The Other Princess

by Christine Michelle

  “What’s the matter, baby?” She mock pouted. “I’ve been waiting for you to notice me since you got back to town.” At that, I turned to take her in. At first glance, it was obvious she was one of the club’s whores. Her surgically enhanced tits were all but hanging out of the tight little Aces High Support tank top she wore, and the short denim skirt she had on wasn’t much more than a belt, revealing the length of her overly tanned legs and a hint of her black lace panties. Her face, overdone with makeup, seemed familiar although I couldn’t quite place her. At my puzzled look, she spoke again. “It’s me, Daphne Jacobs,” she breathed out as if her name was sexy and should mean something to me.

  When I didn’t respond she gave an indignant little huff. “We went to high school together,” she added.

  “Okay,” was the only response she got as I tapped the bar in front of me to signal the prospect that was tending it to snag me another beer. As he pushed the new bottle into my hand Daphne leaned in making sure her tits touched the back of my upper arm.

  “Why don’t we go get reacquainted upstairs?”

  “No.” It was a simple word, but conveyed a lot. She moved back slightly, but then just grinned at me.

  “You don’t mean that. Why don’t you finish your beer and come find me, Sugar. I’ll make you forget about whatever’s putting that little frown on your face.”

  “You are the only thing putting a frown on my face, now get the hell out of my space, Daphne.”

  “You’re serious?” She asked as if she’d never been turned down before, and in this place, chances were she hadn’t.

  “As a fuckin’ heart attack,” I hissed. Then I watched as Daphne cleared away from me as if the fires of hell were licking at her heels.

  “You could have been nicer,” Double-D stated as he sat down on the other side of me from where Daphne had just vacated her seat. I turned to glare at him.

  “Why would I do that? It only encourages them.”

  “Most of the single guys here don’t mind encouraging them,” he pointed out.

  “Well, I’m not most of these guys, and I’m not quite single either.”

  “I think we should talk about that last bit,” Double-D intoned.

  “Okay, then here it is, I’m seeing Ever. That’s not going to change any time soon, if at all, and the babysitting detail you have on her when she’s with me is going to end as of now.”

  Double-D grinned at me, but I didn’t make the mistake of thinking he was actually amused. I knew him, and he was definitely gearing up for a fight. He didn’t start where I thought he would though, instead he went right to the heart of the issue. “Don’t think the tattoos are going to wipe the slate clean with all the trouble the club has caused her. She doesn’t want to be a part of the club any more. Where does that leave you, if you get involved with her?”

  “I guess that would leave me with a decision to make, but you’re wrong.” At least I hoped we were both wrong. The familiar cocking of his eyebrow – a gesture Ever had inherited from him – let me know he wanted me to elaborate. “All she’s ever wanted is to belong to the club the same way your other children do. To belong to you the same way they do. That has never changed for her. I can see it in her eyes when she allows herself to talk about all of you. She’s just distanced herself, because she couldn’t handle more disappointment and rejection from the people who were supposed to love her and look after her. I can’t blame her for that, but I can give her the space to work out how she wants to handle it moving forward.”

  I watched as Double-D put his hand up to his chest and rubbed there, as if massaging away an ache, or attempting to. He shook his head at whatever thought was flitting through his mind before he spoke again. “I fucked up big with that girl. I didn’t see it at the time, because I had a whole club full of assholes at my back telling me I was doing right. Hell, I had all the fucked up history with Lucy and me riding my ass too. Thought there was no way she wouldn’t look at Ever and be reminded of all our bad shit. The first couple years, I just knew she’d eventually pack up and leave me because of that girl.” I shook my head in disbelief, because he had it all wrong. Anyone who saw Lucy and Ever together could have told him that, but then again he had a club full of assholes feeding into his bullshit instead of setting him straight. “Never thought I’d say this, because I think you’re too fuckin’ old for her right now, but I can’t stop thinking about the night of the barbecue when you stood up for my baby girl the way no one had bothered to do before, outside of my Lucy. She deserves that. She deserves someone who will fight for her, even against his own brothers, her father, or whoever goes against her. As long as you can keep giving her what she needs we won’t have a problem. If you’re going to choose her, make sure you’re all the way in, no matter what.”

  “You know what that might mean?” I asked the question, but I could tell by his steely gaze that he knew exactly what he was telling me. If it came down to it, he wanted me to be the man who would chose his daughter over the club. He wanted me to be the man he couldn’t be for her. I nodded my head and watched as he got up off the stool and walked out of the clubhouse. I wondered what his tattoo was, and how Ever had etched her pain into his skin, and it made me wish this process could go faster so I could see it all for myself. I wanted to see her take on the damage they had done, and if this would be enough to heal her so I wouldn’t have to walk away. There was no question in my heart that I would walk away from it all for her. I just hoped she was ready for that, because I also hadn’t forgotten that she was new to everything where relationships were concerned, and I didn’t want her to wake with regrets one day.

