Chapter 7 #4
He nearly smiled at the appalled look on her face.
But evil wasn’t a smiling matter. More than once he had wondered what he’d have done on that deserted island: “Are you sure? Not even if you were in the situation they were? Not even if you were lost and frightened and started imagining all sorts of things?”
She shook her head. “I wouldn’t have. I couldn’t have.”
Cutter wasn’t so sure he could say the same. He’d have done almost anything to feel safer when he was younger. “Maybe that’s because you’re a girl,” he said a little distractedly.
“No.” She was about to elaborate when John drove up in his Thunderbird. Pam’s features immediately darkened. “What does he want?”
Cutter grew alert. He allowed himself to admire the car, a shiny blue convertible with the top up. As soon as John climbed out, though, looking perfect in cuffed khaki pants and a shirt with a little alligator on the front, his admiration died.
“I’m going inside,” Pam murmured. Very slowly she rose from the step where she’d been seated. She looked at John for an impertinent minute, then, with incredible dignity, Cutter thought, turned and walked into Leroy’s store.
“Did I disturb something?” John asked in a voice that was nearly as cold as his eyes.
Cutter was determined to be just as cool. “Why would you think that?”
“Because you two were sitting pretty close. What are you doing with my sister, Cutter?”
“Talking. Right here on Main Street where everyone can see.”
“You see her more than that. I know she goes to your place sometimes. Is that by invitation?”
Cutter didn’t bother to answer.
“If you’re hoping to use her to get something from my father, it won’t work.”
“I don’t need anything from your father.”
“You need a job.”
“I already have one.”
“At our discretion.”
“I do my work, and I do it well,” he challenged, beginning to burn inside. “Fire me for no reason, and you’ll have half of the others walking out on you.”
“I’ll have good reason if I find you diddling with my sister.”
The burning increased. “Why would I want to diddle with your sister when I have a damn sexy woman doin’ all the diddlin’ I want?”
“She’s not bad, Lenore isn’t,” John mused smugly.
Cutter couldn’t help himself. “She doesn’t think quite so highly of you.”
John’s smugness vanished. “Stay away from my sister, Cutter. You are aware that she’s a minor, aren’t you?”
“Minor? She’s a little girl.”
“No girl’s too little to fool around with, but if I were you, I’d watch it. You touch a hair on her head, and you’ll have me and half the lawmen in the state to answer to.”
Struggling to contain his anger, Cutter rose.
He was nearly John’s height and every bit as strong, and while he didn’t have money and polish on his side, he had pride.
“Pam is my friend, just like she’s a friend to everyone else in this town.
And she’s Eugene’s daughter. I’d lay down my life to keep her safe.
” But he couldn’t leave it at that. The demon inside wouldn’t let him.
“The way I see it, she has more to fear from you than from me.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re the one with the brains. You figure it out.” He started off, but John caught his arm.
“You’re asking for trouble.”
Cutter gave the hand on his arm a long stare before raising his eyes to John’s. “I’m not askin’ for a thing ’cept that you leave me alone.” He shook his arm hard. John’s hand fell away.
“Stay away from Pam,” he growled.
Not trusting that he wouldn’t tell John to go to hell, Cutter strode, off to where he’d left his motorcycle, climbed on, revved the engine—never more appreciating the power of the mama he’d bought the year before than at that moment—and, without a look back, left a strip of rubber and a trail of dust behind him.
He rode hard, barreling out of town well past his place.
He pushed the cycle to its limits, roaring past the occasional car as though it were crawling, taking curves at a precarious tilt.
Only after he came within inches of hitting a cottontail rabbit that was hopping across the street in ignorant bliss did he careen to a stop.
Parked on the side of the quiet highway, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let his fury settle. John was a bastard in every sense but the literal. He’d known that, but it didn’t help much in soothing the insult he felt.
He didn’t like John’s suggestion that he was fooling around with Pam, that he’d ever harm her.
Mostly, he didn’t like the suggestion that he stay away from her, because, unless John was going around town telling everyone the same thing, it implied he wasn’t as good as the others.
But Pam didn’t seek out the others the way she did him.
She didn’t tell them the things she told him.
If John knew half of those things he’d be furious.
That thought and the knowledge that John could threaten all he wanted and it wouldn’t matter made Cutter smile.
If Pam wanted to come out to his place, she would.
If she wanted to visit him at the mine, she’d do that, too.
And if he saw her on Leroy’s steps, he was going to sit right down beside her.
He’d be damned if John would tell him what to do, especially when it came to Pam, and if John didn’t like it, that was his problem. He didn’t scare Cutter. After living on danger’s edge for so many of his early years, Cutter welcomed the challenge. Baiting him would be fun.
So, in hindsight, the confrontation on Leroy’s steps wasn’t so bad. Cutter’s only regret as he turned the cycle in an arc and headed for home was that he’d been distracted from buying the six-pack he’d originally wanted.