Chapter Six
CUTTER
I threw my fist through the wall outside of one of the rooms on top of the bar, letting some of the anger flowing through my bones out on the drywall. What hadn’t I just left her there? Yeah, they were in Blaze’s dad's bar and I knew she messed with some of my brothers but still; I didn’t have to stop and help her.
Shit had nothing to do with me.
And now look what I had gotten us into.
A full on war unless I handed her over to them to rape and torture for as long as they deemed fit, she would be their prisoner for years before she was eventually murdered.
“Cutter,” Blaze pulled me away from the wall. “Get a grip. We don’t have time for this. We need to figure out how we’re going to handle this and fast.” He slapped my on the back of my head and focused my vision on him. “How do you want to play it?”
Blaze wasn’t stupid; he had known me too long.
He knew.
He knew I didn’t want to give up the damn girl.
And he was right.
I couldn’t put my finger on why exactly but I didn’t want to hand her over to them. I glanced at the door we had just emerged from. I didn’t want her going anywhere. I wanted her to stay right there… tied up on the bed I was calling mine for the night.
“How do you want to play it?” Snake looked shocked. “There is no how do you want to play it. We give them the fucking girl. Are you joking?” He took a few steps closer to us. “It’s not even a question. We don’t even know anything about this bitch and you want to risk all the brothers for what?”
I spun around. “I’d watch how you talk to me if I were you.”
Snake rolled his eyes but took a step back anyway.
Blaze stepped between us. “Look, tempers are high. Everyone’s a little worked up right now, which is why The Misfits only gave us until dawn to figure this out. They don’t want you to have time to think about it.”
He was right. Blaze was always right. Most people didn’t believe that he was part of an MC at all. Not ruthless enough. But they underestimated him. I’d seen him do what he had to when the time came.
“I don’t want to give up the girl,” I decided. “She’s mine.”
Snake threw his hands up in the air. “Are you joking? She's yours? You just met the bitch!” He pulled on his beard in frustration. “What the hell is the matter with you?”
I pushed Blaze out of the way and yanked Snake toward me, pushing my nose against his. “Challenge me again. Go ahead. Do it. I want you too.” Snake looked back at me. I could tell he wanted to say something, wanted to tell me I’d lost it but he knew better. I had a way of accidently letting my gun off on someone when they challenged me.
Blaze tried to pull me backward but when I didn’t budge he settled on pulling Snake away instead. Snake was always trying to challenge me, always trying to act like he knew what was right. I would be bitter if a guy half my age had taken the spot as vice president over me, too.
But I couldn’t let that bother me.
I couldn’t let that affect the way I treated him or before you knew it you were doing that with everyone and they thought they were in charge when I was the one who ran the day to day and made the tough choices.
The choices no one else wanted to have to make.
And I didn’t want to give the girl up.
I just didn’t.
And I knew myself well enough to know that wasn’t going to change.
Snake mumbled something to Blaze and Blaze shook his head.
I was a little sick and tired of this.
I had made my choice.
“Snakes right,” a voice behind me said. “The girl needs to go.”
The three of us swung around.
I immediately felt Blaze and Snake stand up straighter.
“Hello, Son.”
I gulped. “Hi, dad.”
***
GRACE
I pulled on the ropes for about the one millionth time, trying to get at least one of my hands free so that I could squeeze the other one out and make a run for it.
It was no use, though.
Just like the times before nothing happened, the knots aren’t anywhere near looser. If anything, they seem to be growing tighter. How could I have been stupid enough to get myself into something like this?
The door handle jiggled and my heart leaped in my chest.
He was back.
But Cutter doesn’t come into the room, instead, a small girl with dark hair and tan skin does. She shut the door behind her, not fully paying attention to anything besides whoever she was texting on her phone.
She took a few steps toward the bed and looked up.
And then she let out a high-pitched scream.
“HELP ME!” I shook my hands back and forth. “Please!”
The girl looked startled. She was about the size of my pinky. She opened her mouth then snapped it back shut again. She looked down at her phone and started typing in a number.
“No!” I begged. “Please! Don’t call the cops! Just let me go!”
