Page 27 of Reacher
“I’m sorry. I just didn’t want them ogling your body.”
She sniggered, leaning on the counter. She was still wearing nothing but that damn t-shirt, and it didn’t even make it halfway down her thighs.
“You even wearing underwear?”
She grinned. “What do you think, Reacher?”
I groaned. Did I have time to fuck her before Church? I glanced at the clock on the wall. Shit. Ten minutes. Definitely not enough time for what I wanted to do to her, to that body.
“Here’s what’s going to happen, Ally. I have Church. You’re going to stay up here, dressed exactly like that, and when I return, I’m going to fuck your brains out again. Got it?”
“You don’t want a quickie, old man?”
Yes, of course I fucking did.
“I’m not willing to condense everything I want to do to you into ten minutes, woman. So you stay here, nice and wet, and I’ll be right back to scratch that itch for you.”
Church was about as pleasant as I expected. All members, except prospects, and Ryder and Has-Been, were in attendance, even the two who’d been up all night; Torch and Micro.
“Okay. I’ll keep this brief, so these two can get some fucking sleep. You should all know by now that our brother Ice is in intensive care. He was stabbed by assailants as yet unknown. We’re now advised that they’re keeping him in a medically induced coma, to get him through detoxing.”
There were murmurs and worried faces all around me.
“He’s fallen too deep into that hole with his addiction, and I’ll be personally dealing with that when he’s back. In the meantime, we have a couple of issues we need to address. Firstly, we have no idea who attacked him, or why, or how they managed to get him out there in the middle of nowhere. We need a couple of prospects to collect his bike, by the way. It’s secure, but I want it back here asap.”
“How are we going to find out who did it, Pres? How long is he gonna be out?” That was Rocket.
“He’ll be out for at least a few more days. Now if this were anyone other than Ice, he’d be putting in all-nighters with all that tech shit he does, finding out stuff we could never dream of finding out without him. So you see the problem we have.”
Again, there were murmurs of agreement and concern.
“This raises a long term issue for us, brothers. Ice cannot be the only one who knows how to do this shit. He can’t be the only one carrying that burden. Someone needs to step up to be trained by him when he’s back, and then they’ll support him, and cover for him if he’s not around. We’ll set up a spare room as a tech centre, and move his kit there. That’ll separate his job from his personal life, and maybe give him some peace when he has downtime.”
“He’s gonna hate that,” that gem came from Torch, but it didn’t matter, because this shit was no longer up to Ice.
“It’s gonna happen whether he wants it or not.” Stitch was backing me all the way, as he always did.
“So that’s point one. We need a backup tech whizz, and we need him now. If it turns out to be a prospect, they’ll need to be patched in urgently.”
The murmurs this time were a little less agreeable.
“With a vote, of course.”
Stitch looked at me then. “Doc briefed me on the amount of drug shit he’d stockpiled.”
I didn’t want the syringes mentioned right now, so I fixed him with a look that he read instantly.
“We’re gonna deal with his addiction, brother, and he won’t be getting that shit back.”
He nodded, backing me once more, in moving things along.
“Look, we’re all for you guys having a bit of fun, but Ice is out of control, and you all know the fucking rules. Have fun, take the party drugs, get laid. That shit is all fine, but reliance on a drug, especially anything stronger than what we supply is, and will always be, your ticket out of this club.”
I nodded. We were on the same wavelength, and that was why he was my perfect VP.
“Getting back to Ice. He’s gonna be out of it for a few days. I want a constant presence at the hospital, by his fucking bedside. We’ll rota it out with half day shifts. Two at a time would be best, because we don’t know if the person who tried to kill him knows he survived, and might try again. Our brother is our main priority right now.”
Nobody was disagreeing. “Stitch will arrange a signup sheet. I’d rather you pick slots than have us assign them, but no exceptions. Everyone steps up, and he isn’t left alone for even a fucking minute. Obviously Ryder and Has-Been are there at the moment. Whoever is with him, I want updates on everything that happens. If the decision is made to wake him up, I want an instant phone call. I will be there when he opens his fucking eyes.”
