Sixty
I couldn’t put my finger on what it was about Micro that I didn’t like, but right now I had enough to worry about, without having to be around a guy like him. There was a sliminess, but even that wasn’t it, exactly. Maybe I just really wasn’t comfy around unknown men after what had happened.
“Did he fucking come on to you at some point, babe? I’ll kill him.”
I caught Has’ arm as he headed for the door, and he stopped, even though I could feel from the tension in his muscles that he was already mentally kicking his ass.
“Please, don’t leave me alone right now.”
The tension drained out of him, along with a heavy exhale.
“Jesus, did he do something to make you feel that way?”
He led me to the sofa and sat me down. I knew they were close, so I didn’t want to cause problems between them, but I’d prefer not to have to spend too much time with him, especially alone.
“No… it’s not like he did something, Has. I just, I don’t like him, and he’s a bit slimy, that’s all.”
Has grinned widely, tucking my hair behind my ear.
“That’s just part of his charm, babe. You’ll maybe grow to like him, maybe not, but he’s good people, I promise.”
“Why is he called Micro? Is it… you know…”
He roared with laughter then, slapping one hand against his thigh.
“This is exactly why he hates his road name. Women always assume that, but… well, we don’t generally choose our road names, they’re kind of assigned by other club members.”
“So it’s not a size thing, otherwise one or more of you would have to be intimately acquainted with that part of him?”
Has shrugged, tucking his arm around me and pulling me tight against his chest.
“Nah, it relates to some incident that I didn’t witness. I was on one of my nomadic rides. Back when I joined the club, I was still craving that freedom sometimes, so I’d disappear for weeks at a time. Reacher and Stitch always gave me the space to do that, and eventually the club became more than just a place to hang out. It became my home.”
“And now it’s my home too, even though it’s what Seth didn’t want for me.”
Has grinned at me, tweaking my nose.
“I know he’s your big brother, but at some point you need to start calling him Stitch. That’s who he is now, and it’s who the club respect him for being.”
Oh. I hadn’t even thought of that, and my brother had tried to tell me so many times, but he’d always been Seth to me.
“Is it disrespectful that I’m calling him by his real name?”
Has stroked his fingers through my hair, kissing my forehead and taking too long to answer, because I was starting to worry that I’d been rude so many times.
“Stitch is his real name, babe. At the club, that’s who he is, but there’s no way anyone would think you’re disrespectful, and if they do, they can go fuck themselves. I just know it’s how a lot of us prefer to be addressed. Try calling Ice by his ‘real name’, or my god… or Torch. They hate it.”
“I don’t even know them as anything other than Ice and Torch.”
“Exactly, and I think you’ll make your brother’s day the first time you call him Stitch.”
Has-Been
I t was a mere hour later, when Stitch visited our room, and asked for some alone time with his sister. I mean, I hated being away from her, but I’d never come between her and her brother, so I agreed, saying I’d check in with Ice and Tesio after whatever the fuck had happened earlier.
Apparently, as Stitch had explained it, the person who’d been randomly hacking the system had managed to wipe all of Ice and Tesio’s drives of data, and that, had there not been an offsite backup that nobody knew about, all would be lost.
One of the first things Tesio apparently did was set up a regularly scheduled upload of all data to an off-site server of his, with Reacher’s approval, just to keep us covered. All protections were in place to keep our files for our eyes only, but for the time being, this was all being kept quiet.
It was for that reason that I found Ice slumped on a sofa in the bar, waiting for Tesio and drinks.
“Hey, man. You look like you took a major kick in the nads today.”
He grimaced, sitting up a bit.
“You been updated?”
I nodded, knowing he’d know that I was in the real know, and not operating on the story everyone else was getting. He cleared his throat, and spoke a little louder than usual.
“I’m losing my fucking mind, man. How the fuck did someone even get access, let alone wipe so much shit?” Just in case the culprit was in earshot, we were letting them think they’d been successful. Once again, I hated the fact that we had to put on a show to weed out a fucking saboteur among our family, our brotherhood.
Tesio joined us, sliding beers in front of me and Ice. I frowned as I thanked him, because I hadn’t ordered anything, but I’d sure as hell take a drink right now. I noticed that Ice’s beer was his usual no-alcohol stuff too.
“Has this all been cleared as safe?”
Tesio smirked, jerking his head toward the bar, where Tommy was packing supplies into the fridges from boxes on the counter.
“All new shit, courtesy of the Rossi family. You guys are really stacking up those favours for him to recall at some point,” he murmured softly.
I exchanged a worried look with Ice.
