I hoped there would come a time where Scar and I were capable of discussing our feelings, of using more than just touch to soothe the hurts life caused.
I’d have given anything to know he loved me, to know I hadn’t just lost my best friend for nothing.
Maybe one day.
55
SCAR
The tattoo artist set up shop in the living room, getting her chair in place and disinfecting all the surfaces. Irina’s request to have someone I trusted come to the mansion had come as a surprise.
I’d expected her to need more time to decide what she wanted to cover up the marks on her stomach, but something in the way she looked at me when she asked told me this was not something I wanted to fight her on.
There was a steely resolve there, which came from the inner strength of a woman who’d been broken and risen stronger than ever. She sat in the kitchen, chatting amicably with Ivory and Aoife while the tattoo artist got ready for her.
Yavin had taken to bringing his fiancée to the estate as often as he could, forcing the young woman to get to know the family she’d soon gain. Just as he’d been spending a great deal of time with her father and his men, learning the ropes of the organization he would run once Murphy was dealt with, Aoife had some adjusting to do.
Acquiring an Italian family was nothing to laugh at.
Fortunately, she fit in well with the other women. Particularly Ivory, since their business endeavors both leaned toward technology. Until she’d become Mrs. Bellandi, Ivory had run her own lucrative food blog that required her to have a basic understanding of computers and marketing, as well as an artistic eye for websites and photography.
Aoife’s chosen career in graphic design meant the two were frequently deep in conversation that drove their men up a wall with what they considered to be pedestrian and beneath the women they worshiped.
Even if Aoife did still want to cut off Yavin’s balls.
Their wedding was less than a month away, so she’d at least stopped trying to find ways to escape the obligation her father had thrust upon her. Considering she’d been betrothed to marry Tiernan Murphy himself, before Yavin had stepped in and agreed to marry her, she’d gotten off easy.
“I’m ready when she is,” Ada said, patting the arm of the chair dramatically.
I nodded, snagging Irina’s attention when she glanced my way. She heaved a sigh, spinning and lowering herself from the stool at the kitchen island.
“Good luck!” Ivory called, watching with a furrowed brow as Aoife moved to follow her. “What are you doing?” Ivory asked Aoife.
“Getting a tattoo,” Aoife said with a playful grin, smacking the fabric of her skirt covering her ass.
Yavin was going to kill me.
The two women made their way into the living room, Aoife watching as Irina lifted herself into Ada’s chair with a smile.
Ada grinned back, grabbing the drawing she’d prepared ahead of time according to whatever specifications Irina had given her. She raised it to show Irina, and I watched as my woman’s face shifted. Tears stung her eyes but her lips parted into a beaming smile as she nodded.
“It’s perfect,” Irina said, holding out her wrist for Ada to prep. She shaved and wiped the area down, then sketched with a marker on her skin.
“Wait, you aren’t covering up your scars?” I asked, staring at her in confusion.
Irina shook her head, her hand drifting to the area that had been so horrifically changed against her will. She would always be beautiful, but I knew how badly scars like that could ruin your self-image.
“No. Those are a part of me, and I’m going to wear them with pride. I survived that, and I came out the other side. Just like this,” she said, nodding her head down to the blue ink on her skin.
A phoenix rose from the flames on her wrist, a semicolon at the center of the fire. The phoenix I understood…
“The semicolon represents a place where you could have stopped, but you chose to go on instead. It means that my story isn’t over yet,” she said, swallowing against the tightness in her throat.
Aoife reached over and took her hand in hers, offering a show of silent support that I wished I was close enough to give, but I stayed on my side of the room, watching as Ada prepared her ink and started to tattoo the woman I loved.
Knowing without a doubt that she was the strongest person I knew, as she marked her skin with what some might consider a weakness or a failure.
She owned her imperfections, all the broken pieces that made her who she was.
And she rose from the flames.
56
IRINA
Scar was pissed.
His obsidian glare made things clench in my stomach that shouldn’t have responded to his anger and the rougher side of the man who always anticipated my needs and gave me exactly what I needed.
For a man who hadn’t thought he’d ever be able to touch me, he couldn’t seem to stop.
I glanced over at him, ignoring our ugly surroundings as my eyes zeroed in on the dusting of butterflies that climbed up the side of his neck. Even the day after he’d sat his ass down in the chair as soon as Aoife and I were finished with our ink, the sight of those tattoos fluttering against his skin in such a pronounced spot made my heart catch in my chest.
Only the knowledge that the ink was for me and she hadn’t actually touched his skin made me able to tolerate how close the tattoo artist had been to him yesterday. He’d flinched away, even with her hands covered by gloves, and that reminded me that something about me was special.
I’d never been special to anyone until him.
He turned his dark gaze fully on me, an arrogant smirk curving his lips when he found me staring at the new ink. Even in his ire that we’d been called away and he couldn’t spend the rest of the day with his mouth between my legs, his hand remained pressed against the small of my back as he guided me through the wreckage. Bullet holes covered the sides of the warehouse, hinting at the absolute bloodbath that had happened here only a couple months prior.
Sadie and Enzo weren’t fazed by the signs of violence in the warehouse they now owned, stepping over the carnage as if they’d done it a hundred times.
“Nothing says cozy and welcoming like bullet holes and shattered glass,” Scar muttered, his irritation showing through in the frustrated words.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked, staring at him. Madison walked at my side, her eyes wide as she witnessed the other side of what Murphy and his men were capable of. She’d seen the worst of humanity in the form of abuse in a dark basement, but the death that accompanied their rise was another story altogether.
Not worse, just different.
“We signed the papers to purchase this place the day you were taken,” Sadie said, giving Scar a knowing look. Enzo wrapped his arm around her, tugging her into his side. “We talked about selling it. There’s so much bad here now.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head and snuggling into Scar. “All the more reason to make it something beautiful.”
“A gym is beautiful now?” Madison asked, quirking an eyebrow and nudging a large piece of glass with her foot.
“No,” I said, smiling over at the girl who would understand the purpose for the site better than anyone. “But a self-defense center aimed toward teaching women to prevent abduction is.” I spun, looking around the vast property surrounding the remains of the warehouse. “We should build the women’s shelter on site.” I pointed to the area behind the existing structure, knowing that the piece of land would be large enough to accommodate a large building.