Page 38 of The Princess & the Prospect

“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?”

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