Cutter's Hope (2 page)

“Nope,” he said and still hadn’t bothered to look. His face was impassive.
Too impassive.
He was trying not to show a tell and his obvious trying was a tell in and of itself.

“Would you mind bothering to look?” I asked just to force the issue, see if he would give anything away.

“I’m looking at all I want to see,” he said, lips spreading into a slow and lazy grin, his eyes riveted to my face. It was already a million degrees in here but the look he was giving me turned the thermostat up even higher.

“I really need to find her.”

“I really need to get to know you. Girl like you doesn’t come around these parts every day.”

“Not happening,” I said.

“Then I can’t help you.”

“No, you’re saying you won’t help me.”

“Call it what you like,” he smiled, teeth even and straight.

“Will you please just look at the picture? I really need to find her.”

I don’t know if some pleading had crept into my tone or if it was the enticing or insistent little shake I gave to the photograph but his eyes finally slid from my face to the picture in my hand. I’d never had a look do me like that. Where his eyes slid along my skin, I don’t know, it felt like a very real thing with weight and substance to it. Like a very physical caress had just gone across me. I suppressed a shudder.

His eyes alighted on the photograph and his entire expression went dark, like someone had flipped a light switch and just nobody was home anymore. Ooooooh yeah. Cutter was a very dangerous man. A very dangerous man indeed.

“Nope. Never seen her,” he lied right to my face. I felt my lips curl into a nasty little smile full of derision.

“Okay. Fair enough. I’ll be in town for a few days asking around about her… if anything, you know, comes to you, I’m staying at the Nautilus Beach Front B&B.”

“You can ask around all you want, Sweetheart, ain’t no one stopping you,” he smiled, the charm back on, “Now you telling me where you’re staying, is that an invitation?” he asked and bounced his eyebrows.

“Not interested in anyone that doesn’t know anything about
her
,” I said giving the picture a little flick making it snap. I stepped back, not taking my eyes off of Cutter whose vest proclaimed him the king of this twisted little bar room kingdom by the sea.

“Maybe I’ll come see you anyways,” he said with a wink, “What’s your name?”

“Wasn’t an invitation,” I stated dryly, “and I thought you didn’t do first and last names.” I was almost to the alcove.

“This is my town, Baby. I don’t need no invite, and we don’t do given names, but Civilians like you? Well, you usually only got one name and that’s your given one, so what’s yours?” he winked at me and I gave him a nasty little smile.

“Hope, my name is Hope,” I told him, before turning and striding back out into the sun, flipping my glasses down off my head and over my eyes. I wanted to be a bitch and not give in to him with my name, but I’d already said where I was staying and he might tell me what I wanted to know with some persuasion.

Not
that
kind.

When it came to a fight, I wasn’t sure who would win in a match up, me or him. I didn’t think it prudent to find out, either. I wasn’t there yet, but I was getting close to being just about desperate enough to get another kind of physical, if it would get me a better lead.
Okay
, who was I
kidding
? Cutter was just plain my kind of hot. I loved a guy with a certain amount of perceived arrogance. I say perceived because I was betting that Cutter came by his arrogance honestly. Meaning he had the testicular fortitude to back his mouth up. It isn’t technically arrogance if you’re that good. Maybe confidence was the word I was looking for.

I sighed and derailed my runaway train of thought that my hormones had put on full throttle. The trouble wasn’t so much what he’d said, but rather what he hadn’t. I’d seen the spark and flare of recognition in his eyes. If I’d learned one thing for sure out of this exchange? Anders Martin AKA Cutter knew the girl in the picture, or at the very least, something about her and I wasn’t leaving Ft. Royal until I knew what it was. Even if I had to use my powers for evil to get to the greater good. All joking aside, I
was
the kind of desperate at this point that wasn’t opposed to anything as long as it got me results.

I walked up the street, away from The Plank at a steady clip and contemplated my next move.

Chapter 2

Cutter

“Atlas!” I shouted a few minutes after Hope sashayed that sweet, perfectly toned, ass out of my bar. My club’s secretary jogged into the room a half second later.

“Yeah Captain?” he asked.

