CUT (New Adult Dark Romance)

by Cheri, Ann

  The table was dead silent. I’d never as much as heard of the Incas, but clearly the men in the room understood.

  “Why three days?” Black asked, staring at Acre again.

  “Because Los Locos doesn’t give you four, and Carcetti says this is our mess to clean up. Look Black, we’re lucky he’s still willing to take delivery.”

  “Fine, get some men to escort the truck. Move out after dark and don’t stop till Texas.”

  “Yeah, one problem with that boss…”

  Black tensed up, I could feel his muscles straining against me as he turned to stare hard at Acre.

  “Carcetti says he wants you there, personally.”

  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

  “I just got you back and damned if I’m going to let you go…” I whispered, curled up against Black’s body in post coital bliss. His scent drifted through me, driving me wild.

  Someone should bottle and sell that…

  “It’s just a few days. We ride out tonight and I’ll be back this time next week sweetheart,” Black replied quietly, his fingertips running through my hair.

  “What about Jude…”

  “Boys here will keep you safe. That fucker shows up again they’ll end him.”

  “I’m going with you.”

  No light entered from the window Jude escaped from. Black had it barred over and boarded from the inside. Despite the darkness, my eyes blazed. Black tried to open his mouth as my hand slipped down and wrapped around his cock, gripping it firmly. I rolled myself over him again, sliding my breasts down his chest as I aimed the shaft and impaled myself ever so slowly.

  “Kattlyn…” Black whispered. My hand clasped down over his mouth, back arching as I started to rock my body against him. “God damn baby… You feel so fucking good,” Black gasped as I squeezed around him. A smile grew across my face, and I gave him everything he wanted…

  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

  DJ and Ash were waiting in the main warehouse along with a pair of young new Rampant recruits when we finally dragged ourselves from bed. Daylight streamed in from the damaged rollup.

  “Got most of the club out following an 18 wheeler north through Sacremento. Put Acre in your Jaguar and sent him south. That should keep the Feds busy tonight,” Ash said, a little smile breaking across his weathered face. “Got ourselves some fresh pussy since you were off fucking your old lady. Should be able to make it all the way to Austin before I need to dip into another one.”

  DJ laughed, elbowing Ash in the side. “After the two Mina set you up with, I’m pretty sure there isn’t enough viagra in Mexico.”

  “That’s a lie,” Ash replied, pulling a little bottle of blue pills from his pocket. I laughed right along with everyone, tucking into Black’s side.

  “You still set on bringing her?”

  I tucked in just a bit harder, my eyes turning back to Ash. Black didn’t respond, nodding at the little line of vehicles. “I’ll take the van. Which one of you is driving the truck?”

  “I’m too fucking old for three states in a fucking box truck, but I’ll drive it. Just stay on my six and try to keep up. We’re running light and we’re running fast.”

  Black pushed me aside, reaching out and grasping Ash’s hand. They drew in close, shoulders bumping as Black gave the older man a solid smack on the back.

  “Thank you for coming with me Ash. I know some of the guys are scared shitless about this drop. Nice to know someone’s got the balls to step up.”

  The two men nodded to each other respectfully. There was almost a fatherly way about Ash that made me like him. Sure, he was gruff and dirty, but you knew where he stood on things…

  “You know your job,” Black said, nodding at the young guys. One of them looked more than a little green. He just gave a little thumbs up and climbed into a car.

  “Lets roll out,” Black exclaimed, the engines roaring to life all around us. “Sweetheart?”

  I looked up as Black extended his hand. Our fingers touched and he pulled me up and into the van. He gave me a little nod and pulled out of the rollup with Ash and DJ in tow.

  I knew immediately there was a problem.

  Maybe the little ruse with Acre drew some of the heat off the club, but a dark crown vic parked on the road outside the alley made it clear we didn’t throw everyone. Headlights flashed on behind us as we turned onto the main road, but before I could wonder how we were going to slip this one, one of the prospects from turned a left instead of right, slamming his car right into the front of the unmarked.

  Holy shit… I thought to myself, my head on a swivel. The poor kid had his face stuffed into a deflating airbag as we swung right, but I could see it. His hand was turned up, thumb pointed skyward just out the window. Black gunned the engine, racing away from the scene. My heart raced with excitement as the miles ticked away. DJ and Ash peeled off, breaking in different directions, but I understood. We’d meet back up with them soon enough. Black took a side road, taking time to pull a cellphone from his pocket. I watched as we pulled alongside a pickup truck turning right at a red light. With a quick little toss, the phone landed in the bed and we swung left away from the tracking device.

  Black had to be smiling.

  I stared down at his leg, his jeans were cut down the side and laced around a thick bandage. He’d switched to a cane despite the doctors orders, and the long shaft was sitting between us. As we bounced over rough asphalt I wondered how in the hell he was doing this. It had to hurt, but Black made it look painless as he pressed the van faster.

