Twenty-Three
L issa had made a panicked call to someone, and when he ran into the room, I saw it was the biker named Ice. The one I’d spoken to on that fateful video call. He frantically checked Lissa over before he even looked at me.
“Hey, Sophie. I’m Ice, from-”
“Yes, yes, I know . You need to listen to me, dammit.”
“Snippy one, huh?” He grinned at Lissa briefly, but he could see something was bothering us both.
“Okay, what’s going on?”
“Micro is the man I love, please don’t hurt him.” He froze, his eyes widening with shock, before he turned to look at his wife.
“Is this for real? Not just some way of trying to save your brother?”
Lissa cursed out loud and smacked his arm, ignoring his indignant ‘hey’.
“This is for real, Ice. You need to stop whatever they’re doing to him. He didn’t hurt her!”
His face tightened with anger, as he caught Lissa by the shoulder and halted her agitated pacing.
“He didn’t hurt her? She should consider herself lucky, since she’s the only fucking one he hasn’t hurt.”
“Please, stop wasting time he doesn’t have! He was protecting me from the Rogues. He was the one who warned you, remember?”
“Jesus fuck,” Ice hissed, digging out a phone and tapping the screen, before he lifted it to his ear.
“Yeah, Pres, is Micro dead yet? Torch … Jesus… Look, there’s been a development with Sophie. Can we stay his execution until you’ve spoken to her?“ I had my fingers crossed on both hands as I waited for the outcome of his call. Please please please!
“Yeah, I’m there with her now, but you need to hear this.”
He lowered his phone, and nodded at us. “This better be for real, because he’s jerked us around for long enough. We can’t heal while that fucker is getting to survive what he did.”
“He didn’t rape that woman!” I gasped out, trying to move from the bed again, which I’d been leaning onto to hold me up.
“Chrissy? She’s still fucking dead though, or is he denying that too?”
Reacher crashed through the door then, and before he could close the door, another biker rushed in behind him. This one was agitated as hell, rubbing a hand over his shaved head, as he joined us.
“Torch, we had to-”
“You’re Sophie?” He blurted, interrupting his President, who looked thoroughly pissed off.
“Yes, and I-”
“Tell me this, do you even have a fucking sister?” Oh my god, Trish! I hadn’t even remembered that the Rogues knew about her, because so much had happened, plus I’d had a head injury, but she could already be in their clutches. I was mortified that I’d failed her like this! She’d been the only reason I’d let them own me for so long.
“I need a phone! Oh my god, they’ll take her!”
Torch ignored me, turning to look at his President.
“Look, Pres, I think he’s being honest about this. He said Sophie and her sister are targets of the Rogues. He seems to care about their safety more than his own.”
“I… I cook for them, but not because I want to. They said they’d make her a club girl if I don’t, but she’s only fifteen!”
Reacher cursed, and Ice turned and kicked the nearest chair, but Lissa grabbed Torch’s arm.
“Is he still… is my brother still alive?”
“Babe, don’t do this, don’t fucking soften for him. He’s just like your father, okay?” Ice hissed at her, tugging her hand away from Torch.
I caught Lissa’s hand, as she stepped away from Torch, a conflicted look on her face.
“He was raised by a brutal, abusive man. He was… forced to watch them rape and kill his mother. Please . I know he’s done bad things, but his upbringing-”
Reacher slammed his fist against the wall, letting out a frustrated snarl that made me recoil, and fall silent.
“His upbringing doesn’t excuse the things he did! It’s not just about Chrissy, okay? He came after my old lady, and Has-Been’s, and yours, Torch. You’re just planning on forgiving that shit? I know I can’t. He nearly fucking killed Ally!” Reacher was breathing fast, like he’d been running, rather than speaking, and Lissa rested a hand on his arm, speaking in a low voice to him. I couldn’t focus on that though, instead trying to beg Torch and Ice for his life.
“Please, he’s not the monster-”
“Did you miss what the Pres said about our old ladies? He attacked mine in her home, and almost killed her. He took Has’ old lady twice, and assaulted her. He ran the Pres’ old lady down with a car . He killed one of our brothers… I could go on, but any way you look at this, he’s a bad man, and needs to die.”
