Cutter's Hope Read Online Free PDF Page B

whoop one of their asses. No one talked shit about my baby, but that pack of jokers, one of them would try it.
    It was about a thirty minute walk from the Nautilus to the start of The Boulevard, which is what the locals called the main drag through town. I thought a lot about Cutter on my way down the sidewalk. I was trying to pick a place to eat, which just about every place here was fish themed or devoted to fish. Not a bad thing, not at all, as a California girl, I grew up on the stuff but when every place had pretty much the same fare it made it hard to decide which one to go with.
    I finally just picked one at random and went in. It was a little coastal themed bar and grill, and as soon as I went through the open air doorway, I wished I had picked any other restaurant but this one. Cutter was standing by the bar, beer in his hand talking to one of his motorcycle gang brethren or brothers or whatever the fuck they called each other.
    “Whoa! Now who’s following who, Sweetheart?” he called out with one of those pyroclastic, panty-vaporizing smiles. I still wasn’t wearing any but it still had the desired effect. Damn it.
    “Just looking for something to eat, I could find someplace else but, you know, fuck that,” I said and slid up onto a vacant barstool next to him. He laughed.
    “Sorry about earlier?” he asked.
    Yes. I need you to tell me how you know Tonya, I need to know what you know…
    “Nope.” I said but I think my bravado failed me this time, Cutter’s chocolate brown eyes softened, becoming liquid and deep. He kept his gaze fixed on mine, never backing down.
    “Care to finish our date then?”
    “No.”
    “Hey Pyro, shove off, Man. I’ll see you around, I’ve got a date with the lady,” Cutter said, his gaze still affixed to mine. I raised an eyebrow. Pushy bastard wasn’t he?
    “See you around Bro,” Pyro clapped Cutter on the back of his leather vest, polished off his beer and slid the glass down the bar to the tender. I didn’t see if the man serving caught it or not but there was no sound of breaking glass so he must have. Cutter slid up on the stool next to mine. Our eyes remained locked.
    “I didn’t mean to offend you out there,” he said quietly.
    “Noted.”
    “You don’t give an inch do you, Sweetheart?” he asked, an easy smile gracing his mouth. Fuck I bet he tasted phenomenal. I scowled harder.
    “Why won’t you tell me?” I asked.
    “Why won’t you tell me? ” he asked. We had this pretty bad track record of deadlocking, stalemating, whatever.
    “I don’t trust people with my personal business,” I said. He tilted his head to the side considering.
    “Personal huh?”
    “Yep.”
    “Well it’s pretty much the same for me, Baby. How do I know I can trust you?”
    “Look, I don’t care about whatever it is you do out here. I’m just looking for the girl.”
    “Why?”
    Fuck, he was going to try and force this out of me and I wasn’t about to go there. After the first few false leads when a reward had been offered, back in the beginning of this nightmare, I’d learned to keep my cards close to my vest. People, as it turned out, were inherently shitty, selfish, fucks who were only in it for themselves. More than once I had gone out on a wing and a prayer only to find that some dumb prick, or worse, some even dumber twat leading a meathead or two around by their pricks. They were all the same. All of them were confident they could get me somewhere neutral and roll me for the reward money I may or may not have been carrying. They didn’t give two shits, they were preying on the hopes and prayers of someone just trying to find their lost sister. They’d all lost something too by the time I’d gotten done with them. Their freedom, or, in one or two cases an eye or a finger…
    “Okay, let’s make a deal,” he said when I’d been silent and balefully staring at him for too long. I raised an eyebrow and I knew I didn’t look impressed.
    “I’ll buy you