the morning away. Riley supposed she couldn’t argue against conventional wisdom—plenty of other shops opened their doors noon or later—but she couldn’t help but feel that in a place like Las Vegas, having rotating hours would be an asset. Twenty-four hour service was well outside their budget, but in the future, she hoped Antonio might consider it.

Giovanni was late.

With nothing else to do but sit at the office desk and wait for him to appear, Riley drummed her fingers and went over the things she wanted to talk about at the meeting. It had been a little over a week since she’d arrived at Thorn Tattoo, and she’d spent her time observing what went on in the shop. Between the artists’ workload and the amount of administrative tasks to be taken care of, there was a clear lack of manpower. Going over the figures and projections with Giovanni was essential to keep Thorn Tattoo’s doors open.

If only he’d show up.

Another fifteen minutes slipped by, during which Riley sank onto the desk and folded her arms to rest her chin. Beyond the office door, she heard the buzz of tattoo machines. Mal Mischief, Jaime Ritter, and The News were scheduled to open shop today. Ben Mendez was working the front desk.

Giovanni was somewhere in the shop, and he’d even nodded to her from the coffee machine in the lobby as she walked down the stairs into Thorn Tattoo. There was no excuse for him not to be on time for their meeting. They were burning daylight, and Riley hated feeling useless. When Antonio had shared the shop’s current state of financial affairs and his worries about having to close down, Riley knew that her expertise and reputation for efficiency was exactly what the shop needed to get back on its feet. What she hadn’t anticipated was co-management going out of his way to undermine her. What she couldn’t figure out was if it was because she was a woman or an outsider.

Tired of waiting, Riley left the office. She headed into the tattoo bay and let herself into Mal’s room. He was working on a neo-traditional thigh piece for a heavily tattooed client. Neither of them batted an eye as she entered.

“Have you seen Giovanni?” Riley asked.

“Gio? Mm, yeah, he’s been taking care of The News’ client. Check out his room,” Mal said. He wiped at the client’s thigh, smearing red ink. “There was some shit going down with that earlier today, before you got in. Guess no one told you.”

Riley frowned. It didn’t surprise her that she hadn’t heard about shop news. Giovanni refused to respect her in the way she deserved to be respected, and so far, Antonio hadn’t replied to any of her emails asking if he would mediate. It was tough enough to enter a male dominated industry, but it was much worse when her fellow management was working against her. The artists had loyalty to Giovanni, and while they were polite to her, Riley knew they purposefully avoided contact.

“Thanks, Mal.”

“You’re welcome, dudette,” Mal replied with a smile. “Hope you find him.”

Giovanni had no doubt heard the conversation, but he didn’t call out to make his presence known. Riley entered The News’ usual room to find Giovanni seated beside a client, working over some rough line work. Riley could tell the exact point he had taken over, and her frown grew. The outline was jacked. The News had been with the shop on a part-time basis for half a year, but his work was always lacking. This outline in particular was rough.

“We were scheduled to meet at one this afternoon,” Riley said softly. She leaned against the wall and watched him work. The client was seated, his arms crossed over the back of his chair, and he ate her up with his eyes in silence. Riley ducked his gaze.

“I know,” Giovanni said. “Something else came up. The News doesn’t work here anymore.”

“What?” Riley blinked. “Who made that decision?”

“I did.” Giovanni didn’t stop tattooing. The needle plunged into the man’s thigh as he worked. Riley thought his line work was solid and she found herself moderately impressed. “He was late again today, and when he finally made it in and started tattooing, he made a damn mess. I’m going to clean this shit up and make it phenomenal, but I’m not keeping any artists who can’t draw for shit. I’m freehanding the rest of this, and that’s the only reason why it’s going to turn out like the A-grade tattoos Thorn Tattoo is known for.”

“Gio’s kind of the shit,” the client said. He winked at Riley and Riley crossed her arms over her chest trying not to let it get to her. She wasn’t a stranger to the tattooing world and she knew that she’d be hit on. She tried not to let it get to her. “I’m stoked to be working with him. Have you seen his portfolio?”

“In bits and pieces.” Giovanni had portfolio pieces framed and hanging in the office and Riley had examined all of them on her first day. Colorful, well-saturated traditional tattoos were Giovanni’s specialty, but she was surprised by how well he did photo realism, both in black and white and in color. It took a certain kind of skill set to copy details so flawlessly. She was very familiar with the struggle.

