Page 22 of Ice
“Are you keeping her here, Ice?” Has sounded frustrated, and worried at the same time.
“Mind your own fucking business, and get out of my face.” We’d never got on, and it didn’t seem like the time to try and fix that right now, not when he was cramping my style so badly.
My ‘brother’ shoved past me, holding out his hand to my Doc.
“Hey, I’m Has-Been. If you need out, I’ll get you out.”
“What the fuck!”
They both ignored my outburst.
“Melissa Chase. Uh… Doctor Chase. And I don’t need rescuing, thank you.”
Has looked from her to me.
“Oh fuck, Reacher was hoping you’d be finished by now.”
“Well, clearly he’s fucking wrong,” I snapped, stepping between him and my doc. Lissa. Jesus. What do I call her now? Melissa. Lissa. I like it. It’s pretty like her.
“Ice?”
“Just fuck off, yeah? I’ll be down in a minute.” Has shrugged, nodding again at Lissa as he left. I pushed the door closed, and turned to look at her.
“Church?”
I shrugged. “Biker meeting. Dunno why it’s called that, but it always has been. Uh… it might be like half an hour or something. If you’re willing to wait, I’ll buy you lunch downstairs. Tommy is a great cook.”
She smiled suddenly. “Well, I think that’s the least you can do, don’t you, Ice?”
Sassy too? I fucking love it. I crossed the room, and stood right in her fucking way again, close enough to touch her.
“I’m willing to do a lot more than that, Lissa. Please stay.”
I waited until she nodded, and then I pointed out the bathroom, and told her to make herself comfortable, and to help herself to whatever in the kitchen, then I hurried downstairs. It wasn’t my first time in Church since I’d been back, but it was the first time I’d been allowed to be involved in club business, so I couldn’t miss it.
The room was full, and my chair sat empty and waiting for me. Thank fuck. I slipped in and dropped down into my chairwith a quick nod at Reacher. Actually the room wasn’t full. Stitch wasn’t in his usual seat. I glanced around, but nobody else seemed to be bothered by that fact, so I figured they already knew where he was.
“Okay. Now we’re all here, we’ll begin.” Reacher glanced at Stitch’s empty seat and sighed.
“First things first. Stitch has been called away on…personal business. He’ll be back as soon as he can, but we’ll need to manage without him for a day or so. So let’s get to it, Torch, update?”
Torch launched into a rundown of their attack on the cartel warehouse, and the resulting fighting, and success for our mafia friends, and I struggled to stay interested in what he was saying. Looking around, I saw cuts and bruises, but nobody was missing, apart from Stitch, so I figured it had gone in our favour.
“Ice?” I glanced at Reacher, and realised he wasn’t the only one staring at me.
“Uh yeah?”
“I was just saying it’s great to have you back at the table, brother. I take it things are going well with your therapist?”
“I’ll say,”I heard Has-Been mutter in response.
“Hey, fuck you. There was nowhere else for her to meet with me.”
Reacher frowned at our interaction.
“Say what?”
“Just saying, they looked pretty cosy in his fucking bedroom, that’s all. I thought therapists were supposed to talk shit out, not fuck it out.”
