Page 26 of Beyond the Cut
“Someone’s behind us.”
He leaned down and kissed her slowly, reverently, lingering, as if they were alone, while he reached between them and drew his gun from its holster.
“Close your eyes, sweetheart,” he whispered. And then in one smooth move Cade spun around, pushed her behind his back, and fired.
SEVEN
What’s mine is mine and I shall strive to protect it to the best of my ability.
SINNER’S TRIBE CREED
“I can’t fucking believe you got into a high-speed chase only three blocks from the police station. Or that you fucking shot at the Brethren on the highway.” Jagger glared at Cade as they stretched out on the rocky outcropping just above the valley where Rizzoli’s truck full of weapons was due to cross at any moment. “Or that I had to hear about it on the fucking news.”
“I was just trying to run them outta town. Dawn grabbed my gun and started shooting. Nothing I could do about it. I was going so fast it woulda been dangerous to let go.” He looked over at Jagger and grinned. “Safety first. And there was nothing stopping her from taking Mad Dog out except for the fact she can’t shoot for shit.”
“Jesus Christ. Someone put a bullet in his head.” Jagger turned to face him. “You think I’m stupid?”
“Calm the fuck down,” Zane muttered from behind them. “Sound echoes in this valley. We don’t want to tip them off. The point of an ambush is to stay hidden until the last moment.”
“You would know, since you live in the fucking shadows.” Cade snorted when Zane scowled. Nothing he liked better than riling Zane up. The guy was wound up too damn tight. Just once he wanted to make the VP laugh.
Cade’s dad hadn’t had much of a sense of humor, either. But on the good days, when he was kind to Cade’s mom, Cade would try to make him laugh with practical jokes he bought from the corner store with the money he saved from his paper route. He’d felt an incredible sense of achievement when he made his dad smile or, even better, ruffle his hair and toss him a compliment the way he tossed their dog, Selma, a bone.
“At least I do something useful in the darkness,” Zane shot back. “I’m not holed up in bed banging Arianne’s friend. You do to her what you do to your other women, and Arianne’s gonna give you a belly full of lead.”
“How about a little respect?” Cade snapped. “She’s my girl.”
“Your girl?” Jagger’s voice cracked through the stillness.
“Yeah.” Cade checked his weapon, an M107 .50—caliber long-range sniper rifle, in the stunned silence, unwilling to share his rationale for his split—second decision to involve Dawn in the chase and his even more uncharacteristic decision to claim her in the parking lot. He barely understood it himself. But after listening to her story in the police station, and then looking down at her beautiful, bruised face in the alley while her attacker hovered nearby, he’d been seized with an utterly overwhelming need to protect and avenge her. And that meant keeping her close, taking her with him, and then claiming her in the most primitive way.
Mine.
“You have a girl? What does that mean in Cade-speak?” Zane’s incredulous voice grated on him even more than Jagger’s curious stare. “Just one?”
“Lotsa brothers got just one girl. Why not me?”
“’Cause you’re you,” Gunner said. “Voted ‘Least Likely Ever to Settle Down’ five years in a row. Winner of the ‘Most Sweet Butts in the Bed at One Time’ prize. ‘Biker Manwhore of the Year.’ Author of ‘How to Get Laid in Less than Thirty Seconds and Leave Your Friend Drinking Alone at the Bar.’ The man who researched beds big enough for six. The list goes on.”
“And I’ll be taking those prizes home again this year.” Cade bristled. “It’s not like I’m making her an old lady. Not interested in that level of commitment, or becoming an old man. Hell, I almost got her killed when we stopped at Big Bill’s bike shop and Big Bill came around the corner with a shotgun.”
“I can fucking imagine what you were doing at Big Bill’s at that time of night.” Gunner snorted a laugh. “How much did you have to pay him off?”
“Five hundred.”
And it had been worth every penny.
Laughter echoed around him, dying quickly when Shaggy whistled to let them know the convoy had entered the valley.
“You’re fucking obsessed with this chick.” Zane called it straight as he always did. “She dumped you a year ago, and still you still warned the brothers away. You meet her again and suddenly she’s your girl? Just get over her, and be glad she didn’t rip out your fucking heart, rub it in salt, and stomp it into the ground while she fucked every other damn guy on the planet.”
“Christ. He’s at it again.” Gunner sighed. “Sometimes I want to hunt down the bitch who hurt Zane so bad just to put him out of his misery.”
Cade rolled to his side and drew his pistol, aiming it at Zane’s chest, fighting back an unexpected burst of anger. “I’ll put him out of his misery now.”
Zane drew his own weapon, and adrenaline surged through Cade’s veins. This wasn’t about sex. He didn’t just want Dawn in his bed; he wanted more. He wanted to know everything about her. He wanted to hold her and keep her safe. His want was a craving, an addiction that had only grown worse since he’d met her again.
“Stand down, brothers.” Jagger barked. “Save it for the Jacks.”