Torch looked at Ice then, who glared right back at him, but my mind was reeling from these new revelations. He really did those things too? Attacked women? Had he taken me in with his kindness and protectiveness, while hiding more horrors than he’d admitted to? Had I met the real Micro back then, or was I now finding out who he really was?
“You’re forgetting that he attacked my fucking old lady, his own sister, in her office, and if Grace hadn’t overheard them, god only knows what he’d have done to her. He doesn’t get a reprieve for finally doing the right thing. However,” he turned to Reacher, who’d dropped heavily into the seat beside the bed, “with your permission, Pres, lemme track down Sophie’s sister, and make sure she’s safe. We can’t let the Rogues take her, no matter what happens with Micro.” Reacher nodded, and Ice turned back to me for more information.
Micro, that night in Lissa’s office
O f course she held all their secrets, and I dunno why it took me so long to realise that, and why it took my brother to remind me. The information she held in her little office could be just what I needed to crush Reacher and Stitch for good. While going for their old ladies had kept them in a state of panic, it was time to take the fight right to the two fuckers, and end them once and for all.
I’d copied the keys for the therapy office way back when, before anyone knew what was going on, but it wasn’t for anything this twisted back then. Honestly, back then, I’d figured if I ever ended up in here, spilling my guts, I’d need to get back in and remove any written record of what I’d said. Still, right now it’d help me out, and I’d seen Lissa at the clubhouse just a few minutes ago, so I slipped into the tunnels, coming out down the alley right by her place, and snuck around the back, letting myself in and locking up behind me.
It was a pretty sweet little setup, and I located Lissa’s office pretty fast, and went inside, determined to find the files on those two, and get back out fast. There were two filing cabinets against the wall behind her desk, and both were fucking locked. I tried forcing one of them, but it was frustratingly sturdy, and not going to just break. Fuck!
I searched her desk for the keys, and then headed to the reception desk to check there, and that’s when I heard the key in the back door and legged it across the place, hiding by Lissa’s office door. I’d already seen that it had two ways in, so my only hope was to hide in her office if they came this way, or steer clear if they went into the office from the side door. Ice was with her, of course, and that’s when I realised that they might split up, and I’d be fucked.
“Honestly, Ice, you know it’s clear, we have the only keys, and nobody else has left the clubhouse. You checked the cameras, remember?” He groaned, and I heard the side door to her office open, and he told her to wait outside her office while he checked it. I was poised to beat the fucker when he found me, but he went back to her after checking the office, and told her to stay put while he checked the front too. I had no choice but to duck into her office, and get under the fucking desk.
It was only after she’d gone to the door to see him off, that I got back up and headed to her main office door again. I’d have to duck around her, when she came in here. It’d be close, but I really wasn’t up for attacking another old lady, and Lissa might be prissy, but she was okay.
I was by the kitchen, spying on her through the door after she’d gone to sit at her desk, and was merrily typing on her phone. I could just go, but what if I could just get the files from her? Was here some way I could-
“Micro? What are you doing here? You don’t have an appointment,” Lissa said, standing up at her desk. Fuck! I stepped into the office, and kicked the door closed. The last thing I wanted was this. I’d made my peace with the fact that only two people had to die, and she was neither of them.
“Did… did you need to talk?” She looked nervous, and who could blame her? We’d never been alone together. I forced a smile at her, but something about her just made me want to fucking confess everything all of a sudden, and how the hell did she do that? Was I just so fucking exhausted, that any semblance of kindness would break me?
“Micro?”
I cleared my throat. “Nobody knows I’m here,” I said finally, and she frowned.
“You’re allowed to make appointments to talk with me too, Micro. It’s a service for everyone.”
I saw her eyeing the chair she probably normally sat in, and she took a step in that direction.
“Wait… what if I did want to? Like right now?”
She pointed to the sofa, and moved closer to her chair.
“Come and take a seat, and I’ll listen. It’s confidential, of course.” Yeah, just like all the shit the others tell her.
“You won’t tell the Pres?”
She shook her head and started to move into her chair, and I thought maybe I could trust her, maybe this could all be over, if I just had someone to help me figure this shit out. Someone who’d listen and not judge. Someone who wouldn’t tell anyone.
Her arm stretched past the chair, and that’s when I saw it. A fucking panic button. I lunged forward, grabbing her and tossing her on the floor behind me, before she reached it. Maybe nobody could be trusted after all, and that meant there was no way out. For either of us.
