Page 53 of Cutter's Hope
“Yeah, you should be,” I shot back mercilessly, I was only thinking about Faith, about what Joe had told me about underage victims. This bitch was part of the problem, hopefully now she was part of the solution, but right now I had to get me and mine out of here. I ducked back out into the darkened hallway, running smack into another dancer. Shit.
“Oh! I’m sorry!” I exclaimed and wobbled on my heels, hopefully convincingly, “Looking for the bathroom, silly me!”
“Oh, you passed it, Honey. It’s back that way…” the girl pointed up the hall but I could tell she was suspicious. Shit.
“Oh, thank you! Must’ve had just one too many, I’m so sorry!” I kept babbling apologies as I backed down the hall. The dancer nodded and let herself back into the dressing room. As soon as she was out of sight I straightened and made a bee line for Nothing. He stood when he saw me. I gave him a sharp nod and we went for the exit, slipping out onto the street, walking away briskly. We made our way up Bourbon passing bars blaring blues and clubs pumping bass to the bar Ruth had told us to meet them at.
We picked up our shadows, Lightning and Hex, and they trailed us three or four groups of tourists behind. Marlin and Saint were leaning in the mouth of an alley up ahead, Nothing shot them a hand signal, and Marlin nodded and they started walking up Bourbon ahead of us by two or three tourists. We made our way through the crowds and Marlin and Saint stopped outside a bar, The Dragon’s Den. Saint lit up a cigarette, which was our signal that we were good.
I slipped in ahead of Nothing and he followed me close, right on my six. We found Cutter, Atlas, Ruth, and La Croix at the back and I immediately handed the slip of paper to Ruth who was on a burner phone. He read off the address.
“Get on it and stay on it. Tell me if there’s any movement,” he said and hung up without so much as a goodbye. I rose an eyebrow at Cutter who was giving me a once over.
“Pyro and Radar are on it,” he said. I nodded, satisfied that we had some of our own eyes on the situation.
“Doin’ okay, Darlin’? You’re lookin’ a little pale…” Ruth commented.
“I just shoved my gun in a lap dancer’s face and scared the ever living shit out of her to get that address. I’m not sure how I feel right now,” I said honestly. If she’d been telling the truth, which who knew if she had been or not, then she was just another victim in all of this. I sighed inwardly.Faith.We were close, I could feel it, and I needed to stay focused. I could feel sympathy or whatever for the rest of the players in this damn drama later.
Cutter drew me into his side and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, sighing, leaning into him and taking the strength that he offered.
“You ready to bounce?” Ruth asked.
“God yes, get me out of this monkey suit,” Nothing griped, pulling his tie free.
“Aww, but you look so handsome,” I cracked and winked at him. Nothing wouldn’t meet my eyes, turning his head and fixing his gaze on the floor. I felt bad then. Ruth and La Croix led the way out of the bar, Radar and Cutter just behind them. Nothing went ahead of me and I caught his hand with mine. He met my eyes then and I smiled slightly, and mouthed the words ‘thank you’. He gave me a terse nod and pulled his hand and wrist from my grip stalking out behind Cutter who glanced back at me.
I gave my man a reassuring little smile and a half shrug. He nodded, and looked over Nothing, his brow crushing at the red lipstick on his man’s collar.
“Oh for the love of Christ, knock it off,” I said stalking past them both, rolling my eyes. Nothing looked surprised. I patted his cheek and winked at Cutter, “I’ll fill you in later,” I said low enough for just him to hear, Cutter grinned broadly at me and laughing, shook his head.
I was beginning to live for these moments with these guys. The light hearted smiles and laughter no matter how dire the situation or circumstances surrounding us. I felt like I had been adopted into their tribe or something, and I was beginning to understand why this life of theirs appealed to them so strongly. It was starting to appeal to me, even though I had no fucking idea exactly how I fit into it, but hell, that had been me my whole life up to this point anyways, why change it up now?
We stepped out onto the raucous causeway that was Bourbon, glittering Mardi Gras beads, crunching broken and derelict under foot. Nothing kicked a red Solo cup out of his way as we moved up the sidewalk en masse. I trailed a bit behind the boys, off to Cutter’s left when a hand shot out from a bar and pulled me by the wrist, slightly off balance.
“Give us a kiss, Princess!” a drunken frat boy exclaimed. I found my center, brought my elbow up and cracked him in his nose, blood spurted and he let go, bringing both hands to his face. I pivoted and clipped him in the balls sharply with my knee.
“I ain’t a friggin’ princess, Bitch. Keep your hands to yourself.” Cutter looked down at the boy, gaze gone still and icy and I touched his arm.
“It’s cool, I got it,” I said. Cutter nodded but squatted down next to the twenty-something. He murmured something to the kid and the kid started nodding frantically. Cutter stood up and spit on the ground inches from the kid’s face.
“It’s worse than Ft. Royal on Spring Break,” Atlas commented.
“Bet he’ll think fast before touching another girl out of turn,” La Croix’s voice was lovely dark and deep, I would say a la Barry White if I weren’t looking at a white guy standing in front of me.
“Probably,” I affirmed. We’d resumed our path of travel to the van La Croix had brought us all down here in.
Cutter took my hand and squeezed, and I squeezed his back. His fingers found the spaces between mine and we made it back to the parking lot without further incident. Ruth got behind the wheel, chewing on the stub of one of his Cubans. I sat practically in Cutter’s lap.
“Where to?” he asked.
“Hotel,” Nothing and I coursed in unison.
“Jinx, you owe me a Coke,” I told him and he cracked one of his rare smiles. Truthfully I wanted out of this dress probably worse than he wanted out of his suit. I settled back against Cutter and kicked my feet up into Marlin’s lap. It was the only way to sit comfortably when you were sitting bitch. Cutter sighed and it sounded suspiciously content which made me smile. I tried to relax despite my tension.
I couldn’t do anything again, I’d done my bit. I wanted a shower, some more practical clothing and to ride out and sit on the house myself. Cutter smoothed his hands up and down my bare arms. I pressed my head back into his shoulder and rolled my eyes up to look at his face. He looked down at me and smiled and I melted a little on the inside. I think he and I would be taking second watch together and you know what, I was totally okay with that.
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