Page 80 of Has-Been
“Thanks.”
He sat beside me on the sofa in the bar, and rested his feet on the table.
“This is fucking killing me, man.”
I dragged the hat on over my smooth head, taking care over the bandages, and folded the edge up.
“Tell me about it. How can we just have no fucking idea who it is? I wanna start beating on people until someone talks.”
Stitch let out a frustrated huff and kicked at the table.
“She’s so fucking sweet and decent, and this shouldn’t be happening. Not to her. If he’s hurting her-”
“Don’t, man. I can’t hear this right now. I’m… I can’t bear her being away from me, and I can’t do anything to help her. All I wanted was to love her and keep her safe, and I fucking failed her.”
Stitch was silent for a moment, but then he turned to look at me for the first time since he’d joined me.
“I know, man. I know I was an asshole about you guys getting together, but I know you’d die to keep her safe, and really that’s what I should have been focusing on. If there was any way you could have stopped this, I know you would have.”
“I was in the fucking spray bay, VP. She was alone because I was all up in my head, and that’s why she got taken. I should have been right there by her fucking side.”
He nodded, still watching me, but not with that angry look I’d seen so often. It was something else. Sadness, understanding, things that I didn’t deserve from him.
“Yeah, you should have been, but the thing is, I think you’d be dead if you had been. He wanted to take her, and every other step he took was to take away any protection she had. I’m convinced that he went through that with the clear intention of killing you to get to her. That would have destroyed her before he even got his hands on her. Fuck. The thought of him fucking touching her at all-”
“STOP!” I got up, striding across the bar as rage filled me, fuelled by the panic and terror I was feeling at what my girl might be going through. The first person I saw was Micro, his arms laden with bags from the supermarket.
“Hey, how-” I shoved him hard, knocking him back on his ass, bags flying and bottles smashing on the floor.
“What the fuck!” He leapt up from the floor and came at me, and we started punching each other, and it felt so fucking good to hit someone, anyone. Honestly, the first person I saw was getting it, and it was his bad luck that he came through the door when he did.
We were dragged apart, both snarling and cursing each other.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Reacher yelled, shoving me back as I tried to get to Micro again.
Micro was bloody and bruised, pretty much as I was, and looked confused with it.
“I have no fucking idea, Pres. All I did was come through the fucking door with the… Oh Jesus… look at the mess.” The shopping was everywhere, and the glass that I heard smash? That was a huge bottle of cooking oil, and it’d be a bastard to clean up.
“Attacking each other is where we’re at now? Seriously? Apologise to each other before I fucking beat both of your asses!”
What the hell was I thinking? Taking it out on one of my fucking brothers like that!
“What the hell, Has? What did I do to you to deserve that?” He looked stunned, and I felt like even more of an asshole. He didn’t deserve to be treated like that, the poor bastard.
“Fuck. I’m sorry. I’m just… I’m losing my fucking mind here, and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. Really, man, I know I’m the asshole here.” He glared at me a few moments longer, and then the tension drained out of him and he nodded, his fists unclenching at his sides.
“Yeah, I get that. Still, I would have had you if you hadn’t sucker punched me.”
I snorted. Typical Micro. It’s all a fucking pissing contest with him.
“Seriously, I’m sorry.”
He nodded, and crouched down to start picking up what could be rescued from the split carrier bags.
“Help him, asshole. And no more outbursts like that. I need us working together to find this fucker.”
I nodded at Reacher and squatted beside Micro to help him tidy up. He rubbed his hands on his jeans and cursed, as he smeared oil all over them.
