Page 35 of Torch
“Obviously after what happened to Ally, Reacher wasn’t able to make the meet, and I got caught up in all of that with him, so I didn’t make it to the meet at all. We didn’t hear from Jock again, and you know Jock, he’d be pissed as fuck, especially coming all the way back up here to get stood up.”
Yeah, Jock would have nagged his fucking ear off, the cranky old bastard. Fuck, he was dead? I’d always liked the guy, even while he was drowning in his grief after losing his old lady.
“You getting to the point soon? It’s the fucking early hours,” I moaned, wanting them to speed this up, because bad news wasn’t something you wanted dragged out, was it?
“Sorry, man, didn’t realise you had a hot date to get to,” Stitch griped, shooting a frustrated look in Ice’s direction.
“Is anyone actually fucking listening here, or am I wasting my breath? This is one of our fucking brothers I’m talking about here.”
Ice lifted a hand and pulled up something on the screen behind him. We all leaned closer to see what it was. Fuck me. That was the familiar form of old Jock, walking past the clubhouse grounds and down the road, probably heading for the meet. We watched morosely as our old friend, our brother, walked his final fucking steps along the road, so close to where he’d lived for so long.
Ice suddenly pointed to a corner of the screen, and we saw a shadow moving just out of the range of the camera, and a dark clothed figure finally falling into step a few metres behind Jock. We couldn’t see where they went or what happened, after they were out of the range of the cameras, but it was pretty fucking obvious, wasn’t it? Our saboteur had struck again, this time killing a fucking brother, a former member of the club. Once a member, always a fucking member. He killed one of us.
“What the fuck are we doing about this?”
“How the hell did you find that, Ice?” Okay, we’ll ignore me, and go straight to what Stitch is asking.
“Me and Grease, we’ve been monitoring the outer cameras in sync with the inners, because now we know how the fucker is getting out, it’s clear he’d use this route here to head into town. We figure if we go back far enough, we might see him return from one of his jaunts,” Ice said, sinking back into his chair, leaving the screen paused behind him, with Jock already gone. In every possible way.
“Did he?” Ryder asked, suddenly stepping away from the wall.
“Did he what?”
“Did he return after killing Jock?”
Ice looked at Grease then back to us, a look of sudden comprehension on his face.
“No, not that we’ve seen.”
Ryder crossed the room, and flipped the fire alarm on the wall, filling the entire building with the sound of a deafeningly loud siren.
“You fucking idiot!”
Has didn’t wait around to curse him out though, he let himself out, declaring that he was getting the women to stay put in his room. That meant that every other biker based here would flock outside, and we could do a headcount, because while everyone didn’t stay onsite, too much had happened for this to be someone sneaking in to cause mayhem.
Of course, if he’d snuck back another way, this would prove nothing, right? Instead it proved two things. Two heads were missing.
Grace
Isleptwellaftermy scandalous phone sex with Torch, and had an early shift at the hospital the next day, so I made a point of stopping by to see Reacher and Ally again. If I was getting close with a member of his club, it made sense to offer support now, even though he barely knew me.
“Morning doc.” A biker I didn’t recognise was sitting in the waiting room with a book in his hand. He wore a beanie on his head, and the book was something about tattooing, judging by the front cover.
“Hi. I was just going to see Reacher and Ally. Do you need any messages passed on?” He grinned, shaking his head.
“Thanks, but he popped out a few minutes ago, so we’re all sorted. He made us leave overnight, but we’ll be here as much as possible. I’m Has-Been,” he said, standing and reaching out a hand to shake mine. He was tall, and very handsome, with a sweetness about him. Oddly familiar too, so maybe I had seen him around before. Maybe when Torch was still in the hospital?
“Grace. Uh Doctor Adams, but well, Grace to you guys. I mean, I’m with Torch, I think. I haven’t seen him today, but-” Has-Been, what a strange name, by the way, frowned and glanced around us.
“You’re keeping that quiet, right?”
He watched my shoulders slump and shook his head.
“I don’t mean that it isn’t great news, doc. I just mean while there’s some asshole trying to hurt people we care about, that’s all. I’m glad Torch won you over at last. I knew he was hot for his doc.” He chuckled and went back to his seat.
“Be safe, doc.”
That was the second warning I’d had about my safety from people other than Torch. Maybe I should be listening to them, instead of stubbornly clinging to this idea of being with another bad boy, even if he did seem to be the most decent bad boy I’d ever met.
