Page 110 of Ice
Reacher groaned. “I don’t need more drama right now.”
“I might be solving a problem for you, if you want me gone and out of your hair.”
“You want out of the club, brother?”
“It’s the last thing I want, but I have a problem, and not the one you think, but it did cause the one you know about. It’s not so straightforward though…” I was babbling, and my President was losing his patience. It was written all over his face.
“I was talking about me. I’m the one who can’t ride.” I couldn’t take back those words once I’d spoken them, it was done. There was no going back.
Lissa
Icewasedgywhenhe returned from seeing Reacher, but he confirmed that Reacher was waiting in the room he called ‘Church’. He walked me there, and then kissed my forehead, and left me at the door. At the door?
He was too preoccupied, and I almost followed him, because I worried about where he was going instead of our room. He’d headed into the bar area instead. I had this terrifying and irrational fear that he was leaving, or that he wouldn’t be there when I came back. I dithered in that doorway for long minutes while I tried to work out what I should do. Every instinct in me was screaming at me to follow him, and my feet started moving in that direction.
“Lissa? Everything okay?”
I turned to see Reacher in the doorway, a frown on his face.
“I… is Ice okay?”
He gestured to the room for me to join him.
“He’ll be fine. He’s just gonna wait there in the bar for you.”
“Why the bar?”
He gestured to a seat, and closed the door as I sat down.
“Hopefully gonna clean up one of those god-awful non-alcoholic beers he keeps there.”
“So… um… you wanted to talk?”
He nodded. “Stitch is returning to the club, and I honestly don’t know if he’s going to stay or not, but I was hoping you might be able to make time to talk with him if he needs it?”
I shook my head, feeling a sudden sharp sense of déjà vu.
“That’s not how it works at all. I told you this before, Reacher. I’m willing to listen if he needs to talk, of course, but he has to want to. It’s not something you can make him do. You’ve seen how unwilling people can be when they’re pushed into it.”
Reacher leaned back in his chair.
“Honestly, I expect he’ll be incredibly resistant, as would any man here, but I also think that you could be an asset to the club, to ourfamily. How do you feel about that?”
I glanced around us at the huge room, the extremely long table with so many chairs.
“I thought I was here because you needed to talk.”
Reacher nodded. “You were, it’s just that something else came up, and it’s a priority.”
I suddenly had an awful feeling that something bad was about to happen. Reacher kept eyeing his phone, like he was waiting for something.
“Should I go?”
He shook his head.
“I lost you your job, and I am beyond sorry for that. Uh… I’m gonna help you get set up with an office so you can take clients again. I’ve also revoked my complaint about you, and made it clear that any attempt to blacklist you will put your old clinic in the sights of a rather nasty group of people in town. They think of us that way, so I figured I’d play into that.”
“You… wait, you’re doing… you did what?”
