Page 48 of Patchover Fright Night
“Why don’t you tell me.” It wasn’t posed as a question, because it wasn’t. It was an order, and any idiot knew that, even me right now.
I shifted to sit with my feet on the floor, and dragged a hand over my scruffed up hair.
“Right now?”
Oh yeah, that non answer was his response. In other words, yes, right fucking now, little minion of mine.
I cursed, tucking the phone into the crook of my neck, as I rummaged around for painkillers, because I needed something to take the edge off the pain.
“I’m waiting, Tesio.”
“Yeah, and I’m trying to get fucking painkillers for this concussion. You wanna gimme a fucking second?”
Deadly silence was his response, and yeah, I deserved that. I just mouthed off at the boss, and that was a big no no in the mafia. Why the fuck was I born to that life instead of this one? Any idiot could see that this life is the one I was meant for, not the stuffy entrapment of his world.
“Sorry, boss. I’m in a fair amount of pain. Can I call you back in five?”
The call ended, which was his way of saying, sure thing, I’m a nice guy and I’ll respect your needs. Yeah, right.
I downed two of those strong painkillers I kept in reserve for injuries like this, and washed them down with a few mouthfuls ofLucozade, which I also kept on hand for rehydrating and electrolytes and shit.
I dialled the boss back, and waited for him to answer.
“Tesio.”
“Okay, let me start by apologising again, boss. I’d just woken up, and felt like sh… felt like hell. As far as the sit-rep goes, yeah,things didn’t exactly go to plan.” I didn’t bother pausing for a response from him, because he preferred to respond with bitter, pregnant silences that really fucked with my head. You wanna say something, just fucking say it, right?
“Anyway, several former members of the club we took over decided to get their revenge. They spiked the kegs of beer with hallucinogens, with the intention of killing everyone while they were fucked up.”
Again, I just blundered on, because I wasn’t in the mood for his petulant silences.
“I was taken out early on, and woke up to shit already going all to hell. Along with a few sober members of the club, we did our best to secure what we could, and protect the old ladies, until help could arrive.”
A sniffy noise was my response at that point, so hell, at least he was still there and breathing, right?
“Thanks to your intervention, we were able to remove the threats, and get everything cleared up again, with zero losses.”
“With the additional threat of police, and a significant threat to my own business, Tesio.” I really hoped he didn’t have cameras in here, because I was flipping him off with both hands.
Stitch
Iglared at myphone, which had been ringing damn near constantly, and even though it was on silent, I didn’t want it waking Camille. She’d had a rough night. I got up from the uncomfortable chair beside her bed, and leaned over to kiss herforehead gently, so proud of the woman who just fucking gave me everything.
“I’ll be back in a few, baby,” I whispered softly, making my way out of the room, with a lingering glance back at her as I closed the door. Leaving her, even for a few minutes was so fucking hard, but sometimes nature called at inconvenient times, and sometimes that was after about eight hours of watching my woman sleep.
I used the bathroom, grabbed a coffee from the coffee shop on the ground floor, and stepped outside into the chilly air, which took my breath for a moment. Fuck, it got cold all of a sudden.
I dug out my phone, and it rang again almost that same instant, like the fucker knew I’d just reached for it.
“Jesus, you can’t be away from me for five minutes, can you?”
Reacher chuckled in my ear, sounding a little raspier than normal.
“You okay?”
“Fuck’s sake, Stitch. I’m calling for news on how Cammy and the baby are, you idiot.”
I grinned, feeling the fucking elation that a man feels when he had everything he could fucking want, everything he’d ever need.
