“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, beginningto 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 alittle 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 ’ceptthat 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.
Chapter 8
While Cutter headed home, John drove Pam back to the big brick house.“Get your things together,” he instructed, feeling little affection and even less patience as he walked through the large front hall.“I want to be on the road to Boston in an hour.”
Pam followed him into the living room.“To Boston?But I thought we were staying all week.”
He heard her disappointment and wasn’t touched by it in the least.He didn’t care how she felt, especially after the snotty way she’d walked away from him with Cutter sitting right there watching.