None of us explained the situation to Heidi, so she's not sure what to make of all the guys storming in. We haven't had a semi-lockdown situation like this since she was a kid and I doubt she remembers much of it. She's in Axel's lap, talking, when Murphy comes in. She glances up and waves hello.

My attention is drawn to Wrath and I immediately get up and run to him.

He catches me, and lifts me into his arms. "You okay, angel?"

"Better now."

He presses a kiss to my lips. Quick, but full of affection. "Rock go upstairs?"

"Yup."

"We're gonna have church later when the CB guys return."

"Okay. Need me to do anything?"

"No, baby." His gaze strays to somewhere behind me and I turn to see Muphy talking quietly with Heidi and Axel. He seems to be behaving himself and I wonder if this is part of the working things out he mentioned the night of the bonfire.

"You got plans this week?" Wrath asks as we walk down to our room.

"Nothing special. Some things I need to do around herewhy?"

He leans against the wall while I open the door, and follows me inside. "Just want to take you somewhere."

"Okay."

Wrath's on some sort of mission. He keeps talking, but he's stripping me out of my clothes at the same time. Then he's stripping off his own clothes and leading us into the shower.

He leans down and nips my ear. "Miss me?"

Shivers ripple over my skin. Both from desire and all the fear I felt earlier. "Yes."

"Worried?"

"Very."

He straightens up, finishes washing me and hands me the shower gel. "I think things are okay for now. I still don't want you running around alone or unarmed. Prospects know they're supposed to keep an eye on you and Hope. Think you can talk to her, so she's not giving them a hard time?"

"Yeah, of course."

He turns and I take my time washing his back, digging my fingers into his tight muscles, admiring every inch of him.

"Your ass is a perfect blank canvas, if you ever want to get my name tatted on it," I tease, giving him a soft smack.

He laughs and turns, snapping off the water. Yanking me against him, he stares down into my face. "Funny you should mention that."

Clean Ink is exactly as the name implies. Sterile. It's funny because the owner has been called Dirty for longer than I've known him. This is where I take Trinity Tuesday afternoon as a surprise.

She glances at the parlor and smirks. "Who are we here for, you or me?"

"Both."

"Oh, really?"

"Yup."

"Do I get a say in this?"

That stops me. "You said you wanted to get my star on you."

"Oh." Her face softens. "You really meant that?"

"Of course I did." Reaching out, I tickle her side. "Except now I'm thinking instead of your hip, maybe on your forehead."

She slaps my hand away. "I love you, but that's definitely not happening."

Fuck. I grab her around the waist and haul her against me. "Say it again."

"What?" Her eyes search my face for a second, then her fingers trace my cheek. "I love you, Wyatt."

We're standing on the sidewalk in the middle of downtown Empire in broad daylight. I still need to kiss her long and hard.

Bells jingle and something bangs into my leg, breaking our kiss. "Ow."

"Shit, sorry." The guy looks up. "Wrath? The fuck, man? You coming in or not?"

"Hey, Bronze." Trinity slides out of my grasp and takes my hand. We follow Bronze inside. The place is empty except for us.

"Where's Dirty?"

"Vegas."

We take a minute to catch up before I pull out the drawings I brought.

Trinity frowns at the two pieces of paper. "I only agreed to one," she says with a teasing smile.

"The other's mine."

She raises an eyebrow. "I was only joking. I don't want you to get my name on your ass."

Bronze breaks out laughing. "Thank God. I don't need to see his pasty white ass."

I hand her the drawing.

Her breath catches as she stares at it. "A Triquetra?"

"Yeah. A Trinity Knot. For our past, present, and future."

"Oh, wow." She looks around and finally drops into a chair.

"Trin, you okay?"

"Yeah. I just-you sure?"

"Fuck, yeah."

Bronze is staring at us a little too intently.

"Give us a minute." Crouching down in front of Trinity, I take her hands in mine. "You okay?"

"Where?"

Don't even have to think about it. "Right here, babe," I answer, tapping my chest. "You've owned my heart since the night we met. I think it's finally time to put your name over it."

"My name?"

"Yeah, baby." Gently, I pull the drawing out of her hands and show it to her again.

