Chapter 3

The address led me to East Austin, past the trendy coffee shops and boutique hotels, into a neighborhood where old Texas money had quietly bought up entire blocks and transformed them into something that looked effortless but cost millions. Rhett's house wasn't what I'd expected—no iron gates or intimidating walls, just a sprawling mid-century modern estate of concrete and floor-to-ceiling glass, nestled behind a massive live oak that had probably been there since before Austin was even a city.

I parked my beat-up Subaru between a black Tesla and something Italian that probably cost more than my annual rent. The contrast was almost comical—my car looked like a rust-colored beetle among sleek predators.

Two men in dark suits flanked the front entrance, their faces professionally blank. The taller one stepped forward as I approached, his hand extended.

"Phone, please."

"Excuse me?"

"House rules," he said, not unkindly but with the kind of finality that suggested arguing would be pointless. "You'll get it back when you leave."

I hesitated for a moment, then handed it over. The device disappeared into a small black box that he locked with a key. Whatever world I was stepping into, it was one where privacy was taken seriously.

The front door opened before I could knock, and there he was.

Rhett looked different in his own space—less like a dangerous stranger and more like a man who owned everything he surveyed. He wore a simple white t-shirt and dark jeans, sleeves pushed up to his elbows, revealing intricate tattoos that wrapped around his forearms like living shadows. In the harsh neon of the club, I'd only caught glimpses. Here, in the warm light of his home, I could see the artistry—geometric patterns that seemed to shift and flow with the movement of his muscles, interwoven with symbols I didn't recognize.

"You actually came," he said, and there was something in his voice that might have been surprise.

I hefted my equipment case, the familiar weight grounding me. "You paid three months of my rent. I'd tattoo a raccoon if the price was right."

He laughed—a real laugh this time, not the dangerous half-smile from the club. The sound did something strange to my stomach, a flutter that I firmly ignored.

"Come in."

The interior was all clean lines and warm wood, art that looked expensive hanging on white walls. But it was the space he led me to that made me stop and stare—a converted room with perfect lighting, a leather chair that could have come from a high-end tattoo parlor, and a rolling cart already set up with clean towels and antiseptic.

"You've done this before," I said.

"I collect art," he replied, settling into the chair with the easy confidence of someone accustomed to being worked on. "Sometimes it goes on walls. Sometimes it goes on skin."

I set up my equipment with practiced efficiency, checking my needles, arranging my inks. The design I'd sketched was coiled in my portfolio—a serpent wrapped around a dagger, classic imagery but with my own twist. The snake's scales held tiny, intricate patterns that would catch the light, and the blade had an edge that seemed to cut right off the page.

"Show me," he said.

I opened the portfolio and watched his face as he studied the design. His expression didn't change, but I caught the slight tightening around his eyes—approval, maybe, or recognition of something deeper in the imagery.

"Where?" I asked.

"Left forearm. Inner side."

The most painful spot, and the most intimate. Of course.

I pulled on my gloves and moved closer, guiding his arm to rest on the padded surface of the cart. His skin was warm under my fingers as I began the cleaning process, and I tried to ignore the way his muscles tensed at my touch.

"Ticklish?" I asked, applying the antiseptic with deliberate professionalism.

"No," he said, his voice dropping half an octave. "Just not used to being touched gently."

The words hung between us, creating a moment of silence that felt charged with something I didn't want to name. I busied myself with the transfer paper, pressing the design onto his skin, but I could feel his eyes on my face like a physical weight.

The tattoo gun buzzed to life, and I made the first line. He didn't flinch, didn't move, just watched me work with an intensity that made my hands want to shake. I'd tattooed hundreds of people, but none of them had ever looked at me like this—like I was the art, not what I was creating.

"You're staring," I said without looking up.

"Yes."

The simple admission sent heat crawling up my neck. "Most people watch the needle."

"Most people aren't as interesting as you are."

I forced myself to focus on the serpent taking shape under my hands, the way the black ink settled into his skin like it belonged there. But I was hyperaware of everything—the warmth radiating from his body, the steady rhythm of his breathing, the way he held perfectly still except for the occasional tightening of his free hand.

Halfway through outlining the dagger, his phone buzzed. He glanced at it and his entire demeanor shifted, the relaxed man disappearing behind a mask of cold authority.

"I need to take this," he said, answering before I could respond. "¿Qué pasó?"

The Spanish flowed from his lips like a different language entirely—not the warm, liquid sounds of casual conversation, but something harder, edged with menace. I couldn't understand the words, but the tone made the hair on my arms stand up.

"No. Absolutely not. Handle it," he said, switching back to English for the last part before hanging up.

The silence that followed felt different—heavier, dangerous in a way that had nothing to do with the electricity I'd been trying to ignore.

"Sorry," he said, but his voice was still cold. "Business."

"What kind of business?" I asked, returning to my work on the snake's scales.

"The kind you don't want to know about."

I looked up at him then, meeting those dark eyes directly. "Maybe I do."

He studied my face for a long moment, and I saw the exact instant he made a decision. That dangerous half-smile returned, the one that had made me save his number despite every instinct screaming at me to run.

"Maybe you do," he agreed, and somehow that was more terrifying than any threat.

I was nearly finished with the design when I encountered the problem—the inner curve of his forearm, where the dagger's point needed to follow the natural line of his muscle. I couldn't reach it properly from my current angle.

"I need to..." I started, then stopped, realizing what I was about to ask.

"Need to what?"

"Get closer. This angle is impossible from here."

He didn't say anything, just shifted slightly to give me better access. I leaned over him, my body curved around his arm, close enough to smell the cedar and tobacco scent of his skin. My hair fell forward, brushing against his wrist, and I felt rather than saw him go very still.

The final lines of the dagger required absolute precision. I held my breath, focusing entirely on the needle's path, when I felt the whisper-light touch of fingers against my temple. His free hand—the one bearing a heavy silver ring—gently tucked my hair behind my ear, the movement so slow and deliberate it felt like a question being asked.

I stopped the gun and looked up. We were inches apart, close enough that I could see the flecks of gold in his dark eyes, close enough to feel the heat radiating from his skin.

"Don't," I said, but I didn't pull away.

"Don't what?" His thumb brushed against the sensitive skin behind my ear, a touch so light it might have been accidental.

"Don't start something you can't finish."

His eyes darkened, and his voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "Who says I can't finish it?"

The door burst open.

"We have a problem." A man with sharp features and cold eyes filled the doorway, his face grim. "The Salazar shipment. They found it."

Rhett's expression transformed instantly—from heated desire to ice-cold fury in the space of a heartbeat. He stood abruptly, his arm pulling away from my hands, and I was left sitting there with my gloved fingers still stained with his blood and ink.

"Stay here," he said, his voice carrying an authority that brooked no argument. "Don't leave this room."

Then he was gone, following the other man out the door, leaving me alone in the suddenly too-quiet space. I could hear their voices echoing from somewhere deeper in the house—Rhett's voice raised in rapid Spanish, punctuated by what sounded like a fist slamming against wood.

I sat back in my chair, hands trembling slightly as I set down the tattoo gun. The serpent and dagger were nearly complete on his abandoned arm rest, the ink still fresh and gleaming. But all I could think about was the way he'd looked at me in that last moment before the interruption—like he was about to devour me whole.

And the terrifying part was how much I'd wanted to let him.