Chapter 24
Other girls: I’m a delicate little flower.
Me : I’m the claw end of a hammer.
— Text from Milena to Cutter
MILENA
Married life was a lot like single life.
Well , more accurately, being married wasn’t nearly as bad as I always thought it would be.
Not that my brother and sisters didn’t have great relationships. They did.
Moreso , it was because I always thought it was a bit suffocating.
Having someone constantly know where I was, what I was doing, and asking when I would be home sounded awful.
But being married to Cutter wasn’t like that.
Not at all.
He cleaned up after himself. He made coffee in the morning before I left for work—which was about an hour earlier than him, but he always, always followed me in then went to his place to pick up his work trailer and hang for a bit to watch the sunrise.
Oh , and he was considerate, kind, and everything that I could’ve dreamed up in the perfect man.
“ Montana , eh?” Cutter asked. “ What if I don’t wanna go to Montana ?”
I grinned. “ I mean, I never really invited you.”
His eyes twinkled as he said, “ Do you want to go alone?”
I thought about it for a long second before saying, “ This was something that Hazel and I were going to do together. As much as I’d like you to be there, I think that would be unfair to her.”
Hazel and I were… okay .
In the last few weeks that I’d been married, Hazel had made every single run with me, even the short ones.
She’d shown up, which had put me at ease for how this weekend would go.
However , she still didn’t know about Cutter .
I’d been keeping Cutter to myself when she was around.
Not that I was ashamed of him, but I just knew that she would lecture me on how I’d moved on too fast, and how I’d never really given Asher a chance.
She didn’t know about Asher , either.
All she knew was that Asher and I had permanently broken up.
She’d never know about Asher , because that would be something that we would never agree on, and I didn’t want to be disappointed in my friend if she chose to side with him after he’d almost killed me.
“ It’s only for four days,” I pointed out. “ And to be quite honest, you’re so freakin’ busy right now that you shouldn’t leave.”
He knew I was right, too.
His Cowboys locker room remodel was now in full swing. He had two more full days of work before he would be finished, and when he finished, he had to immediately go straight into another project.
If he left now, he’d be behind, and you shouldn’t be behind when you were trying to make a name for yourself among the elite.
Which was exactly what he was doing.
“ What about a bodyguard?” he asked. “ You won’t fight me on that, right?”
“ I won’t,” I said. “ Though , he’s gonna have to get a flight and figure out a way to run a marathon while still protecting me.”
Cutter’s eyes gleamed as he replied, “ I’ll let your brother pick which one is the fittest to do that.”
My phone buzzed before he could say anything more, and I pulled it out to check it.
I watched out of the corner of my eye as Cutter pulled out his phone and did the same, likely talking with Shasha .
That was another thing that’d come as a surprise.
His utter agreement with my brother, his business, and the bodyguards that were always around if Cutter wasn’t.
My phone buzzed again, reminding me that I’d gotten a message.
I’d been expecting Hazel’s reply, so I wasn’t surprised to see her name on the screen when I glanced at it before unlocking it.
I was surprised, however, by what she texted me.
Hazel :
Hey , so…change of plans. I’m going to drive up there. I was going to rent a car once I was there, like we’d planned, but it’s like hella expensive. Plus , the airlines bumped me from my flight because they overbooked. That okay?
I immediately texted back.
Me :
Of course. Do you want me to drive with you?
I hoped she didn’t. I loved traveling, but I hated traveling there by car.
Hazel :
No , no. I’m good. I have my road trip playlist already loaded. I’ll meet you at the rental!
Shoving my phone back into my pocket I relayed the change of plans.
He frowned when I was finished. “ I would’ve fought the canceled flight. It might be expensive to rent a car, but it’s just as expensive to pay for the gas to get all the way up there. Plus , now she has to leave a day early.”
Agreed but…
“ Hazel is a bit on the odd side,” I admitted. “ If you ever stopped hating her, you might actually like her. She has a brain that’s fascinating.”
He shrugged. “ Maybe . She’ll have to prove herself first.”
I patted his chest and then said, “ We have to meet your club in thirty minutes, and we’re twenty minutes away. Are you changing, or are you wearing that?”
He winked before saying, “ I guess I’ll change so you’re not getting sawdust flying into your eyes the entire ride over.”
We were heading to the Truth Tellers MC clubhouse this afternoon for a barbeque.
According to him, everyone would be there.
I watched him walk away, and my phone rang seconds after he disappeared into the bedroom.
I pulled it out without checking the caller ID and placed it to my ear.
“ Hello ?”
There was this weird clicking sound and I frowned as I walked toward the bedroom, obviously not going to miss my husband undressing for a phone call.
I could hear the shower already running, but by the sounds of it, Cutter hadn’t made it inside yet.
My eyes spied his now bare ass reaching in and testing the water when the robotic voice filled my ear.
“ Collect call from Huntsville Penitentiary from,” the robotic voice changed when I got into the bedroom. I saw Cutter leaning over the trashcan throwing something into it when the voice hit me. “ Your best boyfriend ever.”
I must’ve made some sound because Cutter whipped around toward me.
The shock started to course through my veins, but before I could hear anything more, Cutter put the phone to his ear.
His face went from concerned to thunderous, and my breathing accelerated.
“ Listen to me and listen very carefully,” Cutter said in a dangerously low tone. “ You will never call her again. You will lose her fuckin’ number. You try again, and I’ll make sure you never leave those prison walls.”
