Bare Skin (Skin Deep 5)

This garnered me a quick glance over his shoulder and a self-deprecating laugh.

“Sure. Why not?  Might be a novel experience with you.”

His words were dripping with sarcasm and it hurt. But I brought it on myself.

I sighed. “Can we go somewhere? I’d rather not do this here.”

He shrugged, then tossed a couple dollars down on the counter and nodded to Griff, who was watching us curiously. Without looking at me again, he walked out. When we got outside, he leaned against his truck, crossing his arms over his chest.

“So talk. Tell me all about you and Taylor.”

He sneered the name and it sunk in just how hard this was going to be.

“Calland,” I started, pleading. “Can we just go home and talk?”

I saw him wince when I said the word home, but then he opened his truck door, getting in. He slammed the door and started it, rolling down his window long enough to say, “Let’s go get this over with,” before he pulled away, leaving me standing in the middle of the parking lot.

I followed him, taking a few fortifying breaths, trying to work up my courage, before I got out and went inside. He was sitting on the couch, face impassive, elbows on his knees.

I sat down on the opposite end of the couch, knowing that he’d want some space between us. He shifted when the silence stretched on, clearing his throat and giving me a look that clearly said to get on with it.

I took a deep breath and started spilling my secrets. Some of them, at least. “My name is Dani Rose. My full name, though, is Danielle Rose Conley. T.J.’s real name is Taylor James Conley. He had it legally changed to T.J. some time ago.”

As soon as I said that, Calland’s head snapped up and I could see the conclusion he jumped to immediately.

I held my hand up to stop him. “He’s my brother.”

“What?” he asked, shaking his head in confusion. “Then why all the fucking secrecy? If he’s your brother, why did you come and stay in a hotel room, and then move in here with me? You could have just stayed with him. And you didn’t have to fucking pretend you didn’t know him when we talked about him.”

“Because I didn’t know for sure it was him. I came here because it’s the last clue I’d gotten about where he went. I was still looking around, didn’t have any idea what to do next, but then there you were. The first real break I had was when I heard you all talking about him and how he was new to the area and was a tattoo artist. So, I started kind of stalking the tattoo shop, waiting to see if it was him.”

“But if he’s your brother, why wouldn’t you know where he was?”

“I haven’t seen him in almost two years. I talked to him about a year ago, very briefly on the phone. He wouldn’t tell me for sure where he was, but he mentioned the name of this town. He mumbled it, but then he changed it around. Tried to convince me it was some other town.”

“But why? I don’t understand, Dani. Why wouldn’t he want you to know where he was, what he was doing?”

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. “Because he was trying to hide. There was so much going on, and he just…he couldn’t take it anymore. It was killing him. He’s not—it’s complicated.”

“Okay, but why was it so important for you to find him now, when he didn’t want you to?”

I pressed my lips together, laced my hands, and stared at them as I delivered the reason. The very important reason.

“Kaden is his son. I just told him today. He’s still never met him.”

Calland’s eyes widened in shock. “Why?”

“He didn’t know about him. Kaden’s mom…” I shook my head, my jaw clenching in anger as I thought about the bitch. “She was toxic. She wasn’t anything to him but an arrangement. She wanted more, he didn’t. So she tried to trap him.”

“Wait a second. I thought you said he didn’t know about the baby?” Calland asked.

“He did, but he didn’t. She told him she was pregnant, thinking that it would change his mind, that he’d be with her for the baby’s sake. But he told her he didn’t want anything to do with her, but he’d be there for his child. She didn’t like that answer, so she told him she was terminating the pregnancy. He tried to convince her not to, but she wouldn’t listen. Told him to leave her alone or she’d make his life a living hell.”

Calland waited silently for me to finish.

“So, he left. There were other issues going on, and he was just drowning in stress. He didn’t want to sit by and watch it happen, because to him, that was his child and no way in hell would he ever turn his back on his own flesh and blood, no matter how early in the pregnancy it was. When he left, he told me he’d check in on me every now and then, but he needed to get away. Needed to not have all the pressure on him, but what he didn’t know is that she never terminated the pregnancy. She didn’t really care about the baby beyond what it could do for her, and she was more than happy to try and blackmail me and some others to keep things quiet. Things that we didn’t want to get out.”

“How bad could it have been? I mean, what the hell did she have on you guys that blackmail would be a viable solution?”

I sighed. “Taylor…T.J….he’s not who you think he is. I mean, have you ever really looked at him, maybe thought that he looked familiar in some weird way?”

He thought about it for a second, then nodded slowly. “I mean, maybe a little, but nothing that I’d ever really thought about. We all knew he had a history, but he never really talked about himself. And he does amazing work, so when Brandon met him at a convention out in L.A., they hit it off and the rest is history. He’s been with us ever…” he trailed off, and I could see the wheels turning in his head.

“So, Brandon had to have met him right when all that was going on? He’s been here for almost two years.”

I nodded. “He is a tattoo artist. A damn good one. And that’s what he was doing when our ‘big break’ happened.”

Calland looked at me, his face twisting in confusion once again.