Page 37 of The Princess & the Prospect

“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 shoulders. “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…”

---