Twenty-Two
I felt like hell when I woke up. I felt sick, I felt dizzy, my head throbbed, and my nose felt like someone had set fire to it.
“The fuck…” My voice was a croak, and drew the attention of our club doctor, who leaned over me with a scowl on his face.
“You dumb fuck.”
Nice bedside manner. I tried to sit up, and the room spun again.
“Jesus.”
“Yeah, that’s what happens when some stupid prick decides to use a large amount of cocaine after being clean for almost a month. I hope you feel like shit.”
“Seriously? I think you need to go back to doctor school. You clearly skipped all the classes on not being a self-righteous prick.”
Doc shrugged. “You’re on a drip to keep you hydrated, and you nearly needed a fucking transfusion. You could have died, so maybe the words you’re looking for are ‘thank you’. Your brothers got to you in time, or you wouldn’t still be breathing. I’m so fucking angry with you, I almost told them to take you to a damn hospital instead.”
I finally managed to push myself up from the bed. He was right about the drip. There was a tube pinching its way into the back of my hand.
“How long before I can move?”
“Still waiting for two little words, dipshit.”
I gave up on trying to get up. My body felt like I’d been hit by a truck.
“I’ll just rest here a bit.”
“Ice, what the hell were you thinking? You scared the hell out of everyone, and you got that poor therapist of yours into trouble. Was that really fair on her?”
Fuck. I tried sitting up again, ugh. Mistake.
“What do you mean? Lissa’s in trouble?”
He stuffed more pillows behind me, so I could sit up a little.
“What do you think? She’s your therapist, and you just ran out and snorted a faceful of coke. She clearly failed in her treatment. Although I’m not sure exactly what treatment involved her being in your bed.”
“Where is she?”
He strode over to grab his phone from the desk, glancing up briefly.
“Reacher had her thrown out.”
“What the fuck for?”
He held his phone up to his ear.
“He’s awake.”
Five minutes later, I had the opportunity to ask him myself, when he slammed the door open, and it crashed shut behind him. His face was fixed into a fierce scowl, and I knew I was about to get my ass handed to me.
“He okay?” He was staring at the doc, and Doc nodded.
“No permanent damage, luckily for him.”
“Look away, Doc.”
Doc turned around, but I caught the smirk on his face, a split second before Reacher’s fist crashed into my face, knocking me back on the bed. He followed it up with a tight grip on the back of my neck, and dragged me into a hug.
“You fucking stupid son of a bitch. I thought we’d lost you.”
I tried not to throw up all over him, but the blow to my head had been a big mistake. I shoved away just in time to vomit over the side of the bed.
“Jesus.”
Doc groaned. “I’m not cleaning that up. Get a prospect in.”
“You said he was okay.”
“He is. He’s feeling a bit sorry for himself, but hopefully you just knocked some sense into him. He’s on the drip for another hour, then you can get him out of here.” Doc was shaking his head as he strode out of the infirmary and the door slammed again.
Reacher grabbed a chair and pulled it over on the side of the bed not splattered with the contents of my stomach.
“Why, kid? That’s all I want to know, is why.”
I pointed at the water jug, and he grabbed it and poured some into a paper cup. It took a few sips before it actually started tasting like water, but it helped.
“What did you do to Lissa?”
His forehead creased.
“Who?”
“My therapist. Lissa. Dr Chase.”
His frown became a fierce scowl.
“I sent that bitch packing, and she knows never to come near this place again. Fucking useless if you ask me. First off, she abused her position by getting so close to you, and then she failed you completely, by sending you into whatever the fuck tailspin sent you to that dive.”
I shook my head, my stomach roiling a little with the motion.
“It wasn’t her fault.”
“She’s your therapist, or she was. Her job was to stop you doing what you just did. Instead, she managed to seduce you, or some shit.”
“I fucking seduced her, okay? Or… fuck… I was trying to. Where is she?”
Reacher shrugged. “Don’t care. She’s not going to be coming anywhere near you in future.”
“That’s not your call. I choose who I see, and… Jesus… I want her. I fucking need her.”
He scratched at his head for a minute, watching me, but staying silent.
“Reacher, I mean it. It has to be her. Fuck… how did she even get home? She wasn’t allowed to drive.”
He got up, clearly feeling more comfortable pacing.
“What the fuck does that even mean?”
“Look… if I tell you some stuff, will you keep it between us? It’s humiliating for both of us.”
“Jesus. I’m gonna regret this, right?” Probably. I shrugged.
“Look, we’ve been getting closer for a while, and she was worried about me tonight, so she tried driving here, but she’d been drinking, and she got pulled over. Her licence might be suspended over this. If she loses her licence, she might lose her job too.”
He was staring at me. “Seriously? This woman who fucking drives drunk is the perfect person to help you get off the drugs? I’m calling bullshit on that.”
“It was stupid, yeah, but it was a mistake. We’re fucking human. We make them. She made one, and I wanted to look after her. She was so upset. Uh… we were getting uh… Jesus.” Was I really going to tell him this? I’d rather die. I pulled at my hair.
“Fucking hell, just tell me, already. We need to get this done and out of the way, so you can start fucking cleaning up again.” Great. Perfect. Only this time it wasn’t a decision being made for me. Or was it?
“Jesus, Reacher… I fucking went off early, alright?”
His frown suddenly relaxed, and he said ‘oh’. He paced some more.
“First time with someone since you were attacked, right? Since you got clean.”
“So?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s uh… I’m pretty sure that it might not be that unusual, for shit to uh… go wrong like that.”
“For a man to start jizzing all over women before he even gets inside them? That what you’re tiptoeing around?”
“Jesus, Ice. All I’m saying is, with all you’ve been through, isn’t it possible that this was a possible side-effect or consequence?”
I sat up again, the room staying more stable this time.
“She deserved to be fucked by a man, Reacher. Instead she got fucking schoolboy leg-humper, and then I lost it, didn’t I? Because how the fuck was I supposed to look her in the eye after that? Huh? She tried. She tried to stop me, but I ran out on her.”
He cursed. “I’m still not letting her back here. She nearly lost us a brother tonight. And I’m reporting her to that clinic she works for. She’s not fit to be alone with people while they’re vulnerable. She’s practically a fucking predator.”
“Fuck’s sake, Reacher! That’s bullshit! She’s a gentle, sweet woman, who’s way too fucking good for me, but she sees something in me. She… I don’t know… she doesn’t fear me, or what this club represents. She doesn’t judge me for the way I feel, or the things I come out with when we’re talking. She knows about the… she knows me better than you all do, and that helps. Pres, I need her. Please don’t take her away. She may be the only person who can get me through this.”