Phoenix’s Plight by Tiffany Casper

 

‘Presents are the way to a woman’s heart.’

- T-shirt

 

Chapter 5

June

Almost two weeks later, and six days before her birthday, she was at the tattoo parlor.

Today was the day. Shiloh had told her to dress comfortably and to shave her upper arm for her tattoo placement.

The design that Shiloh had come up with was something fucking majestic.

The moment she sat down in her chair, the cool air hit her, but she knew it would make her think about the air and not the tattoo.

It was a five rose tattoo intertwining around the head of a tribal elephant. The elephant was to be done in black and gray, but the roses, no, they were being done in watercolor.

Ever since Shiloh had pitched that idea to her, she had been all for it.

“You ready?” Shiloh asked. June was more than ready.

Shiloh shaved the area again, making sure there were no hairs, and then she took the traced design and applied the elephant first.

“We’re going to do the elephant first and then the roses,” she said as she pressed down the design.

“Sounds great,” June mumbled.

The moment Shiloh began, the little pain June was feeling actually became therapeutic. It hadn’t hurt. What it had done was put her to sleep.

For the next two hours, June had slept while Shiloh had chuckled and worked.

June had missed the conversation between Shiloh and Clutch too.

“You’re shitting me. She fell asleep?” Clutch asked.

“Yep. Soon as the needles pierced her skin,” Shiloh responded softly as she finished the elephant and then started on the roses.

“Damn. Knew I made a good hire. Good client too,” Clutch had commented as he walked off.

“Hey,” June had heard someone say softly as they touched her thigh.

Bleary-eyed, she woke up. Looking around, it took a moment for her to realize where she was, and then a blush crept across her cheeks.

Shiloh threw her head back and laughed her ass off.

“I fell asleep.” It wasn’t a question but a statement.

“Yep.” Shiloh even popped the ‘p’.

“She finally woke up?” June heard a chuckle from Clutch standing in the doorway.

Dayum! If Heathen aged as well as this man . . . wow.

He had graying hair at his temples and a trimmed beard, his dark blonde hair pulled up into a bun. And he was also ripped.

Clutch was half of Heathen’s size but good lord.

June also noticed the kutte—he wore the same kutte as Heathen.

“What you think?” Shiloh nodded to her finished tattoo and then to the mirror.

Standing up, June walked to the mirror and grinned. “Looks fucking badass.”

“Good work, Shiloh,” a man said from the doorway where Clutch had been standing.

“Thanks, Jake,” Shiloh said without looking at the man, rolling her eyes to June.

Shiloh mouthed, “Get ready.”

Curious, she looked at the man Shiloh had called Jake.

“Hey, gorgeous, I’m Jake. And you are?” Jake was rather cute but in that cocky way that was freaking annoying to all women of the universe.

Ignoring him, she turned to Shiloh.

“You did a great job. I love it, Shiloh. Thank you.”

“Welcomes.” Shiloh smiled as she came over and placed a sheet of saran wrap on her tattoo and taped the area down. “Make sure you leave this on for about two to four hours, and then wash it with antibacterial soap and apply lotion.” Then, Shiloh handed her a tube of stuff that she swore by.

Smiling, she walked out with Shiloh to the counter and paid an amount she tried to argue about.

“I’ll not hear a word, girlfriend. Consider this an early birthday present.” Sighing, because she knew there was no arguing the point, June handed over a hundred dollars.

When she turned to leave after hugging Shiloh, the same cocky man blocked her way.

“Look, normally, when a man gives you his name, you give yours in return.”

“I would have, but I’m seeing someone,” June said as she tried to step to the side of the man, however, it seemed the man wanted to dance.

That had captured not only Shiloh’s attention but Clutch’s as well. And it was then that she remembered his kutte. It was definitely the same as Heathen’s.

“You know Heathen?” June asked him.

It was then that Clutch looked at her questioningly. “Depends.”

“Tell this man that Heathen will kick his ass if he doesn’t move out of my way.” It was the first time that she had dropped his name aloud to anyone. She didn’t know if it would help, but she had to get to work. She had taken a later shift today so she could get her tattoo finished.

Clutch didn’t do that. No, he grabbed his phone and placed a call.

“Heathen, yeah, some woman in the tattoo parlor just dropped your name because some punk is bothering her,” Clutch said as he stared at June.

Clutch placed the phone on speaker and asked, “What’s your name, doll face?”

“Ju—” was all she heard before Heathen raged.

“Hey, son of a bitch, move the fuck out of her breathing space before I come through the phone and rip your throat out.” She heard Heathen growling through the speaker on the phone.

“You . . . you know Heathen?” The man paled.

“Yes,” June said with a small smile.

“You’re damn right she knows me. Now. Move,” Heathen barked out and the man jumped back three feet.

Looking at Clutch and Shiloh, she saw the surprise on their faces.

“I gotta go. You ever bother her again, you’ll deal with me. Babe, I’ll see you soon as I can.” And then he was gone.

“Thanks, Clutch,” June said as she walked out of the tattoo parlor. Then she went home, changed, and headed to work.

