Page 63 of Reacher
I dragged Ally along with me, and watched everyone frown as she stepped inside the room with us. A non-member in the room was unheard of, and a woman, even more so, even an old lady.
“What the hell?” Someone muttered.
“Brothers… You’ve all met my old lady, Ally?”
She shot me a fierce look. “I’m not your old lady yet, mister.”
I rolled my eyes, shoving her into my seat, and standing behind her with a hand on her shoulder.
“Today, I’m choosing to share my seat with my old lady, because what we’re about to discuss is very serious, and it involves her. And Ice.”
There was more muttering, and Ryder leaned back in his chair.
“Didn’t know we could bring old ladies in here.”
“Kind of unprecedented though, innit,” Torch muttered. “Since you were the only one with an old lady here.”
The whole room fell deadly silent, and many faces turned in the direction of old Jock.
“Shit. Sorry, brother.” Torch looked horrified at his slip. Jock’s old lady had passed several years ago, and he was barely living without her. He didn’t even acknowledge any of us, or the subject of old ladies.
“Look, we’ve waited around for long enough, so can we actually get on with this?” Yeah, Stitch was pissed, and it was my fault.
“I’m sorry, brother.”
His response was a glare. Okay.Moving on.
“You’re all aware that someone was captured trying to finish Ice off in the hospital?”
Nobody looked shocked or surprised, so I didn’t have to linger on that one.
“Before the bastard breathed his last, he led us to understand that they had some connection to Ally.”
I held up a hand, as a few brothers barked out various outraged comments, and none of them were favourable in terms of my old lady. I could understand their anger, because he was their brother, and mine, and she wasn’t yet anyone to them, but she would be.
“Understand this. I will not accept any blame against my old lady, or any frustrations being taken out on her in any way. She didn’t choose to bring danger to us. If you’ll recall, she was here purely because we took her, so you’ll bite your fucking tongues and listen.”
I noticed then that there was a coffee waiting for me, but none for Ally, because of course, nobody had expected her to be in here.
I nudged it in her direction, and she grimaced.
“No thank you. That looks like sludge.” I heard a few snickers in response.
“Everyone’s a fucking critic. Okay… so the short story is that we are now being targeted by a European drug cartel, seeking a large quantity of their product, which is currently squirrelled away…somewhere.”
This time I allowed all of the ‘what the fuck’ type comments that were blurted out, before I raised a hand again.
“It should go without saying that our priority remains to be the safety of our brother, Ice, and each and every one of you. This includes Ally. She’s under our protection now.”
Nobody looked particularly happy about that fact, and Stitch shot me a worried look, as a terrible realisation hit me. If they all opposed me taking Ally as my old lady, I’d be fucked. I couldn’t go against a club decision, but then… I also couldn’t live without her. “Fuck.” My voice was low, but Ally heard me.
She cleared her throat. “I am so fucking sorry that I brought this trouble to your door. No matter how I ended up here, I chose to stay for love. It was selfish of me, I know, but I didn’t want to lose Reacher. I would gladly swap places with Ice, and I would have gladly taken the attack that he suffered. It wasn’t his fight, and it’s none of your fight. I do get that. I was trapped in a situation, and couldn’t get out. I thought I could play them at their own game, and I fucked up.”
I squeezed her shoulder, giving her strength to continue. Everyone was listening, and surprisingly with a little more respect than they’d even shown me.
“I had a choice; die, or return their money and drugs by, uh… a few weeks ago. Then I’d probably die anyway. They lost track of me, I think, when I was brought here. I can return the drugs, but I don’t have the money I owe them, and I’m concerned that the damage is already done. That they’ll want my death either way. If it means the rest of you stay safe, I’m willing to die. I guess… Iguess it would be nice if there were another way, but I don’t want anyone else hurt because of me.”
Ryder cleared his throat. “We all get caught up in shit we can’t foresee sometimes. Surely the willingness to fix it is what counts.” I was grateful for his backing, even if he was partially referring to his and Tori’s shit too.
