Page 96 of Has-Been
“Last I heard, he was still in intensive care, and they’re only letting one of us wait with him. I really want to see him, but uh-”
“But my being kidnapped, and then a basket case, meant you were stuck here instead.”
“God no, that’s not what I’m saying! The truth is I don’t know if I can… if I can go back there. I’m such a pussy, but it was…” He made a frustrated sound, almost a growl. “After the flashback I had at the place, I just fucking can’t make myself go. You were right, I need so much fucking help.”
Has-Been
Thiswasn’ttheconversationI wanted to have right now. Show my girl more weakness, right when I should be being as strong as possible for her? Yeah, great idea.
“We could go together,” she suggested, like the fucking sweetheart she truly was.
“You’re most at risk if we leave this place, babe. Nah… let’s get this asshole found, so we can get back to living. Torch will understand. The sooner we find this fucker, the sooner he can get his retribution.”
Elise nodded, staring down at her coffee.
“What should I tell the police, Has? Should I mention the fact that it’s a club member? Mention the attacks on you, and Torch, and the possible connection to the other murders? I mean, that’s just going to put a spotlight on the club, and I don’t think we need that right now.”
Fuck, she was right. We met with Reacher and Stitch half an hour later in Reacher’s office, to work out what the fuck she could tell the cops, because something needed to be said, but it wasn’t necessarily a good idea to implicate anyone from the club. Not only for the reason she said, but also because we wanted to take our own justice when we found him. If the cops knew to start looking within the club, we’d probably lose that chance.
“You have to describe him as well as you can, and be honest about not recognising his voice or anything about him. The helmet might make them suspicious of bikers, but I don’t know a way around that. On the offchance that they do find this bastard through their own investigation, I don’t want us giving false information that affects their investigation, in case it means he gets a chance to hurt someone else.”
“It’s risky, but Reacher’s right. I don’t like you having to hold back anything, but we need to do this internally, and there’s no way we want the cops that deeply involved in the club and our dealings.”
Stitch looked about as pissed as I felt, for putting our girl in this position. I wasn’t sure that there was any alternative though.
“Have Tesio and Ice made any headway?”
They both shook their heads.
“They’re working on it, but they’ve been experiencing some issues, it seems that someone’s been trying to hack our systems again, and they’ve been working on prevention, so that’s slowing them down.”
“And the list of people you called? Any luck whittling that down? Did you cross ref it with the guys who have uh… tats in that area?”
Reacher glared at me, leaning both elbows on his desk.
“Does it look like I’m an idiot? Of course, that’s what I did, and you know what I came up with? Nobody. So now we’re working on the assumption that this isn’t one of the guys we know of with tats there. That opens up the list again, because I called eleven of our boys that day, and I could only rule out one of them.”
It was pure insanity. It wasn’t a huge club, there were maybe only thirty members in total, and some didn’t live onsite, and I had a feeling they weren’t the issue. It was someone who lived here, I was certain of it, but that was only a handful of members, and all of them were guys I’d known a long time. How could one of them be this monster?
“So what’s the plan, Pres?”
He sat back again, glancing in Stitch’s direction before he answered.
“You two are going to meet with the police, and give them the info we just discussed, and other than that, you’re on lockdown, specifically in Elise’s room. You don’t come out unless we’re with you. That’s the only way we can ensure Elise is safe at all times.”
Fuck me. It was house arrest, and it wasn’t going to resolve the situation.
“And who’s gonna be on watch? Was Micro even okay after the thing with the tray?”
Stitch smirked, looking more like the guy he used to be before the scare with his health and all of this shit, just for a moment.
“Whining like a little bitch, but apparently he only has very mild contact burns on his palms. He’s probably chafed them worse than that on his dick.”
Elise giggled, and Stitch facepalmed.
“I didn’t mean to say that in front of you, sweets.”
She didn’t seem to give a crap, and why would she? If she was going to live here among all of us assholes, she was going to hear worse.