“Find out everything you can about that girl that was just in here. Said her name was Hope and she’s stayin’ down at the Nautilus,” I said to him but my eyes were fixed on where she’d been.

She was a girl on
fire,
and I damn sure wanted to know what
she
wanted with the girl from the picture. I’d recognized her alright. Wasn’t no way I was going to tell that cool drink of water though, not with how that run went straight to hell in so many ways.

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

“Send Tiny back here,” I told him when he turned to tend to the task I’d set him. Atlas gave me a half assed grin and an even sloppier salute. He could tell when I was in a mood and this particular shit show put my mood square in the middle of the black. Tiny didn’t exactly have any fans around these parts and I think the club knew I was reaching the end of the line when it came to my patience with our SAA.

Tiny came in and said, “Wanted to see me Cutter?”

No fucking respect, this one.

“Sit down,” I told him, tone cold. He scowled but complied.

“What’s up?” he asked, crossing his arms over his barrel chest.

“What did I tell you when you came to me about that girl from The Sacred Hearts’ Lake Run, and you told me what you’d done?” I demanded. He scowled.

“Why the hell you bring that up now, Man? That shit’s over and done. It’s been in our rearview over a year now.”

“Answer the fucking question, Tiny,” I grated.

“You said if anyone came looking my ass was on the line and you’d put it to a vote.”

“Put what to a vote?” I demanded. I wanted to fucking make sure we were crystal goddamned clear this time. No mistakes. No fucking up. No Tiny going on his own fucking program.

“My standing as SAA and within the club, period. What the fuck, Man?”

“That’s fucking right, and guess fucking what?” I pointed in the direction of the open bar room door and dropped both feet to the floor, the flip flops slapping loud against the concrete. “Someone, and by the set of her I’d say some sort of LEO, just came looking!”

“Oh Jesus Christ, Man! It’s been over a year, even if she was a fucking cop she ain’t got shit,” he tried to blow it off and I turned my pointing finger to a fist and brought it crashing down on the arm of my chair.

“You don’t get to decide that! Now I kept you on as a favor to Mac but this ain’t his club anymore. It’s
mine
and you have proven, time and fucking time again that you ain’t interested in falling in line and now you’ve put all of us, every single fucking one of us, in the goddamned hot seat! I told you,
consequences
, Man.” I crossed my arms while Tiny looked at me poleaxed.

“It ain’t nothing to make this bitch disappear too…”

“Have you learned
nothing
?” I bellowed, “This isn’t some girl with no family! No, you sit your ass right there.” I pulled my phone out of my cut and dialed Marlin, my VP. He answered on the third ring.

“Yo.”

“Marlin, Cutter, we have ourselves a situation. Get your ass and the rest of the council in here pronto.”

“Can you give me a heads up, Man? How bad is it?”

“No; talk when you all get here.” I hung up. The entire dialogue my eyes were locked with Tiny’s watery blue ones and he looked positively mutinous. He was standing alone on the sentiment. Dumb fucking cunt.

“You’re really blowing this shit out of proportion, Cut.”

“We’ll see what your brothers have to say about that.”

Stalemate. Tiny and I sat in an angry uncomfortable silence while we waited for the rest of the boys to arrive. Atlas, who was at the bar on his cell making calls, leaned back and gave me a chin lift, indicating Marlin had called him and he would be in with the rest when they came. Nothing showed first, then Marlin. Pyro took the longest but I knew what he was doing. He was out on a salvage tow, bringing a boat back into the harbor. There was no cutting corners in our line of work.

By the time my best friend rolled in, the boys had moved enough bar tables into the room down in front of my chair so that we had a meeting table. Without a word, Pyro closed up the big wooden doors leading back here. We were effectively plunged into silence. I slid the gavel out of its pocket where it hid behind the back of my chair and cracked it sharply on the arm.

“To order,” I called.

“What do you have, Brother?” Marlin asked me calmly. He was a good man, not my best friend, not my worst, but one of the most dependable dudes I had ever met. His eyes were a deep blue, the color of the fish, but that isn’t how he got his name. He got his name for pulling in one of the biggest motherfucking Marlin’s in state history. He was a sport fisherman by trade and ran a deep sea fishing outfit out of a slip a few down from my maritime salvage vessel.

