Page 56 of Torch
“So, Tommy?”
I rubbed a hand over my head, staring at the wall for a moment, while I tried to get my brain to fucking catch up.
“Jesus, I don’t know. He was missing last time we did a headcount, and we found some messed up shit in his locker, but now I don’t know how much of that was faked by Micro.Fuck, I need to talk to him.”
I was standing again all of a sudden, my fists clenched at his sides, because suddenly this couldn’t wait. It really fucking couldn’t.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Torch. Don’t Reacher or Stitch decide on that stuff?”
I headed for the door, even though my old lady just made a great point.
“No. I mean, no, fuck that. I need to talk to him right now.”
I didn’t check if she was following me, as I headed down to the basement. I knew where we kept the key, so I’d grabbed it from Reacher’s office on my way through. All I needed was a few minutes alone with Micro. I had stuff to ask him, that I didn’t want an audience for.
I unlocked the door, and stepped inside, and he shot me a knowing grin.
“I’ve been expecting you, man. You took your time though. Thought you were gonna stand me up.”
Grace
Ididn’tknowwhatto do, but instinctively I knew that Torch shouldn’t be alone with Micro. He was hurting, so terribly, but being alone with him could escalate things to a potentially fatal degree.
I grabbed my phone and dialled Lissa’s number.
“Hey, everything okay?”
She sounded sleepy, and I hated that I might have woken her.
“No. I don’t know. I feel like I’m betraying a confidence, but I’m worried.”
“Is it Torch?” Suddenly she sounded wide awake, and I heard a male voice in the background, probably Ice.
“I don’t know how things work here, but hypothetically, if he’d gone down to talk to Micro alone, should I be telling someone?”
She sighed heavily, and murmured something quietly, receiving a harsh ‘fuck!’ in response. I guess I’d already told someone, right? Would Torch hate me for this, or would he recognise that I was doing it to protect him?
“Ice is letting Stitch know. You did the right thing, Grace. If Micro gets in his head, and I suspect their closeness makes that a potential possibility, then it could do him some real damage.”
I’d been standing by the door to Torch’s room, unsure whether to follow him or not, but now I knew. Shit. I should be with him. I pulled it open, and headed into the hall.
“I’m going down there now. I don’t want him getting hurt more by this monster.” I suddenly realised that was technically Lissa’s brother, or half brother, I was talking about, but she didn’t disagree with me.
“Stay out of the room. I’m sure Stitch will be down there any minute. Don’t get caught up in the crossfire.”
Screw that. I ended the call and ran for the stairs. It was too quiet when I approached the door, but I hesitated there before trying to go in, because if the situation was too tenuous, I could escalate things, purely by walking in at the wrong moment. My priority was Torch’s safety. I guess, even above my own at this point.
“Where’s Tommy, man?”
“That’s not why you’re here, buddy. Ask what you really wanna know.”
Torch cursed, and fell silent, and just as I reached for the door, he spoke and I froze again.
“How could you do that tome?”
Twenty-Eight
Hestaredatmefor such a long time that I thought he was going to refuse to answer, and that pissed me off so much, I nearly punched him. We’d been so close, like brothers, real brothers.
