CUTTER
It was a nice night for a ride.
It was mid-March, and it was the first night that it was above seventy in months.
So, of course, the club decided tonight was a perfect night for a ride.
That, and we usually tried to get together on a Wednesday to catch up.
All of us were busy people, and the times where we could get all of us into one place were few and far between.
Today, we only had about half of our group, but that was okay.
Spending time with my brothers from the club was great.
Even better was that Chevy, my actual brother, was in the Truth Tellers MC with me. Though, he was spending his time with Keely tonight.
The sound of the crotch rocket slowly started to creep toward us again, and I sighed, knowing that he was about to be on us any second.
All of us moved out of the fast lane almost as one, knowing the dumb fuck was about to come up on our right whether we were in that lane or not.
Which, we were right.
We moved over just in time for a red flashy, likely brand new off the showroom floor, crotch rocket came up to the side of us.
I looked over in time to see black hair flying.
My gaze went from the black hair—all long, lovely inches of it attached to a head that was buried so deep in the man’s back that she looked like she was trying to disappear—to the shapely body.
The very shapely body.
She had a fantastic set of arms that were clutching onto the man guiding the bike so hard that her fingers were bloodless. Her tan hands were the only thing that I could see of her skin.
She had long legs with shapely thighs and the cutest Timberlands on her feet that looked like they were kids’.
Then her face turned, and her eyes—goddamn, they were indigo and full of terror—met mine.
“Please,” she mouthed, and I couldn’t stop myself.
I moved my bike closer to the crotch rocket holding the terrorized woman and reached out for her.
After entwining our forearms, she let go of the man, and seconds later, she went from his bike to mine.
She clutched me like her life depended on it, and she turned her face to rest against my back.
And something shifted inside of me.
I didn’t know what it was.
What I did know was that the protectiveness that overtook me at having her wrapped around me was leaving me breathless.
The man’s outraged face turned to me, and I moved, forcing my way between Apollo and Webber, who moved to block the angry man’s attempt to follow me.
It took ten minutes, but eventually I’d maneuvered us to a place that was safe to pull off—a picnic area that would lead to the lake—and pulled the bike over.
When we came to a stop, I fully expected the woman to jump off and rid herself of my closeness, but she stayed where she was, which was when I realized that she was shaking.
And not just a little bit shaky. Full on bone rattling, teeth clacking, scared out of her goddamn mind shaking.
“Darlin’,” I said, trying to pry off her hand that was fisted in my leather cut. “You’re okay.”
Bikes pulled to a stop all around me, and I got quite a few looks that clearly said “fuck” from my brothers.
It was Webber who came up and handed me a phone before saying, “It’s hers. Was in her back pocket.”
“That’s my goddamn girlfriend, motherfucker!” I heard an angry voice say behind me.
I tapped the phone’s screen and saw a photo of a tiny little baby on the screen.
I idly wondered if it was hers as I said, “Honey, what’s your lock code?”
She didn’t answer.
She did squeeze me tighter, and it was then that I noticed that her arms couldn’t fit fully around my chest.
Covering her hands with one of my own, I hit the emergency number on the side screen and hit go.
“Milena,” a man’s smooth voice said. “Are you awake enough for visitors? We just pulled onto I30.”
I wondered who it was that I’d just called. “Not Milena. This is Cutter Clayborne. I just pulled your woman off a bike, and she’s fuckin’ terrified. Can you come get her? I don’t think any more riding is going to be a good thing for her right now.”
There was a long moment of silence before the man said, very carefully, “I’ll be there in five minutes.”
The shaking woman continued to chatter her teeth behind me, and the rest of my brothers talked softly all around me, casting sidelong glances at the girl that had yet to loosen her grip.
“Seriously, if you don’t move your fuckin’ ass right now and let me get to her, I’ll…”
“You’ll what, tit bag?” Hagrid asked. “You’re not getting through all of us. So, unless you really are stupid enough to try, go back to your bike and ride away.”
Hagrid had just finished the last of his taunting words when an armored black Mercedes rolled to a stop directly behind us.
I didn’t bother to ask how the man knew where we were.
Likely, he had a tracker on the woman’s phone.
“Honey,” I said. “The man who is in your emergency contact is here.”
Still no movement—well, besides the shaking.
The man arrived like an avenging angel.
He pushed through the bikers like he had not a single care in the world and walked right up to the woman in my arms.
I tried to release her, but she wasn’t going without any coaxing.
“Go Go, darlin’,” I said. “You gotta let go.”
“No,” she moaned.
“Milena.”
The man looked ready to rip her from my body.
I held my hands up to let him know I wasn’t holding her there.
He looked at me, studying my face, before saying, “Milena, sister. I have my car here…”
“Of fuckin’ course you’d show up,” the punk from the crotch rocket said. “She always calls her big brother to protect her from thin air.”
The “big brother” turned only his head and pinned the prick with a stare. “If you ever show your face in front of me again, I’ll peel your skin off your face and shove it up your ass.”
As threats went, that one was pretty damn good.
If I were a lesser man, like the punk behind me, I would’ve been definitely rethinking my words.
But he snorted. “You don’t scare me, Semyonov.”
That name had my mind screeching to a halt.
There was only one Semyonov in the area that would’ve scared anyone, and if this was him, I’d definitely be thinking better of my words.
From what I’d been able to garner based solely on word of mouth, Shasha Semyonov was one scary son of a bitch.
“If I get my sister in this car and you’re still here, I’m running you over with it,” Semyonov growled.
Seconds later, she was being pried from my body.
“No, no, no.” She reached for me again, and I wouldn’t admit to how that made me feel.
Warm.
Wanted.
Definitely delusional.
She was shaking so hard that he could barely hold onto her.
“Put her in your car, I’ll tell you what happened,” I suggested.
