Page 83 of Torch
“Girl, I know, but you could have kept quiet and left me to take the heat. This didn’t need to be on you too. I guessed after you saw me the last time, but then I didn’t know how to tell you I did it as well, because I thought you’d blame me for you having to leave. You didn’t, by the way, but I think you realise that now.” Yeah, Torch had made that pretty clear, so I nodded, smiling back at her.
“I felt like I’d betrayed him, and the club, but I just didn’t want the burden of killing a brother biker on him, on any of them really.”
She clearly understood and felt the same way, nodding slowly.
“It wasn’t just about that either. He’s my blood, even if the connection between us is that barbaric bastard who fathered us. That said, my loyalty will always be with the club, and with Ice.”
“I’m sorry he might have died anyway, Lissa. I think we both tried to prevent that, but we may have failed. I know they haven’t found him yet, but from what Torch told me of the accident, I don’t see how he’d have survived.”
She glanced around us and rested a hand on mine.
“Can you keep a secret?” Oh hell, what now? I wasn’t sure a secret would be the best thing to sit between me and Torch at this point, but she looked like she really needed to tell someone, and didn’t she listen to all of us when we needed it?
“Of course. Will I regret it though?” She pulled a creased piece of paper out of her pocket and passed it to me, keeping her eyes on the door our men were behind, while I unfolded it and started to read.
Torch
Reacherwaiteduntilwewere seated before he dropped a bombshell on us. I knew it’d be about Micro, and the fallout of his actions, but not this.
“We’re being investigated, the club, I mean. Seems that the eyes of the police are right back on us, after a fucking decade of trying to turn it around. We’re not the club that resided here before, but we’ll always be tarred with that brush. For that reason, we need to make some changes to how we do things. Our four brothers who live offsite are going to take over the drug work for the time being, and they’re also doing more in-depth searching for Micro while they do. We’ve had teams out for twenty-four hours searching the area where he went down, but let’s be honest, if he’s not found by now, he’s long gone. I don’t think he’s going to pull any shit with us, but I’m not taking any risks.Grease, stand up.” Oh wow, was the mafia guy getting outed at last?
Grease grinned as he stood up, smoothing that dumbass quiff of his, and moving around the back of his chair, leaning on the back of it casually, like he wasn’t about to have a whole room of pissed off bikers glaring at him, or even coming for him.
“Why don’t you introduce yourself properly, brother?”
Grease lifted two fingers to his forehead in a mock salute, and straightened up, his lax posture sliding into something new. Suddenly the cut looked ridiculous on him, because I could see he was every bit the mafia guy he truly was underneath. He’d played the part of a biker well, but it had been just that. A part. A role.
“My real name is Tesio Agosti, and I work for Don Rossi.” The room erupted as everyone started talking at once, and Reacher allowed it for a few moments, then yelled out for them to shut it, and they did, because he was the fucking President and when he said shut up, you just fucking did it.
“Don Rossi was kind enough to loan Tesio to us, when we were being hacked, and couldn’t identify the source while we were under such an onslaught. I’m sure you thought it was a weird time to bring someone in, and some of you probably never trusted the smug asshole, but he has had our backs this entire time, and was instrumental in helping Ice to-”
“To what? It’s not like that helped us figure out a damn thing. We only ever found out, because Micro was dumb enough to go after Ice’s old lady, and got caught. If he hadn’t, we’d still be thumbing our own butts, while we line up for knives in our backs, like Torch had.” We stared at Rocket for a moment, then someone snorted, and a few chuckles followed that.
“Thumbing our butts? What the actual fuck?” Ry muttered, as Reacher called for silence again.
“Everything Ice and Tesio were doing was essential, and you’d never understand a fucking word of it, so get your head, and your thumb, out of your ass, boy.”
Stitch cleared his throat then. “The main takeaways from today’s meeting should be the following. Micro is out of our hair, and would be a fucking moron to return. We’re effectively back out of lockdown, because the threat is gone, and Tesio, aka Grease, was a fucking superstar for walking into this shitshow to help us figure this out. We’re gonna miss ya, man.”
Tesio ran a hand through his slicked back hair.
“Honestly, I’m gonna fucking miss this too. Mafia life is so fucking stuffy, but you guys just relax, and kick back, and just live. I enjoyed just living for a while.” I think I’d actually miss the fucker too.
“You could always go prospect,” I suggested with a grin, and he snorted.
“Yeah, not really down for taking on a year of toilet duty or whatever, but thanks.”
Reacher called it then, because what more was there to say right now? Micro’s threat was gone, and Tesio’s job was done, and that was it, right?
Has slammed a hand down on the table, and silence fell again.
“I didn’t get a chance to mention this before you called the meeting to a close, Pres, but I want a vote for Elise as my old lady. Now this shit is over, I want my fucking ink on her asap. I’m thinking Torch has a vote he wants too.”Fuck me.Yeah, I really did.
Forty-Three
Itwasalwaysawkwardwhen you had a secret you had to keep from the one you loved, and I was freaking out about how I’d actually keep it from him. More than that, I really didn’t want to, but I also didn’t want to break a confidence.
Keeping secrets wasn’t the best way to start out a life together, but breaking my promise to Lissa also felt like the wrong move. Hell, if the secret wasn’t hers, I’d probably have been going to her for advice, but I couldn’t do that, of course.
