Page 9 of Cutter's Hope

I finally just picked one at random and went in. It was a little coastal themed bar and grill, and as soon as I went through the open air doorway, I wished I had picked any other restaurant but this one. Cutter was standing by the bar, beer in his hand talking to one of his motorcycle gang brethren or brothers or whatever the fuck they called each other.

“Whoa! Now who’s following who, Sweetheart?” he called out with one of those pyroclastic, panty-vaporizing smiles. I still wasn’t wearing any but it still had the desired effect. Damn it.

“Just looking for something to eat, I could find someplace else but, you know, fuck that,” I said and slid up onto a vacant barstool next to him. He laughed.

“Sorry about earlier?” he asked.

Yes. I need you to tell me how you know Tonya, I need to know what you know…

“Nope.” I said but I think my bravado failed me this time, Cutter’s chocolate brown eyes softened, becoming liquid and deep. He kept his gaze fixed on mine, never backing down.

“Care to finish our date then?”

“No.”

“Hey Pyro, shove off, Man. I’ll see you around, I’ve got a date with the lady,” Cutter said, his gaze still affixed to mine. I raised an eyebrow. Pushy bastard wasn’t he?

“See you around Bro,” Pyro clapped Cutter on the back of his leather vest, polished off his beer and slid the glass down the bar to the tender. I didn’t see if the man serving caught it or not but there was no sound of breaking glass so he must have. Cutter slid up on the stool next to mine. Our eyes remained locked.

“I didn’t mean to offend you out there,” he said quietly.

“Noted.”

“You don’t give an inch do you, Sweetheart?” he asked, an easy smile gracing his mouth. Fuck I bet he tasted phenomenal. I scowled harder.

“Why won’t you tell me?” I asked.

“Why won’tyoutellme?” he asked. We had this pretty bad track record of deadlocking, stalemating, whatever.

“I don’t trust people with my personal business,” I said. He tilted his head to the side considering.

“Personal huh?”

“Yep.”

“Well it’s pretty much the same for me, Baby. How do I know I can trust you?”

“Look, I don’t care about whatever it is you do out here. I’m just looking for the girl.”

“Why?”

Fuck, he was going to try and force this out of me and I wasn’t about to go there. After the first few false leads when a reward had been offered, back in the beginning of this nightmare, I’d learned to keep my cards close to my vest. People, as it turned out, were inherently shitty, selfish, fucks who were only in it for themselves. More than once I had gone out on a wing and a prayer only to find that some dumb prick, or worse, some even dumber twat leading a meathead or twoaroundby their pricks. They were all the same. All of them were confident they could get me somewhere neutral and roll me for the reward money I may or may not have been carrying. They didn’t give two shits, they were preying on the hopes and prayers of someone just trying to find their lost sister. They’d all lost something too by the time I’d gotten done with them. Their freedom, or, in one or two cases an eye or a finger…

“Okay, let’s make a deal,” he said when I’d been silent and balefully staring at him for too long. I raised an eyebrow and I knew I didn’t look impressed.

“I’ll buy you dinner, we’ll talk about the unimportant shit for a while, take a walk back with me to my boat, share a glass of wine and let’s get to know each other some, eh?” he looked at me plaintively and I snorted.

“I said I don’t give it up on the first date,” I said dryly.

“Not looking for sex,” he said softly. If he were, he’d be disappointed because I would probably… who the fuck was I kidding, if it weren’t for Faith I would probably tap that ass and be slipping out of his bed pulling the walk of shame before the sun could even rise. I was about to smart off but there was something in the look he was giving me.

“Sure, yeah. Okay.” I found myself saying.Who the fuck was this guy that he could have such an effect on me after just a couple of meets?

“Know what you like?”

“Haven’t looked at the menu.”

“Can you trust me enough to order for yah?” he asked with that disarming smile of his.

---