“The Sacred Hearts Lake Run. The first one, I agreed to return one of The Suicide King’s girls to Tallahassee.” I watched frowns crush the expressions of my brothers around the table.

It was a big fucking tragedy what’d happened to that girl, and it was all my fucking fault. I’d put the matter into Tiny’s hands, him and a prospect’s. Told Tiny to ‘take care of her.’ I should have chosen my fucking words more carefully. When we went to head out the day after seeing The Sacred Hearts off, she’d gone missing. Tiny had choked the life out of that girl, scattered her parts all the way down the fucking highway to hell and gone… on my order.

“Why we revisiting this now?” Pyro asked, grim.

“I told you what would happen if anybody came looking and now someone has – ”

Tiny interrupted me, “Aw come off it, Cutter!” Marlin stood up, Pyro right on his heels.

“That’s your President, Dude. Show some fucking respect,” Atlas grated.

Pyro and Marlin sank into their seats and I could read it on all of their faces. They were all sick and tired of Tiny’s fuck ups and he’d run clean out of good will with every last one of them.

“Who was she?” I asked Atlas.

“Not sure yet,” he said honestly, “I’ve got calls out to every contact I’ve got. It’d be easier if I had a last name but that’ll come in time. Whole town is lookin’ out now. Won’t be long.” His phone vibrated across the table.

“Speak of the devil.” He scrolled down the screen and nodded, “Andrews, Hope Elizabeth Andrews.” He gave a low whistle like he was impressed.

“What is it?” Nothing asked.

“She’s a fucking badass, but she’s not exactly a cop. She works for ‘em though. Ex-military,” he glanced in my direction, “Army,” he clarified for my benefit, “Tested high with an aptitude for teaching so they made her into an instructor. A good one.”

“Relation to the girl?” Pyro asked for me.

“Nothing yet.”

“How the fuck did you get all that so quick?” Pyro asked with a frown.

“Linked In. Her whole work history is up,” he turned his phone and sure as shit, there was Hope, hair pulled up into a severe bun, face flawless and her dark brown eyes sparking into the camera. She looked every inch the professional badass. Mercenary style. Interesting.

“Names are powerful things, fellas. First and last and you can find just about anything on someone.” Atlas tucked his phone away.

“We need to vote this, I can’t have a Sergeant at Arms bringing down this kind of heat with piss poor fucking decisions. Going off halfcocked on his own fucking program all the time.”

“Now that’s bullshit!
You gave me the order…
”

“I say strip him.” Nothing said and stared coldly at Tiny, effectively silencing him.

“Of his rank or his whole goddamn patch?” Marlin asked disgustedly.

“Rank for now, probation for the patch,” Nothing clarified.

“I second,” Pyro said while Tiny sat there gaping like a landed fish.

“In favor of stripping rank say ‘yay’,” I said and immediately followed it up with, “Yay.”

“Yay.” Atlas.

“Don’t fucking look at me, I suggested it!” Nothing said flatly and I gave him
the look
. He looked sheepish for half a second and entered his proper vote for the record, “Yay.”

“Yay.” Pyro

“Nay.” Tiny spit on the floor.

“Shut the fuck up! You don’t get a vote when you’re the one getting’ voted on. Yay,” Marlin finished. I picked up the gavel and clapped it against the arm of my chair.

“So entered, so ordered.”

Tiny made to stand up but Marlin and Nothing were already there, pressing him down into his seat. I got up and snapped open the Panak switchblade Reaver had gifted me upon leaving with his woman, six months or so back. Tiny made a noise of protest and jerked against the hold of the men to either side of him.

“I’d hold still, wouldn’t hurt my feelings none if he cut you on accident,” Pyro’s smile was decidedly unfriendly. I went in and slashed the SAA flash off his cut and straightened. Tiny was glaring daggers at me but he kept his fucking mouth shut. Marlin and Nothing let him go and he jerked his cut straight on his body over his black tank.