Page 56 of Devil to Pay: Cutter

“Aja says she’s cold. She’s definitely shivering.”

“I’ll be in to check on her in just a minute.”

“I’d hold you if I could,” Cutter says. “I just don’t know where to touch you that won’t hurt.”

“That’s easy enough. Anywhere on my left side, except for my upper arm.”

The last word hardly leaves my mouth before he’s scooting me up to slide in behind me. And he really is warm. It’s wonderful.

My nurse walks in the room with a smile on his face until he sees how Cutter’s arranged us. “Sir, you can’t be in that bed.”

Cutter laughs. “You gonna remove me?”

The nurse jerks back, then shakes his head. He’s on the taller side, has a good build–though, I suppose you’d have to with a job as physical as his–the burgundy colored scrubs makes his dark eyes look even darker. The look on his face says he’s not sure if he could take Cutter but he’s wholly sure he doesn’t want to. “I don’t get paid enough for that,” he says. “How you feeling, Aja?”

“I’m cold. Cutter helps.”

He walks over to check out the levels on my bags. “I’ll be back with the good stuff,” he says, then he turns to leave.

“Don’t leave me, okay?” I say to Cut.

“Baby, never again.” He kisses the top of my head and continues to hold me. My nurse comes back in holding a large syringe that he hooks up to the line on my IV and depresses the plunger.

“You should start feeling warm again soon.” He pats my foot as he leaves. However long I have to stay here will be worth it if I feel better. Cutter picks up the remote to turn on the television hanging on the wall, switching it to some war movie.

I close my eyes and sigh.

18

CUTTER

Once she’s asleep again, I slip out from behind her to go talk to Vlad and Reaper. First, I take the elevator down to the gift shop to buy Aja a new T-shirt. She can’t wear that bloody, torn one and I don’t want to trigger those memories. She’s doing pretty well now, considering. We don’t need her going backward.

After paying, I ride the elevator back up and head right for my brothers. Vlad stands when I enter the waiting room. “How’s she doing?” he asks.

“They got the good stuff going. We’re told that she’s responding well to the antibiotics and should make a full recovery. We just need time.”

“The baby?”

I smile. God help me, I smile. “Everything looks good there, too.”Shit.I’m going to be a dad. What I should be asking about is the state of my best friend. Right. “Rough? Any updates?”

“He has a pretty nasty concussion from the bastard who hit him over the head and he had to get stitched from a couple of stab wounds, but Rough is a tough motherfucker. He’s hard to bring down.”

“Where do we stand with Satan’s Apostles?”

“Sarge got a hold of a local guy, ex-marine. We asked about the places close to where Aja found that couple, places where men could stash a kidnapped woman. We know she got cut on an old fence and a broken window. He led us right to an abandoned garage that fit the bill from the outside. Once we got inside, we found bloodstains that had soaked into the concrete. No men around.”

“Shit.”

“Shit for the Satan’s Apostles. They declared war on us when they took your woman. They won’t like the results. We’ve got feelers out. And we’ve got a lot of friends who would love to take down those assholes.”

“And you should be proud of Aja, brother,” Reaper says. “The bloodstains don’t match up with her wounds. However she got away, she did a number on at least one of ’em to do it. That’s one badass woman you have.”

I am proud. I’m so proud, but at the same time, she should never have had to go through that to begin with. How will this experience scar her? She’s been hurt by so many men in her life. I don’t know how she still has the heart that she does.

Now here’s the mother of questions I have to ask today. “What about the Death Bringers?”

Vlad shakes his head. “I’m sure they know she’s been with us. Doubt the Apostles kept that to themselves, but we haven’t had any updates on their whereabouts and we’ve got feelers out for them, too.”

---