Page 50 of Grace of Spades

"Hey, we good?" Kennedy asks nervously.

"Yeah. But only wing-woman for the willing next time." I scold. Mel chuckles as she wraps her arm around Kennedy's waist. We make our way down to Monaco Tattoos where Gabe is waiting for us. Gabe is a short stocky guy that looks like he's always inches away from beating the tar out of someone but he's a sweetie and an amazing tattoo artist.

"Ah! My favourite customer! Come into de back!" He smiles his French-Canadian accent is thick.

"My favourite Frenchman!" I laugh and give him a big hug.

"And who are these lovely ladies?" He flirts.

"Not into you." I grin.

"Worth a shot!" He laughs making Kennedy and Mel laugh too. He leads us into the back and shows me the picture of my new tattoo.

"I'm so excited!" I squeal and pull off my jeans. I still have the pocket knives in my bra so I'll be fine with losing those three.

I lay down on the table and wait for Gabe to do his magic.

Keir

I watch my Grace leave the restaurant with her friends and mine while the men around me bicker.

When Alek returns, he looks pissed. He asks the girls to go with Grace before storming over to us.

"What the hell, you guys?" He hisses getting everyone's attention. "Get your shit together. The woman you all love has just stormed out on you."

"All?" McConnell asks making us all look at each other.

"This got worse, didn't it?" I ask.

"Oh fuck yeah. She's in the alley freaking out that she's going to die." He glares at us. Fuck. I'm not the only one to stand up to go after her. "Hold on. We need to talk this out. Now, I can't tell you guys everything but you all might want to band together for her."

That's... not a terrible idea.

"What do you mean?" Bianchi asks.

"We all like her. Let's all be there for her." I clarify.

"That will make her quite the target." Tanaka poses.

"I think she can handle that." Snorts Alek. I mean, I kind of agree but I don't want to make her a target. "I also want to clarify that she didn't know who you all were until quite recently and since then she's been trying to pump the brakes."

"Of course, she's not using us. But how does she know who we are?" Tanaka asks looking pale.

"Well, it's not like we're being too sneaky. We're using our legal names." I chuckle. Unlike Grace. They all nod.

"I assume we all know that Grace has seen some serious shit?" Bianchi asks. We all nod again. "If we're doing this, we need to be all in for her."

"I'm in," I swear.

"Me too." Tanaka nods.

"For her? Yeah." McConnell sighs.

"Okay. Let's go get our girl." Bianchi grins.

"About fucking time!" Laughs Alek. "She's getting her tattoo done at Monaco Tattoos." We all hustle to our cars and head to our girl.

Monaco Tattoos is a brightly lit shop smelling of antiseptic. The hum of tattoo guns fill the air. I see Kennedy's pink hair in the back so we head toward her.