“Seriously? How deep are we?”
Tesio started chuckling, sipping at his beer in between his laughter.
“You guys are so easy, honestly. It’s all good. It was a gift from him, since he didn’t want his daughter ‘stuck in this hellhole without sustenance’.”
“It’s hardly the time to be fucking joking around, dipshit.” I could see Ice was on his last nerve, even though nothing had genuinely been lost. The mere fact that there had been any intrusion into his systems would be fucking him up, because that was his domain, and he normally had perfect control over it.
“Yo Grease, wanna shoot some pool?” Tesio turned and caught Rocket’s eye, laughing loudly.
“Yeah, man, rack ‘em up, I’ll be right there. Gonna take the rest of your money tonight though.”
“Eat me.”
I grinned, enjoying the banter, and that brief return to normalcy.
“Nice to see you’re making friends here.”
The mafia guy smirked at me as he stood up and straightened his cut.
“I could get used to this life, man. I can see why you stuck around.” I knew he was playing his part, but his words actually rang with a little more truth than I’d expected. He mock saluted us, and wandered away with his beer, heckling Rocket the whole damn way.
“How’s it been, working with him?”
Ice sipped at his beer, glaring at the label.
“Maybe I need to start drinking the real stuff, man. Clean living is so fucking hard, and he’s been driving me fucking nuts! You know he never shuts up, like even for five minutes, and it’s like working with a child in the room. He keeps sticking music on, and watching stuff on his phone with the volume really high, and seriously, try concentrating with all that shit going on, because it’s fucking impossible.” I ignored that huffy sigh at the end of what he’d said, because I realised the important part of what he just said, as in the part he didn’t vocalise.
“You like him.”
“Get fucked. I just said he’s annoying as fuck.”
“Yeah, but you’re loving it, you know you were grinning as you were talking right?”
Ice rolled his eyes, shoving that shite non-beer aside and sitting back again, slumping low in the seat.
“I just want things the way they were, man. I came here for a drama free life, for the family I’d never had, and instead everything’s so fucking messed up.”
I finished my beer in several large gulps.
“You don’t mean that, man. You don’t mean you miss when you were doped up more than you weren’t, and when you didn’t have Lissa.”
He groaned, rubbing his face vigorously with both hands.
“It doesn’t get any fucking easier, man. It’s always there, that nagging urge, that fucking itch right within my soul. It’d take the edge off of all of this shit. It’d tide me over until-”
“Does Lissa know you’re thinking like this?” Okay, how to piss Ice off in seven simple words.
He lunged up out of his chair, knocking the table, and sending both of our bottles crashing onto the wooden floor with a loud smash.
“That’s none of your fucking business, got it?” I stood up too, because you don’t sit there and let a guy tower over you like that. I wouldn’t be anybody’s fucking victim ever again, in any situation.
“Watch who you’re talking to like that, dickhead. You don’t wanna start shit with me right now, trust me.”
Ice started laughing, but it was a low bitter sound.
“Yeah, don’t wanna upset fucking golden boy , do I? Might get me in trouble with the Pres.”
What the hell? I reached out and grabbed the front of his cut, almost lifting him off his feet, so I could get right in his face.
“Fucking say that again, and I’ll knock you out. I don’t care what kind of shit you’re going through right now. You never say that to me again.”
There was so much rage coursing through me, that even when my brothers started grabbing at me, I couldn’t let go of the fucker. How dare he? How dare he use that fucking term ‘golden boy’? On a rational level, I knew he didn’t know what a trigger it was for me, but I couldn’t fucking release him.
As more hands tried to separate us, I lunged forward, nutting Ice right in the forehead with mine, and probably causing myself more pain than I delivered with that shot.
“You stupid fuck!”
Despite others trying to get between us, Ice managed to get a fist right in my face, before he followed up with a blow to my stomach, and then I really lost it. I released him, and shoved the others away from me and as soon as they hesitated, I went for him again. I crashed into him, and we both went over the back of his chair, and started punching each other as we landed.
Honestly, it felt fucking amazing to just let go like this. To release all of that pent up anger and frustration I’d been carrying, after what had happened recently. To have a target for my rage and powerlessness. Someone to fucking blame .
“STOP this shit right fucking now!” I heard Reacher roar over the noise in the room. Half of our brothers had been trying to encourage us to stop, but there had been just as many voices egging us both on, because that’s just what bikers are like. We like violence, and we resolve most of our shit with our fists.
Someone dragged me away from Ice, even as the bastard shot up with one last punch and caught me right on the ear.