Page 76 of Torch
“Listen to me sounding like some badass. It’s just that Reacher can’t… the stress for him would be…”
I had a feeling she was referring to Reacher’s condition, and the fact that he had to try and limit stressful situations, although it seemed like being Club President pretty much rendered it impossible anyway. I chose not to address the fact that I knew, because I knew I shouldn’t have looked into his records.
“Torch will hate me, and he should. He absolutely should. The last thing he needs is another betrayal on top of all the stuff with Micro. He needed me to be the one person he could rely on completely, and I know this can’t be forgiven.”
Ally grinned then, smoothing her blankets casually, like she had some big secret.
“What if I told you that you weren’t the only one who called the police about him?”
Torch
ReachercalledChurchtoexplain to us what he’d just found out, and that fucker looked ready to drop. With all of this, and his old lady still being in hospital, he was running himself into the ground, and we didn’t need him dropping too.
“What we know is that we all saw that van go over the fucking side and down the hill, and we saw it burning at the bottom of it. What we didn’t know was that the fucker was either thrown clear or jumped out, because there was nobody in the van when the police got to it. It wasn’t obvious immediately, because of the fire, but yeah, there’s a manhunt for him now, and we’re not leaving it at that. We’re sending teams out there to comb the fucking area, and it’s zero tolerance time, so you find him, you put a knife in his throat. We’re done fucking around.”Whoa.
We waited for him to assign teams, because we’d do it in shifts, and lucky me, I was on the first shift with four others, so off we went on our bikes, since we had no fucking van to take. With me were Rocket, Stag, Ryder, and Grease, who’d stayed with us to follow this through, with the agreement of Don fucking Rossi.
It still wasn’t briefed to the others that he wasn’t actually a fucking biker, and maybe Reacher wouldn’t even make that known. He might just claim he’d gone nomad again after all this shit, and who’d blame a guy for deciding Phoenix wasn’t the best fucking home for him right now.
We started at the top of the road, where the van had gone over, and worked our way out from there, checking anywhere that had scrubby bushes, and things that might hide a body. What was I hoping for exactly? A body? To not find one? Did I hope he’d been thrown clear, or did I hope he’d successfully jumped out and fucking legged it?
“Got something,” Grease yelled, waving his phone in the air with the light on, so we could find him. Oh yeah, we were doing this search in the fucking dark, and honestly, a day after he took the van, so he could be anywhere by now, but Reacher wanted it done, so we’d do it.
We all made our way to him, and he definitely had something. A boot. One of Micro’s fucking boots, minus a foot, or the rest of him. Who drops just a boot, right? It had to mean he was thrown clear and didn’t walk away.
“Pres?” Ry was on the phone to Reacher already, and asking the same fucking question we were all wanting the answer to. Had the police fucking found him after all, and we hadn’t been told?
Two hours after that, we’d found nothing more, and one boot wasn’t exactly a clear answer, was it? We waved to Stitch and the others who’d just arrived, briefed them on the areas we’d checked, and got on our bikes to head back home.
For some reason though, instead of home, I found myself pulling up outside Grace’s nice expensive house, staring at the window where I could clearly see the curtains were lit from behind. She really was in there just ignoring me, or choosing to stay away from me, so why the fuck had I come here?
I turned off the engine, and stayed astride my bike, while I fought with myself. Go in, and risk being sent away? Go home, and never fucking know one way or the other?
The door suddenly opened and she peered out at me, watching me for so long that I was starting to think she hadn’t even fucking spotted me, but then she pushed the door closed, and I pushed up my visor to see her properly.
Thirty-Nine
Iheardhisbikebefore I even realised what it was I was actually hearing. I think it was the first time I’d even seen him on it, because the first time we met, he’d been in an accident, and left in a van, and the second time, well, he was recovering from being stabbed, so no bike.
I guessed his bike had been repaired, and he was fit for riding it again, but the most important thing was how hot he looked astride the big beast, with his helmet on and his eyes… oh shit… firmly on me.Busted.
I pulled the door closed behind me, and stepped down the front steps towards him. He didn’t get off the bike, merely waiting me out to see if I’d approach him, and I couldn’t help it. I wanted to see him properly, to smell him, and feel him holding me. I didn’t deserve it, but I wanted it so badly.
“If you just wanna look at me, take a picture, and you can go to bed and rub one out, while you look at it.” His voice was low and rough, and I’m not ashamed to say it made me wet almost immediately.
Everything about the man made me think about sex, because he was like sex on legs, and I know people always say that, and think they mean it, but I really really do.
“I’d rather take you to bed.” Oh mygod, did I really just say that?
Torch lifted off his helmet and stared me down, and I swallowed hard. He was pissed off, and didn’t he have a right to be?
“I’m not quite that easy, but if you’re willing to talk to meat last, I could come in for a coffee?”
I nodded, because being away from him, for days now, had made me realise the stupidity of my actions. I’d run from him to avoid rejection, to avoid him pushing me away, or discarding me, because I’d let him down. So I was basically depriving myself of him, just so he couldn’t do the same damn thing to me.
Okay, there was the very real fear that I’d end up tied to a chair in their basement, but Lissa and Ally had both sowed seeds in my heart that made me think maybe that wouldn’t happen, because the club wasn’t made of men like Micro. It was made of men like Torch, and I couldn’t see him ever willingly harming a woman, least of all me.
“Please. I do need to be honest with you about why I left, but you’re going to be angry, and maybe even hate me. I guess maybe you already do after I left like that. I’m so sorry, Torch. I panicked.”
