Page 18 of Mimic

“Hey, Indie, I’m so sorry about what happened. Thorne didn’t tell me you weren’t supposed to be alone, or I would have waited until you locked up.” Kytten looked upset, but it wasn’t her fault.

“You have nothing to apologize for. I am a grown woman and don’t need a babysitter. Gunner just gets a little over-the-top.”

“They all do.” She chuckled. “So what are you doing here? Cash loved the tattoo, by the way!” She wiggled her eyebrows up and down, letting me know just how much he loved it.

“I’m glad. I need to talk to Gunner. The bastard canceled all my appointments today.”

“Damn right I did,” Gunner hollered as he pushed through the double doors that led to church.

Cash came up behind Kytten and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her away amid her protests.

“You had no right to do that. I don’t work for you! I rent a chair. You have no fucking say over my hours, you big, stupid giant!”

Gunner folded his arms over his chest and stared at me. I knew the others had followed him out, but I wasn’t paying attention to any of them. My focus was solely on the man who thought he had some say over my life.

“My shop, my rules.”

“Ugh!” I threw my hands in the air and turned around, ready to stomp out, when he caught my arm.

“Indie, listen.” Now it was my turn to cross my arms. I glared at him, and I was sure that to him, I must have looked like a teenager throwing a tantrum. “I am not trying to tell you what to do—”

“Really? ’Cause you sent Mimic to babysit me yesterday. Today you canceled my appointments. You aren’t my father, Gunner.”

The pained look on his face didn’t make any sense. He barely knew me. I refused to believe this shit had anything to do with me. This was just more of their alpha-male bullshit. I had learned enough about the Silver Shadows since I had been in town to know they all thought they knew better because they were men. And Gunner was the worst of them all.

The way he stalked Haizley for weeks and then forced her and Aspen to stay in the clubhouse. Aspen still hadn’t left. I wondered whether she even had the option of leaving.

Gunner took a step forward and leaned down so he was right in front of my face. “No, I’m not your father. He isn’t fucking here, so someone has to take care of you.”

“I am twenty-six years old—”

“Don’t give me that bullshit.”

My mouth snapped closed, and I gawked at him before turning to glower at Mimic. “What the fuck did you tell him?”

“The truth,” he answered.

“You don’t know anything about me. None of you do. Leave me the fuck alone.”

I turned and stormed outside before Gunner could stop me. When I got to the gate, I told the prospect to open it. He looked over my shoulder and then opened the gate. When I turned, King was standing there watching me with a look on his face I couldn’t decipher.

Did he know who I was? Did he know where I had been before coming to Diamond Creek? Would he tell my real father I was here?

Without a word, I turned and walked out of the compound. I would walk back to town if I had to. And given that no one else had followed me out, I guessed that was my only option.

Well, they could all go fuck themselves. I didn’t need them. I had enough money saved that I could pack up and leave. Find another small town, maybe one that didn’t have a tattoo shop, and I could open my own.

That was what I would do. I wasn’t bound to this place, to these people. I thought I would be safe here. Thought maybe I had found a place I could stay. Live my life in peace. Alone.

’Cause that was what I was—alone. I would always be alone. I would miss Haizley, and the others. But I hadn’t really belonged here anyway. I didn’t belong anywhere.

There were times I wished I’d never left the Trick Pony. At least there, people wanted me. Sure, they wanted my body, wanted to use me for their sick, twisted fetishes. But men and women wanted me.

They might not have respected me, but neither did anyone here. At least there, I didn’t have to support myself. I didn’t have to feed myself or clothe myself.

Tears slipped down my cheeks as I realized what I was thinking. When had living at the Trick Pony become something I compared my freedom to? Freedom wasn’t something you willingly gave up just because life was hard sometimes.

I was stronger than that.