  The boat warehouse loomed before us in the dark with DJ and Ash waiting silently. Black started rolling down his window.

  “Where’s the prospect?” Black asked quietly as we pulled up alongside.

  “Lost him six miles out. Drew off a pair of red and blues,” Ash grunted, hauling himself up into the cab of the large rented moving truck.

  “Lets get the fuck out of here,” DJ shouted, throwing a hand in the air and giving it a spin. Black nodded, the rumble of the engine echoing in the dark space. Ash blew the horn on the truck and rolled past into the night, leaving us cool in his wake.

  “You ready for this sweetheart?” Black shouted over the rumbling engine.

  “Born ready.”

  “I think I love you,” Black said, his voice barely audible. He didn’t give me a chance to reply as we rocketed out into the darkness.

  I think I love him too…

  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

  The midday sun blazed from every angle shining reflections from the row of cars in front of the hotel. The light played on the window, trying desperately to find a way through the thick drawn curtains. For the moment, I was happy to be in bed.

  Tuscon… So many miles to go… I thought, letting out a little sigh.

  My thighs vibrated, legs somehow still partially numb from the cool night air that had beaten against them even after the hours of sleep I’d gotten. I needed to warm up, but there was more... I needed release.

  Sometimes life hits you over the head and sends you reeling. Everything you thought you knew? It all comes tumbling down like so many silly dreams and wishes. I wanted to run and hide from my past, but that was just me being hopeful again. The past was still with me, and all it’s awful little desires swam round in my imagination…

  I opened my eyes.

  Black’s skin rippled, tattoos moving over muscle as if they were alive. His leg was freshly bandaged, jeans cut straight up the back of the leg to give space for the the thick wrappings that delicately covered the damage. The bullet wound. Just another scar on his broken frame. Marcus was dangerous, the kind of man carved straight from the darkest of rock. The years in the club had taken their toll. God had taken his chisel and carved a masterpiece, but life took that chisel away and had been wearing him down ever since. Scars were drawn across his skin in the same way rain weathered the mountains. He’d lost some of the things that were kind and good about him. What was left behind scared me almost as muc
h as Jude ever had.

  And that made him impossible to resist.

  There he stood in the dimly lit room, the curtains drawn, drawing a razor down his stubble covered face. My protector. My savior. My lover.

  I stood up and moved toward him, padding across the floor toward him as the air tickled my bare skin.

  “Come back to bed,” I whispered, my hands wrapping round his chest, breasts pressing firm into his hot skin. From this close, you almost couldn’t see the scars…

  “We need to get back on the road,” Black replied, drawing the razor down again and removing the last strip of white from his face.

  “I wasn’t asking,” I said louder, sliding a long leg around him.

  He let out a growl that could have been mistaken for an animal. I squealed as he spun, his arms guiding me as he slowly made his way on the gunshot leg with pain evident in his face. I whimpered as he lifted my body against his and gasped as we crashed down together, my nails clawing into his back.

  Black’s hands played out roughly across my skin and I responded with every ounce of my desire. My breasts stood free, yearning for his touch as Black grabbed a nipple between his teeth, biting it softly.

  I moaned, my hands working desperately at the button on his jeans, his fingertips hooking the edge and pulling them down over the curve of his flexing hips. How was any of this even possible?

  Marcus groaned softly as I wrapped a hand around his shaft, the deep sound penetrating my neck and vibrating my skin as he kissed my throat. His fingers found it’s way inside me, dipping down into my wetness. My brain was melting with desire, every ounce of my body wanting to force myself upon him, to make him speed up.

  “You’re gonna kill me sweetheart…”

  “Fuck me Marcus. I need you inside me.”

  His body towered over me as he stood, the object of my desire twitching against the skin of my palm. I arched my back against the bed, guiding him downward as he pressed it hard against my hidden lips, sliding home in a way that was as familiar as it was distant. Cries escaped me as we came together, a tangled mess becoming a single being with only one thought. We moved like new lovers, exploring each other as if it were the first time.

  “I love you Kattlyn,” he whispered, the dark voice in my ear and our own desperate cries drowning out the world.

  “I love you too…”

  Those words had escaped my lips before. With Jude… With the string of bad boys before him…

  I’d never meant them, not really, not until today.

  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

  Ash met us outside by the bikes, and he laughed his ass off.

  “Leave it to you Black. All our asses on the line and you spend the morning fucking your girl raw while I’m trying to fucking sleep. Think you can get her something to bite down on next time?”

  I blushed fire engine red, but DJ and Ash both had a shit eating grin on their faces. Motel rooms aren’t known for their thick walls, and I hadn’t exactly been shy about crying out every little thing I wanted Black to do to me.

  “Still twelve hours out of Austin, but the drop is in Fredericksburg, an hour and a half closer,” Ash said, relieving me of my embarrassment.