“You bitch!”
Ice
H ow the fuck was this all happening again? With that cunt back here, and calling the shots again, because that was what was going on. Whether there was a teenage girl to save or not, Micro was back in control, and we were running around like little bitches doing his bidding.
I couldn’t show Lissa how I felt about this, about him, because right now I was sorry I’d called the Pres in time to stop Torch, before he ended the miserable fucker’s life.
I sat down at my computer, and started running searches on Sophie and her sister, trying to see if what we’d been told was even remotely true, and if we were being played.
Her sister went to a local senior school between here and the small village in Hampshire, where Sophie lived, and was on their records as attending today, so she’d definitely arrived there safely. Whether she stayed safe remained to be seen, if there was a chance that the Rogues were coming for her. On another screen, I had as much info as I’d managed to hack about those fuckers, and they were almost as fucked up as Micro’s dad’s club had been. I could easily believe they’d brutalise a teenage girl to keep someone under their thumb, or to punish them.
Sophie’s search showed me that she definitely had the brains and qualifications to cook up drugs, but why the hell would she get herself into the position where she could be forced into that shit? She could have been anything, so what the fuck happened to get her in so deep with the club?
A few moments later, I had that answer.
“Fuck’s sake, why do girls get caught up with assholes like this?”
“Ice? Give me a fucking heads up, yeah?” I lifted my head and glared at Stitch, because these fuckers knew that interrupting me wasn’t how to fucking let me get shit done.
“Don’t even start, Ice. Where’s the sister?” I jotted down the name of the school, and handed it to him.
“Attendance records say she arrived there this morning, but I don’t see any of us getting there in time before school lets out. You got any ideas? We have literally about twenty minutes, and that’s assuming she stayed all day. Since her big sister set the example of falling for a fucking biker, and getting into cooking drugs, who knows what her values are.”
Stitch tapped something into his phone, and took a photo of the address, then leaned a hand on my desk instead of sodding off like he should, so I could work.
“It’s amazing how many smart and accomplished women fall for biker assholes, want me to remind you?” Prick .
“And the reason you haven’t fucked off yet, you snarky bastard?”
He sat down, which was literally the opposite of what I just encouraged. Nothing ever fucking changed around here.
“So he told the truth about this shit, huh?” Oh hell. Don’t you go soft now too, for fuck’s sake.
I leaned my elbows on the desk to meet his eyes, so he could be really sure about my feelings on the subject.
“Yeah. Doesn’t mean anything else that came from his lips is true, though, VP. Let’s not go thinking he’s a fucking changed man. You gonna assume a knock on the head fixed what’s fucked up in there?”
Stitch rolled his eyes at me, not taking the bait, which I was kinda pissed about, because I needed to let out some of this fucking angst that was always inside me, always craving a fucking hit of something to take the edge off.
“You know that’s not what I’m suggesting, but this is the first time we’ve seen him in months, and you have to admit he’s different. He’s not bolshy and aggressive, he’s not taunting us, or mocking our old ladies. He’s focused on one thing, and one thing only. Her .”
Jesus. Like he’s been fucking reborn or something, that’s what he’s suggesting. Like somehow this one act redeems him, after all the evil he did.
“I’m sure Jock and Chrissy are resting happily in the fucking afterlife, knowing their killer gets to be happy now.”
Stitch cursed, getting up and pacing again, his fists clenching and unclenching as he smoothed them down his cut.
“I just think that something’s different, and while I want him to pay for every fucking thing he did-”
“Like sexually assaulting your baby sister? You mean that, VP?”
“FUCK! He got in my head, didn’t he? This is all just another fucking play. He fucked with us, he hurt us, and now he’s messing with our brains, and making us think we’re the bad guys here.”
That’s more like it. I didn’t want Lissa hurting at the thought of her long lost half-brother being hurt or killed, but I worried more about the long term effects of that fucker being alive, and able to screw with her. She’d definitely try to help him. Of course she fucking would. It was who she was inside. A good person. Too good. And that’s why I couldn’t let him abuse that sweet soul of hers.
“We save the kid, and then he dies, VP. Promise me he fucking dies.”
Stitch nodded, but was that a slightly haunted look in his eyes as he turned away and left the room?