“I’ll get to the meeting whenever we have time. This isn’t the only client The News had booked for today, so I’m going to be busy filling in until his replacement arrives.”

Riley’s jaw dropped. A replacement? “Excuse me?”

“I hired someone after he left,” Giovanni said. The tattoo machine buzzed as he worked his lines. “There’s a stack of applications and portfolios in the filing cabinet a mile high, and I’ve got a few favorites I’ve held onto in case Antonio gets his act together and gives us the funds we need to hire more artists. Once I let The News go, I called a couple.”

“Before I got here?” Riley asked, aghast. “Giovanni, there are procedures to follow.”

“My shop, my rules.” Giovanni took his foot off the pedal and shot her a hard look. “Listen, I know that Antonio thinks you’re going to help me out somehow, but this is an industry where you need to be comfortable making split second decisions on your own. Humans are already flawed animals. Tattoo artists? Fuck. You’re better off trusting monkeys in most cases.”

Mal and Jaime howled with laughter from their respective rooms. Riley felt like sinking through the floor. She couldn’t believe that Giovanni was speaking the way he was in front of clients.

“It’s not your shop,” she insisted. “It belongs to Antonio, and—”

“I can’t hear you.” Giovanni stepped on the pedal once more and went back to inking. “You’re doing that mumbling thing again, slipping off into that accent I can’t make out. Why don’t you go back to the office and cool off a little and we’ll talk once I’m finished with this client? We’ve got another three hours booked, right?”

“You got it, man,” the client said. “Looking forward to every second of it.”

Would she really have to wait another three hours before they could talk in earnest about Giovanni’s behavior? Riley squared her shoulders and bit her tongue. Giovanni was dragging her accent into this as an excuse. The soft-spoken Irish tilt to her words wasn’t difficult to make out.

“Once we hit that three hour mark, I’ve got forty-five minutes until The News’ next client arrives and we start it all over again, taking us into the end of the day. And somewhere in there I’m eating lunch, so make sure you’re either ready to walk with me while I go out to scavenge something from one of the food shops around here, or get ready to cram whatever you have to say into fifteen minutes.”

No. Riley bit down on her jaw and breathed out through her nose slowly to keep her composure. Giovanni was purposefully trying to push her buttons and she knew it. He’d done the same thing every day since she’d started. He was trying to see what made her tick so he could use it to his advantage.

Riley wasn’t going to let him win. She was stronger than that.

“Sounds great,” she said cheerfully. She flashed a bold smile to the client and then nodded at Giovanni. “I’ll make sure that we’ll discuss everything we need to this afternoon. See you in three hours.”

Giovanni saluted her from where he sat, taking a break only to load ink into his needles. Dismissed, Riley pushed her way through the swinging doors and made her way to the front. Ben leaned against the counter, pouring over Inked magazine while a few young women giggled in front of a display of gauge earrings. Riley came to stand behind the counter with him, and Ben glanced up from the magazine long enough to acknowledge her presence.

“Sup?” He flicked to the next page.

“I need access to the appointment book, if you wouldn’t mind,” Riley said. She kept her words soft and her tone cordial, but inside she was steaming. Giovanni DeRose was physically stunning, but on the inside, he was rotten. It didn’t matter how his very presence made her heart leap into her throat without reason, or how the scent of his cologne stirred her deep inside and left her clenching her thighs in anticipation. He was no good. Not even his breathtaking jawline made even more gorgeous by a five o’clock shadow could change her opinion of him. Riley saw Giovanni for what he was.

A bully. An instigator. A man too stubbornly set in his own ways to see reason.

There was no way around taking over The News’ morning appointment, but if he were a responsible manager, Giovanni would have called to cancel the afternoon client. Antonio expected the two of them to work together, and now Riley understood why. Giovanni was a talented artist and had a great rapport with the guys in the shop, but he had poor decision-making skills. Riley needed to steer him back on track if Thorn Tattoo was going to stay open.

Giovanni was going to make getting back on track difficult, so she’d have to rein him in. Whether he liked it or not.

