by Alexa Rynn
We checked the first two rooms with no luck and then found the great detective in the third, fishing under his mattress for what I could only assume was his gun.
“Don’t you even fucking think about it,” Krusher barked. He had produced a huge gun out of nowhere and had it aimed right at the cop’s head. “Step back! STEP THE FUCK BACK! NOW!”
For the first time since we had taken Krusher that night I could see the leader in him. His voice was hard and demanding, challenging anyone to disobey him. He had a wild look in his eyes, one that looked red with rage and had zero sympathy.
The cop backed away from the bed, holding his hand up in the air. “Who are you? What do you want?” He pushed his glasses up on his nose and looked back and forth between the three of us and then realization crossed his face. “Wait a minute, I know you!” he said, looking between Blaze and me. “I know both of you!” He tried to run past us, panic setting into his bones. “MY CHILDREN! PLEASE, MY WIFE!”
Krusher knocked him backward with the top of his gun. “your kids are fine and they’ll stay that way as long as you behave yourself.” He backed up toward the door, glancing up and down the hall to keep look out.
I wasn’t in the mood to talk. I kicked the piece of shit in the stomach instead, causing his body to fall from hallway down on his knees to all the way down. Next, I took my head and pistol-whipped him across his fucking head. Light red blood started zooming out of him. I sniffed the air, enjoying the stench of his veins splattering out all around him. I hit him again and there was more oozing. His blood was light, too light, like no one else I’d ever hurt before.
“Okay, okay,” he cried out, covering his face with his hands. “You have my attention, you have my attention. What do you want? You want money is that it? I don’t keep much in the house but I have some! I have something!” He pleaded, looking up at me.
Krusher snickered from the hallway. “Money we have.”
“Then what? What do you want?” His eyes darted back and forth between the three of us then paused on Krusher again. “Aren’t you wanted?” he stuttered. “Isn’t there a warrant out for your arrest?”
Krusher took a few strides into the room. “You know what they said about the guy who couldn’t mind his own business, don’t you?” He pointed his gun at his head. “He got a bullet put through his head.”
The cop gasped and backed away from us. “Please, I beg of you.”
“Oh, God.” Krusher rolled his eyes. “Can we get this over with? I forgot what cowards cops turn into the second you take away a little bit of their control. No gun means no power for these guys.”
“Do you ever shut up?” Blaze snapped.
Krusher listened for once, backing back into the hallway.
I picked the cop’s body up off the ground and tossed him onto his bed. “I don’t want your money. There’s a case you’ve been assigned involving me and a girl over on Richardson, Grace. You keep bothering her family about where she is.”
“Right, the girl, the girl. You want any leads I have on the girl.”
“What?” I shook my head. “No, I want you to drop it. As far as you’re concerned it’s over with. At this very moment that tape it being destroyed and if I hear anything more about it, I’m going to come back here and rearrange the faces of that pretty family you have downstairs that loves you so much, do you understand me?”
“Yes, yes.” He nodded forcefully. “What case? It’s dropped! Please!”
“Good.” I turned around. “Let’s go before anyone sees us.”
“Wait,” Krusher said. “You said you had leads on the girl? What leads?”
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Blaze said. “Let’s get out of here, who knows if someone spotted us breaking down the door of a cop in their neighborhood and called 911.”
Krusher shook his head. “Wait a minute, what leads?” he asked the cop again, pointing his gun at him. “Do you have any leads on where she’s hiding out?”
He shook his head. “Hiding out? No, I was showing her face around town this week, trying to get a feel for where she was and I got a call from someone who I gave my card to saying that they saw someone who looked like her hiding out at this hotel they work at over on Bayville.”
“Makes no sense,” Blaze said.
“That’s Misfit territory, must be someone else.” I turned around and headed for the door. “Grace wouldn’t be staying in a hotel over there, she would know better than that.”
“They said they were positive it was her, said her and a bunch of men rented out the entire top floor of the building and that everyone is on strict orders to not go up there, even to clean. I was going to take a ride over there this afternoon and check it out.”
Blaze glanced at me. “But that makes no sense, Grace wouldn’t be held up in some hotel with a bunch of Misfit brothers unless…” he trailed off, afraid to say out loud what I was already thinking.
“Unless she was being held there against her will,” I finished.
“Heather was right?” Blaze asked, just as stunned as I was.
“Oh, God,” Krusher said, sounded like he wanted to throw himself off the top of the building. “That’s the girl you’re looking for? The crazy bitch that The Misfits have held up in one of their hotels until their President gets back from Europe?”
“You knew about this?” I growled, moving closer to him.
“I know they had a girl there, I didn’t know it was the girl you were looking for!” He shook his head. “I’m surprised you didn’t know about it, everyone in my fucking brotherhood is talking about it states away, they think the girl is an absolute lunatic.”
“And why the fuck would they think that?” I barked, my rage factor was rising by the minute. My Grace hadn’t run away from me, she was held up somewhere having God knows what done to her.
