Fifty-Four
T he way her eyes lit up when I spoke, I knew she was already fucking plotting her escape. And by escape, I mean, she’d pretend to get away, but she’d let me catch her, because she wanted to be fucked. And me? I was on cloud fucking nine. She was mine, unequivocally mine, indisputably mine. She wore my fucking name now, and everyone knew not to fucking touch her because she was mine.
“Catch me if you can!” She let out a giggle and ran down the hallway, up the stairs, and out of sight. I grinned, because there weren’t many places to go up there. Each room had a name plate or something to identify whose room it was, and she wouldn’t dare hide in a brother’s room… or would she? Would she expect me not to check there? The thought of her in anyone else’s bedroom had me abandoning the idea of counting, and running after her.
Huh… she wasn’t hiding anywhere. She was staring at a picture on the wall, and she looked confused. Her posture had changed, and she was intently focused on what she was looking at. Suddenly I wasn’t prowling or hunting her, I was worried. I joined her at the wall, and she pointed to the former club president.
“Who’s that?”
It was the last thing I wanted to talk about right now, but I indulged her for a moment. I really fucking hoped it wouldn’t take any longer than that.
“That’s the old club president, Dagger. His real name was Leif something or other, but I never met him. I joined the club after Reacher and Stitch had taken over. My understanding is that he was a really bad dude.”
She chewed her lip, running her forefinger over his picture.
“And where is he now?”
Jesus, who the fuck cares?
“Dead, darlin’. Now are you gonna get on with this shit? I’m kinda planning to rail you into the fucking ground, and you’re just standing there? I have no problem with public sex, babe, but you don’t want my brothers watching. They’d probably offer hints and stuff.”
She sighed, turning away from the picture, and placing a hand on my arm.
“Ice, I need to tell you something. I probably should have mentioned it before, but things were kind of up in the air, and I didn’t know if it was going to work out or, you know… crash and burn.”
I grabbed that hand of hers and lifted it to my lips, sucking her fingers into my mouth. I wished I’d dipped them inside her first, so I could taste her arousal. I should be fucking her by now, so why the fuck were we standing here?
“Ice, this is serious.”
I teased her fingers with my teeth, and she let out a soft moan, before she pulled her hand away.
“Ice, Leif Jacobsen is my father.” What the fuck?
I turned to look at the man in the photo, trying to see his features in the old blurred image, then back at her.
“You look nothing like him.”
She shrugged. “I am nothing like him. He… he wasn’t around much, and he was a horrible man, from what I remembered. I knew he was the president of a club, but I didn’t know it was this one until I saw the pictures downstairs, and the mentions of the former club name.”
“And you kept it from me? From Reacher?”
Lissa
H e seemed to think it was a big deal that I was the daughter of the former president, and now I was worried that I should have mentioned it before now. It just hadn’t seemed that relevant, but as Ice grabbed my hand and dragged me up to the third floor, I figured it was a bigger deal than I realised.
He hammered on the only door up here, and a cranky-looking Reacher answered it.
“Unless someone’s killing someone, this isn’t a good time, Ice.”
“Let him in,” I heard Alicia say, but she sounded nothing like herself.
“We shouldn’t bother them.” I tried dragging Ice away from the door, but apart from making him wince, because I shouldn’t be pulling at that arm, he didn’t move an inch.
“Just found out something interesting, Pres. You might want to know, since it involves our former President.”
Reacher groaned, rubbing his hand over those dark studs above his eye.
“Fucking hell, how the hell is that dead bastard relevant to anything going on right now?”
I gasped, because even though I’d hated him, it was a shock to hear those words from anyone.
Ice kissed my forehead, then turned to look at Reacher.
“Because my new old lady is his fucking daughter.”
Reacher cursed, and stepped back, nodding at us to follow him inside.
Alicia got up from the sofa, swiping at her eyes, and headed for the kitchen.
“I’ll make coffee.”
“Why didn’t you say something before?”
I wished I knew the answer to that question.
“I don’t know. I meant to, once I worked it out, but other things were going on by then.”
“You thought it’d affect our opinion of you.” It wasn’t a question, but was he right? Had I subconsciously worried about that?
“I don’t know. Does it?”
“I’m not giving her up, Reacher.” Ice’s arm tightened around me at Reacher’s glare.
“Nobody said you should, but I have to ask, Lissa. Is this why you’re here? Are you looking for some kind of revenge on his behalf?” He dropped heavily into an armchair, and Ice dragged me to sit on the sofa opposite with him.
Revenge? I shook my head.
“Why would I want revenge? I’m just… I guess I want to know more about him, because he stopped showing up when I was a kid, and all I remember is this scary shouty man, who my mum was afraid of. He’d throw money at her, yell a lot, and she’d be crying when he left. All I knew was the name of his club, and that he was the president.”
Reacher took the coffee as Alicia reached him, and squeezed her hand.
“Even though it’s decaf, thanks, woman. You sit with me, please.” Once she’d passed coffees to us, he dragged her onto his lap, and wrapped his free arm around her.
“Leif was a sick bastard. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth. This club was running on hard drugs, cruelty, and bloodsports. It was a bad place, and he was the reason. I joined looking for a home, for somewhere to settle after years of military service, and being displaced for so long. This wasn’t it, at least not back then, but it is now, Lissa, do you know why?”
I glanced at Ice, who seemed to be hanging on Reacher’s every word too.
“Because you took over?”
“Me and Stitch, we watched brothers dying for nothing, and killing each other, and women being brutalised by the men we’d aligned ourselves with, and we knew something had to change. There was no way he was going to step down, so that left us with one option. He died at my hand, Lissa. I’m sorry, but it was the only way. Once he was gone, we ousted everyone who wasn’t going to operate under our new rules, and we turned the club around. Made it what it is today. It’s not perfect, but the safety and happiness of our members is our priority, and always will be.”
Ice was nodding. “I needed a family I could rely on. People who could know the real me, and accept who I am. It’s home for me, and that’s because of Reacher and Stitch. I’m sorry about your father, babe, but he sounds like he wasn’t worthy of your time.”
I took the hand he offered me, feeling him squeeze mine lightly.
“I understand, honestly, I get it. What I saw of him was a man who shouldn’t even be around a child, let alone being a father, and it sounds like I saw exactly who he was. This club is amazing, full of great people who look happy and at home. You look at the photos on the walls and you can see the change in atmosphere, just from picture to picture. Don’t apologise, Reacher. You did the right thing. I… uh…”
I glanced at Ice. “You don’t want me to go, do you? I know I could be happy here.”
Reacher grinned. “Your origins, and your connection to him, don’t mean you’re a bad person too. We’ve seen the exact opposite, and I’m confident we’ve seen the real you this whole time. I still want you to feel welcome here, Lissa, but I understand if you want this to be our secret too. There are only a few members here who remember him, and the way he ran this club, but I don’t think they’d judge you for it either.”
“I don’t want anyone else to know, please. He… he wasn’t a part of my life, and I don’t want him to be now.”