Page 116 of Reacher
He stared at me with wide eyes.
“You know?”
“I know a lot of shit. Some of it I really wish I didn’t. All that matters now to you, is getting back to full strength, and learning to live without some fucking shit in your veins. Oh… and you’ll be training some of your brothers on that tech stuff you do. It’snot all gonna be on your shoulders in future. I know that was too much for one guy, and you should have said so, instead of trying to manage it all alone.”
He watched me walk to the door.
“I handled it.”
“Yeah, until you didn’t anymore, but that wasn’t your fault. It was mine. And it’s fixed now, so rest up, and tolerate your brothers popping by. You were missed, by all of us. If you get the urge to fall back on that shit, you call me, find me, wake me, whatever. We can’t go back there. Understand? This is the line right here. No going back.”
He let out a sigh, rubbing at his hair again.
“Yeah. Gotcha.”
I grabbed the handle and pulled the door open, just in time to see Doc approaching.
“Welcome home, brother. Glad to have you back.”
Forty-One
DidIthinkthingswould calm down once Ice was home again? A little, but I was wrong, because with the return of Ice came more conflict within the club.
The morning after Ice came home, Reacher held Church, which I now understand is basically a meeting where they all yell at each other, and he came back pissed.
“It went badly?”
He shot me a look, as he headed for the kitchen.
“Ya think?”
I pushed up carefully from the bed, and followed him.
“What happened?”
He turned from the fridge and glared at me.
“What the fuck are you doing up? Bed rest, the doc said. Bed. Rest. Standing here is neither of those things. Knew I shoulda tied you down.”
I shot him a grin, as I stepped closer to him.
“Standing still is the same as laying on the bed. And I had to move. My ass is getting flat.”
He grabbed my arm, and started leading me back to the bed.
“It’s the sitting and standing that’s gonna tear those fucking stitches again, woman. Do you want more bed rest because you were a stubborn minx?”
I let him ease me back down onto the bed, and wished it was for a better reason.
“Will you talk to me, then?”
He sighed. “Let me grab us a drink first.”
I watched him go back to the kitchen, fussing around making drinks, before he returned to me, and eased a cup of coffee, pretty reluctantly, into my hand.
“What’s up?”
“Fucking decaf. Did you know they replaced every fucking shred of coffee in my kitchen with decaf? Even you’re drinking it now.”
