The Princess and the Prospect

by Michelle, Christine

  “Neil?”

  “One of the other prospects,” he informed me. “Though, I don’t really see you having to worry about that guy. He’s a bit too soft for the life. Surprised he made it this long.”

  “You sound like you know a little more about club life than you’re letting on.”

  “My Uncle used to run with the Renegades in North Carolina. Any time we’d go up to visit, he also dropped me by their club to get my fill of bikes. Probably helped my sister’s case a bit too when she became best friends with Ever. My mom nearly had a fit about her daughter hanging out with that kind of girl, at first. Then she met Ever and fell in love with her. She wishes Ever could have gone to college with Erin. My little sister has been partying and getting into a little trouble over there at USC. I’m going to end up making a trip to Columbia to straighten her ass out before she flunks out of school.”

  “Well, damn. You’re making me thankful I don’t have a sister.”

  “Oh, but you do.” I gave him an odd look and he just laughed. “You married into your wife’s family, man. That means Ever is your sister, and heaven help you when Deck starts calling for help when Erin comes home and drags Ever into her bullshit.” He laughed. “Hell, now that’s she’s older you better watch out. They’re liable to drag Anna into their drama too once she’s had your kid.”

  “You know, Florida is looking like a real nice location to move my family to,” I joked as a small cargo truck became visible a couple miles down the road. I lifted my fingers to my lips and let out a whistle to alert the others that we had company. Receiving the whistle back meant it was the shipment we were waiting on. It wasn’t long until Crow and Crusher had finally joined the rest of us to wait by the front gate. We loaded up Kane’s bike, and just managed to get back on the road before 2 pm.

  I sent Anna a text just before we took off.

  Me: Might make it home before 7.

  Thanks to a wreck on I-95 coming up towards Savanna, we ended up losing quite a bit of time. Had it just been us on the bikes, we could have easily circumvented the traffic jam. Since Kane was driving the box van, that wasn’t possible. As a result, and a delay in our meet to have the van picked up by the other party, I didn’t get in until nearly 10:30 pm. Anna had already been asleep when I got there, so I didn’t bother waking her. Instead, the guest room was where I reluctantly ended up for the night. By the time I woke in the morning Anna was already gone. Not wanting her to think ill of me I sent a text.

  Me: Sorry, got in later than I thought thanks to accident on road. Didn’t want to wake you last night. Are we still on for lunch?

  Anna: Of course.

  I waited a few more minutes to see if anything else would come through, but it didn’t. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. Anna could be angry with me, busy, or just indifferent to whether I came home at all. We had the talk about how I planned to be with only her from here on out unless she decided she no longer wanted to be married to me. Somehow, I wasn’t so sure she believed it. I couldn’t blame her, and once again, I felt sick to my stomach that I had fucked up so horribly and allowed my anger to lead me down a path I couldn’t easily come back from – if at all. God, I hoped things worked out though, because a life without Anna in it would be a miserable existence.

  When I couldn’t deal with driving myself crazy any longer, I got ready and then headed to the clubhouse for a bit until lunch. There weren’t many people up and about there since it was still early, but there was a familiar prospect sweeping the floors, and after what Kane had revealed to me recently, I thought maybe it was time to have a chat with this little prick.

  “Prospect!” I called out and his head immediately lifted to glance in my direction. The kid had no poker face at all. He schooled his features quickly, but not soon enough to cover for the disgust I saw there. I fucking deserved it, and I knew I did, but brothers weren’t supposed to judge one another, even when we were doing stupid shit. This kid was proving another weakness before he could join the brotherhood.

  When the man didn’t move, I crooked my finger at him as if he were a child I was calling over to me for a scolding. His lips tightened, but he set aside the broom he had been pushing and made his way to me. “You have a problem with me?”

  “No,”

  “No?” I asked him. “No, what?”

  “No, I don’t have a problem with you.”

  “Seems like you do,” I countered. He just stood there, stoic and silent as the day is long. “You got a thing for my wife?” Once again, he couldn’t contain the flash of fury that crossed his face before he spat words back at me that stung like a bitch.

  “Didn’t know you were married considering last time I saw you here, there were multiple women crawling all over your jock,” the man answered.

  “You lying to a brother?”

  “No, I didn’t know you were married then. I’ve since heard whispers that maybe you’re with one of Double-D’s daughters, but I haven’t seen her around since the night I last saw you with all those women.”

  “You catered to her that night, and were pretty attentive from what I’ve been told.” He shrugged his shoulders at me, a careless move. “Speak freely, Prospect, and get it off your chest now. We’ll never speak of it again unless you give me reason to. If you make it to a full patch, I’ll even give you one free hit the minute you put it on.

  “Worth it just for that then,” he muttered. Oh yeah, this guy had a hard-on for my woman. “Fine. Even if I lose my place here, someone needs to speak up. They should have done or said something that night. I was fucking sick for that girl having to watch what she did and I didn’t even realize you had gotten married to her that day. I just knew she came here with you and had to wait for you to take her back out. I offered her a ride when she looked like she might be sick watching you get pawed on by all those women. I heard Merc got her out of the place before you fucked around with one of them. That is the only reason I came back here after that night. Someone cared about that girl, and what she was witnessing. I don’t want to be a part of a club that purposely torments their women. What you did might not have been physical, but you abused that girl just the same that night.”

