A Heart for Rebel (19 page)

T
HE FOLLOWING MORNING I woke up so sick and nauseous,
I spent a better part of the morning in the bathroom. There was a knock on the
bathroom door.

“Rebel, baby, let
me in. I know you’re in there throwing up,” Wyatt worriedly said.

“Wyatt, I’ll be
right out just let me brush my teeth,” I said. I cautiously opened the door
after I rinsed my mouth and he barged in, “What’s wrong? Do you want to go see
a doctor?”

“No, I don’t want
to go see a doctor. I think I just got out of bed a little too fast.”

“Okay, if you sure
it’s nothing. I was thinking you might want to tag along and come to the first
day of the expo with me,” he said.

“I would love to
go. I’ve never been to one.”

“Are you sure
you’re feeling alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Let
me take a quick shower and I’ll meet you downstairs.”

“Want me to wash
your back?”

“If you join me, we
will never leave on time. Now go on, get out.” He placed his hands on my cheeks
and looked me deeply in the eyes. I saw the concern in his eyes and I didn’t
want him to worry about my health. I plastered a fake smile on my face and
stuck my tongue out at him. He smiled and kissed me on the forehead, “I love
you, Rebel, so much.” He turned around and walked out the bathroom as I stood
there in a love induce daze.

I
WAS IN awe in the enormity of the convention
center. There were over one hundred and fifty tattoo artists from around the
world attending. On the way there, I learned that Wyatt and his crew were
chosen to attend and have a booth of their own. He took me completely by
surprise. I was so proud of him and his crew. People from around the country
were here to get a tattoo from them. The Madd Tatter’s booth was decked out.
There were t-shirts with tattoo sketches on them, piercings of all kinds in
glass cases and tattoo machinery for sale. I left the guys to set-up for the
day and I wandered around taking in the sights. I realized that tattoos are
much like my art instead of being on a canvas they are etched onto some ones
flesh. As I walked further away I noticed a sign for the annual Miss inked up
model competition. Every woman with unique tattoos were encouraged to sign up
and have the fans decide who had the best tattoo. If I had loads of tattoos on
my body I would have signed up, but since I only had two I didn’t feel I
qualified. I wanted to have a few more and wondered if Wyatt would have a
chance today to create one for me. I came across a coffee stand and purchased
coffees and pastries for the group. When it was my turn to place my order I was
hit with a wave of dizziness and I was suddenly nauseous again. What the hell
was wrong with me? I’ve never been sick a day in my life since I had to take
care of Bailey I always made sure to take care of myself.

“Hi, young lady,
what can I get for you today?” the coffee barista asked. I looked at him and
whispered, “Bathroom.” He pointed to a hallway straight ahead of me and I took
off like a gazelle in that direction, praying I made it before I emptied the
contents of my stomach on the floor. When I came out of the bathroom I noticed
people milling about looking at paintings that were on the walls. I kept my
focus on the canvases on the wall not paying attention as to where I was
walking. I was so engrossed admiring the sea of colors around me I collided
with someone. I was painfully grabbed by the arms and a chilling evil voice
hissed, "My, my, my. If it isn't goody two shoes little Rebel
Walker." I felt the color drain from my face as I looked into the eyes of
the douche bag, Victor, who used to supply my mother with drugs and snarled,
"Let go of me!"

"Not until
we've talked and you tell me the whereabouts of your mother. She owes me money
and I plan to collect it from her."

"I don't know
where she is. Your money issues with her are not my problem. Now get the fuck
off me!" Victor grabbed me by the hair and yanked it hard bringing tears
to my eyes.

"Listen here,
you little bitch, either you tell me where to find her or I will extract
payment from your hide."

Someone in the crowd
yelled out, "Let go of that girl."

Victor growled,
"My girlfriend and I are just having a misunderstanding. No need to
concern yourself." I gathered all the strength that I had and punched him
in his Adam's apple.

"He is not my
boyfriend. Please someone help me." Victor became more belligerent and
smacked me hard across the face splitting my lip open. I whimpered out of pain
and fear. I'm not stupid. I know just how vindictive, and evil he could be. I
tried to wrestle from the hold he had me in, but he just gripped me tighter.
All the adrenaline coursing through my body was making me light headed. One
minute I was gripped tightly in Victor's clutches and the next I was falling
backwards into someone's arms.

"I got you
Reb," Ty said. I looked towards Victor and Wyatt had him in a chokehold a
few feet off the ground. "Wanna tell me why you had a hold of my girl
before I beat the ever living fuck outta you?" Wyatt growled menacingly.

"The bitch’s
mother owes me money." I cringed inwardly. That was the wrong thing Victor
could have said. I tried to make my way towards them, but Ty kept a pretty firm
grip around me. I watched in horror as Wyatt slammed him against the wall using
Victor's face as a punching bag.

"Ty, you have
to stop him, before security gets here and kicks them out. Wyatt can't miss out
on this event."

