Page 5 of Beyond the Cut
Dawn tied her apron around her waist. “Yep. But it won’t be the last.”
Banks wasn’t given to overt affection. His threats to fire them were the closest he got to expressing friendship. That and saving Arianne from her psychotic brother, and then taking a beating from Jagger for his trouble.
Still, he was a good manager and the bar had always done well. Dawn made twice as much money at Banks Bar as she did waitressing at Table Tops restaurant in the mornings, and arranging flowers at Cindy’s Florals in the afternoons. One day, though, when she got her girls back and returned to college, she’d get that Accounting Technology Certificate she’d always dreamed about, a good, stable, high-paying job, and maybe even study for her CPA. Just like her dad.
At least that had been the dream a year ago.
Shortly after meeting Cade, she’d taken the bold step of filing for a divorce, and then she’d lost the girls. After that, determined to regain custody, she had no time for men, not the engaging new Conundrum deputy sheriff, Doug Benson, and especially not bikers, and most particularly not bikers who thought they were God’s gift to women.
“So… finish telling me about Cade.” Arianne gave Dawn a nudge after the door closed behind Banks. Arianne knew about Dawn’s past, although not the reason Dawn had run away from home, or what happened to her on the streets before Jimmy found her—some doors were better left closed. “You gonna see him again?”
“No.” Dawn checked the small mirror near the coat hooks and fluffed her curls.The bigger the hair the better the tips. “I broke it off last year after those two hot nights for a reason. And that reason was right in my face this afternoon. Present company excluded, of course, outlaw bikers are bad news.”
“You can’t judge all outlaw bikers solely on what you experienced with Jimmy and the Brethren. The Sinners care about their women, protect them.” She gave Dawn a wry smile. “Some women even get respect.”
“They have bylaws and rules, but they don’t follow the law. And they’re misogynistic to the core.”
“True.” Arianne gave her a wink. “But you just have to learn how to work the system.”
“I’m not you,” Dawn said. “I’m not badass to the bone and make all men except Jagger quake in their biker boots when I walk past. I’ve been betrayed in one way or another by every man I trusted, but I survived Jimmy and fought my way free. Now I’m fighting for my girls. I don’t have time for men, and I’m not about to open myself up again, especially to a man like Cade.”
“What kind of man do you think he is?”
“The dangerous kind,” Dawn said. “The kind of man a woman dreams about, but never wants to meet because the reality of him overwhelms any fantasy. Powerful. Dominant. A biker. The kind of man I promised myself I would never fall for again.”
And a womanizer, or so she’d heard after their two nights together. Charming, handsome, and seductive, but totally unfaithful, unable to commit, and unrepentant for his “crimes.” The last time she’d been to a Sinner party, she’d heard rumors that Cade never slept with the same woman twice. She’d been tempted to share the fact that she had, in fact, slept with Cade twice, but she decided instead to slip out of the party and out of his life.
“I thought you liked him.” Arianne rounded the bar and took up her position behind the polished wood counter.
Dawn grabbed a serving tray from the shelf behind Arianne. “I don’t really know him. We didn’t talk much. We were too busy ripping off each other’s clothes and having sizzling-hot sex in his room at the clubhouse. And both mornings, coward that I am, I sneaked away at daybreak so I didn’t have to tell him to his face I couldn’t see him again.”
“And yet after that first night, you did.” Arianne waved to the first customer in the door. Dawn grabbed her notepad from the counter and stuffed it in her apron.
“But not after the second time.” She turned away so Arianne wouldn’t see the regret on her face. She’d felt something the second time—a longing that tugged at her heart and kept her awake long after Cade had fallen asleep, an inexplicable certainty that nothing and no one would harm her while she lay in his arms.
She’d never felt so safe since her parents died, and the memories of their unconditional love and the good times they shared together—picnics and hikes in the mountains, playing number games with her dad and gardening with her mom—still made her heart ache. With Jimmy, she’d walked a fine line between affection and anger. One wrong step, one misspoken word and he would turn on her, his punishment swift, brutal, and invariably cruel.
She couldn’t afford to have those longings. Dreams, hopes, and desires that did nothing to help get her kids back were a waste of time and energy. A heartbreak waiting to happen. Maybe one day, when she and her girls were together again and living far, far away from Jimmy and the Devil’s Brethren…
“Hey, gorgeous.”
She looked up as T-Rex, the newest full-patch member of the Sinners, joined them at the bar. Tall, blond, and built like a linebacker, with a broad face and a warm smile, T-Rex was a favorite in the club, and one of the few bikers who didn’t set Dawn’s teeth on edge. And that was saying something.
“Corona. Cold. No lime. No glass.” Dawn rattled off his drink as T-Rex sat on one of the bar stools and chuckled.
“Damn. Don’t know how you do that, but you impress the brothers every time they stop by for a drink. Even if Cade hadn’t laid down the law, they wouldn’t be cracking blonde jokes about you.”
Dawn froze, her hand outstretched for the bottle Arianne was opening. “What do you mean, he laid down the law?” After she’d made it clear to Cade she wasn’t interested in seeing him again, he’d respected her wishes and stayed away. She’d assumed he had found someone new, likely one of the club’s sweet butts. Lower than old ladies and house mamas in the biker hierarchy, the young women who hung around the clubhouse, helping out and offering their services in return for food, shelter, and protection, were desperate to find a biker who would make them an old lady. And Cade, handsome, charming, unattached, and always willing, was quite the catch.
T-Rex’s eyes widened, his usually affable expression turning to wariness. “You know.”
“I don’t know, or I wouldn’t have asked.”
“Well…” He coughed and looked around, but there were no other Sinners in the bar to save him. “He kinda… you know… warned the brothers away. Said you were his, ’cept you were wanting to take things slow. So no one was to touch you, hit on you, or disrespect you if they saw you at the bar or if you came with Arianne to our parties.”
Dawn shot T-Rex an incredulous look. “Seriously? Except for this afternoon, it’s been over a year since I’ve seen him. How slow do the brothers think I want to take it?”
“You saw Cade this afternoon?”