  And that took the wind right the fuck out of my sails, because fuck if he wasn’t right. I nodded my head and then tipped it, indicating I wanted him to follow me to the bar. I walked behind it and told him to take a seat. He followed directions, watching me like a hawk, curious eyes never leaving me. “When the time comes, you have my vote.”

  “What?” He asked shocked as I slid a shot his way.

  “I came in here pissed off and ready to fucking throw your ass out of here for daring to think about my woman, but you’re right. What I did was the lowest, shittiest thing you could do to a person – especially one carrying your child.” The man just sat still, not touching the shot, and waited. “I respect your feelings on the matter. I had my reasons and my anger got the best of me that night. Even though I thought I was justified in getting shitfaced, I never intended for things to get out of hand the way they did.

  I swallowed my embarrassment and fessed up to a fucking prospect. “Hell, I had forgotten she was there. I had left her outside in the truck because I needed some space to clear my head so I wouldn’t say some nasty shit to her that was brewing in the back of my mind. None of that matters now though. It happened. I’m the fucker who screwed everything up. You took care of my woman when I wasn’t enough of a man to do it. Not only that, but you just risked your future patch to come to her defense and call me on my bullshit.”

  The man slipped the shot back toward me and grinned. “I don’t drink.”

  “What the fuck? How are you prospecting for an MC and you don’t fucking drink?” I asked, bewildered.

  “Let’s just say I learned my lesson and it didn’t turn out as well as yours. Don’t touch the stuff anymore. I’m prospecting because I like the idea of a brotherhood and I’m on my bike damn near every day of the year anyway.” He shrugged his sho
ulders. “Just made sense to me. Besides, I know I’m not the typical recruit, but I have my attributes that will make me damn useful to the club.”

  “You earned my vote and a personal marker from me then. The only caveat is that personal doesn’t extend to my wife in any way.” I let him hear the warning tone in my voice as I said it.

  He smirked at me. “I don’t want your woman. I just wanted her to not have to deal with you being a jackass and humiliating her in front of your whole club. I thought it was bad when I took her for a hang around. Finding out she’s a club princess and your wife just made me see red.”

  “Okay, Saint, you keep calling it like it is and I think we’ll get along. I’m over my fucked up bullshit, but just in case…”

  “I have your back then, just in case.” He stood and turned to go back to the job he’d been tasked with, but ended up turning back to seek me out over his shoulder. “And I’m no fucking saint,” he added.

  “You are now,” I informed him before heading to the office to seek out Merc.

  “What can I do for you?” Merc asked without looking up from what he was staring at on the computer monitor in front of him.

  “Wanted to talk to you about the prospect working out there right now.”

  “Neil? The one you just had a confrontation with?” He asked nonchalantly. I grinned at him as he turned his attention away from the monitors and put the full weight of his stare on me.

  “The one I just had a chat with. I’m guessing you didn’t have audio running?”

  “Nope, should I have?”

  “You should probably go back and listen in for a minute.”

  Merc did just that with his eyes twinkling as he nodded his head in approval. “You wanted that pointed out to me, why?”

  “Didn’t think he was made for this club, but he just proved me wrong. Wanted you to know that.”

  “I already knew that, but you just gave me more reason to like him.” I stared at Merc a moment and he didn’t miss the puzzled look on my face. “What?”

  “I thought he was about to be washed, judging from what Crow was saying on our trip. Even Kane thought the club was going to scrape him off.”

  “Kane is just a prospect himself, so he don’t know shit. As for Crow, he’s not much longer for this chapter, and he knows it. I think anyone he can make look worse than him at this point is where he puts his focus, and tries to divert others there as well. Since we removed PeeWee, and there’s no longer a worse brother here, he’s escalated his bad mouthing of anyone who seems to be an easy target. Saint, as you dubbed him, is not an easy target despite the face he shows those he’s testing out. Make no mistake, he’s testing our club more than we are testing him.”

  That was interesting to note, but nothing I could explore in the moment as I felt my phone vibrate. I grinned down at the message. As simple as it was, I felt lucky that she’d even sent the damn thing.

  Anna: Ready in 20 minutes.

  Me: Be there soon.

  “I don’t even have to ask who that was judging by the goofy grin on your face.” I glanced up at him and saw that he didn’t appear to be happy. “I don’t want to see her hurt. Not sure how you convinced her to stay, but if you’re not serious…”

  “You knew that bitch was lying. I wasn’t ever with her past that one night, and I didn’t even remember who the hell she was to begin with. Besides, I didn’t convince Anna to stay. I tried to let her go. She stayed anyway. She’s fucking smarter than I am so I’m just going to follow her lead,” I admitted.