  Chapter 14

  ~ Ever ~

  Two days had passed since I inked both Crow and my father. I hadn’t heard from them. It had also been two days since my second date with Deck, and I hadn’t heard from him either. I was beginning to think that someone had cheated and looked at their tattoo early, and then decided that I wasn’t worth the waste of time and effort it took to fix things. One of the guys texted me about rescheduling, but it definitely wasn’t one who I expected.

  I had kept my calendar clear waiting for the other guys to come in for their tattoos, but I couldn’t keep wasting everyone’s time. Most importantly, I couldn’t keep wasting my own, because I had bills to pay now, and by not taking other clients I was only hurting myself. I was bent over a man’s calf when my phone started buzzing on the desk off to my right. The man, Jerry or Jerome, or something to that affect, winced when I hit a particularly sensitive spot I was shading. “You can go ahead and take that, you know, if you need to.” He wasn’t being kind, and the smirk that danced across my face when I looked up at him told him I was on to his game.

  “It’s cool. We’re almost done here so whoever that is can wait.” I glanced over at the dude’s buddy who had been sitting in the little desk chair watching me work on his friend. “You still down for tomorrow’s appointment after seeing this?” I asked him as I tipped my chin towards his friend, who frankly, had been a bit of a bitch about this tattoo the entire time he’d been in my chair. It was a flash mermaid he’d picked off the wall and asked me to add some splashes of color to. The prick had obviously never had a decent sized tattoo before and wasn’t handling the sting of my machine well.

  “Don’t worry,” his friend told me while whipping off his shirt. “I’m not a baby about it,” he added as I took in all the artwork decorating his chest and upper arms.

  “Is the day job the reason you keep them to the easily covered zones?” I asked simply because I was bored and ready to finished here.

  “Yeah, I work at a bank, and they frown on creativity there.”

  I laughed. “Damn the number crunchers!” I chanted lightly.

  “You can put that shirt back on,” a voice stated from somewhere behind me. The man seated just to my left chuckled as he flexed his decently sized pecs before listening.

  “Let me guess, you’re the boyfriend?” The man asked, eyeing the p
erson behind me. I knew who it was, but I was actually ticked at him for not getting in touch with me the past couple days so I didn’t bother acknowledging him or answering the client’s question.

  “Something like that,” Deck answered. “You almost done here, babe?”

  I didn’t answer, and just continued to finish the shading on the guy’s mermaid, making it look far more awesome than he even envisioned when he asked me to ink it on his calf. A beauty he didn’t really deserve considering what he asked for. His friend blew out a breath that sounded more like he was covering a laugh. “Don’t know what you did to land yourself in the doghouse, man, but might want to fix that before someone else comes in here and snatches her up.”

  I heard the answering growl before the man stood and told his friend he would wait for him outside. That was probably a good call on his part. Taunting an already worked up biker was never a good idea. It didn’t matter though. Deck was officially running off paying customers now, so I had to do something about it. I pulled my machine away from my client’s leg and turned to glare over my shoulder at him. “Either wait in the lounge or the lobby until I’m done. If you can’t do that, you can get the hell out before you run any more of my paying customers out of here. I already lost enough business holding my chair open for the past two days, I don’t need to lose any more.” It was only then that I saw my brother was standing there with Deck so I added. “You too.”

  “Shit,” my brother hissed that word out as he started to walk away, but not before he grabbed onto Deck’s arm to pull him along. “Come on, brother, before we piss her off even more. Shit, she’s still got to throw ink down on me. I imagine she’s going to make it hurt now.” I laughed internally, because I could totally do that. I wouldn’t, because I’d rather see him squirm while anticipating it the entire time.

  “Fine. We’ll be in the longue so we don’t scare anyone away,” Deck offered softly before backing out of my space. The only reason I knew they finally moved off toward the back was because of the sound of their boots hitting the floor as they walked away.

  “You have some pretty interesting friends,” my client stated. “I thought the bikers all got their ink across town at Aces’ Ink or something like that?”

  “Usually they do, but one of those bikers was my brother.”

  “The other one’s your boyfriend.” It was a statement, but the inflection told me it was also a question.

  “No,” was my only response, because it was the truth. Going out on a couple dates did not make someone your boyfriend. It just made them someone you’d gone out on a date or two with.

  “Jake will be happy to hear that,” he told me.

  “Who the hell is Jake?”

  “My buddy. The guy that was just sitting in here with us,” the man stated as if I should already know this. Honestly, they’d definitely told me their names, but I hadn’t been paying much attention to that.

  “Why would he care?”

  “Pretty sure he thinks you’re hot. I mean, you are hot, but he definitely wanted to ask you out, I could tell.” The man never even stopped to take a breath, as if he were nervous for his friend. Maybe, he should be nervous since if I had been interested before – and I wasn’t – he probably would have just blown it for the poor Jake dude.

  “Ah, well, I’m not interested anyway, so it doesn’t matter,” I explained as I swiped away the last of the ink and blood that had welled up in the area before starting to clean him up.

  “Jake is rolling in money. He’s not like a teller at the bank, you know… he’s…”

  “Do I look like a fuckin’ prostitute?” I seethed the words at the man who back peddled instantly.

