Page 26 of Reacher
Wary looks were a good sign. Part of me telling the others what was going on, was intended to see if anyone was complicit, because their faces would give them away.
“There were way more drugs in his room than I’d ever hoped to find, and they weren’t all the normal shit.”
“Tell me the dumb fucker wasn’t on heroin.” Has-Been looked frustrated. He’d never been a big fan of Ice, but everyone knew the rules. Party drugs were allowed, mostly what we supplied, because our shit was supposed to be safe, but nothing harder. Heroin especially, was enough to get a member stripped of their patch, and thrown from the club.
I shook my head, watching them both closely.
“This shit is in syringes, but it isn’t H.”
They exchanged a look, but they didn’t look as shocked as I’d wanted. Fuck, of all people, I didn’t expect these two to know about this shit. I thought they were the fucking steady ones.
“Tell me you guys aren’t involved in whatever the fuck he’s doing with that shit.”
Has-Been cursed, glaring at Ryder. Ryder? What thefuck.
“Brother?”
Ryder sighed, gripping his hair with a fist.
“He’s not hurting anyone with it. Can we leave it at that?”
Fuck. I wanted to push the issue, but the door opened behind me, and Ally appeared, wearing just my fucking t-shirt.
“What the fuck, Ally?”
She frowned, her face sleepy, as she stifled a yawn.
“I wondered where you were.”
“Get the fuck back in there, and never EVER step outside my room dressed like that.”
“Fuck’s sake, Reacher.” The door slammed after her.Great.
“You two get to the fucking hospital, but I want to talk more about this later. If you know what he’s into, you have a fucking duty to tell me, as your damn president.”
They nodded, but both looked a combination of frustrated and worried.
“Is it the reason he’s in there, stabbed full of fucking holes?”
Ryder swallowed hard. “I have no idea, Pres, but I’m hoping not.”
“Fucking hell. I want to know everything, but the boys at the hospital need to be relieved, so they can rest up. They’ve been up all fucking night. Anything happens there, I want to know. I’ll get a relief team over to you later in the day, and we’ll keep a continuous rotation while he’s in.”
They left, and I wondered what the fuck those idiots were up to. The main thing was that Ryder confirmed they weren’t hurting anyone. If it wasn’t being forced on anyone, and he didn’t believe it to be the reason for Ice’s attack, then I’d trust them for now. I had to, or I had nobody to rely on, nobody for Ice to rely on.
I went back into the room, and braved the wrath of my old lady.
“Ally?”
She was in the kitchen. “Coffee for you.” She placed a mug on the counter for me. It looked perfect. Enough coffee in it that it looked like sludge, but it woke my brain like very little else could.
“I’m sorry.”
She shrugged easily, far more easily than I’d expected. I thought she’d be handing me my ass right about now.
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You disappeared while I was asleep.”
I sipped the coffee. Yep, she always made it just right.