"Reb, do you
honestly really think this event is more important to him than you?"

"I know that
Ty, but I don't want to be the cause of him missing this event. This means
something to him, please."

"Fuck! He's
going to kill me if I let go of you. You know that right?"

"I won't let
him. I promise, just please, please stop him." Ty let go of me and ran to
Wyatt gripping his arms back. "Wyatt, you gotta stop man before you get
arrested. Reb is freaking out."

"Get the fuck
off me Ty. I need to teach this fucking cunt here a lesson about how very, very
fucking stupid he is by touching what's mine."

"Bro, he's not
worth it."

"He's a
worthless fucking piece of scum, but my girl is worth it. I wasn't there for
her the first time he attacked her, but I'm here now and I will be teaching him
a very painful lesson." Wyatt was struggling to lose Ty's hold on him and
didn't notice Victor unsteadily coming after them. I yelled, "Watch
out!"

Wyatt turned around
and kicked Victor in the gut, sending him flying back on his ass. It was at
this inopportune moment the police arrived and witness Wyatt kick to Victor’s
gut. He was immediately tackled and placed in handcuffs. I immediately ran up
to the police officer and defended him, “Please, release him. He didn’t start
this fight. He was only defending me from that man over there, whom has
previously attacked me.”

“Ma’am, I’m going
to have to ask you to step back and let us do our jobs. Let us detain the
perpetrators and then we can ask questions to what transpired here. Wyatt
looked at me and said, “Baby, it’s alright. Let the police officers do their
jobs then we can straighten this out.”

“I don’t want you
to be arrested because of me.”

“For you I wouldn’t
mind being arrested just as long as you’re safe.” Wyatt looked at the officer
and said to him, “My girl needs medical attention, please make sure she gets
it.”

“Sir, we asked
dispatch to send EMT here to take a look at her.”

It took hours for
the police to take statements from the people that witnessed the incident. I
was worried the convention reps would ask Wyatt to leave and not ask him to
return the following year. Ty tried to calm my fears by saying that would never
happen, but I still felt all this was my fault. The police eventually let Wyatt
go. I pressed charges against Victor and due to the fact that he had attacked
me prior to this incident, the police felt it probable cause to check his
person. They found a switch blade and a small bag of marijuana on him. That
would put him away for at least a night. The EMT checked me out and luckily for
me I didn’t need any stiches on my lip. They gave me an ice pack and advised
aspirin for any pain.

I
WAS SITTING on a stool with my knees propped up and
my sketchbook against them. I was busy sketching a mythological Phoenix rising
from its own ashes. I drew it as part peacock and part pheasant with flames
towards its tail. Underneath it I wrote "
before you can rise, you must
fall
." Wyatt was working on a tattoo for a client. I was a little
miffed at him. He has ignored me since the incident with Victor a few hours
ago. He was angry that I didn’t want him to take me back to the beach house. I
couldn’t do that to him. I knew from Annie that this event is important to him.
He had clients booked a year in advance. It was a way for him to get his name
out in the tattoo world. She told me he hopes to open several shops around the
country, starting in Florida.

He was in his
element, working his artistic magic and he was beautiful. He’s my beautiful. He
looked up and caught me eyes. We just stared at each other for a second before
he smiled and winked at me. I felt my heart flutter and I licked my lips. He
groaned and I laughed. He said something to his client and came my way. He bent
down and whispered, “Can I lick your lips?”

I broke out in
goose bumps from his nearness. I licked my lips again and swallowed. My throat
hurt from swallowing. I winced and Wyatt noticed. He muttered under his breath,
“fuck,” Slowly he brought his hands to my throat and caressed it. Gently his
fingers moved on my throat. It felt silky and sensual. His touch was comforting
to me. He leaned closer to me and licked my lips until they parted under him
allowing his tongue to slip inside and tangle with mine. He tasted like mint
and coffee. In other words he tasted delicious. The kiss went on forever, or at
least I thought it did. He broke the kiss took the sketchpad out of my hands
and placed it on top of the booth. He grabbed my hand and said, “Do you want to
get out of here?”

“I would love to,
but don’t you have clients booked for the day?”

“I do, but you’re
more important to me.” Spending the rest of the day with him sounded like
heaven and just when I was about to agree I heard a feminine voice say, “Damn
Wyatt, this tat is wicked. This is the one I want for sure.” We both turned
towards the voice. The girl was gorgeous with her brunette hair in curls. She
was tall and she had a body to go with the face. She was the total package,
long legs and tits out to there. Wyatt looked at the sketch and smiled, “Hey
Lori, though it is a very cool sketch there is no way I can do it. It’s not my
sketch, it’s my girlfriend’s sketch.” Lori looked over at me and if looks could
kill I’d be six feet under the ground by now. I’ve never met a tat bunny, but I
knew she was one of them by the way she devoured Wyatt with her eyes. “I didn’t
know you had a girlfriend. Is that her?”