Reacher (Phoenix MC #2)

One

A slammed door was my response from Alicia. Jesus Christ. When wasn’t it? That woman would be the death of me, but over the few weeks I’d known her, I’d figured out a few things.

Firstly, she had a temper . A serious temper. I’d been slapped, I’d been called all the names under the sun, and every door in this damn place had been slammed by her at least once.

Secondly, and more importantly, she was afraid of something, and it wasn’t me. She just wouldn’t tell me what the fuck it was. So the constant flip outs and the yelling were, I was pretty sure, caused by whatever the hell was scaring her. She could have left the clubhouse, with Ryder and Tori’s shit all sorted, but she was still here, and it told me a lot more than she was willing to.

Thirdly, and most vital of all… I fucking wanted her, like I’d never wanted a woman before . It wasn’t about getting my dick wet, or even just about physical attraction to a woman… it was about so much more. It was the way it felt to come back to my room, after whatever crap my day had brought me, to find her there. Even if she wasn’t speaking to me, it was still an amazing feeling to come home to her, and I didn’t want that to end. When she wasn’t freaking out, she was fun, and easy to talk to. Highly intelligent. Sarcastic as hell. Everything I fucking love in a woman.

So, as I stared at the door she’d just slammed yet again, I wondered what the fuck her problem was, and why I was just taking this shit, instead of sitting her down and demanding an answer from her. Wouldn’t I do that with any of my damn club members?

“Reacher?” Stitch poked his head around my door, which made me realise that I’d heard several attempts at knocking, and hadn’t responded.

“What’s up, brother?”

He glanced around my quarters, which were slightly bigger than his, and the ones the others stayed in, if they chose to stay at the clubhouse. It was always impeccably tidy too, or at least it had been, until Alicia .

“Jesus.” He looked at the disarray all around me. To the untrained eye, it probably looked fairly neat still, but for someone who knew me, and knew I needed absolute control over my environment, it would be shocking.

“Yeah, I know. Someone had a hissy fit again.”

He snorted. “Reacher, I gotta ask… is this actually gonna work?”

Good question from my VP, but I had no fucking clue what the answer was. I shrugged, grabbing the magazines that Alicia had tossed, straightening them up in a pile. I’d brought her shit to read, and she went off at me for it. I seemed to get so much more wrong than I did right.

“See, I hate bringing you a problem, when you’re clearly dealing with shit, but… it’s Ice.”

I stopped tidying, and turned to frown at him. What had the dumb asshat done now?

“What is?”

Stitch refolded the throw from the sofa, and draped it over the back the way I liked it.

“He’s, uh… I can’t find him.” Huh. I frowned at Stitch.

“He doesn’t go offsite much. Is his bike gone?”

Stitch nodded. “Also he’s not answering my calls. I’d say we could track his phone, but of course we need him for that shit, don’t we?”

Stitch was all about making good points today. Ice being the one off the grid kinda fucked us in more ways than I cared to admit.

“Maybe we need to get him to teach another member how to do that shit. We shouldn’t be putting everything on that boy’s shoulders as it is.”

Stitch grabbed our two used coffee mugs, and took them to the kitchen, rinsing them in the sink.

“Yeah, you’re right. So we’ll find him, kick his ass, and then get him to teach… I don’t know… who?”

Shit. I shrugged again. “Let me think on that one, brother. In the meantime, did you happen to pass a certain blonde on your way here?”

Stitch laughed. “Yeah. So what the hell did you do this time? She had a face like thunder.”

I groaned, wondering why I’d stopped keeping scotch in my room.

“Yeah, I think I might not have been listening or some shit, and not for the first time.”

“Cardinal sin that one, brother.”

“Tell me about it. How is it that I’m a fucking nagged husband, and I’m not even married?”

Stitch glanced around my room.

“Well, you know… you did move her in. I mean, she was secure in the basement, right?”

I hated the thought of her being back in there again.

“It wasn’t the right place for her, Stitch. I couldn’t leave her there, tied up like that. She deserves better.”

“Yeah, because you want her. So the question is, does she want you too? Or are you guys just gonna keep butting heads until one of you cracks?”

I wished we were butting other parts of us. I mean, hell, I knew it would take the edge off of the anger for both of us.

“I don’t know. Look, grab a couple of the guys downstairs, anyone milling around and being a lazy ass. Get them out looking for Ice. You checked with his mum?”

Stitch nodded. “She hasn’t seen him in a week. You know, he’s been run pretty ragged with all that shit with Ryder and his old lady. He was working pretty much twenty four / seven. Maybe we should be leaving him alone to do whatever he’s doing. He could just be resting up at a friend’s place.”

I hoped it was that, because the alternative was not something I wanted to consider, and almost hesitated to verbalise.

“Or he’s face down in a puddle of vomit somewhere, after overdosing on some shit.”

“Yeah. Or that .”

Alicia

I think I picked that fight with Reacher on purpose, because I wanted to keep pushing him away. Aren’t I the enlightened one, for seeing that for myself?

