Page 97 of Stitch
“Did something happen?”
Ryder cursed. “Yeah, some fucker murdered Chrissy.”
Has-Been froze, his eyes going from Ryder to Reacher and Ice, like he was waiting for someone to elaborate or maybe deny it.
“What? Are you sure? She was going away to nursing school.”
Everyone started peppering him with questions, but he seemed to be in a daze.
“Jesus, will you lot shut it? I saw her, uh… maybe a week ago, and we had coffee in town. She was… fuck, she was so excited to be finally enrolled and working on her future. Who the fuck did this?”
We had no answers for him.
“Why did you see her?” Stitch sounded more aggressive than usual, and he hadn’t joined me in the chair again, instead, leaning on the back of it, ever since he’d practically shoved a coffee at Has.
Has looked just as surprised as I felt.
“What? I don’t know. I was in town running errands and we bumped into each other. I invited her for coffee because it’d been a while. Why the third degree?” He narrowed his eyes at Stitch. “You accusing me of something here, brother?”
The atmosphere in the room went from awkward to tense and dangerous, and I felt like a wrong word would kick off a fight of some kind.
Reacher cleared his throat. “Nobody is accusing anyone of anything. We’re all pissed about this, and we want to find whoever did this. It means we need to know as much as possible, right, Stitch?”
“No, if he thinks I did something, he should have the guts to come out and say it. You think I could do whatever the fuck happened to her to, Jesus, anyone? Is that what you think of me?” Has looked horrified, hurt, devastated… he couldn’t possibly look less like a bad guy. He almost looked like a sad little boy with his baby-faced appearance, despite the all-man body and the dreads.
“Has-”
“It was a valid question. She hasn’t been at the club in ages, and just when we find out she’s dead, it turns out he saw her a few days earlier. I’m just asking what we’re all thinking.”
Has got up from his chair and dumped his coffee on the table.
“You wanna come and say that to my fucking face, VP? You think I won’t defend myself? You think I won’t beat this asshole idea out of your head? I couldn’t fucking hurt a woman, you know that. You all fucking know that, right?”
Ryder cleared his throat.
“For the record, I am a hundred percent behind Has. Guys, she was raped, and he, of all people, wouldn’t do something like that in a million years because…”
He trailed off, suddenly going red in the face, and Has groaned.
“Gonna out all my secrets, brother? Fine. Maybe this’ll help you assholes seewho you’re pointing the finger at. I’d never fucking rape anyone because I was raped years ago, okay? I was still a kid, still acting, and getting abused by old bastards who should have known better.Jesus.” He turned and leaned a hand on the back of his empty chair. “I couldn’t, okay, I just fucking couldn’t.”
The room was silent again, but this time the atmosphere had changed. I was willing to bet that Reacher and Stitch at least hadn’t known that about him. Ice hadn’t looked surprised, but he was a hard person to read, wasn’t he?
Forty-One
It turned out thatI was the biggest asshole in the room, and not the man I’d started to see as a killer without any fucking evidence, or even the merest suggestion of anything like that in him.
“Jesus, brother, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… fuck.. you never said about any of that.”
Has-Been turned then, looking nothing like the carefree man I’d known so far.
“Why thehellwould I tell anyone? You know what it’s like having that shit happen to you? Having to deal with being that fucking helpless, and useless. Knowing that nobody would ever believe you if you told? Why the hell do you think I left the business as soon as I had control over my life? Why the hell do you think I was a mess when I joined the club? If I wasn’t off my face on something, I had nothing but memories to fucking terrorise me.”
He took a deep breath, smoothing his cut, which we all always put on the moment we were dressed. It wasn’t just a fucking article of clothing, it was everything. It was our club colours, the uniform we wore with pride. It was a vital part of each and every fucking one of us.
“This club fucking saved me.Gave me something to be a part of. A life. A family. A family who wouldn’t use me, or prey on me, or… Jesus… I was gonna say, or accuse me of shit I couldn’t possibly do. You all just seem to see some fucking asshole who ended up on porn sites, because he trusted the wrong fucking woman. And apparently now, you see a fucking rapist and murderer. Fuck. I… Ican’t be here right now. Think what you want about that, but I’m out of here.”
He slammed the door behind him, and we all sat in a stunned silence for a moment.
