Page 65 of Reacher
The territorial thing had been hot earlier, but now it was annoying. Especially if Reacher and I still wouldn’t get to be together.
“You don’t control who I speak to.”
“You’re my fucking old lady, so damn right I do. You’re not speaking to any of them.”
I stood up, the unfairness of the entire situation making me rigid and furious.
“But I’m not, am I? Because your club, yourfamily, don’t think I’m worthy of you, and they’re fucking right, Reacher. Look at me! I’m a middle aged fucking woman. I’m on the wrong side of forty, and penniless, worthless, fucking useless. What do I bring to the club? Oh… that’s right, trouble. That’s all I bring. I mean, you seem to like fucking me right now, but that’ll wear off, because maybe that’s all there is between us. Great sex. I mean, it wasn’t that good with Raoul, but maybe that’s what I deserve. Mediocre sex with an abusive-”
“Abusive? He hurt you? Did he fucking hit you?” Reacher slammed his glass down, and how it didn’t shatter, I have no idea.
“Reacher, calm down.” Stitch didn’t move to try and stop him or calm him, but he could see the storm coming a mile off. We both could.
“This bastard hurt you?”
I shrugged it off, because that wasn’t the point I was trying to make, was it?
“Of course he hurt me. He’s with a drug cartel. The fact that he never forced me onto drugs is the bit I’m grateful for, although maybe it would have helped me through it. He looks fondly on our time together for some reason, but I don’t.”
“I’ll kill him.” The words were more than a threat, or a promise. It was like a royal declaration, a certainty, and I liked it. The thought of Raoul never getting his hands on me again. The thought of just being Reacher’s until I left this life. It would be perfect, if only his club didn’t hate me.
“Come on, man, maybe we could focus on a plan first, to shut them down before they make a real play for our market.”
Stitch, ever the peacemaker, ever the one to drag things back to the matter at hand when they escalated. I could see why they made such a good team. Reacher was definitely the heart of the operation, but Stitch was the brains, because of his cold clarity, and the way he assessed things with an open mind. Maybe that was just because his heart wasn’t on the line right now. Maybe if the situation were reversed, Reacher would be the voice of reason for him. Who knows?
Reacher
Havingmybrothersphysicallyvote against my old lady, right in front of me, to my fucking face, was agonising. It was like being pissed on from a great height. I’d finally found the other half of me, and they wanted to keep us apart.
I was beyond furious. I was beyond heartbroken and betrayed, but Stitch was right. Fixing all of this crap would be the only way to get them to accept her, once and for all. So all we had to do was dispose of a drug cartel. Easy fucking peasy. There was one obvious place to start, wasn’t there?
“Where are the drugs, woman? Where are you hiding them?”
She smirked suddenly. “Right under their fucking noses, that’s where. It was like, my way of rubbing their faces in it.”
I took a deep breath, before I lost my shit again.
“Well, I’m gonna need a few more fucking details than that.”
“Try to remember who you’re pissed at, Reacher, because I’m not the enemy here.”
Ouch. I felt that right in my chest, and my hand moved there without a conscious thought.
Stitch cursed and stepped between us.
“Look, I realise this is a fucked up situation, because apparently that’s how this club fucking rolls now. Alicia, please, give us exact details of where the drugs are. We won’t move them, but we need to know if they are going to be part of our deal with them.”
“Deal?” She clearly expected some kind of carefully planned assault, rather than a deal.
He cursed again, and honestly I’d never heard him swear so much. He was often quite restrained, at least around women.
“We start out with an offer. A deal. Something to try and maintain peace between us, like they can have the fucking North of the country, but they stay the hell out of London and our districts. If that goes to hell, we have a plan B, and so on. I’ve got no desire to send our men out there to fight with cartel bastards, because I guarantee you, we’ll come off worse. Your hidden drugs, and even you, present us with bargaining options.”
“You’re not fucking offering her to them,” I snapped, slamming a fist down on the counter. She looked like she wanted to speak up, maybe even fucking agreeing to that bullshit, but realised it was better to stay out of it right now.
“Of course I’m not suggesting that, but they’re not going to settle for just getting their drugs back. She owes money too, and this Raoul guy probably thinks she’s his, so unfortunately, Alicia will be mentioned at some point.”
I cursed, pacing, and glaring at both of them for a few moments, then I asked the one question neither of us had asked yet.
