Page 59 of Reacher
Eighteen
Iftheythoughtthatthey’d heard the worst of it, they were wrong. Oh god, I didn’t want to tell them, because, of all the dumb things I’d done in my life, this was the worst. The one that could now kill his damn club too.
“Ally, Jesus… just spit it out.”
I sighed, clenching my fists at my sides. Time for the words that’ll lose me the man I fucking love, once and for all.
“I hid… I hid some… The last delivery I was supposed to transport for them. I uh… I hid it.”
They exchanged a shocked look.
“So they’re not after you for money, or not just for that, at least. You have some of their product too?”
I backed up a few steps, because suddenly the room felt too small, and I needed space.
“I uh… I led them to believe that I had an accomplice, and they had the drugs, and if anything happened to me, the drugs would disappear. They’re valuable. It… it was the entire delivery of heroin.”
The silence that fell was deafening, and terrifying. Stitch stood up, stroking his beard as he stared at me, his expression incredulous. Reacher, meanwhile, was scarily silent.
“You’ve stolen hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of heroin… from a drug cartel… and you came here knowing this? Knowing that you were bringing all of this shit on us? Are you out of your mind?”
Reacher glared at him, but he was still glaring when he turned to me.
“Ally… where are the drugs?”
I gave him the same answer I gave the cartel.
“Somewhere safe, and they only get them back whenI’msomewhere safe.”
Reacher cursed. “Did it occur to you that you’d be safer if you just gave them back their buttload of drugs?”
Jesus. I was going to have to tell them everything, and I shuddered at the thought of him; the one I was now hiding from.
“Look… I’m not proud of it, but… I kinda had a thing with one of the cartel guys, before I tried to turn them in, and… and he’s the reason I’m not dead. He’s the reason that they gave me time to find the money, and return their drugs to them. Without him, they’d have killed me, and probably gone after my mother, thinking they’d flush out my supposed partner. It was a mess, but… yeah… if not for him, I’d be dead already.”
Reacher looked angry again, there’s a shocker. Possessive bastard.
“You slept with one of these assholes? Are you still into him? You gonna go back to him when this is all fucking over?”
“Seriously? I tell you all of this, and all you care about is whether I’m still gonna ride some other guy’s dick?”
He did that thing again, where he grabbed my throat, and leaned down to glare right into my eyes.
“The only dick you’ll be riding is mine, woman. You ever touch another guy, and I’ll kill him.”
I darted my eyes in Stitch’s direction, and smirked at Reacher.
“So… if I happen to touch Stitch, you’ll kill him?”
“Fucking hell!”
Reacher ignored Stitch’s outburst, his eyes firmly on mine.
“You trying to push me for a reaction, woman? You think that every time I say something, you have to try and prove me wrong? Just be fucking careful who you choose to test me with, because I don’t want to lose one of my brothers, but I’ll cut off any hand that touches you.”
I glared back at him. “So you didn’t mean it when you said you’d kill any man I touch? It was all just talk?”
“You really want me to kill Stitch? After I just told you that he’s the most important person to me within my club? Is that really the kind of woman you are?”
