Page 40 of Reacher
The delicious dinner I’d just eaten felt like a brick in my stomach, making me queasy.
“I don’t accept this. Let me talk to him.”
He cursed, blocking me again as I tried to edge past him.
“Please, don’t do this to me, Alicia. I have to do this. I’m only days from my patch vote.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck about that. He can’t just discard me like this. Not now.”
My voice was sounding dangerously shaky, and I didn’t like it one little bit.
“You have to go,” Nick said with a groan. “I hate being the one in the middle of this.”
I turned and threw the plate at the wall, with a louder crash than I’d imagined. It was good though. The breaking of my fucking heart should be audible, so everyone could hear it, and see the mess it left behind.
“I don’t give a fuck how you feel! This isn’t some fucking job! This is…my god… this is us… me and Reacher…”
A door opened behind us, and I heard a curse. I knew it wouldn’t be Reacher, but I turned anyway, and Ryder stood there, gaping at us.
I looked from Nick back to him.
“Is this because of you? Because of Tori?”
He groaned, stepping further out of his room.
“What’s happening?”
I turned and marched over in his direction, planning a swift knee to his pathetic balls, before I stopped a few feet away, the anger draining from me as I looked at him.
“He knows?”
Ryder nodded, looking wary, like maybe he realised how close he came to re-internalising his own balls.
“I’m sorry. He overheard us talking. We tried, Alicia.”
I looked back at the stairs, which Nick had finally moved away from, as he headed in my direction, ready to throw me out.
“He’s kicking me out, Ryder, without a chance to even discuss it. God, this can’t be happening.”
Ryder grabbed the back of his neck, letting out a string of curses, as he stared at the ceiling.
“He was right. We’re fucking up everyone else’s lives. Jesus. Go, Alicia. Be safe tonight, and I’ll try and talk him round. I’ll try and make him listen.”
I swallowed hard, turning to snatch the bag from Nick.
“You know what? Don’t bother, Ryder. If this is how easily he can push me out of his life, then I guess all the feelings were on my side, and my side only. I’ll have to live with that.”
I started walking back towards the stairs, heading back down to the ground floor, with Nick running along behind me.
“Don’tfucking touch me. I’ll find my own way from here.”
“He wants me to see you home.”
I glared at him, my hand on the door handle.
“Well, he can go fuck himself, can’t he? It’s not up to him. Nothing to do with me is any of his fucking business anymore.”
He followed me all the way to the gate, trying to grab me, as I yelled at the prospect there to let me out.
