Page 64 of Shattered Hearts
“Shoot.”
“It’s about your tattoos.”
A harmless enough conversation topic. “Okay.”
She points to the numbers on my right forearm. “Are these…dates?”
“Anniversaries.”
“They’re only a few days apart.”
The concentration in her eyes lessens my resistance, until I realize I want to tell her the truth. Even though that means she’ll be able to see all of the broken pieces of me.
I glance down at the tattoo that has her fascinated,11-11-91and11-14-91.
“Got them when I was eighteen.” I still remember how that tattoo parlor smelled of roses and cigarettes. “One for my mom. One for my brother.”
Riley goes quiet and pensive, the way people do when they know someone close to you died. Pity usually pisses me off, but that’s not pity in her eyes. It’s concern.
She drops her gaze. “Your dad told me.”
Confounded, thirteen-year-old-boy fury engulfs me. “He what?”
“When we danced at the wedding. He told me then.”
I knew it. Iknewmy old man told her things he shouldn’t have that day.
“What the hell else did he say?”
“Nothing, I swear.” She offers a small smile. “He just…welcomed me to the family. That’s all.”
I don’t even know how to react to the way she scrambles me up inside.
After a while, she points again. This time, her fingertip touches my skin, lighting a dozen sparks inside me. “What about this one?”
My blood runs cold. I don’t have to glance down to know which tattoo she’s curious about. In this moment, I realize letting her ask about my tattoos is a mistake I’m going to regret.
“Why a marigold?” Her lips lift at the corners.
What am I doing? I never talk to anyone like this. Not about my past, my pain, my secrets…
Who cares? Riley won’t be in your life that long anyway.
That melancholy reminder motivates me to continue this strange honest streak I’m on. Why not? This could be my last opportunity. Harper could return any day, and everything I experience when I look at Riley will disappear from my world.
Just like she will.
“See this?” I point to the inch-long scar next to the tattoo. Rubbing my thumb against the scar always takes me right back to the night I got it. This is one of my only memories of Brianne that remains untouched by regret. “When I was still new as an enforcer, I was assigned to work security at the Diamond Club.”
Riley nods like she remembers too. Like she was there. Maybe she was. It’s easy to forget Riley’s past role as a Gallagher informant.
“And one of the most popular entertainers they had back then was this…smart, funny woman I used to see around sometimes.” Brianne’s blue eyes shine like sapphires in my memory. “We weren’t friends. I didn’t know her personally. But one night, I could tell she was worried about something. Something had her scared.”
Riley perches her chin in her palms.
“I later learned she was being followed.”
“Someone was stalking her?”