I sat in the bar, waiting while Tommy poured me another rum and coke. It was my third. It wasn’t a good idea, but I needed them. I needed something to relax me a little, because otherwise I was going to end up losing my mind. I shouldn’t still be here, but the alternative was so much worse.

The trouble with alcohol is that it lowers the inhibitions. It’d damage my pathetic control over my fucking attraction to Reacher. Why couldn’t we have met under better circumstances? Most of his club thought I was a psycho, and maybe that wasn’t too far from the truth. I’d been helping another woman drug and rape men after all. For money .

And I wished that was the only shady thing I’d been doing. Even if people could look past what I’d helped Tori do… there was no way I’d survive the fallout from the other thing.

“Another?” I didn’t even realised I’d finished it, and I opened my mouth to answer Tommy, but another voice replied for me.

“She’s had enough, thanks, prospect.”

I turned to glare at Reacher. “Actually, Tommy, I’d love another one.”

Reacher’s passive look turned to a glare too. How is it that he looks so fucking hot when he’s pissed?

“Tommy, don’t pour that fucking drink.”

I stood up, my hands firmly planted on my hips.

“I’ll choose when and what I fucking drink, Reacher!” He stepped closer, too close, and glowered down at me, and wow… my breath rushed out of me, as I looked up and met his intense eyes. It was like raw hunger staring right back at me. I started leaning closer, and grabbed his shirt. The desperate need to feel his lips against mine was burning through me once more.

“So am I pouring this, or what?” Tommy asked from behind me, breaking the spell that was pulling me into Reacher, mere seconds before I was about to give in, and feel those lips against mine at last.

“Fuck’s sake.” Reacher backed away from me, and grabbed my arm, dragging me a few feet away from the bar, while my head still felt fuzzy, and my body warm and desperate. I’m such a mess. At my age, I should definitely know better. I pulled free as he stopped moving.

“What the hell is your problem?” I hissed at him, watching as he took one of those deep breaths he takes when he’s trying not to lose his shit. I’d seen enough of it around other club members, and yeah… around me. A lot. More than a lot. Pretty frequently .

“I… Jesus Christ… one of our boys is off the grid, and we’re trying to find him, which is a fucking nightmare, when he’s the only one who knows how to track a damn mobile phone.” He looked frazzled, and frustrated, and it pushed aside my own anger, making me sigh instead of snapping at him.

“What equipment does he have?”

Reacher’s eyebrows shot up.

“You know how to do that?”

I shrugged, hoping I knew enough to help him out.

“I have some skills. I’m not saying I’m great at it, and I’m not saying I specifically know how to use whatever his setup is, but I can try.”

Reacher grabbed me and dragged me into a hug, and I felt tension draining from him as he held me.

“You’re a fucking lifesaver, woman.”

Wow. They were that afraid for their missing brother? I was still learning how their club worked, and their bonds with each other, but it really did seem to be a family, albeit one that argued half the time, and solved those disputes with fists.

Reacher led me to Ice’s room, my feet not quite as steady as they should have been.

“I should warn you… I’m a little tipsy.” I almost giggled after that statement, but I’m not a teenage girl, so I managed to avoid it. Barely.

“Jesus Christ.”

Ice’s room was a mess, and it spoke of a man who didn’t give a crap about his life. There were dirty clothes left everywhere, and dirty dishes piled in the sink, and on the kitchen counters. There was a large table set up, dominating the room, with multiple screens, laptops, and other equipment, and there were coffee mugs dotted amongst them in varying states of hideousness. had actual mould in it and I gagged, and pointed.

“I can’t sit next to that. Ugh.”

Reacher cursed, pulling his phone out, and dialling someone. A few moments after his barked conversation, several prospects turned up, stared at the mess, and groaned.

“What the hell, Pres?”

Reacher pointed to the coffee mugs and mess at the tech area.

“Start here. You have five minutes to make it user friendly. After that, do the kitchen. And Jesus… check the bathroom. I want this place spotless.”

I stared at him with something akin to horror.

“Ice really lives like this?”

He rubbed at his eyebrow, where those dark studs were.

“No, not normally. Something’s wrong. He’s better than this. He was . Fuck’s sake.”

Stitch appeared then, flanked by Ryder.

“Pres, how long has he been gone?” Ryder asked, casting his eye over the place, as the prospects tried to smarten it up.

Stitch was the one to answer.

“At least overnight.”

It didn’t sound so bad to me, except for what Reacher said next.

“I’ve never known him to stay away.”

The tech area was finally clear, so I sat down, and started checking the systems, to see what setup Ice had. Hell. I didn’t understand much of it, but I saw two things straight away. Firstly, I could see what software he used to track phones, so I knew I could use that. The other thing was more unnerving though.

“Uh… Reacher?”

He came over, crouching beside me.

“What the fuck is that?”

It was a page. A single typed page, and it was terrifying .