“Sure.” Ben squatted down to pull the appointment book off the shelf beneath the counter. Leather bound and thick, it was jammed with work schedules for the next four months. Riley took it, set it on the desk, and flipped to the present date.

“What do you want with it, anyway?” Ben asked. He straightened his posture and watched as Riley went over the details. The handwriting in the book was messy, and she didn’t like how inefficient it was. Bookings could be handled much more easily through a computer program. Mentally, Riley added it to her checklist of topics to bring up during their meeting.

“I’m looking for this afternoon’s client for The News,” Riley said simply. “This is him, right?” She pointed at a name scribbled in for five-thirty. “Jeremy?”

“Yeah, that’s him,” Ben nodded. “What’s happening?”

“Giovanni needs to cancel his appointment,” she said. “Since he’s busy taking over this morning’s client for The News, I’m going to do it for him.”

“Oh. Cool.” Ben shrugged. He pushed the phone in her direction. “Knock yourself out.”

The front of the store was far enough away from the tattoo bays that Riley wasn’t concerned with being overheard. The buzz of tattoo machines and the hard rock that played over the stereos would drown her out. Riley took the initiative and called. No matter what, they needed to have this meeting, and they needed to have it as soon as possible. Giovanni couldn’t see the bigger picture, but Riley could. Her mind was geared to numbers and figures, and she understood that it was going to take a lot more than talent to keep a shop like this open for much longer. They were hemorrhaging money, and Antonio knew it.

Riley could already tell Giovanni was too proud to admit there was a problem.

“Hello?” a male voice answered from the other end of the line.

“Hi,” Riley said brightly. “Is this Jeremy?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“This is Riley, from Thorn Tattoo. You have an appointment here this afternoon with The News. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we’re going to have to cancel the appointment. Is there any time I can reschedule you to come in? It’ll have to be with a different artist.”

“Whoa,” Ben whispered beneath his breath. He flipped through the book, looking a little panicked. “We haven’t even looked at availability yet, I have no idea when—”

“Geez, that bad, huh?” Jeremy asked. “Well, shit. I’d been cleared to leave work early today. It won’t be until next month at least.”

“What about on a Saturday?” Riley asked. “We’re open Tuesday through Saturday.”

“That could work.”

Ben was flipping through the book faster, working off what she said. They settled at last on a spot on Saturday in three weeks.

“You’re going to love working with Mal,” Riley promised as they wrapped the call up. “He’s new to the shop, but he’s got three years’ experience working at Northpoint Tattoo in Dallas. He does absolutely beautiful work.”

“Sounds great,” Jeremy replied. “Thanks for hooking me up.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

Ben watched her with an open mouth and widened eyes, like she’d just turned lead into gold. Riley smiled reassuringly at him, finished the call with Jeremy, and hung up.

“You rescheduled that guy?” Ben asked.

“You saw me do it.” Riley tucked her hair behind her ear. She knew Giovanni would be pissed, but the long-term benefits of moving an appointment so they could sit down to go over some hard facts and figures far outweighed the disadvantages. In the short term, the shop would be out half a grand for the day. In the long term, she hoped their meeting would lay the groundwork to keep Thorn Tattoo open for years to come and increase their bottom line along the way.

“It’s just… no one really does shit like that around here,” Ben said. “Gio would’ve made me work the appointment or something if he really needed the extra hands. All of us have been pitching in so much extra time to keep things running smoothly. We’re all worn down.”

“I hope that’s going to change soon,” Riley said reassuringly. Her heart went out for all of them. It was clear every employee at Thorn Tattoo loved what they did and wanted to see the shop succeed. “This afternoon Giovanni and I are going to sit down and go over the budget, look at scheduling, and figure out how to make this work for all of us. I don’t want any of you burning out.”

Ben smiled at her and for the first time since she’d started working, Riley felt appreciated. She smiled back.

It was an uphill battle, and she’d known that coming in, but Riley had faith in herself. Working in a shop like this, rubbing elbows with talented artists and keeping them on track was her calling. Once the staff was on her side, she knew that it wouldn’t be long before Giovanni relented and accepted her as a trusted part of the shop, too.

Until then, she’d keep her eyes to herself and her desires suppressed. The job she did and the things it represented were more important to her than any asshole of a guy, and Riley wouldn’t let herself be distracted by Giovanni, no matter how much he tempted her.