Page 58 of Devil to Pay: Cutter

“I forgot about the cuts,” she says.

“You okay, baby?”

“Yeah,” she answers, smiling at me. “I’ve never had anyone come for me because they like me before.” Tears start to well in her eyes. Tears. She catches me looking and immediately wipes them away. “It’s hormones, I’m sure. I’m a tough chick. I don’t cry in front of people.”

“Aj, you are the toughest chick I know, but you don’t always have to be.” I take a seat on the edge of her bed. “Not around me. You have the biggest heart and a kind, introspective soul. So if that means you cry now and then, I’ve got the shoulder ready for you. Not letting you down again.”

Then I bend in to kiss her and I feel everything when she kisses back. She spills her heart to me with that press of her lips. It’s at that point that the doctor walks in. I’m too caught up in the lip lock to see him. I hear him clear his throat. When I pull back from Aja, the man’s got a wolfish smirk on his face.

I shake my head. “We get to go?”

“You’re free to go.” He hands off the discharge papers and a script for the oral antibiotics he wants Aja to continue on, and he advises extra strength Tylenol for pain if necessary. Once he walks out, I help my woman stand. She wobbles and I wrap my arms around her to steady her. As she gets her land legs, I get her clothes, minus the bloody shirt, which had been tossed. She takes everything including the new shirt I bought her into the bathroom to change.

She’s still walking a little slow for my liking. By that, I mean every time I look at her, I see how I failed her. It sucks. I deserve it. But it still sucks. I carry her purse tucked up under one arm and use the other to brace her. The nurse, a cute little blonde with a high ponytail, meets us at the door to her room with a wheelchair. Aja refuses at first, but it’s hospital policy.

“Aj, sit your ass down,” I say. “I still have to check us out. It’s better if you’re sitting.”

She huffs but sits. We’re from out of state and she’s got no insurance. I filled out some forms the other day, but I don’t know if I’ll need to break out the credit card. This is all new to me.

The nurse rolls us toward a bank of elevators, expertly dodging around doctors, other nurses, patients, and a plethora of hospital staff. The three of us stay quiet on the ride down and the next thing I know, I pause at the checkout point but I’m waved through, and then we’re on our way.

“Wait here,” I tell Aja. “Going to fetch the truck.”

The nurse nods. “I’ll be here with her until you get back.”

It takes a hot minute for me to find where Horace parked my truck. Thank God for alarms that bleep when you press a button.

Aja waits outside for me still in that damn wheelchair with the nurse behind her. I pull up to the curb, hopping out to help her inside. The nurse takes one side while I have the other. I don’t need her help, but she’s cool and this is her job, so who am I to argue?

Once Aj’s in the truck I help with her seatbelt, then turn to lift my chin to the nurse and mutter a, “Thanks.” It hits me right then how different my life is from even five years ago. I might wear the same patch, but my club is totally different. The compound is under attack, yet here I am trying to getmy woman, the woman carrying myunborn kid, home safely. Before Aja, I wouldn’t have been anywhere but at my brothers’ sides. Now, taking care of her, keeping her safe is all I can think about. I’ll get to my brothers once she’s taken care of.

The nurse smiles back, tells Aja to take care of herself, and then starts pushing the wheelchair back inside the hospital lobby.

Back inside the cab, I look over at the woman who has so completely stolen my heart and say, “Let’s go home.” Then I lean in to kiss her.

“Is it safe?” she asks once I pull away.

“What?” The fuck? I never said a thing to her. Worrying about what’s going in is the last thing she needs right now.

“You’ve been strung tight, though you’ve been trying to hide it. So I know something’s wrong. But right before you got back in the room, Dusty texted me. She told me about the compound.”

“She had no right.”

“She had every right. Dusty told me how when things are new, the brothers try to keep their women in the dark. I’m not leaving you, Cut. I know your life. I’m not scared to live it with you, but I don’t want to live it without you.”

Something squeezes my heart so tight, it might actually crumble under the pressure. What an asshole I’ve been. She truly iseverything–everything a man like me thought I never deserved.

“We mobilized the Lords. They’ve got the brothers’ backs until Vlad and the other lieutenants can get there. There’s no way a club like the Death Bringers has any idea that we’re that tight with the Lords.”

“Don’t they have alliances?”

“A Death Bringer alliance is based on markers, not friendship. The Lords dropped everything to help when Vlad called. We’d do the same for them. Point, we’re heading back to Thornbriar until I get the word it’s safe to get you to Bentley.”

“Thornbriar?”

“Home of the Lords. You’ll be safe there.”

“What about you?”

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