Page 91 of Has-Been
Lissa smiled, and nodded, waving at me to continue, but it didn’t seem to come with any pressure. She was leaving it to me to start speaking when I was ready. I cleared my throat, doing it a second time when it suddenly seemed like I was swallowing against a lump.
“I uh… I was an actor as a kid, I guess Ice or someone might have said that already. I was young and kinda trusting, so I guess that made me an easy target. There are so many predators in the business, but I didn’t know that was what they were, until they showed me the dark side of being a ‘star’.”
Fifty-Six
AfterLissaleft,Hasseemed to be completely physically and mentally drained, dragging me back to the bed, and curling up with me. He fell asleep within minutes, while I lay there, dwelling on the horrors he’d shared. He’d been through things a child should never have to even know were possible for sick twisted bastards to consider.
He twitched in his sleep, and I reached up to stroke his cheek. In a split second, he had my hand in a tight grip, as he backed away from me, nearly falling out of the bed. He was awake, and breathing fast, but his eyes were darting around the room, even as his grip around my fingers loosened.
“Sorry, babe. I uh… nobody’s here, right?”
I shook my head, watching as he tried to calm down his heaving breaths, and accept the fact that he was safe.
“It’s okay, Has.”
He looked ashamed, as he realised it was just a dream.
“Sorry, it was so fucking real. I guess talking might have brought a few things back to me. Sorry I woke you.”
“I was awake, Has, it’s fine.”
It was still bright outside, which was another reason I’d struggled to doze off. We phoned down to Tommy for some food, because neither of us wanted to cook, but it was only when someone tapped on the door that they highlighted what a mistake that might be.
I opened the door and Micro stood there, holding the tray, with a deep frown on his face.
“You guys ordered up from the bar? Are you insane?”
Has joined me, reaching for the tray, before Micro stepped back with it.
“Seriously? You don’t see the risk, do you? Someone keeps trying to snatch your girl, Has, and tried to bash your brains in. How do you know they wouldn’t manage to tamper with your fucking food? I’m not pointing the finger at Tommy, obviously, but shit could get messed with. I was just realising that as I got handed the tray.” My god, it hadn’t even occurred to me, but Micro was right. What if someone had messed with the food?
Has-Been let out a curse, and slumped against the doorframe.
“Jesus, man, you’re right. Why didn’t we think of that?”
He shrugged, lifting one of the metal lids off the plate, the delicious scents of steak and some kind of winey sauce wafting to our noses, making us both groan.
“Kinda tempted to risk it,” Has said, even as I debated the same thing.
Micro shrugged. “I mean, I could be your food taster… it smells fucking amazing. Oh… why don’t… what the fuck?” He dropped the lid onto the floor with a loud crash, and the tray followed a few moments later. What the hell was going on? He lifted his hands and I could see they looked scarlet, like they were almost sunburned or something.
“What the…Jesus, it burns.” Has grabbed his phone and rang Reacher, and within minutes, Micro was hurried into the infirmary for the doc to help, and Reacher was directing prospects to clean up the mess. He’d made them wear gloves and put everything into black bags, because we didn’t know what had caused Micro’s reaction, but clearly none of the dishes or the tray could be trusted right now.
“Is he going to be okay?”
Reacher patted my arm awkwardly, rolling his eyes as Has dragged me closer to himself, and out of Reacher’s, well, reach.
“Doc’ll fix him, love. In the meantime, don’t request anything from the bar. I’ll get a team on checking everything in there, and a full clean down of everything. If we have to bin every ounce of food down there, we’ll just have to do it. You know, shit like this isn’t doing the club’s finances a favour.”
Has moved me back from the door, before he leaned back out to talk to Reacher, but I heard him asking for an update on Micro when they knew more, and advising that we were staying locked up in our room.
Has-Been
Whatafuckingdisaster,but thank god for Micro, because if he hadn’t thought of it, we could be the ones with contact burns or whatever the fuck he had. And the food might have been poisoned too. I should have thought of that shit, because I really should be doing a better job of looking after Elise.
I made us some eggs on toast, because we didn’t have much in that I knew how to cook well. After we’d eaten, we sat on the bed together, while I wondered when we’d get back to a normal life, and you know, get out on my fucking bike again. She’d loved her first ride on it, and I knew she’d want to be with me on rides in future. It was infuriating that we were trapped inside like this.
“So… what do you want to do with all our non-freedom right now, babe? I’m sorry, this must be so fucking boring for you.”