There was a long pause, and then Cutter turned even scarier. “ Two weeks is a long time, my friend. Lots of things could happen in two weeks.”
There was another pause and then, “ You could try. You could damn well try, but let’s just say that’ll never happen. Your attempt failed. You won’t ever get close to her.”
Cutter listened a little bit longer before hanging up.
When his eyes met mine, I knew that I wasn’t going to like what he had to say.
“ Wonder how many more years Copper’ll get if he takes care of him now for me,” he replied.
I was already shaking my head. “ You can’t ask him to do that.”
“ To protect you, I’d ask him to do anything.”
CUTTER
To say that I was in a bad mood would be an understatement.
What was meant to be a fun day celebrating mine and Milena’s marriage with the club had turned into a planning session.
Luckily , Milena understood the assignment, and hadn’t fought me when I asked her for some time with the boys shortly after introducing them all.
She’d been miraculously easygoing about all of it, and only when I’d asked her why did her answer literally break me.
Cutter , darling. The fear that lives inside of me is constant. I know that one day that man is going to get out, and he’s going to come after me because his conceit won’t allow him to let the slight pass. However , when I saw him at the prison, I didn’t have you in my corner. My fear is barely noticeable when you’re around. And even when you’re not. Because I know that you’d protect me, even if you had to burn the city of Dallas down around our ears to make it happen.
“ So what you need to do is get the ex-boyfriend brought in,” Hagrid said. “ Short of killing him, which would be pretty hard to do since he’s high-profile right now.”
Hagrid wasn’t lying.
Asher was a goddamn boy wonder right now in the Dallas business community.
His think tank for whatever the fuck he was working on right now was going viral, and getting rid of him would be considerably harder now than it would have been even a week ago.
I should’ve just taken him out after the incident with Milena , but I’d allowed Shasha to deal with it.
And now I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
“ I could plant something,” Apollo suggested. “ I mean, he’s a computer tech. He might very well find it before it’s found, but if I’m smart about it, and leak it to the right people, I could have him brought in tomorrow if I tried hard enough.”
“ Do it,” I agreed. “ I’ll talk to Shasha and make sure that he’s on board, but I don’t see why he would have an issue.”
“ Would be easier if we had time to get this done, though. Make it more of a permanent thing instead of a small charge. Really get it to stick,” Chevy put in.
“ She’s headed to Montana ,” I said. “ Shasha is sending a bodyguard, so whatever we do needs to be done before she gets back so she’s not implicated.”
“ So go over the phone call one more time,” Webber requested.
I looked over at Milena , who was talking with Simeon and Conway , her two newest hires.
She was over the moon to have them, and I was over the moon to have someone I knew could protect her and always be with her.
“ Got home and started to take a shower. Milena followed me in like she always does when I’m gettin’ in, and the look on her face was…terrifying. Her face leeched of color and I reached for the phone,” I said as I leaned back in my chair and took a long sip of my beer. It was nearly hot, but I wouldn’t point that out. Simeon and Conway were doin’ the best they could with the hours that I’d pretty much forced upon them. I’d give them a slide on the beer. “ When I put the phone to my ear, the first thing I heard was Lyle Pennington saying he was getting out soon.”
“ What else did he say?” Chevy leaned forward, eager to hear it all.
Lyle Pennington had been causing Copper some trouble for weeks now, and he’d been on our shit list since it’d started.
We didn’t like anyone messing with our brother, and though he was in jail, that didn’t mean we didn’t have the connections that allowed us to get to him.
“ When I cut into his celebration of getting out, by telling him to listen to me, and to listen very carefully,” I said, “he went quiet, and then I told him to never call her again, to lose her fuckin’ number. Or I’d make sure that he never saw the outside of those prison walls again.
“ Only when I was done did he say that he was getting out in two weeks, and there wasn’t much I could do to him because he had friends inside, and no one would allow anything to happen to him.” I paused. “ That’s when he started talking about Asher , and how he was going to get Asher to kill her, and any other ex-boyfriend that Milena strung along like he did all the others.”
“ He sounds like a fuckin’ prick,” Detroit muttered. “ Maybe I should get myself locked up there for a bit so I can take care of it.”
“ When I smarted off to him again, he told me that Milena would be dead before next week if I wasn’t careful,” I said. “ After a few more choice words, I hung up on him.”
“ So we need to get a list of all her ex-boyfriends and watch them,” Apollo said. “ I can do that.” He paused again. “ And I can also get Asher pulled in. If anything else, I can put him on a twenty-four-hour hold, which’ll be enough time to get Milena to Montana . I can then change her info on the flight manifest once she’s on, and there’ll be no record of her leaving the state.” He grinned then. “ I can get Asher put on a no-fly list for the time being. He won’t be able to go anywhere.”
“ That’ll do for now,” I said as I looked at my watch. “ But my most immediate plan of action is going to visit the warden.”
“ Tonight ?” Webber asked.
“ No ,” I shook my head. “ She’s leaving from Dallas Love Field tomorrow at six in the morning. I don’t have to be at work until well past noon. That should give me enough time to run to Bear Bottom and back.”
“ Bear Bottom ?” Knight said. “ Are you gonna go see the Guardians ?”
“ Gonna go see the warden at his place, and hope that he’ll help me,” I said as I glanced at my woman who was now looking at me with concern. “ We should party like we intended. I don’t want her worried about what I’m about to do.”
Webber got up and slapped me on the back before saying, “ We’ll let Apollo go to work. The rest of us will have beer, brats, and talk about how stupid of a decision she made marrying you.”