Center of Gravity (Marauders Book 3) (34 page)

“Are you sighing loudly so I’ll wake up?” Anna mumbled next to him, and the next second she turned around to look at him. “Wanna talk about it?”

“Nah. I’m good. Go back to sleep.”

“Having second thoughts?”

“What?”

“About us moving in together?”

He shook his head and hugged her. “No. This isn’t about that at all. I was actually just thinking that I liked the idea of your place becoming our place.”

“And liking it made you sigh?”

“We both know you’re the one who’s worried,” he smiled and it turned into a laugh when she hid her face against him. “Gonna bail on me?”

“No,” she groaned into his chest and then looked at him with a pretty impressive sigh of her own. “Think I’m still not convinced you won’t bail on me, though.”

“Why would I do that?”

“You’re easily bored, and I’m pretty boring.”

He laughed again and dipped his head for a kiss. He really wished there was some way to explain to her that she wasn’t boring, not even close to boring, and how fucking unlikely it was that he’d ever get enough of her. But there wasn’t a god way, so instead he turned it around on her.

“Do you think I’m boring?”

“No.”

“Why not?” He watched her freeze up, and he could see how she was struggling to answer. He interrupted her train of thoughts with a kiss on her nose. “It’s not that easy, is it? Some things you just know or feel, but I’ll try to explain anyway.”

“Please do,” she smiled.

“At the surface, we’re very different. Your life hasn’t been anything like mine, and we don’t have the same values on some subjects that people are very opinionated about.”

“Are we on death penalty again?”

“Maybe,” he chuckled.

That had been one of the more heated breakfast discussions, and she’d managed to call him a hypocrite six times within a minute during it. She was for death penalty, and had choked on her coffee when he said he wasn’t. And when she managed to stop dancing around the subject about him being an outlaw, she’d asked him if he was against the club killing people the deemed necessary to die. He’d admitted that he didn’t have a problem with that at all, but he did have a major problem with governments killing their citizens—which was absolutely true.

He’d tried to explain his view about how laws as weapons, and weapons in the hands of men who rarely knew how to use them, or for that matter paid much attention to how powerful they were. The flaw in laws and punishment were never the written texts, it was that those texts were interpreted and handled by humans, who disturbingly often had reached their position with the help of money from companies who had an interest in controlling the laws—who definitely understood the concept of laws as weapons. Considering the flaws built into lawmaking and the idea of how to use them, something as final as capital punishment shouldn’t be allowed to exist. Especially in combination with federal prosecutor and agents who seemed to quite often
make
cases as a matter of pride. The US had a brutal justice system, which had lead to the highest rate of incarceration in the world. It was basically running it’s machinery on fear and anger, which in turn meant incarceration was used to solve problems that historically wasn’t even seen as
criminal
problems. Add the use of capital punishment in a justice system that worked in that way—that was fucking scary.

As for the club, they weren’t a government, and he didn’t see it as the same problems if they fucked up and killed the wrong person, because as opposed to the government, they’d pay for it.

He’d thought he’d made a great case when he said those things, and she’d listened silently, so he thought he’d convincer her. Which he hadn’t, and that was the first time he’d realized how she discussed things. As opposed to most people he’d met, she actually listened instead of just waiting for her turn to speak. Then she told him what arguments she didn’t buy, and how she thought he was wrong. He’d fucking loved it!

So it might be just one example of how they were fundamentally different when it came to their opinions and political views, which he knew was one of the things she sometimes worried he’d grow tired of, but instead he thought it was exciting.

“It doesn’t bother me that we have different opinions,” he said to her and gave her a squeeze, “because the most important thing is that we have them. Even if we don’t agree, you have them, and you like discussing them. That’s really all I care about.” He could see her skepticism. “And I like it. You might come off as careful and shy, but you can really bring it in an argument, and you pay attention.”

“You like that?”

“Totally turns me on. So it would be way more boring if we had the same opinion about everything.”

“Okay. Then what do you mean by we’re just different on the surface?”

“Our core things are the same. Like the importance of family and loyalty, and you definitely understand commitment. Amazingly enough, you’re one of the most committed people I’ve ever met, and I’ve met some seriously committed people, but it’s just as natural as breathing in your family.”

“Commitment to dance,” she pointed out.

“It doesn’t really matter where you’ve directed it, you have it in you, and not every one does.” He put his hands on her belly. “And I have a hunch were you’ll direct it next. She’s a lucky kid.”

Anna’s eyes were shiny, and she swallowed heavily. “You always do that.”

“Do what?”

“Show me how who I was could be more.”

“Because it wasn’t who you
were
, babe, it’s who you
are
. You think those amazing things about you disappeared just because you can’t dance, but that’s just one way of expressing yourself. You’re still just as vibrant and colorful, and I see that. So I won’t ever be bored.”

She was crying, and with a sob she put her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Gimp, so don’t worry so much. I’m not gonna bail on you or Sprout.”

“I never thought you’d bail on her,” Anna laughed through her tears. She took a few deep breaths and wiped her eyes. “Wanna talk about why you’re sighing now?”

He actually didn’t, but figured it might be best. If for no other reason that it would assure her it wasn’t about her, at least not in the way she thought, but he also thought it might help.

“It’s about that guy. I’m… I’m worried and I don’t know how to keep you safe, and it scares me.”

“So I shouldn’t get upset when your friends push me around?”

“It would really help me if you didn’t.” She looked worried. “See. A lot bigger risk that you decide you’ve had enough of this and leave me than the other way around.”

