His Savior Was Never My Sister
I slid out, the cool night air biting through my jacket, and crossed the street to peer through a sliver of uncovered glass at the corner of the window.
The interior was a dungeon of shadows and hard light. Nicholas sat shirtless on a leather chair, his back to me, talking to a hulking artist covered in ink. My breath hitched. The muscular lines of his back, the scars I knew by touch—one from a knife fight in Jersey, another from a bullet that grazed him protecting me… no, protecting his access.
The artist transferred a stencil onto his skin, high on the left side, over his heart. The buzz of the needle started, a relentless, angry drone.