Two handsome brothers

"Good girl", He turned on his heel and left the room. Emotions filled my throat the moment, he closed the door behind his back. I was seconds away from sobbing like a little child. I wished I had never met Alex Michaels those five long years ago when my life changed forever.

He had promised me a beautiful future that involved my dream of owning my own tattoo parlor. There were other more empty promises and he charmed me into falling in love with him. I had never claimed to be the smartest person in the world but I was feisty and didn't take shit from anyone. Well until when Alex Michaels walked into the restaurant I worked at five years ago.

 I heard his truck start back up and a moment later he was driving away. Knowing that he had left, i grabbed my duffel bag and finished shoving my clothes into it before I zipped it up and tossed it into the bed. I spun and stared into the closet at the shoebox. Alex would kill me if he knew what I was about to do but he couldn't find me, he couldn't hurt me. 

And after everything he has done to me, I think he deserved what I was about to take. I slowly made my way to the closet, grabbed the shoebox and opened the lid. I stared down at several wads of cash wrapped up in rubber bands and grabbed a few bundles for myself. I shoved them in my back pockets. 

 looking at all this cash in the box made me sick to my stomach. He had made me do less than honorable actions recently because we were desperate for money, desperate to keep this decrepit roof over our heads. I did all those horrible things all the while Alex had this cash all along.

Alex Michaels was dead to me.

I considered this back pay for the life he stole from me, for what he's made me do. 

After putting the box back on the shelf, I went back to the grab my duffel bag and ran from the room across the living room and out of the back door.

I didn't want the neighbors to see me leaving through the front door. I took the safer route out of the back door. The tall privacy fence blocked the neighbors from seeing into the backyard so I pushed through the garage and slipped into my old trusted Toyota I have had since high school and backed out of the trickery garage. 

As I drove down the alley, I watched the garage and fence disappear in my rearview mirror and kicked it down when I turned left on the highway, leaving El Paso, Texas and Alex Michaels in the dust.

With no destination in my mind, I drove East. I knew it that Alex will have a harder time finding me. The only solution I had was driving East until when I feel safe, wherever it will be. But before I actually picked up a destination in my head, I was going to ditch the car then take a bus the rest of the way.

I didn't want Alex to track me using my car or having someone to find me. I may not know everything about running away but the more cognitive l remained, the less likely he was going to find me.

~~~~~~~

BLAIR'S POV.

I was feeling overworked and irritated as hell. The project me and Blake were working on was going to be the death of me. We had one month to complete a full renovation on an old Victorian house in the heart of savannah and we hadn't even received the blue prints or final plans yet.

Without those, we had no idea where to start. My brother, Blake and l lived in Savannah since we arrived in America when we were both seventeen years old. Coming here from Ireland was a huge culture shock to both of us, but we were settling in nicely. After college, we started a home construction company from scratch and we were now the most wanted builders in town.

Both our skills and for lonely housewives to have some eye candy while we worked. We didn't complain since our bills were being paid and we derived from being the best builders to the two most handsome brothers. With nothing left to do for a day and Blake being gone, I shut up the door and headed for the night.

 I was stressed to the max and instead of sitting at the bar, drinking my liver into submission, I headed for my favorite spot: Midnight ink.

There was nothing a new tattoo couldn't fix for me. My body was a testament to that as I consistently inked myself whenever I was stressed out, which was a lot lately. And Jackson knew my soul unlike any other person alive and drew up the best pieces, knowing exactly how I was feeling. 

But when I stepped into Midnight ink and asked if Jackson had an opening, my mood even went darker when Reena, the shop owner told me Jackson no longer worked here.

"What do you mean Jackson doesn't work here anymore?. Where the hell did he go", I was even more irritated now and thinking the bar sounded pretty damn good right now. If Jackson was really gone, where am I going to go for my ink now?. I only ever let Jackson ink me and if he was gone, there wasn't anybody else I trusted with my work. 

Reena sighed, pulling me out of my reverie. "He left a week ago, Blair, I'm sorry. His daughter was having a tough time so he headed North to be with her", she informed me.

"When is he coming back?", I ran my hand over my face and breathed out a steadying breath. 

"It doesn't sound like it but I already hired someone to fill his spot who has an opening if you interested in meeting with her and tell her what you want", She spoke with her eyes on the appointment book. 

"Does she have a portfolio I can look through, I want to see the kind of work she does"

"She currently doesn't have it right now but just know she is my cousin sister and so good in tattooing"