Branded as Trouble (Rough Riders #6)(110)

“A good thing? Right. I’m lucky she doesn’t lock the damn door and hide in the storage room when I’m gone.” She sighed dramatically. “Dommy is sweet and all, but she should not be Branded As Trouble


allowed out of the kitchen. I can’t believe Macie made me train her for front work. What a waste.”


India figured Cat’s pronunciation of “Dommy” as dummy wasn’t accidental. “I still think it’s lucky for you or else you couldn’t flit off to Denver every month.”


“My great aunt was in the hospital. That hardly counts as flitting off,” Cat huffed.


Cat’s weeklong trips to Denver had been going on for over a year. Who picked up the slack? Domini.


Domini complained to India, well, as much as Domini complained about anything, which was almost not. Since Domini grew up in a different culture, making waves as a lowly employee had been frowned on. So India’s suggestion that Domini take her concerns to Velma and Macie was met with a horrified and vehement no.


“My aunt had knee replacement surgery. There were orthopedic patients up the wazoo. She said some were diabetics there for amputation. Yuck. Which makes me glad Cam McKay keeps his fake leg covered up, because I’d barf if I ever saw it. I mean, can you imagine? Eww.”


“Cam McKay is a decorated war hero. Eww, doesn’t exactly come to mind when I see him.”


“He is a total hottie, too bad he’s a cripple.”


A cripple. India’s tongue would be bloody by the time she finished this job. Why had she taken it?


Right. Rent was due. Again. And she was short of funds.


Again.


“Anyway, I can’t get past how icky it’d be to get naked with him and see that…stump. And he’s missing part of his hand.” She shivered. “It’s uncomfortable since he has a thing for me because he’s always in the diner.”


Talk about cocky. Cam had a thing for Domini.


“I’m just re-inking this tat, right?”


“Yes. I debated on having you do it at all, since it is a Kat Von D design. The guy who originally did it worked with Kat before she became famous.”


Please. If she had a buck for every time she’d heard that line in the last few years, she’d be flush with cash. After dipping the needle gun in black ink, she stepped on the pedal and her hand started to vibrate. She gently set the needle on Cat’s skin.


India was grateful conversation stopped for a few minutes, even when she knew it wouldn’t last.


It didn’t. Cat chattered on about her life. What she did, who she did. All gossip, all mind-numbingly boring to India, but Cat didn’t notice. She must’ve taken India’s silence for rapt attention because she kept going.


She mostly tuned her out until she heard Cat say, “So rumor around town is you’re dating Colt McKay.”


India slid her hand a fraction of an inch to thicken the outline.


“Who’d you hear the rumor from?” She concentrated on keeping the line the same diameter and not letting the black bleed into the pink.


“Macie. Is it true?”


“That Colt and I are dating? Yes.”


“Friends with bennies now, huh?”


India’s grip tightened on the tattoo gun.


“Macie said you came to a McKay family dinner at the big house. I’ve gotta say, I’m impressed. Very few people get invited into the sacred McKay family realm if you’re not married to one.”