Read Online Cutter's Hope by A.J. Downey - Free Book Online Page A

one,” he leaned in as if doing a push up against the wall and whispered the last against my ear, his breath fanning and sending a pleasurable little rush down the side of my neck, “You trust me a little, I’ll trust you…”
    He pushed back and his warm brown eyes searched mine. I let go of his leather vest with my left hand and held the inside of my left wrist in front of his face. His eyes refocused on the writing there and followed the sweeping lines.
    “Virtue,” he read, “Gonna have to fill me in, Beautiful. I’m not picking up what you’re putting down.”
    I licked my lips which were suddenly very dry and swallowed a couple of times. It was hard to think with him so close, smelling so good; like clean saltwater and ocean breeze.
    “I have two sisters, Faith and Charity… One is missing. The girl I am looking for was the last person to see her.” I relented. Cutter stared at my face, hard. The lines of his own collapsing into neutrality.
    “Wait here,” he said and kissed me one last time roughly. He pushed back up off the wall, away from me, before stalking around the corner and back into the bowling alley.
    “Council!” he barked, “Outside now! ”
    Uh-oh. Looks like I just opened up a can of whoop ass on somebody. I almost felt bad about that. The guys that formed the leadership of the club weren’t half bad, that I could tell. I pushed off the wall and closed my eyes. With a groan, I fell back against it and leaned on it hard. What the fuck did I just do?
     

 
    Chapter 8
    Cutter

    The boys were all silent, and like me, none of them were happy. I wanted to tell her, but the ramifications of that would be far reaching for my club, so I had to put it to a vote. The council stood around me at the far end of the lot and mulled over the implications.
    “Tiny’s got our nuts in a fucking vice,” Nothing growled.
    “Too fucking right. Wish the happy bastard would just fucking retire already,” Radar kicked a rock across the worn out asphalt of the parking lot.
    “We can’t tell her anything, not until we know she’s not going to flip out. We need a full club meeting, make sure every damn one of us is on the same page,” Marlin said judiciously.
    Pyro huffed a laugh and I looked at my best friend, “Play time is over. I’ll get everyone over to The Plank where we can put it to a vote. I’m sorry, Brother,” he said to me, “I don’t see this going any but one way. She’s connected to the cops. She’ll fucking fry us.”
    “You don’t know that,” I said and scowled at my best buddy.
    “We don’t know that she won’t, so put your resting bitch face on ice there, Captain,” Atlas said. I sighed.
    “Round ‘em up. Have Hossler take Hope back to town. I want this shit settled in house and everyone on the same page.”
    My proclamation was met with a bunch of ‘Aye, aye, Captain’s,’ and the boys drifted off in the direction of the bowling alley. It was Marlin who stayed behind. He put his hand on my shoulder and sighed.
    “Man, I’m sorry, I know you like her. Haven’t seen you this engaged since L’il Bit went home with her man,” he patted me roughly on the shoulder twice but my gaze was fixed across the lot on Hope who was looking coolly back at me, her deep brown eyes calculating and curious. She knew something was up. I hadn’t exactly bothered to hide it.
    “C’mon Honey, Captain wants you to ride with me and I could use some girl power for a minute after hanging around with these assholes,” I heard Hossler tell her. Hope hitched her purse higher on her shoulder and slid her sunglasses on her face.
    “I’m down like four flat tires,” she said to Hoss and got up into the passenger seat of Hossler’s old ‘85 Land Rover Defender. The thing was ancient, the paint oxidized and rusted in places but there was no denying its reliability. Didn’t break down often, and when it did, Hoss usually fixed it herself. Hope would be safe enough.
    I froze and went back