Page 15 of The Other Princess

“What’s that?”

“Don’t bring them back until they’re willing to fall on their fucking sword for her. I mean it. If I see any of them around, blaming her in any way for how they made her feel, and I will start a war with the MC. Don’t matter if I can win it or not.”

“Seems like there’s more to that statement,” I parroted his earlier sentiment.

“Nah, there’s really not. I owe her and my sister as much for not doing it sooner, when it could have mattered. I thought since Ever wasn’t my friend directly that she wasn’t my problem. I was wrong. Should have done something about her shit well before she marched her talented ass in here looking for a mentor.” Kane huffed out a frustrated sigh and turned to head towards the back where Zeke had taken Ever. Before he got to the hallway that would lead him left or right he looked back over his shoulder at me. “If you’re going to step into the fray, you make sure you fight for the girl, and don’t ever fuckin’ stop fighting. I think she’s had enough people half-assing it in her life already.”

I nodded and then turned to leave the studio in order to go hunt down my brothers. We had a lot of work ahead of us, but as I caught sight of the tattoo Ever had drawn for me on my forearm an inkling of an idea began to form. There was something she had in common with all the bikers who had failed her. She loved art and ink. They did too. The bikers had their ceremony of forgiveness, but it only benefited them. It was time for them to put up or shut up and get behind a new kind of family therapy that I had in mind.

I caught up to Trunk and T-Bone as they were mounting their bikes. “I heard her,” T-Bone said to me, voice full and gravely with emotion. My spine straightened as I waited for him to explain what exactly he heard. He shook his head as his shoulders noticeably shook. “She tried to…” His hands flew to his face, no doubt to hide another onslaught of tears before the general public could see them. “I knew shit was bad, but I never in a million years thought…” He shook his head. “Why didn’t my mom ever say anything?”

I scoffed at that question. “You think Ever was going to let Lucy tell everyone how low she had gotten? Not only would that be another hit to her pride, but she would have been letting people she considered her enemies know just how deep they’d stuck that knife in her back.” I almost regretted how harsh those words were, but then I thought of Ever and how she faced down a bottle of pills thinking it was the only way out, and suddenly I didn’t care if I hurt any of their feelings anymore.

“Hey now,” Trunk started to come to T-Bone’s defense.

“No, it’s fine. He’s right. She wouldn’t have wanted any of us to know, and she was right not to want that. At the time, they would have used it as a sign that she had a guilty conscious or something, and would have made it worse.” He sucked in a ragged breath. “I can’t believe I let my little sis slide so far. It didn’t even occur to me that I missed her birthday that year. I think it was two weeks later when I realized, and only because I heard Anna ask if she was going to have to cancel her party like Ever did. I don’t know how I could possibly ever make any of that up to her, and honestly, I don’t think she’ll ever talk to me long enough for me to try. I love her; she’s been a part of me since we were little. We bonded over being the hidden children, you know? I’m so fucking afraid I blew my entire life-long relationship with my own sister based on what Jay had to say back then.

“I should have known. Hell, that’s a cop-out, because I did know. I knew in my gut that it didn’t sound like anything Ever would say or do. Even if it had been, I didn’t think she’d be wrong for finally snapping. Jay knew how she felt and he still paraded his girls around her. I knew it must have hurt her, but I never made him stop either. I just let my need to be one of the brothers take precedence, because I was too stupid to see they weren’t as important as my sister.”

I clapped T-Bone on the back and then moved to my machine. “I have a plan, T. You’re going to have to help me convince the others, starting with our dads.”

“I’ll do anything, man.”

“Good, because what I’m going to ask you to do is going to leave a permanent mark.” I winked at him and then glanced back over my shoulder at the name of the tattoo shop. I wasn’t sure he put two and two together yet, but Trunk seemed to understand as he nodded his head in agreement.

Chapter 8

~ Ever ~

Two days after Declan, Trunk, and my brother stopped by Permanent Marks I was still worried about everything, and what the fallout would be. I couldn’t believe I’d kept my secret – Lucy had kept my secret – all this time, and I just blurted it out like that. Zeke tried to talk to me about it, and told me that sometimes verbal vomit was a sign that you need to get shit off your chest or go crazy. I guess, in a way, he was probably right. Even so, it didn’t stop me from feeling mortified about the rest of our interaction when he found me packing up the shit in my apartment again.

“What exactly are you running from, because if it’s the asses, I will personally see to it that you never have to lay eyes on those fuckers again.” He was angry, but more than that, he was apparently trying to protect me. I was so confused.

“I thought…” I worried my bottom lip with my teeth as I tried to put into words exactly what I had thought would happen. “I don’t know what I thought. I guess I just assumed you guys would hate me or be disgusted with me over what you heard.”

Zeke had a puzzled expression on his face before his shoulders slumped forward. “Have I ever given you reason to think I’m judging you in any way?”

“No,” I all but whispered in response.

“No,” he answered back. “Well, I’m not about to start now. I’m not going to condone you choosing to off yourself now that you’re in my life, because you’d miss out on all that is this,” he teased as he motioned to himself. “And that would be a tragedy, darlin’. Just ask all the women…”

“Yeah, I’d rather not ask any of the women you know that way,” I muttered with a hint of laughter breaking through my voice. Zeke was in older brother territory for me. He was almost thirty years old, and carried a wisdom that seemed to belie that age anyway.

“Seriously, Ever, if you get to feeling shitty about life I expect you to find one of us and let us know so we can help, or try to. Beyond wanting you to know that, I need you to understand that I get it. You’ve been dealt a hand that for all intents and purposes should have been a good one, and for whatever reason your father and his extended family dropped the ball on that shit, and turned it into a fucking nightmare situation for you instead. They topped it off by fucking you over during one of the most confusing and fucked up times in a person’s life too. I understand why you thought about it, maybe even tried it, but honey, there are better ways, and you have better people at your back this time.”

He glanced around at the sparsely decorated apartment and shook his head. “Don’t run. We don’t want you gone. Hell, I didn’t put all that time and effort into honing your skills to have you run off to some other lucky bastard’s tattoo shop and make a name for them instead.” He winked again letting me know he was being both serious and playful to lighten the mood. “Stay, and we’ll help get this shithole apartment set up right for you. I didn’t leave much behind when I moved out, because I didn’t have much to begin with since I sunk every penny I had into the building and shop. I thought you were bringing furniture from your house, but since you didn’t I know for a fact we could help you out with that. My sister is moving and she wants new shit in her place.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I cut him off.

“No, I don’t have to. I want to, and for once, you’re going to accept the hand that’s being offered without having to question the motives behind it. Got me?”

Wow, yeah, I got him. I wasn’t sure what to do with it, but I definitely got him.

~*~

A week passed by in a flash as the guys helped me move Zeke’s sister’s furniture into the place. I now had a real couch where the old futon had been. There was a full size bed taking up the tiny little bedroom area that I hadn’t been using before since I had no furniture and I slept on the futon. I even acquired a dresser and nightstand from Kane and Erin’s mom when he told her what was going on. My best friend had apparently gotten new furnishings for her room, or as her mom put it “the guest room,” since Erin was heading off to college in a few weeks.

My place actually looked like a cozy little lived in apartment instead of a sketch crash pad. I was excited to have the space, because it was mine to do with as I pleased. Also, I didn’t feel as though I needed to hide any of my personality away as I had in my family’s home. Instead of hiding, I had my artwork displayed everywhere. Every time Zeke came up to see me, he would look around and marvel at some of my pieces, asking if I planned on inking any of them. My answer was always no. The designs I had displayed were far too personal to give to someone else.

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