Page 24 of The Fake Out

“Good luck, man. Where you gonna take her?” Logan asked.

I shrugged. “Not sure yet. I have to think about it.”

“Wait, what does that have to do with going to get your tattoo fixed?” TJ asked.

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Oh. She’s a tattoo artist.”

“Hot?” TJ asked.

I nodded. “Definitely. It’s kind of complicated, though.”

Logan cocked his head. “How so?”

“Well, she’s one of the regulars at my dad’s bar, and according to my brothers, she’s off-limits. But I don’t know, my dad’s soft on her, so we’ll see,” I explained.

“Wait…are you telling me you hooked up with Veronica O’Malley?” TJ asked.

I didn’t even know V’s last name. For a fake boyfriend, I was bad at this.

“Isn’t that Rox’s tattoo artist?” Logan asked.

“And Dinah’s brother’s married to V’s brother,” TJ explained.

Dinah was one of my other new teammates’ fiancée. I forgot she was Eddie Mezzanetti’s little sister.

This got way more complicated than I realized. This team was too much of a small world at times. When Benny said that this team was like six degrees of who fucked who, I thought he was joking. What did I get myself into?

Chapter Eight

VERONICA

“Hey, can we talk?” Eddie asked.

“Busy,” I said, trying to push him off. I was finishing up with my last client of the night, and then I wanted to get out of there.

I wiped at my client’s skin, a biker who had become a regular. “How ya doing, Rocky?” I asked.

A grumble came from the large man.

I examined my work, wiping at Rocky’s skin, and felt satisfied with it. I turned off my machine and threw out my gloves. Eddie was still standing there, running his pale hand through his dark hair.

“V…”

I cut him off with a glare and took a picture of Rocky’s back for our social accounts. Then I patched him up and helped him to the register. The big man gave me a hug afterward, which surprised me, but despite how he looked, he was a teddy bear on the inside.

“That’s it for the day, right?” I asked Olivia.

She smirked at me. “Yes, but now you have to tell me what the hell that was earlier.”

I sighed. “Later, okay? I gotta meet Blaise for dinner.”

“He’s really your boyfriend?” she asked, her eyes raising up high in shock. A dark shadow of hurt crossed her face, and I felt awful that she thought I had kept this from her. I should have canceled with Blaise and told him we should call the whole thing off.

“I’ll explain it later,” I told her and gave her hand a little squeeze. “Promise.”

When I returned to my station, Eddie still stood there chewing on a nail. He looked apologetic, but I didn’t care.

“Save it,” I snapped at him.