Fifty-Two
I t didn’t take much for her to say yes, so the next morning, I hunted down Reacher, who wasn’t in his office, or his room, but the room we refer to as our ‘Church’. He was resting his head on one hand, eyes on the surface of the table. I tapped on the door, and he almost looked like he jumped, before he nodded me in.
“You were miles away, Pres. You want me to come back?”
He shook his head. “How are you doing, brother? You look like you’re doing better.”
I nodded, grabbing my usual chair.
“Lissa makes a big difference, and I know it’s not just me she’s helping. She’ll make time for you, Pres, just say when. I was thinking she might be able to help others in the club in the same way, what do you think?”
He smoothed his hair and shrugged his shoulders a little.
“Sorry, been here a while. Uh, yeah, I think that could be a good move. I’m sure Stitch will need someone to talk to when he’s back. Hell, everyone here has some kind of shit going on, right?”
“I have to make her mine first though, you understand that, right? Like, I can’t let her be in a room with any of the others without my fucking name on her. I get it now, how you felt, how Ryder felt. It’s fucking consuming me. I need to own her first.”
Reacher grinned briefly, then it slid from his face.
“Yeah, turns out it makes a big difference, that ink. Ally is my wife, but the club didn’t accept her, and that fucking eats at me every day. Nobody has their back more, outside of their own brothers, yet they denied me my claim on her.”
I couldn’t imagine how much it must have hurt both of them for her to be rejected by his family like that.
“You can’t overturn that? At least hold a re-vote? I’m sure they’d vote in favour this time, now they can see how important she is to you.”
Reacher stroked his beard, staring at the table again.
“I can’t just overrule their vote. I’m a President, but I’m not a dictator.”
“Could have fooled me.”
He smirked, which was pretty much what I was going for, because he wasn’t all bad, just a pain in my ass sometimes. Maybe even often.
“Maybe it’s time for a change to the rules, Pres. It shouldn’t be possible for one or two assholes to stand between any of us and the women we love.”
He shrugged. “I’ll talk to Stitch when he’s able to think about that shit. The club is a democracy, I just can’t go making changes like that for my own benefit.”
“The club is what you and Stitch made it to be. If you want to make changes, then we either suck it up, or we’re fuckwits and don’t deserve to be here. Same with the no riding rule. We’re bikers through and through, even if we end up unable to ride, right?”
He fixed me with a glare. “You making a point about me? I’m still fighting fit, dickhead, and Stitch’ll get back on his bike when he can.”
I was done hiding. If I kept holding back this secret, then I couldn’t put my focus on my woman, and our future together. Hell, I’m not a ‘future’ kind of guy, but with her, I really fucking wanted one.
“Pres, I need to tell you something.”
Reacher groaned. “I don’t need more drama right now.”
“I might be solving a problem for you, if you want me gone and out of your hair.”
“You want out of the club, brother?”
“It’s the last thing I want, but I have a problem, and not the one you think, but it did cause the one you know about. It’s not so straightforward though…” I was babbling, and my President was losing his patience. It was written all over his face.
“I was talking about me. I’m the one who can’t ride.” I couldn’t take back those words once I’d spoken them, it was done. There was no going back.
Lissa
I ce was edgy when he returned from seeing Reacher, but he confirmed that Reacher was waiting in the room he called ‘Church’. He walked me there, and then kissed my forehead, and left me at the door. At the door?
He was too preoccupied, and I almost followed him, because I worried about where he was going instead of our room. He’d headed into the bar area instead. I had this terrifying and irrational fear that he was leaving, or that he wouldn’t be there when I came back. I dithered in that doorway for long minutes while I tried to work out what I should do. Every instinct in me was screaming at me to follow him, and my feet started moving in that direction.
“Lissa? Everything okay?”
I turned to see Reacher in the doorway, a frown on his face.
“I… is Ice okay?”
He gestured to the room for me to join him.
“He’ll be fine. He’s just gonna wait there in the bar for you.”
“Why the bar?”
He gestured to a seat, and closed the door as I sat down.
“Hopefully gonna clean up one of those god-awful non-alcoholic beers he keeps there.”
“So… um… you wanted to talk?”
He nodded. “Stitch is returning to the club, and I honestly don’t know if he’s going to stay or not, but I was hoping you might be able to make time to talk with him if he needs it?”
I shook my head, feeling a sudden sharp sense of déjà vu.
“That’s not how it works at all. I told you this before, Reacher. I’m willing to listen if he needs to talk, of course, but he has to want to. It’s not something you can make him do. You’ve seen how unwilling people can be when they’re pushed into it.”
Reacher leaned back in his chair.
“Honestly, I expect he’ll be incredibly resistant, as would any man here, but I also think that you could be an asset to the club, to our family . How do you feel about that?”
I glanced around us at the huge room, the extremely long table with so many chairs.
“I thought I was here because you needed to talk.”
Reacher nodded. “You were, it’s just that something else came up, and it’s a priority.”
I suddenly had an awful feeling that something bad was about to happen. Reacher kept eyeing his phone, like he was waiting for something.
“Should I go?”
He shook his head.
“I lost you your job, and I am beyond sorry for that. Uh… I’m gonna help you get set up with an office so you can take clients again. I’ve also revoked my complaint about you, and made it clear that any attempt to blacklist you will put your old clinic in the sights of a rather nasty group of people in town. They think of us that way, so I figured I’d play into that.”
“You… wait, you’re doing… you did what?”
Reacher smiled, a real smile, and he looked relaxed for the first time ever in my presence.
“You don’t know how much it was eating at me, knowing I’d fucked up your life out of spite, in a petty moment of anger and assholiness . That was Ice’s word for it, by the way. This is how I can make amends. Ice will make sure that your record remains clean, and any attempt to tarnish it will see some retribution of the variety he specialises in. This leaves you free to take on clients again.”
I blinked dumbly at him, a lump forming in my throat. I had no idea what to say. Words had failed me completely. In one fell swoop, he’d tried to fix what he broke, and he actually cared that he broke it in the first place.
“Lissa?”
“Uh… sorry, I was… wow, thank you, Reacher. I never expected anything like this.”
He grinned. “We own a few empty properties around the perimeter of the clubhouse compound, because we wanted to expand into more savoury lines of business. I’ll get Ice to show you everything to see what fits your requirements.”
His phone buzzed on the table surface, and he checked it, a grin lighting up his face.
“And on that note, we’re required in the bar .”
He stood up and opened the door, reaching out to offer his arm, like an old fashioned suitor. I looped my arm through his, and he led me into the bar, which was suddenly crowded with bikers. It was the busiest I’d ever seen it. What the hell was happening?