Page 20 of Reacher
“Not of the norm, I’m guessing?”
Doc shook his head. “Now, I can’t be sure, because I’ve never seen anything like it, and I can only run limited tests here, but it seems to be similar to GHB, and other drugs commonly used to incapacitate someone. It’d likely either relax the body, or knock the person out completely.”
Shit. I pressed my fingers against my eyebrow piercings, letting the small bite of discomfort sharpen my concentration, despite the exhaustion I suddenly felt. This was going to be bad,because there was no good fucking reason he had that shit, was there?
“Is it something he’s taking? Or something he’s using on others?”
Doc groaned. “That’s the problem. I have no idea. Even if he was using it, I probably wouldn’t find it if I took blood on his return, especially since he lost so much of it. Whether he came off his bike because he was doped on this shit, and that made him an easy target for a mugger, or something, I have no idea.”
“A mugger would take his bike, or at the very least, his phone.”
Doc nodding, gesturing again to the syringes, and already I knew it was too much to hope for that I’d never have to fucking see those again.
“We need to question him about this shit as soon as he’s awake. He knows the club rules about drugs. Nothing harder than what we supply. If this is something he’s using on others, we definitely have a problem. I wouldn’t have thought him to be the type, but he’s taken so much shit over the years, who knows what it’s doing to his brain.”
Fuck. “You gonna destroy that shit?”
Doc shook his head. “No. Not yet. I might be able to get a friend at a lab to test it for us, find out more about what the hell it is. I’m on the case. It’ll be locked up though, and nobody knows it’s here, except the two of us, and Nick, and he’s too close to a patch vote to risk telling anyone.”
Yeah… that’s the thing about club life. It goes on. Everything keeps coming and happening, and we have to stay on top of it.
“Jesus. Okay, they say they want to wake him up tomorrow, so I’ll see what I can find out. Not sure how good his brain’ll be after all this anyway.”
I went back to my room, sighing with relief to find Alicia there. She was wearing just a t-shirt of mine, and was messing around in the kitchen.
“Perfect timing.” She turned around with two plates, and fuck me, she’d cooked us something. Hell yes. I didn’t even realise how starved I was until I caught a whiff of food.
“Woman, you look after me like this, and I’ll never let you leave.”
Her response was a pleased smile, or at least that’s what I’m gonna call it. The food looked great; steak, mash, vegetables, a full damn plate too.
“You never told me you could cook.” I sat down at her insistence, while she grabbed two beers from the fridge.
“You never asked, and to be fair, I wasn’t looking to be showing you all of my skills in one go.”
I grinned, watching her sit down.
“Oh, I’m sure you have plenty of hidden talents, woman. I’m looking forward to discovering all of them.”
She picked up her fork and stared at me.
“Not going to eat?”
I followed suit. “I was raised with manners, but that doesn’t mean my stomach isn’t fucking eating itself right now.”
We ate in comfortable silence, and damn it was good. Beautifully cooked, full of flavour, and filling a gaping hole. Did I even eat today? I couldn’t remember.
I insisted on cleaning up after we’d finished, and silently cursed the number of things she’d managed to use, just to cook one meal, no matter how delicious. Times like this, I really fucking appreciated the dishwasher in this place. Nobody else had one, but I’m the Pres, after all. Once it was all dealt with, I brought two more beers over to the sofa and joined Ally.
“Gotta say, I’m loving seeing you in my t-shirt like that.” I caught a flash of underwear, which was a shame, but I’d soon have her out of them.
Alicia grinned. “I had a shower, and figured, since most of my clothes are in suitcases in the… uh… what did you call it? Hovel? Yeah, I’d just keep borrowing your stuff.”
“What’s mine is yours.”
She raised her eyebrows, and I sensed that she was about to challenge that statement.
“Really? Hmm… let’s see if I can prove you wrong.” She glanced around the room.
