Page 28 of Devil to Pay: Cutter

“Wasn’t going to say anything, baby.”

“You were. I can read your face. But it doesn’t matter because you can’t say anything worse about me than I say about myself on repeat. I quit dancing because Johnny insisted, and moved in with him. He was a violent bastard, liked to rough me up, especially when he’d been drinking and I knew he wasn’t staying faithful, but both of those things I’d dealt with before, so I stuck it out because he kept me dependent on him. It was Johnny or the streets.

“About a year ago, Johnny comes home in the middle of the night and says we have to go. Right then. I pack a bag and grab my phone then we haul ass out of Birmingham heading for Florida. We stop at a truck stop outside Sarasota. I go inside to take a pee break and get us drinks while he gets the gas. When I get back outside, he’s gone. The bastard abandoned me there. Never did find out what he was running from. Johnny didn’t like questions, so I didn’t ask them. It was safer that way.”

I sigh. “I spent a couple of months working out of that damn truck stop because I didn’t have money, aside from the pocket change he’d given me to get the drinks. Plenty of truckers who want a good time, though I tried to avoid that as much as possible, given that even more tourists stopping for gas presented a more favorable opportunity. They ended up leaving with lighter pockets, even if they didn’t realize it until they were far down the road.”

As stupid as I feel giving this to Cutter, I can’t continue on while I’m lying in his arms naked. It doesn’t matter that I’m almost done with my tale of idiocy and I move off him, off the bed to pick up my nightie, sliding it down over my body. Then I cross the room, to drop down onto the lid of his trunk.

“You’re a little far, Aja. Come back to bed.”

“No. Not until I finish this.”

I have to give it to him. Cutter goes silent, allowing me to take up where I left off. Which I really don’t want to do.

Closing my eyes, I pinch the bridge of my nose and continue. “One day, after cleaning up in the women’s restroom at the truck stop, I met a woman named Crystal. She was on her way to a biker party on the other side of Sarasota. I should’ve been leery of her offer—she said I looked like I’d fit in and should come with her—but after being stranded in that same spot eating the same few things day after day because they were cheap, and sleeping in one of those tiny rent-a-bed closets the truck stop offered in order to save up money, and suffocating in that Florida humidity waiting for a mark to present himself, I couldn’t take one more minute.

“She brought me to a party at the Death Bringers’ compound. And she was right, I fit in. The brothers told me I could stay in exchange for my services, though I tried really hard not to fuck any of them. Talk about some violent bastards. I cooked, as much as I know how, and I cleaned. I’d make most of them think they were getting a piece of me before getting them too high or drunk to hold an erection.”

“You never fucked even one?”

“Don’t be naive, Cut. I couldn’t always get away with it, but I wasn’t passed around. I chose which brothers I slept with. That being said, the night you met me, they’d had another party. A stupid, disgusting smelly fucker named Grudge ran into me. He hit me hard enough that the beer I’d been holding spilled on the both of us. He smacked me across the face. It hurt so bad that I totally lost my temper. I picked up the closest thing to me, which turned out to be a full bottle of Jack, and cracked him upside the head. I think I killed him.”

“You didn’t.” Cutter’s face hardens. His full lips press together into a thin line as he sits up and spins to put his feet on the floor. Disappointment radiates off him in waves. I hate disappointing him.

“Idid. Then one of his brothers, another winner they call ‘Junk,’ pulled his .38 and started popping off shots at me inside the clubhouse. Of course I took off running, then I hid. They peeled out of the property to hunt me down, but I’d been taking cover in the garage behind the broken bikes. I stole one that they hadn’t gotten to fixing yet. I’d stopped at that diner to find someone to rip off because I didn’t have any money on me. That’s the truth. I didn’t want to die, so I ran.”

“You could’ve told me.”

“Really? I spent seven months with the Death Bringers. You don’t think I heard shit? They attack the Horde gun shipments. The Horde attack back. Your clubs are mortal enemies and you’re just going to help out one of the pussies who lived at their clubhouse?”

He springs up from the bed, charging me. I’m not scared because I know it’s not to hurt me. Cutter would never lay a finger on me like that, but he certainly proves a point. When he reaches me he wraps his hand around the back of my neck pulling my head closer to his face. “You weren’t one of their pussies. Don’t ever let me fucking hear that from you again.” Then he presses his lips to mine in a brutally punishing kiss and I begin to melt again.

God, that man knows how to kiss. It’s like his DNA was genetically altered to make him the world’s best kisser.

“Vlad is never going to let me stay now. You know that.”

“Vlad’s a good man—”

“Who threatened me. Why do you think I was sitting outside by myself last night? Nic sent me into the kitchen to get another pitcher of margaritas and Vlad cornered me. He told me if I put one toe out of line, he’d make me wish I was never born. My connection to the Death Bringers is a pretty big toe out of line, Cut.”

“Fuck. Why didn’t you tell me this last night? I’d have sliced his face from hairline to chin.”

“Uh, because you’d have sliced his face from hairline to chin. He’s your friend and your president. I’m just a random woman causing trouble. Why would I have told you?”

“Baby,” he whispers so reverently, I could almost cry. He presses his nose to my cheek with his eyes closed and this thing with Cutter has gotten so complicated now.

“Cut,” I whisper back.

“I won’t tell Vlad for now. I can’t keep quiet forever, but he needs to see you for who you are before we go there.”

Definitely complicated.

10

CUTTER

After our talk, I place a call to Dusty to set up a lunch appointment for her to meet Aja. I tell her I’ll bring the food. Mexican today. Dusty is a woman who loves good food and I’m not above buttering her up to get her to see that Aja would make a good fit. Since I plan on keeping her around, she needs a job to feel good about herself. The days of Aja not getting what she wants are over. No more settling for the scraps of life, of doing things she doesn’t want to do simply to survive. She stays with me, those years will become distant ugly memories.

---