Page 60 of Cutter's Hope

I let Cutter lead me outside, my arm beginning to throb and fucking ache fiercely now that the adrenaline was wearing off. I sucked it up and moved out. Halfway up the drive there was a shout, we all froze and turned. A neighbor, a fucking neighbor the next house over, a pond separating the properties.

“Go, on… we got this,” Ruth declared and Cutter hauled me back to the vans. We got in, the door rolled shut and the van lumbered into an awkward three point turn, the road too narrow to pull a full U-turn.

I sat on the metal floor of the van in the circle of Cutter’s arms, bracketed by his strong thighs and shook like a new born calf, my gaze fixed on my sister who was trying to push out of Marlin’s hold.

“Bubbles, it’s okay! It’s okay! He’s trying to help!” She started screaming and crying until Marlin finally let her go where she wedged herself into the back corner of the van, legs curled to her chest, shivering despite the heat. My gaze fixed on her ankle, to the raw skin there, flat and shiny and pink with scar tissue. Those fuckers… those fuckers had kept her chained, like a goddamn animal. I shook harder, this time with anger as I wanted to kill them all over again.

Someone was making soothing noises and a woman was crying, it took me a minute to realize that Faith was out of it and mumbling to herself and the woman crying was me. Those soothing sounds were meant for me too, uttered repeatedly by the man who held me fast. God wasn’t this some seriously fucked up shit?

28

Cutter…

I waved my boys off the highway. I don’t think she realized she was doing it but Hope wasn’t even using both hands on her handlebars anymore. Her right she kept coiled against her chest. Had she been hurt and I hadn’t realized it? I swore six ways to Sunday and led us off the interstate. We’d left Louisiana behind an hour or more ago but that didn’t even put us close to home.

I pulled into the lot at a run of the mill roadside motel and shut off my bike, swinging a leg over. Hope was working the catch on her helmet with her non-dominant hand and wasn’t doing awesome at it. I helped her get it off and double cursed my own ass. Her face was pale, a sheen of sweat coating her skin and her expression was drawn tight with pain.

“What hurts, Sweetheart?” I asked and she shook her head, shrouded in determination.

“What’s up, Captain?” Marlin called from the crash truck, Hope’s sister was curled up on the passenger side floorboard, Marlin’s jacket and cut wrapped around her. Trike was riding Marlin’s bike so Marlin could stay with the girl and monitor.

“Hope’s hurt!” I called back and my VP swore.

Nothing pushed through the guys and bikes around us, he’d been a medic by trade once upon a time, before tossing in the towel after his wife and kid died. Now he just painted houses for a living. Waste of talent you ask me, but he didn’t so I kept my mouth shut. He took Hope’s hand gently and tried to extend her arm towards him. She grimaced and a tear snuck free but she didn’t make a sound.

“Fuck this,” I snarled and called out, “Pyro! Get us some rooms, I want Nothing to check this out.”

“Can you remember what happened?” Nothing asked.

Hope licked her lips, “Must have happened at the raid,” she said and shook her head defeated, “I don’t remember when or what,” she said and frowned, squeezing her eyes shut.

“A lot of heinous shit in that house, girl. Doesn’t surprise me none,” Beast said. Hope sniffed and nodded, wiping sweat off her upper lip with her good hand.

“Gotta wait until Pyro gets us a room so I can have a real good look at this, get her coat off, but I can already say this is going to need an x-ray, Captain.” Nothing looked worried and if Nothing looked worried then it was definitely something to worry about. We stood around with our thumbs up our asses while we waited on Pyro, who finally came jogging back across the lot.

“They got enough rooms?” I asked.

“Yeah, some of us are doubling up,” he handed me a key card and for once it was good to be King, or Captain as it was in this case, then Hope opened her mouth and blew any notion I had of some privacy with her out of the water.

“Better put us in a room with two beds,” Hope said, voice strained and breathless with pain, “I just got her back, I’m not staying separate from my sister.”

“Don’t you worry ‘bout that none for now, let’s get you checked out.”

We trouped into the roadside motel and went into the first room we had a key for. Nothing led Hope over to the little two seater table and pulled out one of the chairs for her. She obediently sat down and let him ease her out of her jacket while Marlin helped ease her sister into one of the beds in the room.

She was in real rough shape, the sister, shaking and jerking and just as fucking miserable as they got. Marlin had his hands full, but the determination on his face sealed the deal. He had every intention of doing right by the girl, I just couldn’t help but worry that he might lose his shit a little in the process seein’ as what he’d been through before. I worried about my brother but my girl’s sister was in the right hands for her particular needs. I sighed and turned back to Hope who gasped in pain.

“I know, I’m sorry,” Nothing said through gritted teeth. He was easing her black fitted top over her head, peeling the long sleeve down her injured arm so he could see it carefully, but there was only so much he could do with her arm lookin’ the way it did. It was bruised so deep the result was black edged in a deep grape purple midway between her wrist and elbow. What’s more, it was grotesquely swollen. Shit. It was broken just looking at it, didn’t need no x-ray to tell us that.

“Pyro…” I started but he beat me to it.

“Already looking for the closest ER, Captain,” and he was, nose buried in his phone, scrolling through some damn internet page or other.

“Okay, let’s get a shirt on you,” I said and was about to pull off my jacket and cut to give her mine to put something on her other than having her just sit there in her bra when Radar held out his plain white tee. I blinked and turned to look at him. He shrugged and I took the proffered shirt and let Nothing help ease it over her arm.

“Did you seriously just give me the shirt off your back?” Hope asked him.

“Yeah,” he grinned and Hope smiled back, though it was pinched.

---