“Because she wasn’t captured,” Krusher said, rolling his eyes. “She turned herself over to them!” He shook his head. “Unbelievable, this is the girl you’ve been throwing a pity party over for weeks.”
“That’s impossible!” I told him. “Grace wouldn’t do something like that.”
“Unless…” Blaze trailed off.
“Unless what?” I spun around to face him. “Don’t tell me you’re actually buying into this bullshit, Blaze. Grace saw first hand what they were like, she would know whatever happened to her would be the worst kind of torture before they killed her completely.”
Blaze shook his head. “You were so pissed off that night, Cutter, and I know how you get when you’re mad. If she really thought you were done with her she might have… she might have done it thinking that she was protecting you.”
“Whatever the reason, she clearly has a death wish,” Krusher told us. “And she’s clearly insane.” He looked back and forth between the two of us and shrugged. “What? I’m just saying.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you’re saying.” I pushed past both of them and started down the hall toward the stairs. “I don’t have time for it.” And I didn’t, Grace was held up somewhere by some of the worst men I’d ever came across in my life. And even worse, she was there because of me. She was there for me. She thought she was doing the right thing by me even if, as far as she was concerned, I wanted nothing to do with her.
And that meant she still cared for me just as much as I cared for her.
“Again,” Blaze called, following after me. “We don’t have a plan.”
I stopped at the top of the steps. “My plan is to go in there and get her back,” I told him. “It’s been two weeks, I’m not giving it another fucking second. Now you’re either with me or you aren’t. And if you aren’t then stay the fuck out of my way.”
“I’m with you!” Krusher agreed, always excited to tag along to danger.
I glanced at Blaze. “Well?”
He sighed. “Come on, you know I’m always with you.”
I swung around and flew down to the first floor, now that we had that little de
bate settled I had to go across town and get back the only woman I’d ever loved.
Chapter Five
GRACE
The pain was the worst pain I’d ever felt in my life. Physically, anyway, emotionally it was nowhere near the way I felt knowing Cutter didn’t want me anymore. After a certain point, my body started to check out. Maybe it was after I’d lost enough blood, or maybe it was after the fifth or sixth kick to my head.
“Okay, okay,” I could hear Lance saying in between laughs. “Don’t fuck her up too much I still want her to be conscious when I fuck the shit out of that fat pussy.”
One of his brothers laughed. “I get to fuck her in the ass first, I want to take her asshole virginity.” More laughing and the sound of hands cracking against one another.
“Fuck no,” Lance said. “I get to have her first everywhere!”
“Hope you brought your coffee, brothers, it’s going to be one long night!” Someone hollered and cheers erupted all around the room. “Are you sure we shouldn’t hit her a few more times? Might be better if she’s knocked out, that’s when bitches are the best; when they finally shut the fuck up.”
More hoots and hollers.
Sexist, assholes.
“Na,” Lance said. “I like when they fight, that’s the best part. Before this slut got him killed me and one of my favorite brother’s used to go out hunting for the perfect type of pussy, the kind you could just take.”
If everything around me didn’t feel so fuzzy in my head, I probably would have been more disgusted. How was it possible men like this still existed with all the strides women had made over the years? I wished more than anything else in the world right now that Cutter was there to teach this pompous asshole a lesson.
“Come on,” Lance said. “Help me get her up, I’m ready for my fun.”
A few pairs of rough hands dragged me over toward the bed and propped me up. I felt like I had a bobble head, moving up and down and in and out of consciousness whenever it saw fit. Lance dug his hand behind my hair and pulled me toward his crotch. “You ready for a cock sandwich?”
“Fuck you,” I whispered.
My head bobbed back onto the bed and I told myself to just shut it off, all of it, and hopefully the next time I opened my eyes I would be in a better place. A place where none of this would matter, where none of the pain would hold me captive any longer.
And it worked.
Because a second later I heard the sound of gunshots and when I forced my heavy eyelids open I saw the flash of Blaze’s head first and when I forced my vision to the right, he was there.
Cutter.
He had Lance up against the wall, beating the shit out of him. There was blood everywhere, rage and sweat dripping down Cutter’s face. He looked like a wreck, I barely recognized him he was so dirty and scruffy. And so reckless, the most reckless I’d ever seen him.
I reached my hands out slowly, wanting him near me. “Cutter,” I whispered. “Cutter.” I felt like I was going to die, I felt like this may be the last thing I ever did in my life and he was the last person I wanted to see, he was the last thing I wanted to hear.
He had come for me. He still cared.
My brave Cutter.
I glanced up, unable to move and locked eyes with Krusher. Krusher? I squinted, sure that I must be dreaming or hallucinating because I was so fucked up. What the hell was he doing here? He dropped the guy he was fighting and shot him right in the middle of the heart. Then he rushed over to where Cutter was and pulled him off Lance.
It took him a few tries but eventually he did it, pointing over to where I was holding my hand out for him and then taking over for him, starting to kick Lance in the head now that Cutter had dropped his body to the ground.
