Stripped Love (Guys Next Door #1) - Baylin Crow Page 0,16

chuckled. "Will happened, the little shit." At my questioning look, he shrugged. "Okay, so a guy I hired a few weeks back, Will, started his artistic, delinquent life in vandalism. It's how I found him, actually." Isaac shook his head as he grinned. "I'd forgotten my phone at the shop one night and turned around to come back for it. And there he was, just marking up the back wall of my fuckin' shop. 'Course I was pissed at first. He'd tried to run, but the idiot tripped over his own damn shoelaces and fell. I took one look at what he'd done and told him to finish it." He stared through the windshield at the art piece before looking back at me with laughter dancing in his eyes. "You should have seen his face. Anyway, once he was done, I asked him if he'd ever considered taking his art to a human canvas. Took him under my wing and he's flourished. Already the best damned artist I've ever employed."

"Think it'd work for me if I drew all over a publishing house?" I asked. "Think they might take that as a submission?"

He narrowed his eyes again as if he couldn't tell if I was serious, so I stared back at him, refusing to give anything away. It wasn't hard when I rarely joked anyway.

He shook his head and popped his door open, staring at the sky. "Lord, I love him, but do me a solid, yeah? Send down a warning that the boy is going to try on a joke today. He's scaring me."

I snorted as I climbed out of the car. "Will he be here today?"

"The Lord?" He whipped around to face me, eyebrows scrunched together. "Kid, you are stressing me out."

"Relax and stop praying about me." I let out an exasperated huff. "I was talking about Will. Your new guy?"

"Thank fuck." He breathed out a sigh of relief. We shut our doors, and the car beeped as it was locked and alarm set. "Yep, you'll meet him. And Dylan too. He’s also a hell of an artist but does all the piercing's too, and I'm warning you now, he will try to talk you into getting one. Boy loves stabbing holes in people."

"Sounds like a stellar employee," I muttered.

I followed Uncle Isaac to the back entrance where he let us into a storage room that smelled of metal and disinfectant. Tall filing cabinets, industrial shelves full of supplies, a small desk with a razor slim laptop set on top, a table with two chairs close to a microwave and a full-size refrigerator filled the space.

He twisted the lock behind us. "Don't worry, Dylan's good people. The clients pay him to stab them, so it's fine."

I blinked. "Right. Where do you want me? Preferably not by Dylan."

He let out a booming laugh. "What the hell has gotten into you today?" He wrapped me in another bear hug and popped a kiss to the top of my head before releasing me. "Drinks are in the fridge, so help yourself to them. You can leave your shit back here—no one will mess with it—and then I'll show you how to work the computer."

My uncle tossed his keys onto the table, but all I had was my phone and wallet so I kept them. He led me into the main shop, and I glanced around the familiar space.

Bold red paint coated the walls with large framed black and white photos of intricate designs inked on different body parts—all done by artists in the shop. Black leather couches sat in the lobby area on the shiny concrete floor, and fat leather bound books filled with sample designs lay open on top of oval glass tables. Industrial warehouse pipes ran along the ceiling, purely for ambiance.

To the left, the stations were set in a neat row, partitioned by walls made of metal on the bottom, glass on top. And the furthest booth was curtained off for more private work. The reception counter was placed in the center of the modern-style room directly in line with the front door.

My uncle strolled over to the desk and gestured for me to come over as he booted up the computer system.

"First, fingerprints drive me absolutely crazy, which you know, so you'll spend a lot of time cleaning the glass." He pointed at the jewelry case counter filled with studs, hoops and more embellished pieces placed on a bed of velvet. Next, he showed me the case that