Protective Ink (Urban Fantasy) Read Online Free PDF

Jackson was going to figure it out before it blew up in their faces. Of course, he also needed to make sure there was nothing linking Garrett to the scene. He ran home to change out of the clothes that were stained with Garrett’s blood and threw on a pair of camos and a T-shirt. Then he headed back to the scene.
    So, it was Friday night and he was yet again crawling around in some godforsaken alley in the dirtier part of town. Cleanup—it wasn’t glamorous, but it was necessary, particularly when you spent your time with a superhero.
    Using a hand brush, Jackson did a quick dusting of the dumpster where Garrett had been jumped to make sure his friend hadn’t touched it and left behind fingerprints. It was as clean as a dumpster could be, but Jackson put some of his own fingerprints on there just in case. He was a construction company owner and local all-around good guy, as far as most were concerned, and as long as he kept up that façade, he could be anywhere and do anything.
    Jackson wondered for a moment about his new power, but he shook away the thoughts. He didn’t have time to entertain them now. There were too many questions and not enough answers.
    He followed the trail as Garrett had described it, leaving the alley and heading down the street and to the left. The quiet, tree-lined neighborhood looked peaceful enough, but someone who had hidden here—maybe someone who was
still
hiding here—had attacked Garrett. Hopefully he’d find some hint of who was at fault.
    But despite looking in every nook and cranny, he was left with a whole lot of nothing. And his new tattoo was a constant throb on his shoulder—a reminder of all that had changed and all that was still to change.
    * * *
    “I don’t want a tattoo, Garrett. How many times do I have to tell you that? You’re the one who needs protection, not me,” Dory called out from the bathroom. She had taken out a first aid kit and a huge pile of bandages prior to their arrival, but hadn’t needed to use any of it.
    Lissa was about to step in to say she didn’t know if that was advisable when Dory reappeared and sat on the couch next to Garrett. He looked at her intently, his hunter green eyes serious. “I want you to get a tattoo to protect yourself. I’d feel better if I knew you had one. With everything that’s been going on lately, I worry. I don’t want to hurt you if I take in too much darkness and can’t control it.… I’d never be able to forgive myself if I hurt you.”
    “I get it, Garrett, I do. But you and I have been together for over a month now. You’ve never even spoken to me crossly. I don’t need a tattoo to protect me. Not from you. And I have you to protect me against everyone else.”
    He opened her curled fist and kissed her palm, the gesture so reminiscent of what Jackson had done to Lissa after his tattoo that it was like a sucker punch to the gut.
    “Will you at least think about it? Talk it over with Lissa?” Garrett asked. “At least keep an open mind. She runs a clean place. She won’t steer you wrong.”
    “I’m right here, Garrett, you don’t have to talk around me,” she reminded him from the chair directly in front of the couch. Dory smiled at her and Lissa felt the sudden hope that they would become friends, real friends, something she’d cut herself off from over the years.
    “So, when do you think you can fit Dory in for a tattoo?” Garrett said in the next breath.
    Lissa waited for the explosion and wasn’t entirely disappointed when it happened. She would have done it bigger than Dory, but then she could already tell she had a more mercurial nature than the quiet woman at Garrett’s side.
    “Don’t answer that.” From what Lissa had been told, Dory was not at all a violent person, but she looked as if she was barely resisting the urge to smack her boyfriend.
    “I’m trying to protect you.” He frowned at her as he took her hand in his, tracing the delicate veins below her knuckles.
    “And I