  “No, I didn’t… I wasn’t implying…”

  “Why the fuck would I care how much money he makes then?”

  “All women want a man to take care of them at the end of the day,” he stated simply as if his belief made that asinine statement the truth.

  “No, they don’t. I definitely do not.” I wrapped his tattoo, none too gently, and handed him the care instruction card without explaining it to him. “Take care of your tattoo, the card tells you how. If you lose it I’m sure you can Google it,” I suggested. I heard Kane laugh, and realized he’d been sitting in his own little space working on some girl while all this was going down. I hoped I didn’t get in trouble for my attitude later, but honestly, some people just needed to be put in their place.

  “Sorry,” the guy apologized, but it was half-hearted at best.

  “You can pay the girl up front on your way out. She already knows my prices.” With that, I turned my back on the man and started cleaning up my space.

  “Damn girl, that was a cold send off for a client,” Kane murmured from where he sat working. I didn’t need to address him though, because the girl he was working on piped up instead.

  “Good for you honey. That guy was a fucking jerk who got lost on his way back to the ‘50s where his little woman is waiting with a fresh baked pie.” I had to laugh at that, but then she ruined our newfound allegiance. “Besides, why would you want either of those repressed, buttoned-up boys when you had two hot as fuck bikers in here looking for you? Girl, I’d be all over that scene too if I were you! Actually, if you don’t mind sharing that brother of yours, you can toss him back out here for me.”

  I gave Kane a look that said everything I wanted to spew at the girl. He just laughed and waved me off so I finished tidying and went to the back to find my brother and Deck. They were lounging out on the sofa across the back wall, both with legs spread out before them and arms where ever they felt comfortable, making themselves right at home. It took them a moment to realize I was standing there as they had both been watching the sports highlights on the television and hadn’t heard me come to the doorway.

  “What is it you two needed?” I finally asked, drawing their attention to me. My brother trained his eyes on me, carefully assessing my mood, and rightfully so. After the bullshit he had put me through, initially, with the Jay debacle he’d learned to gage when to approach me for anything. That included even telling me hello, because some days I couldn’t take it any more and I would tell him to go fuck off, or worse. He was one of the few that I took my anger out on at all. The rest, I simply ignored. It’s hard to ignore the person you are most angry with though. My brother was definitely that person, because he was the last one I thought would throw me under the bus for any reason. Deck had not been around for all of that though, and didn’t know how to gage the situation or my overall mood.

  “Please, tell me you’re not working on that tool who took his shirt off?” I rolled my eyes and glanced back at my brother, ignoring Deck’s question.

  “Why are you here?”

  “To talk to you about the tattoos for Jay, PeeWee, and me,” my brother informed me without pretense.

  I made a noise in the back of my throat at that, but gave no other indication that I had plans to continue with the tattoos. When my brother looked at me with a question in his eyes, I stated the obvious. “You said you needed to talk to me about tattoos, that doesn’t require anything from me just yet. That requires effort on your part.” I glanced down at the phone I held in my hands, checking the time, but not really seeing it. It could have been two in the afternoon or ten at night for all I knew. It was a symbolic gesture to tell my brother he needed to get on with it, because he was wasting my time. I heard Deck huff out a very loud, frustrated breath, but I refused to acknowledge him even with just a look. Yes, I could be a stubborn ass sometimes, but I’d learned to be that way after getting my heart trampled so nastily before.

  T-Bone cleared his throat and then stood, glancing down at his feet while fidgeting with his hands in front of him. He was never one for nervous gestures or showing weaknesses in front of others with the exception of me. He’d started attempting to look contrite after everything blew up, and he realized how badly he’d fucked up with me. “I know you’re pissed, Ev. We had club business that took us all o
ut of town, and…”

  “And you all suddenly lost your cell phones? They blew up in some crazy club business that managed to leave you looking alive and well while the cell phones didn’t make it? EMP burst, maybe?”

  “What?” He questioned, and then coughed out a bit of a laugh. “No. We were on a run and were instructed that we couldn’t communicate with anyone so that there would be no leaks to…” He didn’t even need to finish, because even though he didn’t realize what he’d just said, it equated to the fact that I wasn’t trusted enough to receive a call or text about them being gone. Instead of letting him finish, I interrupted.

  “Get out!”

  My brother stammered his words to a stop before the shock of those two simple words caught up to him. “We couldn’t… what? Get out?”

  “You heard me. Get out!” I spun on my heel and moved to go down the hall that would lead me up to my apartment, because right now I was simply too pissed off to work on another living soul without hurting someone.

  “Holy shit,” Deck hissed, and I thought I heard a smacking sound before boots were echoing down the hall growing closer to me at a very fast pace. “Ever, wait,” he called out to me. I did not stop, and had gotten half way up the damn steps leading to my apartment door above before he finally caught up to me and grabbed hold of my upper arm, effectively throwing me off balance and spinning me to face him, while I wobbled on the step I nearly fell off of. “Please, hear me out,” he started.

  “I don’t need to hear you out. My brother just told me everything I needed to know. I’m not trusted enough to know that you had somewhere else to be. That being the case you do not need to be here now.”