  Merc threw his head back and laughed. “Hell, Joker, maybe there’s hope for you after all. If I had come to that conclusion sooner, Tiger Lily and I might have been spared some shit we went through. They are always smarter than we are. Never doubt that.” I stood, waiting to be dismissed. “I appreciate you coming in and going to bat for Saint, even though you have reason to be wary of the fucker. Just remember that though. You fuck up again, and there’s always someone waiting in the wings who will be the shiny new thing that makes you look even worse than you made yourself look.”

  “Thanks for that, I guess,” I hesitantly told him as I slipped another step closer to the door.

  Merc laughed again. “Get out of here and tell Anna I said hello and not to be a stranger. Tiger Lily would love to see her soon.”

  “I’ll let her know.”

  I managed to arrive at the photo studio in less than fifteen minutes. When I got there Anna was working with a customer behind the little counter, showing her some photos that had already been taken. The woman seemed thrilled with whatever she was viewing, and he could see that Anna was in her element. The compliments rolled off her tongue without any hesitation or deception. She meant every word of what she was saying to the woman, and ended up convincing her to go with several options in a larger package than she had originally intended to get. I glanced around at some of the photos proudly displayed on the walls as I waited for them to finish up and an idea struck.

  I wasn’t ready to present it just yet, but hopefully soon, I would have the perfect plan in place to make sure Anna would be mine for the rest of our lives. I didn’t mind working for it. I didn’t even mind that I’d have my work cut out for me thanks to my initial fuckups. The truth was, my life wouldn’t be the same without her brilliant light shining in it. I was just enough of a selfish prick to want that. Hopefully, I was a smooth enough man to make it happen.

  Once Anna was finished, she practically bounced over to me. “Where are we going? I’m starving.”

  It was only then, as I glanced down at her baby bump and part of the reason she was starving, that I realized I had ridden here on my motorcycle. “You do have the truck here, right?” I asked belatedly, having forgotten that she probably shouldn’t be riding on the back of my bike now. She smiled up at me knowingly. “I do, but there are plenty of places right around here in walking distance. Why don’t we hit one of them and then maybe these cankles I’m developing will calm the heck down,” she insisted while pushing a slim foot forward to show me how her ankles looked slightly puffy.

  “Cankles?” I asked just for clarification.

  “Yeah, you know, when your ankles get so fat they make it look like your calf ends at your foot?”

  I laughed at her then. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about,” I told her as I wrapped an arm around her still very slender shoulder. “Let’s go get you guys something to eat though before the tiger growling in your belly decides I look tasty.” I watched as her face flamed red as she playfully slapped at my abs. I’d missed this after we split up before. We used to tease and play around so effortlessly. Made me want to kick myself in the ass all over again for allowing my pride fuck it all up. I brushed the thought away though, determined to be in the present with Anna. She never pulled away as we wandered down the narrow sidewalk. “Gretchen must be paying a mint to rent that space.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Look around, we’re in the hub of Charleston. Leases on Market St. places aren’t exactly cheap.”

  “I guess, but she does do a lot of business. Plus, she also does weddings and big events too. She’s talked about training me to be a photographer too and hiring me on for more of that once the baby is born.”

  “I thought you wanted to be a writer?” She worried her hands together nervously before answering.

  “I do, but I kind of like the photography too,” she admitted.

  “It’s okay to enjoy more than one thing. It gives you something to fall back on if one or the other isn’t bringing in the income or job satisfaction that you want.”

  “I guess so. Though, I don’t think the job satisfaction will matter quite so much as being able to pay the bills.”

  “You don’t ever have to worry about paying the bills, Anna. I have you covered.”

  “You can’t promise that.”

  “I just did.”

  “But, what if things don’t work out? Don’t you think your new woman d
own the road will have a problem with you paying my bills too?”

  “There isn’t going to be another woman down the road, Anna. I keep trying to tell you that, and you’re not getting it.” She gave me a dubious look before turning all of her focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

  “We’ll see,” she murmured before her slight movements turned us toward the Crab House near South Market and State St.

  “I thought pregnant women weren’t supposed to eat fish or something?” I asked as we were seated.

  “Good thing I want the house burger then, huh? Besides, I love the smell of the seafood. If I can’t eat it, I should at least be able to smell it, right?”

  “I suppose. Isn’t that like teasing yourself with what you can’t have?”

  “I don’t know. You tell me?”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, curious as to where she was going with that.

  “Having me around and claiming you want only me has to be difficult on you when I refuse to be with you right now.” Her voice was low, and beyond that, she also seemed as though she feared the answer. I understood that. I had put that fear there with my own actions, and I was fucked, because there was no taking that away from her now. Only time and rebuilding trust through my actions would help ease it.

  “If you’re asking how I will manage, I’m going to tell you that I’ll be ‘just fine’. Anna, I’m not a young boy. I have control of my hormones.” At her withering glare, I amended my words. “I was overseas for 13 months on my last tour and celibate the whole time. It’s not a difficult thing to do. The promise of having you with me again eventually is sure as fuck better than the promise of coming back home to empty, unfulfilling encounters. You’re worth waiting for, beautiful.”

  She blushed again, as she always did when I called her that. Then she glanced up at me with serious eyes. “What if I can’t do it? What if I can’t get past everything to go there again?”