The girl ignored me, bringing the phone to her ear and bouncing back and forth uncomfortably. “Come on, pick up.” After a few seconds, she let out an annoyed sigh and clicked the end button. “Damn it, Cutter,” she mumbled to herself before letting her eyes rest back on me.
The little hope I had escaped from my body as I realized she wasn’t going to help me. She was one of Cutter’s girlfriends, she was there to fuck him and do whatever the hell he said. She wasn’t going to look out for me.
“Who are you?”
I shook my legs against the bottom of the bed. “Please untie me.”
She looked me up and down helplessly. No doubt taking in my messy appearance. “Is this… is this some kind of weird fetish thing you and my brother are playing around with?”
Her brother?
She was Cutter’s little sister!
I hated the part of me that took satisfaction in the fact that she wasn’t a girl he was messing around with. I didn’t have a right to feel happy about that but I did anyway.
Fetish?
She thought I was tied up like this so Cutter could do things to me?
The idea was thrilling but not the case.
“Yes,” I lied. “We were trying something new out but then he got a phone call and had to go handle some business and… and the ropes are so tight.” I tried to jiggle out of them again. “This was a mistake. I know he’s really into it but…”
The girl put her hands over her ears. “Ugh, enough, enough!” She looked like she might puke. “Like I want to hear about the sex games by brother likes to play.” She moved closer to me. “I’ll untie you if you agree to stop telling me the details of what you two do on your own time.”
I nodded frantically. “Yes, yes, just please hurry.”
She made her way over to me and started working her small hands around the knots. “I don’t know why he always brings girls up here. It’s so gross; I mean Blaze is like our brother. Who could have sex in their brother’s house?”
Something about the way she said brother made me feel like she was trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince me. I was pretty sure a blush crept into her face at the mention of his name as well. I rolled my eyes, now definitely wasn’t the time for her to be worrying about her crush on her older brother’s best friend.
“Hurry,” I told her.
She looked at me suspiciously.
“It really hurts,” I added.
She kept working and finally one of my hands came free. I helped her pry the other knots out and after what felt like hours I’m able to move about freely.
Thank you, Lord.
I glanced at the door. I needed to get out of there. But where was I going to go? I barely remembered how we had gotten up here since I was kicking and screaming the entire time. I was sure to get lost, not to mention Cutter and the rest of his buddies could be just around the corner.
Or what if I bumped into them on the way back to the room?
“Um, were you planning on waiting for him to come back?”
“No, Yes. I mean I don’t know.”
She laughed. “It’s okay, my brother tends to have that effect on people.”
I bet he did.
She pushed her long dark hair out of her face and started digging through a bag by the bed. She pulled out a few guns and set them on the bed like it was no big deal until she emerged with a bag of pretzels a few seconds later. “Blaze always leaves random junk food in the room for me, he knows I have a major sweet tooth. I’m Heather by the way.”
I didn’t miss the way her eyes lit up when she mentioned Blaze again.
“Grace,” I told her without thinking.
She held out the bag of junk toward me but I shook my head. “Look, I’m not sure waiting is the best idea. I mean, no offense, but my brother has probably already forget about you. He kind of only has a one track mind and if the brotherhood needed him I doubt he will be back anytime soon.”
It struck me as odd the way she talked about her brother. Like it was no big deal that he would leave a girl he was messing around with tied up in his room while he went off with the club, forgetting about her completely.
But I figured she was used to it, Cutter treating girls like dirt.
And she probably thought I was okay with it, too. Like all the girls her brother messed around with had an understanding that it wasn’t going to be a serious thing. That it was going to be on his terms completely.
And they probably did.
“Right,” I said. “Well, it was nice meeting you.”
Her phone started buzzing on the bed and I glanced down at the screen, seeing Cutter’s name on the caller ID. If she picked up that phone it was game over. Even if I managed to run out before she told him what was going on he would be back here within seconds or one of his brothers would be.
No, I needed the head start.
“Oh, there’s Cutter now.” Heather reached for her phone.
I grabbed it off the bed.
“Hey!” She looked confused.
“I’m really sorry,” I told her, meaning it.
“What? I…”
And then I grabbed one of the guns off the mattress and whipped her across the head with it, sending her flying over onto the ground and knocked out cold.
And then I ran as fast as I could.