Page 29 of The Other Princess

“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 person 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.”

---