Inked

Evernight
Publishing

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2014
Jenika
Snow

 
ISBN: 978-1-77130-828-1

Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

Editor:
Karyn
White

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized
reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
 
No part of this book may be used or
reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All
names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events,
locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

Thanks for always being there,
even when you're not.

INKED

Jenika
Snow

Copyright © 2014

Chapter One

Ipseity: selfhood; individual identity,
individuality.

That one word meant all of that, but it was also the
name of the tattoo shop owned by Cadeon Morris in the small town of Reckless,
Colorado. He might have just moved here three years ago, but he already had a
reputation; especially for being the artist the local biker gang went to for
any and all ink. And because he catered to The Vicious Bastards MC, and
answered to the President of the biker gang, Vincent “Scars” Lore, Stella saw
Cadeon quite a bit. Being the daughter of an MC President meant Stella saw a
lot of shit, but was also watched and guarded by the biggest and meanest biker
bastards around. And she loved those leather wearing, joint smoking, and grease
smelling men that were just as much her family as her father was.

The sound of a needle pressed into skin made a low
buzzing noise that filled the air. Stella sat in the leather couch, which was
butter soft due to it being old and worn, and watched as Cadeon added some ink
to one of the members named
Little
. The other members
were over by the bar, their voices loud and boisterous, but all Stella could
hear was Cadeon working that needle over
Little’s
thickly muscled chest. She turned her attention from the fully nude pinup girl
that was being inked on the biker and stared at Cadeon’s profile. At forty, he
was nearly as old as her father, but he didn’t look his age. With muscles
clearly defined under his dark t-shirt, and his thighs as hard and big as tree
trunks; Cadeon was a six-foot-five beast built like a tank. He looked good in The
Vicious Bastards clubhouse and although his black hair was cut short he had
that hard edge to him, and that day old stubble that covered his cheeks showed
he fit right in.

“Girl, you either
lookin
’
at
Little
pretty fucking hard, or you want the tattoo
boy.”

Stella glanced over at Ranger, one of the original
Vicious Bastards, and older than her grandpa. To him everyone was a “boy”. “I’m
not looking at anyone. I’m not watching Cadeon work.” She rubbed her suddenly
pasty hands on her jeans and averted her eyes. Ranger was older and sometimes
acted senile, but she knew he was sharper than the majority of the guys in the
club.

He sat down beside her, and the scent of old cigar
smoke and the aged leather of his cut filtered up her nose. “I was thinking of
having the kid give me a new tat.”

Stella leaned back on the couch and pulled her legs
up and under her butt. Ranger already had both arms covered in ink, as did the
majority of the club, but she didn’t think he had gotten any new ones in quite
a while. “Yeah, I was thinking of getting one, too.”

Ranger looked over at her and lifted one bushy white
eyebrow. His white beard was slightly yellow and touched his chest, but under
all the wrinkles and ink she saw a man that was still filled with so much life.
She looked at Ranger much like she did her own father for guidance and
affection. This club was her family, and these men were the guys she loved more
than anything else. Of course she could do without some of the things that went
along with being associated with a biker’s life. Stella looked over Ranger’s
shoulder and stared at the club whores rubbing themselves all over the members.
That was one of the disadvantages of hanging at the club: all the willing women
that threw themselves at the guys in hopes of becoming their old lady. They
tried too hard to be noticed, to be loved by men that didn’t want anything more
than an hour or two of their time. But then again they had chosen the life of a
pussy that got passed around. Just thinking about all of that had a sour taste
settling in Stella’s stomach. She didn’t want to put any more thought on what
any of them did together.

“So you
actually thinking
about getting some ink?” Ranger asked and leaned in to nudge her shoulder with
his own.

Stella looked over at Cadeon and Little again, and
saw they were finishing up. “I was thinking about it, have been for a while
now.”

“Your
dad know
about this?”

She shook her head, and then knitted her brows and
glanced sideways at him. “What difference does it make if he knows about it or
not? It’s not like I need his permission. I’m twenty-three years old for God’s
sake.”

Ranger held his hands up and started chuckling.
“Calm down, girl. I’m just saying your dad likes to know what’s going on with
the club, and you’re part of that.” Ranger still wore a grin, and his teeth,
yellow from years of smoking, flashed through his thick beard. “Besides, this
is your first, right?”

She nodded and rubbed her hands on her thighs again.
She was nervous, but not because of getting a tattoo. What she was nervous
about was being in Cadeon’s tattoo chair with his huge body over hers as he ran
that needle over her flesh. She had wanted him since she first saw him in town,
and dammit if three years wasn’t a long time to pine after a guy that hardly
even looked her way. Stella was just used to guys staying away. Big ass biker
guys that growled more than they spoke tended to make her dating schedule
pretty open. But she couldn’t fault them for looking after her. Hell, she had
known all of them since she had barely started to walk.

“So, you
gonna
talk to
your old man?” Ranger was grinning again, and it was hard not to smile as well.

“You know I am, but you also know he isn’t going to
say no. I mean every guy in here is covered with them.”

“True, but you’re his little girl.” Ranger put his
arm around her and pulled her in close to him. The scent of cigarettes
intensified, but she didn’t care.

Stella looked back at Cadeon and felt her heart
start to race as she watched him do such mundane things. But it was those
little things, ones like him putting his equipment away, which caused the
muscles of his biceps to flex and bunch under the thin material. Or when he
bent over and his loose and worn jeans molded over his ass. Stella was never an
“ass woman”, but good lord, did Cadeon have a nice one.

“Girl, I’m not even looking at you and I know you’re
checking out that boy.” Ranger chuckled deeply and tightened his arm around her
shoulder. “You know your dad isn’t all about you dating older guys, and
certainly not one that has a reputation like Cadeon does.”

“Look, he is nearly as old as my dad and therefore
not a boy—”

Ranger looked down at her, and by the expression on
his face she knew pointing out Cadeon was nearly the same age as her father
probably wasn’t helping her.

“And I’m not sure what you all heard, and don’t know
if I even want to know, but he isn’t nearly as bad as you guys.” She was
teasing, but there was a look in his eyes, one that her father normally gave
her when he was being serious about something.

“Listen, I used to bounce you on my knee when you
didn’t even reach it standing up.” He ruffled her hair and grinned until the
corner of his eyes crinkled. “But you
be
careful. I
may be old, but I can tell when you are giving googly eyes at some boy.”

Now it was her turn to lift a brow.
“Googly eyes?”
She started laughing. Leave it to a biker
that cursed in church to use words like “googly eyes” to get his point across.

Ranger stood and headed back toward the bar with the
other members and the club whores. She watched for a second and saw Butters—a
veteran female that had been spreading herself for the club for longer than
Stella could even remember—make her way over to Ranger and grind herself all
over him. Stella’s dad had made sure to keep her out of this atmosphere when
she was growing up, but even at fifteen years old when she was learning how to
do the books of the motorcycle parts store the club owned, she had heard enough
rumors to last a lifetime. Then after high school she experienced her first
full on MC party inadvertently. Ever since then she was thick in the club, and
didn’t hide from even the grisly aspects of this life.

The sound of heavy footsteps coming closer had her
coming out of her thoughts and looking up to watch Cadeon approach. His focus
was on his cell, but she knew if she wanted this done she had to do it now.

“Hey.”