Anna shook her head. “No, that commitment thing stops me from doing that,” she smiled. “But I’m not gonna lie and say it doesn’t scare me.”

“No. Never lie about that. I want to know so we can talk about it.”

“How can I help you?” she asked and gave his chin a kiss. “Want me to talk about something?”

She did that sometimes, and it was surprisingly helpful. It was usually him talking to people to keep his mind off things, or his brain rambling random facts about anything to him, but he’d discovered that listening to Anna talking had a strangely calming effect on him. He hadn’t even noticed it at first, but later realized that times like when she’d talked about her shoes were moments he’d been perfectly calm. He’d mentioned it to her, and now she sometimes offered to talk to him to get him calm. He’d thought it might be slightly insulting to her that he fell asleep while she was talking to him, but she understood.

“Yes,” he said and tried to pull her closer, but Sprout tended to be in the way these days. “Turn around.”

She did, and he tucked her closer with his hand on the belly and rested his chin on the top of her head.

“Talk to me,” he mumbled when he was comfortable, and she did. She talked about Russia and the ballet after the revolution. How it had been for her mother and the Russian part of the family, and he soon fell asleep.

-o0o-

Two days later, he, Mac, Bull, and Wrench were waiting outside the theater where Anna was still working. It was her day off, and he hadn’t told her where he was going, since she’d try to stop him, but he was really fucking fed up with her asshole of a boss making her body ache more than it had to. He would’ve wanted to do this weeks ago when she’d first mentioned it, that night when they were skinny dipping, but she’d convinced him to let it go, that she was quitting soon anyway. Unfortunately, nothing had turned up at the ballet, and finding a job while pregnant wasn’t the easiest thing even under the best of circumstances—which Anna didn’t have.

They’d been to the lake for more swims quite a few nights after the first time, and he knew it was one of few times when her body didn’t hurt, but he was mostly pissed that her asshole boss made things so much worse for her. He was also slightly pissed that she didn’t tell him about it—not that she had to; it was still hard to miss. He’d suggested she’d quit even if she didn’t have another job, he had money, but that had led to the worst argument since they started fucking again. Apparently that wasn’t an option.

“So, just so I get this right—no blood?” Wrench asked.

“No. Just scare him a little,” Mitch confirmed.

“Oh.” Wrench sounded disappointed.

“She’s gonna quit soon anyway.” One way or another, he thought to himself. “I just want him to make sure her remaining time here runs smoothly. Or I’ll simply make sure that any pain he causes her ends up on his own legs and back.”

Bull snorted. “Remind me again why we don’t just kill the dude?”

“She’d get pissed, but that’s actually the only reason.”

“We could make him disappear,” Wrench suggested.

Mitch had considered the same thing, but had decided against it, and not because he didn’t think the asshole deserved it, but because he didn’t want something happening that close to her yet. Not with all the other things that were going on. He was still very tempted to take out all of his frustrations on her boss, though.

“If this doesn’t help, that’s what we’ll do,” Mitch decided.

“Is that him?” Mac suddenly said and pointed towards the doors.

“That’s him,” Mitch confirmed. They walked up to him, and Bull put a hand on his shoulder, leading him in the direction of an alley.

“What are you doing?” he asked with big eyes.

“We’re gonna have a little chat about one of your employees and how you treat her,” Mitch smiled. “Because your actions are affecting my sex life, and that upsets me.”

“He likes sex,” Bull chuckled. “But then again, who doesn’t. And I find that lack of sex makes me… pesky.”

“What? Who?”

“Anna,” Mitch said with a big smile once they’d reached the end of the alley. The horrified expression on the guy’s face made it very clear to Mitch that he knew exactly what they were talking about, but he’d had no idea Anna was seeing a biker. “She’s my girlfriend. I’m gonna take a wild guess and say she hasn’t told you about me or what I do.”

“N-n-no.”

“I’m gonna take another guess and say that now when you know about me, you’re going to be so very nice to her. Won’t you?”

“Y-y-yes.”

“Good.”

“I still think breaking his fingers is gonna be a good reminder,” Wrench muttered.

“So eager,” Mitch chided. “Not this time Wrench, but you got first dibs on his fingers if he keeps pissing me off.”

“I won’t piss you off.”

“She’s gonna quit, you made sure of that, just leave her the fuck alone until she does. Or I’ll come back. I’ve been really stressed lately, and I have no problem with taking it all out on you. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Bull took a step forward. “Do I need to explain what’ll happen if you mention this to anyone?”

“No.”

“Good, because if you do, me and blue-eyes here are gonna visit you alone,” he said with a nod towards Wrench. “I’ve been meaning to teach him some tricks and any asshole would work for that.”

“I’ll leave her alone,” he mumbled and stared at Mitch with wide eyes. “Just take your friends and leave.”

They left, and they’d just barely rounded the corner when Mac started to giggle.

“What?” Mitch asked.

“Nah, just Bull’s comment about lack of sex making him pesky.”

“What about it?” Bull snorted.

“Like you’d know. When the fuck did you go more than a week without sex?”

“It has happened!”

“When? And if it’s before you became a Marauder it doesn’t fucking count.”

Bull was quiet while thinking. “First year when I was married to Angie I didn’t fuck with anyone else while I was in Greenville.”

“Impressive,” Mac chuckled.

“I was smart enough to not hook up with a brother’s daughter. You’re fucking stuck,” Bull said and pointed at Mac. “For life!”

“Difference between you and me is that I don’t find that thought scary.”

“Totally pussy whipped,” Wrench said and by then they were at their bikes.