Page 63 of Devil to Pay: Cutter

I shoot a chin lift to both of them. “Waite?” I ask. “That’s an interesting name.”

He shrugs. “I was named after my uncle. He and my mom were real tight when they were kids.”

“Well, we sure as fuck appreciate you helping us get home.”

The man nods, mounting his bike ending the conversation. I climb in the front of the truck next to Bobby and shut the door. He’s got us on the road before I get the seatbelt clicked. He’s quiet on the ride, listening to old-school country music the whole way.

I’ve tried several times to get a hold of my brothers with none of them answering. Before the attack on Aja and I, the plan had been to drop her off in Thornbriar. But after hours on the road, I doubt there’s much fighting left going on and I can’t get myself to let Aja out of my sight now that I pieced together that the hit on the compound was a diversion to get to Aj without proper protection.

It’s dark before we reach Bentley. Waite and Damien follow us up the mountain to the compound. I don’t know what we’re going to find once we get there, and I hate going into an unknown situation. Someone should have called me, but they had their families to see to. I’d be busy with Aja if she’d been here when it all went down. That’s some Rage shit right there to go after innocent women and children. Proof the Death Bringers have no decency. Not a goddamn shred of it.

A man I don’t recognize is on the gate. I draw ready to end this motherfucker when I notice the patch on his cut. It says: Prospect. The other patch says Brimstone Lords. Jesus, they got one of their prospects on our gate?

I climb out of the truck.

“I’m Cutter. One of Vlad’s lieutenants. Who’s here? Duke here?”

The kid nods.

“Call him,” I demand.

He pulls his cell from his front pocket and presses a contact. I wait until I hear Duke’s voice bark, “Yeah?” before I grab the kid’s phone.

“Duke? It’s Cutter.”

“Give Toad back the phone.”

“Toad?” I ask.

“Eh, his name is Teddy. But look at his face. Brothers started calling himToadyinstead and it sort of stuck.”

If Duke is joking around, then things can’t be as dire as I’d imagined. Feeling a little better about the situation, I hand the phone back and Toad listens for a beat before hanging up and opening the gate to let us through. I invite Bobby, Waite and Damien inside for a drink and a pillow for the night.

Almost every spot is filled with bikes. Ours and the Lords. Waite helps me help Aja out of Bobby’s backseat. She stays quiet taking it all in. I drop my good arm around her shoulder. Duke walks out of the clubhouse to talk to me. He’s as burley and gruff as they come. You don’t have to see his president patch to know he’s the president of an MC. He exudes it. “Everything good?” Duke asks.

“We were ambushed by the Death Bringers in Ohio. They had to have been watching us, waiting for Aja and me to leave the hospital. Thank fuck we met a group of men who’d heard of us and what we’re doing to help those women, and they wanted to help us out.” I point to Waite, Damien and Bobby.

Duke rubs his hand over his face. “Doc and Dusty are inside tending to the wounded.”

“The women? Kids?”

“All safe. Smart women. Got them in hideout.”

I sigh, slumping my shoulders a little with relief.

“Bungee, Booth, and Stacks are all gone,” he says and my heart sinks. Dammit.Bungee?He was a good man. Shit, they all were. I can’t believe this. “Vlad’s down at the morgue with them. Cops showed. The FBI.” Then he looks to Aja. “That your woman?”

“Yeah.”

“I’d take her up to Vlad’s if I were you.”

“I work for Dusty,” Aja says. “She had me take classes. I can help.”

The president of the Brimstone Lords looks at Aja with respect.

It’s not as bad as Duke made it sound when we step inside the common of the clubhouse. It’s worse. True to her word, Aja sees Dusty and runs up to her, apparently forgetting that she’d just gotten released from the hospital. They hug and Dusty sets her to work right away. They have Betty up here, too. Part of me wants to tell her to sit her ass down and take it easy, but knowing Aj the way I do, that would piss her off in a way that she’d make me regret it. So I bite my tongue and see what I can do to help. I’m a bit useless because of my injury, but I do what I can.

Hours, we work. We’re lucky that more of our men didn’t get hurt or killed. We wouldn’t have been so lucky if the Lords hadn’t shown up. From what Duke says, the Death Bringers never expected us to have not only allies with the Lords, but friendship. I called that one.

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