"Trinity's Man." She sniffles and swipes under her eyes. "You really want my name on you?"

"Yes." I'm starting to wonder if I should have done it on my own and surprised her with it. "We can come back for yours another time if it's too much for you, babe."

She drops her head, and pushes out of the chair. "Yeah, sure."

"I'm getting mine now. You can wait if you're not ready," I clarify because she seems to have misunderstood.

While she nods at me, I still don't think she gets what's about to happen. I take her hand and pull her toward the back. "Bronze, we're ready."

"'Bout time." He takes us into a side room and points at the table. "Who's going first?"

Don't even have to think about it. "I am."

He motions to me with his hand. "Whip it off."

My eyes roll, but I take off my shirt and hand it to Trinity. The blush that colors her cheeks as she takes me in makes me want to kick Bronze out and put his table to other uses.

Bronze lifts his chin at Trinity. "You holdin' his hand, darlin'?"

Finally the corners of her mouth turn up. "Looks like it."

I do hold her hand. Not because the needle hurts-I've certainly done this enough-but because I like holding her hand.

Bronze is thorough and it takes a few hours to get it done.

Leaning over, I plant a kiss on Trinity's cheek. "Your turn."

She definitely looks more excited than when we got here. "I like it," she whispers as I sit up. I'm sore and it will be a few days before I can get a good look at it, but I trust Bronze.

"Now I know why you told me to wear loose pants," she teases as she settles in. Her lips twitch. "I'm keeping my shirt on," she says.

"Hell yeah you are."

"You're just a lovely blank canvas to me, darlin'," Bronze mutters as he messes around with the drawing. "Wrath's Girl," he mutters. "You two are so sweet my teeth hurt."

Nervous laughter bubbles out of Trinity at the tired joke.

"Ugh, now I remember why I only have the one," she says about thirty minutes later.

Bronze nods. "Some people don't get the endorphin rush."

She squeezes my hand a little harder and I feel shitty about forcing her into this. "We can stop, baby. I'll bring you back another day."

"No, I want to get it all done today if we can." She flicks her gaze to Bronze, who's so wrapped up in his work, I doubt he even heard our conversation.

I'm trying really hard to find the numbness most people say they experience getting inked. But all I feel is pain. A lot of it. Every stroke of the needle fucking hurts. Figures my body can't even produce endorphins or adrenaline or whatever the fuck would make this less painful.

Besides the pain, I'm a crazy whirlwind of happy, excited and so fucking in love I can't wait to show Wrath's star off. I'm proud he wants it on me permanently. I can't even think of what it means that he wanted my name on him. Even though most of them insisted on inking their names on their ol' ladies, few of the guys I grew up around returned the favor.

Wrath's phone goes off and he very unhappily leaves the room to take the call. Bronze keeps right on working. I concentrate on moving as little as possible and not crying.

When Wrath returns, he appears stressed. "Babe, I need to run over to CB for a bit and help out with something."

Bronze sets the needle down and I almost scream with relief. He lifts his chin at Wrath. "You guys were my last customers, I can run her over there when we're done."

Wrath's gaze skips to me, then back to Bronze. "Can you give us a minute?"

He nods, rolls off his gloves and shuts the door behind him.

"I'm sorry, angel. You know I wouldn't go if I didn't have to."

While I'm not thrilled, I don't want to stress him out more. "Wyatt, it's fine. I understand. I'll be okay. I trust Bronze."

He hesitates and glances at the door. "Yeah. Known him a long time. I trust him too. You sure you're okay?"

"I just want to get it done with. I'm afraid if I quit now, I won't come back."

Soft laughter rumbles out of him. "I'm hoping this won't take too long. Maybe I'll be back before you're done."

Unlikely, but I nod anyway. He leans in for a long kiss and touches his forehead to mine. "Thank you for this. I can't wait to see it on you every day."

My throat tightens. I can't swallow or get any words out, so I bob my head.

Bronze rubs his hands together, evil-genius style, when he returns. "Ready for round two?"

Wrath kisses my forehead and stands. I close my eyes and sit back.

"Here, this should cover both of us. If it's light let me know, and I'll settle up when you drop her off."

Behind me, paper rustles. "I think there's more than enough here, bro. We're good."