Page 115 of Reacher
His recovery was definitely gonna be a fucking tough job. We got him home, and up to his room, with many of his brothers waiting to greet him along the way. By the time we walked him into his room, he looked exhausted, and took one look at the place and cursed.
“You bastards have been through all my stuff.”
Ryder helped him to his bed.
“Bro, the place was a shithole, of course it got tidied up. And FYI, you can apologise to the prospects yourself later for that.”
“Where’s all my equipment?”
He resisted when Ryder tried to help him onto his bed.
“For fuck’s sake, I’ve been in a bed forever. I want to be anywhere but in a fucking bed.”
“I see being sober hasn’t improved your personality.”
“Yeah? Well, sadly it didn’t improve your face either.Will you back the fuck off?”Ryder lifted his hands, and stepped away.
“Just trying to help.”
I turned to the prospect who’d driven us back.
“Get the doc, yeah? I wanna make sure we’re all set here.”
Ice turned to glare at me, his floppy pale hair practically sticking up, from all the pulling at it he’d been doing.
“Oh great, is this where you bastards start fucking with every element of my life, because you think somehow you have the right to get into my shit?”
Ryder grinned, leaning against the kitchen counter.
“Actually, yeah. That’s exactly what we’re gonna do. We own your fucking ass now. Do you have any idea how fucking scary it was? First you were missing, and then we find out you’re in the fucking ICU?”
I caught his eye, and jerked my head at the door.
He didn’t look happy about leaving, but after he’d gone, and the door was closed, I sat down on Ice’s sofa, and pointed at the seat across from me.
“Sit.”
He rolled his eyes, but followed my instruction.
“What? Haven’t you done enough already? Or do you just not trust me to be your tech guy anymore? Jesus, is that it? Are you booting me from the club?”
Could I slap some sense into him? It was probably frowned upon by medical professionals, but it wasn’t off the table just yet.
“Will you shut it? I wanted to explain how things are gonna go, because I’m in charge, and you’re gonna listen. First off, no, of course I’m not fucking booting you out. Secondly, your tech shit is now set up in a spare room. From now on, your work and resting spaces are staying separate. It’s not good being on this shit nonstop, and we’re gonna stop forcing you to do just that. Everyone needs downtime, Ice.”
He was chewing the inside of his cheek, his eyes finally meeting mine again, when I explained that we weren’t booting him.
“So… you still trust me?”
“Is there any reason not to?” I wondered if there was something he was remembering, and not telling me.
“No. I mean, I don’t think so. I just, I guess I figured that things would just be normal, and then everything was gone, and…” He let out a harsh breath, running a hand over his hair again.
“Ice… we all let you down, and it’s not gonna happen again. So, things will be different from now on, but I hope you’ll give it a chance, and understand that we’re a family, and you are not alone.”
“Yeah. So uh… someone went through my place?” He looked worried.
“Yeah,” I stood up, preparing to leave him to rest, “and we removed every fucking substance we found, including the rape drugs you were keeping for Ryder and his old lady, and that shit stops too. No more supplying them, got it?”
