Beyond the Cut (Sinner's Tribe Motorcycle Club #2)(3)
Take me, baby. Deep inside. I want you to feel what I feel. Like there’s nothing in the world but us.
What was supposed to be a one-night stand with Cade just over a year ago had turned into two nights, and in those two nights he had ruined her for other men forever. Too bad he was a biker, the kind of man she’d promised herself she’d never fall for again.
“I’m fine. Sorry you had to hear that.”
“My fault. Shoulda been more discreet. Not really one of my strongest traits.”
Dawn gave him a dry smile. “As I recall, your strongest traits involve a bed.”
She bit her lip as soon as the words left her mouth. What was she thinking? Flirting with him was a one-way street to disaster. And yet her subconscious was in the driver’s seat and heading straight for “Route 69.”
“Apparently not strong enough, since you dumped me.” His blue eyes glittered, and she hit the mental brakes. No need to worry; it seemed she was traveling alone. Served her right. After all, she had walked away. Not him.
A flush stole across her cheeks. “We only slept together twice, so technically I didn’t dump you. It was more like a permanent good-bye.”
“Never had a woman refuse to see me again.” Sardonic amusement laced Cade’s tone. “Interesting experience. Not one I’m keen to repeat.”
She wrapped her arms around herself to beat back the chill of the wind. “Well, as long as you’re wearing that cut, you have nothing to worry about from me. As you can see, my life has already been totally messed up by a biker. I’m not interested in getting involved with another one.”
“That why you walked away?” He stroked his thumb over the apple of her cheek, and warmth pooled in the pit of her stomach. “’Cause I’m a biker? We’re not all the same.”
“You’re an outlaw biker, not just a biker. Isn’t that what the one-percenter patch on your cut means? Mayhem and violence are how you live ‘The Life’ and it’s a life I never want to be part of again. In simple terms, outlaws are bad and civilians are good.”
His face softened. “What about Arianne?”
Damn. Caught out. Her bestie was the daughter of Viper, president of the Sinners’ biggest rival MC, the Black Jacks. And although Arianne had spent a lifetime trying to get out of Conundrum and away from her father, she’d fallen in love with the Sinner president, Jagger, and returned to her outlaw biker roots. “I guess there a few exceptions.”
The rumble of a motorcycle pulled her attention away from Cade and his gentle touch. Turning, she caught a glimpse of a Harley Classic motorcycle pulling to a stop beside Shelly-Ann’s car.
No.
No way.
Dawn sucked in a sharp breath. What was Jimmy doing here? And by here, she didn’t just mean in Conundrum or in front of a Sinner who, by all rights, could shoot him dead on sight for daring to enter the town, but here near her girls.
Jimmy hated his children. He blamed them for everything that had gone wrong in their relationship—in other words, Dawn had finally mustered the courage to leave after he took out his anger on Tia. Malicious and bitter, he had waged the custody battle not because he wanted their girls, but simply because he didn’t want Dawn to have them.
“Jimmy! Get away from them.” Heedless of the danger, she pushed past Cade and stepped into the street. Jimmy’s presence here was nothing short of brazen, and tantamount to suicide. But then he’d always been an adrenaline junkie, a quality she’d admired until she discovered he got his kicks by listening to her scream.
Jimmy scowled when he spotted her, and she felt the familiar surge of adrenaline that accompanied the fear of knowing she’d displeased him. Once that scowl would have sent her running in the other direction. But she wasn’t going to let him near her children ever again.
And besides, for the first time ever, she had backup. Not that she expected Cade to intervene in what was essentially a marital dispute, but Jimmy was a member of the Devil’s Brethren, and he was on Sinner’s Tribe territory. There was no way Cade would let that pass.
“What the f*ck?” Clearly audible over the dwindling traffic, Cade’s angry shout chilled Dawn’s blood. She held her breath in anticipation of the moment Jimmy heeded the outraged biker only a few steps behind her and ran for cover.
Unfortunately, Jimmy didn’t oblige. Instead he crooked his finger and motioned her forward, sending a shiver down her spine with a simple gesture that carried with it the memory of years of pain.
Dark where Cade was fair, slender where Cade was broad, Jimmy had a lean, wolfish face with razor-sharp cheekbones and a cruel slash of a mouth framed in a prickly goatee. When she first met him she’d thought him darkly handsome, but now, knowing just how vicious and brutal he could be, his cruel features were the stuff of nightmares, not dreams.
“That’s your Jimmy?” Cade’s voice dropped to a low, threatening growl. “Mad Dog, VP of the Devil’s Brethren MC? What the hell is he doing in Conundrum?”
“Yep. That’s Jimmy.” Dawn’s pulse kicked up a notch as she took full advantage of the opportunity that had presented itself in the form of a Brethren’s mortal enemy, with absolutely no qualms about what she was about to unleash. If Cade were even half as passionate about the club as he was about sex, Jimmy would soon sport as many bruises as she had on the many occasions he’d raised his fists to her. “He’s never dared come into Conundrum before. Looks like he’s decided to stick to the Sinners.”