Cutter ran over to me and took my hand in his. “Grace? Grace?” he called out. “I’m here, I’m here.” He put one of his hands in the back of my head and looked down at me with bloodshot eyes. “Grace? Can you hear me?”
I glanced up at him then down at the floor where Clause lay. “He tried to help me,” I told him. “Save him if you can.” I shook my head slowly, squeezing him with as much strength as I could muster up. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for everything.” I shook my head. “I’m not sure… Cutter, I’m not going to make it.”
“No!” Cutter said, screaming. “Blaze! We need to get her to the hospital now! Get the car!” He sounded frantic and frazzled; like he was lost in the middle of a maze he couldn’t get out of.
Blaze took off, leaving Krusher and Ace to finish the job.
“Grace, look at me,” he told me. “Look at me! You don’t get to do this, okay? You don’t get to say goodbye to me because you’re going to be fine, you have to be fine, Grace… because I… because I never even got a chance to tell you how I’m in love with you, Grace.”
I smiled through the pain and held his grip tighter.
“Because I am Grace, I’m in love with you.” He had tears in his eyes but he wasn’t allowing them to fall down his cheeks. He pushed a piece of hair off my bloody forehead and leaned down, kissing me all over my face. “And that’s something I never thought I would be with anyone,” he told me half laughing.
“Cutter,” I whispered, motioning for him to come closer to me.
He put his head down next to me, inhaling my scent.
“I love you, too.”
And then I passed out.
***
CUTTER
Heather raced into the hospital lobby as fast as her little legs could carry her. She stopped when she saw me pacing in the waiting room and ran up to me, wrapping her body around me and pulling me into a hug. “Oh, Cutter,” she breathed into my neck. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
I held her close, not wanting to let go for some reason.
Normally I wasn’t a touchy feely type of dude but this whole situation had me fucked up and I needed my sister close to me right now. I loved my brothers, they were one of the few things I was willing to die for, but there were very few people in my world that I felt like were a part of me. And as hard of a time as I gave her, my sister was one of them.
“I love you,” she said to me.
“I love you, too.” I pushed her small frame away from me. The words had never come easy to me and here I was saying them all over the damn place today.
“Is she going to be okay?” She asked, worry crinkling her face.
I pointed toward the other side of the hospital. “She’s in… she’s in surgery or something. I don’t know! I keep asking the fucking nurses to get me the doctor and no one will fucking tell me anything!” I ran my hands up and down my face, slapping myself in the skin a few times.
I felt so out of it, so lost.
I didn’t know what I would do if she wasn’t okay.
I needed her to be okay.
Blaze came back into the waiting room, cups of coffee in hand. “You need to calm down, Cutter, getting all worked up isn’t going to make the situation better for anyone, especially Grace.”
“That’s true,” Krusher called from his spot on the couch he was lounging on. He had his feet up, sipping an iced latte he’d managed to get somehow. “I’ve always found the best situations are the ones in which you don’t panic.”
“Who invited him?” Heather hissed, pissed off. “This is supposed to be about Grace. He doesn’t even know her!” She uncrossed her arms and took one of the coffees out of Blaze’s hands, taking a small sip.
“Sure,” Blaze said. “I’ll share.” He placed his hand over my sisters and brought the coffee to his lips, taking a long sip before releasing her from his grasp. “You’re right, it is about Grace. So let’s keep it that way and not worry about what Krusher is or isn’t doing here.”
The door swung open and a man in a long white coat came out with a clipboard in his hand. “Who’s here for the girl that was found beat up in the doorway of her apartment building?”
Krusher sat up. “We are.”
We were?
; “We are?” Heather asked.
Krusher lunged up from the chair and pushed me toward the doctor. “I couldn’t exactly tell them that we rescued her from a room full of bikers and then killed them all, now could I?”
He was right, that would cause too many questions. Blaze already had our clean up crew at the hotel getting rid of any evidence of what had taken place.
“Yes, that’s me,” I said. “I mean she’s with me. Is she okay?”
“Whoever attacked her did a number on her. She has a lot of scraps and bruised muscles and a broken arm. They came about this far from cracking her knee cap.” He glanced down at the chart. “She’s going to be okay but I recommend some light physical therapy and bed rest for a while. She needs to heal.”
I nodded. “But she’s going to be okay?”
“She’s going to be okay, yes.”
I sighed in relief along with the rest of my crew.
“I need to see her,” I told him. “Please.”
He shook his head. “Visiting hours are over but she’s been asking for you. I’m assuming you’re Cutter?” He nodded when I said yes like this was good enough for him. “Then you may go and see her, but only you, the rest of you will have to wait until tomorrow morning.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice, I darted toward the double doors.
“Cutter?” The doctor called out after me.
I stopped and looked back at him.
He glanced around the room, taking in Blaze, Krusher, and Ace. “If you care about this girl the way I think you do… you may want to keep in mind what the kind of life you live may do to her.”
Anger overwhelmed me.
Blaze stepped forward. “You aren’t telling him anything he doesn’t know or hasn’t thought about himself, doctor.” He walked around him, putting himself between the two of us. “Go see her, Cutter.”