  “Tell me Ash, why’s Carcetti so hard up on the drop being in Texas,” Black asked, packing gear away in the saddle bag on the bike.

  “He owns the sherif out there. Has since your father ran the club. Make no mistake, we’re walking right into his house. Try not to break anything…”

  Black chuckled, reaching out and slapping a hand over Ash’s arm before turning back to the van. In no time at all, we were on the road again. Time flew by ticked off with each passing mile marker and long strip of asphalt. We ate dinner in El Paso, but didn’t stop there, opting to continue through the darkness. You’ve never really lived until you’ve had a chance to drive down a deserted highway on beneath a clear starry sky. It was like riding into the universe, the flat land ahead of us blending with the universe. Sometime well after midnight, we pulled into a little dirty motel in Texas and hit the beds. Not even my desire could overwhelm my need for sleep. Just like that, it was morning again.

  The day of the drop…

  Maybe if I stayed here, curled up in Black’s arms, we could escape it all. This drop would go smooth, the money would come, the cage fighting club could go legit. Nothing could hurt us. Nothing…

  A slamming fist pounded roughly on the door, crashing through my peaceful existence. Fear gripped me as Black rolled off the bed, lifting a gun from the nightstand. It wasn’t as big as his usual firearm, just a simple little black glock 9mm. I instinctively reached for my purse, hand inside gripping the beretta. DJ came crashing through the door hard, taking the chain right off the hinge and damn near getting himself shot in the process.

  “What the fuck is going on?”

  “Ash needs you up now. Acre’s on the line. The Kings moved back into LA and they’re out for fucking blood.”

  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

  “What the fuck do you mean he’s dead,” Black shouted into the little cellphone. Ash pulled me away without a word, shutting the door to his room and muffling the sounds.

  “Don’t need to be hearing that,” Ash said, pulling a cigarette out and lighting it. We stood silently for what seemed like an eternity before Black finally came out of the darkened room with a cane in hand, looking like the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

  “What’s going on?” I asked fearfully, my body still shaking.

  “Somebody’s talking. Kings know we’re divided on this drop and they rolled in. They torched our apartments and claimed territory on the west side by the docks. Killed a Rampant to send a message and mailed us his fingers in twenty little fucking boxes.”

  “What do we do?” DJ asked, a certain amount of uncertainty and fear evident in his voice.

  “We make this drop. I’ve set up plane tickets back into LAX. We’ll dump the vehicles and get to the airport. I’ve got some heads to fucking kick in.”

  “This was supposed to be it. No more blood!” I said, my voice catching in my throat as my little future unraveled.

  “Sweetheart, you know I can’t let this go. The Kings took this beyond personal. They’re coming after my brothers, and they won’t stop unless we bloody their fucking nose.”

  “It’s fucked! It’s all fucked. Jude is out there somewhere. The Kings want to kill us. There’s some crazy Mexican gang ready to cut people’s heads off. Don’t tell me you can’t let this go!”

  I was screaming inside and out, my body raged as I lay into Black with fists, tears streaming from my face. No. Not this, not again. I’d learned my lesson about broken promises a long time ago.

  “Ash, put her in the truck. We’re finishing this goddamned drop Kattlyn, and when it’s over, I’ll make this right with you, I promise.”

  Ash didn’t have to do anything. I ran to the truck, settling into the passenger seat as I hyperventilated. Black had me wrapped more than any man ever had. I needed him to stop, but he only knew how to run…

  “This club is all he has…” Ash said quietly as he climbed into the drivers seat and fired the truck up. We rolled out as tears streamed down.

  “He has me…”

  “Maybe someday, that’ll be enough,” Ash replied, reaching over and brushing a tear off my cheek.

  I let my purse slip off my shoulder, falling to the seat beside me heavily and drawing my knees up against my chest. The truck turned onto the highway, Black’s van rocketing ahead of us along the black strip of asphalt.

  “Maybe.”

  The miles ticked off, the little makeshift convoy Blacking off the main road and turning into a quiet ranch. A dark brown sheriff’s office ford bronco pulled out of the way and let us through, blocking the exit as we moved. I shivered in place all the way up to the middle of an empty field, shaking just a bit harder as I saw the men waiting for us in front of their trucks. Six of them, two armed with shotguns, the rest with vicious looking han
dguns held at their side. Front and center, an older man with white hair drawn slickly back.

  Carcetti…

  “You don’t want to be going out there…” Ash said, nodding at me as I gripped the door handle, the truck coming to a hard stop. “Something isn’t right here, you don’t go greeting guests with guns drawn.”

  Ash reached up, knocking twice on the metal behind his head. A soft reply rang out in the metal…

  “What’s going on,” I whispered, wide eyed. “Who’s in the truck?”

  “That’s our insurance policy. Just keep your head down, it’s too pretty for this. Count yourself lucky you’re not sitting next to Black. This old truck’s got bulletproof glass. Things are about to go to shit really fast.”