Page 45 of Reacher
“What the fuck do you know about Ally?”I roared, shoving my way past Stitch, to lunge at the guy.
Thirteen
Themoneyhelpedabit. Knowing that I could leave this horrible place in the morning, and get a bus into town, or go somewhere for food, made the darkness seem less terrifying. Knowing that I had options. Knowing, of course, that most of the money needed to be transferred to the care facility, but even that helped. Because knowing that she was safe for a few more months meant everything to me, that even if my life had gone completely to hell, I wouldn’t let her down.
The only question was what I could do long term. No short term job was going to bring in enough money to keep up with the monthly bills. They took her house, and even that didn’t cover her for long. It was extortionate, and that was why I’d tried gambling. That was why, out of desperation, I’d tried maximising what little I was earning, and that was how I’d ended up in so much trouble that I couldn’t find a way out.
At least by being homeless, and nomadic, I could stay one step ahead of those psychos for a little longer. Maybe the best idea was to leave town. To get as far away from here as possible. Notonly for my broken heart, but for the relative safety of being an unknown. Living in the same area as the people I was hiding from was just insanity.
Up until just before I’d been taken by the bikers, I’d been left to try and find a way to pay them back. But the real threats had started just a day before I was taken, and that was why I was actually relieved that I was with them, and hadn’t been taken by the people I feared the most.
My time had run out, and I’d been about to run then, but suddenly I’d had a place to hide, with people who were always watching out for each other, and therefore, me. Even though I’d known that it could still fall apart, for the first time in forever, I felt like I had a home. Somewhere I could belong. It was cruel how quickly that had been taken from me. How quicklyhe’dbeen taken from me.
It was agonising, knowing how easily Reacher had thrown me aside, without even giving me a chance to speak. To explain. To… what? Justify stealing and lying? I lied right to his face. It was no wonder he couldn’t trust me. Who the hell would?
I just had to wait for daylight, so I could grab some breakfast and a bus. A bus to just fucking anywhere. From there, I’d figure out the rest, but staying in town was no longer an option for me. If I could get far enough away from them before they found me, then maybe I could get work, build up some cash, pay them back… and then what? Go home? What home?
Every ounce of my being missed Reacher, like if he appeared in front of me, I’d just wrap myself around him, and beg him to let me stay. And feeling that way pissed me off even more. How could he just reject me, how could he just discard me like I’m worth nothing? Sending a fucking prospect to remove me from the premises, like I’m not even worth another minute of his time? Like I wasn’t his fucking everything just an hour before?Maybe what I’d mistaken for sexy roughness was nothing more than brutal cruelty, dressed up as something more palatable.
I finally fell asleep sitting against that wall, and woke with the sun shining into the room, and a crick in my neck.
Time to run, and never stop running. I let myself back out of the crappy disused property, and headed back down to the high street to grab something for breakfast, before I could grab a bus ticket, or maybe a train ticket. Which would get me further? Probably the train.
Reacher
Weinterrogatedthatbastardfor another hour before he expired, and all he fucking told us was that Alicia was somehow mixed up with whoever the hell he worked for, and she was dead if they found her.
The fact that they were apparently after her, and had attacked Ice, had me worried that he’d taken a blade instead of her, or even because of her. She’d said she didn’t want to bring trouble to the club, but perhaps she already fucking had. I needed answers directly from her, since corpses won’t speak, no matter how hard you hit them.
I stared down at the dead guy, glad that he no longer fucking breathed.
“You know we need to bring her back, Pres. She knows something, and we need as much info as we can get.” Stitch waved the others away, closing the door, so that it was just me and him, well, and the dead fucker.
“How the fuck am I supposed to trust anything she says?”
“Well, I don’t know, but then again, you still haven’t told me why you kicked her to the curb?”
Shit. I stared at the blood drying on my hands, my skin feeling tight and itchy. In fact, every part of me felt tight, wrong, fucked up.
“She lied to me, brother. She knew exactly what she’d done, and she played dumb.”
He cursed, moving in front of me, and blocking the corpse from my view. His arms were folded across his chest.
“And what did she fucking do?”
I shoved my hands in my pockets, leaning against the wall behind me, because I felt like I needed it to keep me upright.
“She stole the rape drugs from the fucking infirmary.”
Stitch blinked, trying to catch up with my sudden announcement.
“Wait, what? The stuff Ice had?”
I nodded grimly. “Turns out that Ryder and his old lady have been using that shit to get off, and he was supplying them.”
I watched his face drop.
“What. The. Actual. Fuck?”
