Page 92 of Ice
The prospect nodded, and gestured to the prospect on Has’ door, but I didn’t stick around to find out. It might pressure him, and honestly if he didn’t feel like a chat, I didn’t want to force it, but a few minutes later, there was a knock on my door.
I opened it, and Has stood there. He looked pissed off, and I briefly wondered if it was my fault, because that was the norm for us, even if we’d started to bury the hatchet.
“If you’re busy, I understand.”
He edged past me, and kicked the door shut.
“It’s fine. I needed to get out, but it’s just… Nick just told me he’s found another fucking video of me online. Fuck. I thought this shit was over, but it’ll never be over, will it? The fucking internet is forever.”
Jesus. “I’m sorry, man. I should be on the case with that, and instead I’m sitting here on my ass, completely useless.”
He went to lean on the windowsill, staring down at the car park. Probably eyeing his bike, and wishing he could get out on the road. It was my fault he was stuck here.
“I’m sorry I got us both on lockdown. I know it’s killing you.”
He shrugged. Oh, how easy it looks when you don’t have to worry about agony.
“Where would you go if you could get out right now?”
He rested his head against the window, letting out a heavy sigh.
“Honestly?”
I joined him at the window.
“Yeah.”
“Honestly, it’s probably best I’m still on lockdown, because I’m so fucking angry that I’d go looking for her. And you know me, I don’t hurt women, but I’m so close to losing my shit over this. I did my time of being on fucking screens where everyone could see me, and felt like they had some kind of claim on me. That’s not who I am now.”
I couldn’t even imagine how that felt.
“You want me to talk to Reacher? See if I can get on my systems now?”
He pressed a hand against the glass, practically drooling over his bike. “Fuck, I just need to be outside, and I dunno, man. I appreciate it, but it’s a losing battle. For every video you take down, she could be adding two more.”
I grabbed his arm, not just because he was smearing handprints all over my window, but also because I needed his attention for a minute.
“Brother, she doesn’t have them anymore. I nuked her system, hit her with a fucking virus that toasted all her stored files.”
He looked at me then. “Seriously?”
“Yeah… so if she’s not putting them up, then someone else has them, and they’re either in on it with her, or someone else is fucking with you.”
“She could have had them on a USB stick or something.” I nodded in response to his fairly good point.
“She could, but the second she plugged it into her computer, my virus would nuke whatever she tries to save, and it’d burn the device she plugged in too.”
“Fuck me, man… remind me never to get on your bad side.”
I shot him a smirk. “You’ve yet to find yourself on my good side, man.”
Lissa
Reacherhadsomanysurprises for me today, not least the one where he arranged for a prospect to turn up to pick me up the very second Ice’s lockdown was over.
The prospect had driven the van to me and loaded my bags inside, even though I didn’t know if Ice would still want me to stay or not. I had to proceed on the basis that he would want me, because the alternative was terrifying.
The prospect introduced himself as Ned, and was fairly chatty on the drive to the club, talking about his recent acceptance as prospect, and how he mostly got the disgusting clean up jobs, so this was a step up.
