Contract Over: You're Free to Go novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Ink on Her Wrist

I lost the black sedan in the alley behind the shop and sat in my truck with the engine off for a while.

The next afternoon the bell over the door rang at four.

Margot walked in wearing jeans and a plain navy sweater, with her bandaged hand tucked against her ribs.

Timothy looked at her, then at me, then went to the back room and shut the door with great care.

"We're booked," I said.

"No, you're not. I checked the calendar on your website."

"Margot."

"I'd like a tattoo, please."

She said it in the flat polite voice she used on waiters.

I put down my pen.

"You hate needles."

"I do."

"You nearly fainted at Archie's checkup."

"Yes. I'd like one anyway."

She walked over to my chair, sat down, and pushed her right sleeve up past the elbow.

The inside of her wrist was pale and bare.

Then she took something out of her bag and set it on my tray.

It was a piece of construction paper.

Someone had drawn a rocket on it in blue marker, with a crooked red flame and three stars of different sizes.

"Archie gave it to me last month," she said. "He made it at school. He wanted me to have it for when I got sad."

I looked at the paper for a long time.

"You want that on your wrist."

"As small as you can make it."

"Why?"

"Because I'm at your shop every week, for a few weeks, and I need a reason that sounds like one." She did not look away. "My father has someone watching the house. If he sees me here, it's because I'm a client. Clients come back."

"That's your reason."

"That's the reason I can tell you," she said. "The other is that I want it."

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