Page 32 of Torch
I leaned down to point to the barely visible fence in the video feed.
“Right here, there’s a whole section of the fence that was cut, and pinned back in place. It looks legit until you get up real close.”
“The fuck?!” Ryder cursed out, and he wasn’t the only one, so I stood back and let them get it all out first.
“This fucker has been coming and going via probably our only real blind spot? If he dresses in black, and creeps along this route right here, we’d probably never notice him!” Has muttered, tugging his beanie down his forehead, which seemed to be his new gesture of agitation since his dreads were lopped off.
“Yeah, so cameras?”
Ice nodded grimly. “I’ve got this, don’t even worry about it. We just need to make sure nobody outside this room knows, and we’ll need a distraction downstairs so everyone’s busy.”
That was never a hardship in this place. I’d probably pick a fight with Micro, and we’d slap each other around a bit, and then laugh it off later. It wouldn’t be the first time for us, but that’s how it is in a brotherhood.
“Cool, what about going back through any videos, to see if we can see him coming and going?”
Ice fixed me with a sour glare. “You volunteering, because that’s gonna be a miserable as shit job, and I’m not taking that on too.”
Ryder jerked a thumb in Has’ direction.
“We’ll cover that. Torch, you go and cause a distraction as soon as dusk hits, so Ice can fit the camera. Grease, you can give him a hand if needed.”
As the closest thing we had to a leader right now, Ryder was calling the shots, so we all nodded, taking on our duties, and hoped like fuck that it’d out the bastard once and for all.
Grace
IwishedI’dswappednumbers with Torch, so we could at least keep in touch, regardless of whether his Club President thought we should get closer right now. I needed to hear his voice, to know he was okay, but I wasn’t sure how to reach him at all.
I’d had a message from Lissa earlier to cancel an appointment she had with me, because of the ‘full lockdown’, whatever that meant, but my brain clearly wasn’t at its best as it took too long for me to realise that she could get Torch’s number to me.
Me:Hey, any chance you could get me Torch’s number? I need to speak with him, and we haven’t exchanged numbers yet.
Lissa:Sure, I’ll send it now. Sorry about having to cancel our session. Are you okay?
Am I okay? Well, is anyone really? I wanted to see the man I was falling for too fast, but I also knew it could be dangerous, and not just life-threatening right now. Would I fall faster if I saw him again right now? Would I lose interest if I spent more time with him? Nope. I was pretty sure that wouldn’t be the case. The number arrived in her next message, and I saved it to my phone with a sense of relief I hadn’t expected.
Me:Yes, thank you. I just wanted to keep in touch with him. Reacher told me to stay away while this is going on, but I need some form of contact, I guess. Needy, huh? Maybe we should cover that issue next time.
I was smiling as I sent it, but it wasn’t really that funny, was it? Picking apart my psyche was a scary thing, because I had no idea what would happen when it was all laid bare, and I realised how much I’d locked away to try and appear normal, and professional, and strong. I mean, why would any woman crave the kind of treatment I did? What normal woman wants a man to treat her like nothing more than a slut, holes to fuck, someone to use and discard, while demeaning them with cruel taunts and insults? Nope, definitely something wrong there.
Lissa:Noted lol And Reacher’s right about staying safe. Is there any news on Ally? We’re all so upset about what happened, and that we can’t see her right now.
Shit. What was there to tell her? I wasn’t her doctor, and had nothing she probably didn’t already know.
Me:No change for now. She’s resting after her surgery, and Reacher is with her. I’ll let you know if I hear more, but she’s in good hands, I promise.
Lissa:Thank you. That does help to know that x
At least I was helping someone with something, right? I curled up on my sofa, tucking my feet under me, and stared at my phone screen, with a new text message box open for Torch. Suddenly I was blank, and nervous about sending a damn text message. How pathetic was that?
Suddenly the phone buzzed in my hand, as a message came through on that very chat, and being a sufferer of the dreaded wasp-fear, I damn near threw the thing across the room in a panic.
I was still breathing fast, as I read the message from him.
Torch:Hey babe, Lissa says she gave you my number. Guess we shoulda sorted that before we fucked, right?
I felt my lips stretching into a smile, as even just a message from him seemed to soothe my nerves, and relax me. It was just Torch, dammit.
Me:Yes, you’re also supposed to wine and dine a lady before you do terrible things to her.
