Page 123 of Reacher
She sighed. “Babe, what the hell is this? He was pissed, I’m sure, but I never saw him. Ryder was gone a lot, helping to look for you, or watching over Ice. I don’t know.”
“So this is the top secret part, babe. Trust me when I say this can go NO further. Like it’s vital that you keep this secret, even from Ryder, because I don’t know if he knows or not.”
“Oh god. You’re about to complicate my relationship, aren’t you?”
“Think of it as payback for nearly fucking up mine.” I let her feel my glare for a moment, and she sighed.
“Go on. Cross my heart that I’ll keep your damn secret.”
“It’s not my secret as such. It’s Reacher’s. When I was taken… all of this… this crap going on here, the club, Ice, you guys, me, and god only knows what else… it caused him to collapse.”
“What?” She stood up, looking around us. “He’s… is he okay?”
“Tori… he’s reached a point where too much more stress could cause a bigger problem. Are you following?”
She looked confused, but nodded.
“Is that why nobody will let him drink coffee? They were joking about him being an addict or something, and having to cut down, but… when did he collapse?”
“He was kept at the hospital for a day or so. I think Stitch and the others, whoever knows, they helped cover it up. A sick President is a bad thing for a club, apparently.”
“Is Ryder in danger because of it?”
I’m messing this up so badly. I shook my head.
“If people think the club has a weak President, they could try challenging him, or the club, and he’s not, okay? He’s not weak. He had a scare, but he’s fine. As long as we all try to minimise extra stress on him, like your father. He’s putting pressure on, and it’s not Reacher’s shoulders that should be bearing that extra weight, you feel me?”
She nodded. “Fine. Okay. I’ll go propose to Ryder. Ha. That’ll catch him by surprise, won’t it?”
I almost wanted to be a fly on the wall for that discussion.
“Tori. Please, please, don’t let on that I told you about Reacher, especially to him. He’s got so much to worry about right now.”
She nodded again. “It’s time for me to stop causing problems here, and start fixing them, I understand.”
She was barely gone a minute when Reacher returned. I gave him a thumbs up, and he frowned.
“If that’s some kind of sex thing, I’m not getting it, or do you want my thumb up your ass? I could be convinced, although it’s probably bad for your stitches.”
“Dickhead. It means Tori is gonna propose to Ryder. Anything else you need me to fix?”
He looked stunned. “You fixed that already? Fuck me, you’re amazing. I wish I could reward you with a huge orgasm right now.”
“I thought you were the kind of guy to keep count?”
Reacher
Fuckme.Twoissuessolved in one fell swoop. I didn’t waste any time in calling Massimo fucking Rossi back.
“Tell me you have good news, Reacher.”
I had him on speaker, so Ally was listening too. She rolled her eyes at me, and I grinned.
“I have two pieces of good news, Mr Rossi… uh, Massimo, and I think you’re gonna like them. Gonna even up the score a bit for us both.”
A dry chuckle was his response.
“First off, your daughter is going to fix the whole ‘shaming the family’ bullshit, okay? That’s out of my hands now, and in theirs, so you have a further issue, you go direct to your daughter.”