While she was on her lunch break the next day—on her birthday, because she had been called in—she had received several texts from Shiloh, questioning her.

Smiling, she replied that she’d known Heathen for two years and that was all she was giving her.

It had been three weeks since Heathen had left her house, and she hadn’t heard from him. Not once. So much for giving him her phone number. She had hoped after the tattoo incident, he would have at least called her or shown up.

Sighing as she got off of work, she headed to the store. She was going to make herself a cake. Ever since she’d been thirteen, she’d been making her own deserts as a little birthday celebration.

When her mother had been killed in a head-on collision, a neighbor who was a foster parent had taken her in until she was eighteen.

Thanks to her mother’s life insurance policy, June hadn’t been left out in the cold.

She had gotten pretty damn good at making herself a cake and not having the middle of it crack open as wide the Grand Canyon.

When she got home and hadn’t seen Heathen, she sighed in disappointment. He had something more important to do, she guessed. She knew he was a part of an MC. She knew that since they weren’t together, she came in last. But yes, she was still sore about that fact.

What she wouldn’t give to come first to someone.

So much for thinking that they had something more.

When she reached her front porch, sitting in front of her door was a little blue bag. She ran to it and dropped everything that was in her hands as she grabbed the bag and opened it.

Inside, wrapped in tissue paper, was a beautiful leather bracelet with a phoenix carved on it. Her initials were on the back of the bracelet.

She grabbed the card that was in the bag.

‘I’m sorry I can’t be there to celebrate with you. But I made this for you. J.’

Tears pricked her eyes as she put the leather bracelet on her left wrist and snapped the silver buttons closed. It fit snuggly and perfectly on her wrist.

She still felt weird calling him something other than Heathen, but it fit him to a T.

And she also downloaded the song ‘Johnny and June’ by Miss Heidi the very next day on her cell so she could listen to it in her car when she drove to work and drove home.

Stripping out of her jeans and flowery shirt as soon as she made it through her front door, she changed into her long knee-high socks, cotton sleep shorts, and a loose-fitted tank, allowing her puppies to be free. There really was no better feeling than when you took your bra off after a long and aggravating day.

Smiling to herself instead of frowning while she made herself a cake, she glanced at the leather bracelet that adorned her wrist.

When she had walked by the floor-length mirror in her hallway, she had stopped. The half-sleeve tattoo was on the same arm that she had attached the leather bracelet.

After she popped the cake into the oven to bake, she uncorked the chocolatier wine that was so expensive she would have to eat cheaply the rest of the week. But she didn’t mind.

Taking that first sip was heaven to her.

It was then that her phone pinged.

With a wide grin she grabbed it, but that grin slipped a little when she saw Shiloh’s name on her screen.

Shiloh: Happy Birthday Beautiful Bitch!

Me: Thanks Doll Face!

Shiloh: Can you make me that cup you posted just yesterday on your insta?

Me: You got it!

After she took a few sips of her wine, she headed to the craft room to start on Shiloh’s cup.

She knew she had a few orders lined up, but those were almost done curing, then she had a few more she needed to start on.

Thirty minutes later, she pulled her cake out of the oven and set it on the oven rack to cool.

She had sent a few font styles to Shiloh to see how she wanted the wording done on her ‘I am the Queen Bitch’ cup.

Smiling, she got everything ready and placed it in the small red bin for her cup. Then, she went through her orders and did the same for those.

Now, since Shiloh had placed that order with her, she wasn’t charging her for her cup. She knew that her tattoo had cost a lot more than what Shiloh had charged her.

An hour later, and seven orders prepped, she iced her red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. Twenty-four years old. After eleven years, she had finally perfected this cake.

Grabbing two slices and her wine, she headed for her living room and started up her DVR.

She was catching up on The Good Doctor. Who said people with autism weren’t badass?

Her birthday had fallen on her three-day weekend off, but since she didn’t have any plans, she had told her boss that she was working tomorrow for double-time since she also worked today. Since the company was rolling out a new product tomorrow, it was time to make a few extra sales.

She laughed with the cast as she ate two slices of her cake for dinner. This was the one day when she felt that she could get away with the indulgence.

As soon as she felt her eyes grow heavy, she saw that it was closing in on eleven.

After she cleaned up, she crawled in her bed with a weary sigh, set her alarm, plugged up her phone, and allowed sleep to overtake her.

An incessant ringing woke her from her heavy sleep.

Rolling over in bed, she frowned. Blinking an eye open, she saw that it was six in the morning. No one called her this fucking early.

When she saw the display on her phone, it was a number she didn’t have saved. In the last few months, she’d only given her number to Heathen.

The hair on the back of her neck stood at attention.

“Hello?” She used her palm to wipe the sleep from her eyes.

“I need you.” It was unmistakable, but had she not seen the different number, she would have wondered who the hell was calling her.

But something clicked in her brain. That was a part of Heathen that she hadn’t seen or heard before.

After two years, she was finally being let in.

She wasn’t going to fuck this up. Not on her life.