Four
I sat in that waiting room with my brothers, and waited for the chance to see Ice. Alicia had taken a long time in the bathroom after I left, long enough that I knew I should check on her. I didn’t want to miss seeing my brother though. I was caught between a rock and a hard place, and that’s the only reason that I sent someone else to check on her.
“Ry, can you go see what’s taking Ally so long? She was using the bathroom by the lifts, but it’s been ages.”
He nodded, and strode out of the waiting room to fetch her, while I kept an eye on that damn nurse. The one who said I could go in there soon, but was still leaving me hanging. I hated one of my brothers being in a place like this, and alone. What would he think if he woke up and nobody was there? It couldn’t happen. That wasn’t how this family operated, dammit.
“Reacher?”
I blinked, shaking those thoughts away to find Ryder standing beside me, and he was frowning.
“What’s up?”
He rubbed the back of his neck, letting out a sigh.
“She wasn’t there.”
It took me a moment to catch up with what he was saying. Alicia. She wasn’t in the bathroom.
“What? Did you check the big unisex toilets by the lift?” I stood up, watching Ryder grimace.
“I know the ones you mean, but they were all empty. I checked the whole hallway, and even went and checked the café downstairs, in case she went in search of food or a drink. I can’t find her.”
My stomach clenched, as I realised what was going on. She left. The bitch left. Right in the middle of a fucking crisis. She left me .
“Fucking hell.” My voice was barely a growl. “That bitch.”
Ryder glanced at the nurse.
“Don’t let her hear you cursing, Pres. Look, I can go look for her, but I don’t know where to start. Let me call Tori, and see if she’s back there at the clubhouse, okay?”
I glanced at the clock on the wall. Had enough time even elapsed that she could have made it back there yet? Jesus. Nearly forty five minutes had passed since I was with her. How the fuck did I lose that much time? She could be anywhere by now. I nodded sharply at Ryder, and watched him leave again, his phone already in hand. There were signs everywhere in ICU insisting phones should be switched off.
“Mr Anderson? I can take you in now.”
It took me a moment to realise the nurse was talking to me. Probably because it’d been a while since anyone had called me by anything other than Reacher, or Pres.
“Thank you.”
I turned to Torch on my way to see Ice.
“Make sure Ryder updates you on whatever he finds out. If he has to go find Ally and bring her back, I want to know about it.”
Torch nodded. “Tell Ice we’re all with him, Pres.”
I turned and followed the nurse through the ICU, to a bed which held a man I barely recognised. He looked so pale, and… well, I’d never seen him at rest, but he actually looked peaceful, and painfully young. I could mostly only see his head and shoulders, and his arms, which were laid on top of the blankets, with tubes going into both.
“Jesus, brother. What the hell happened?”
“I know it looks bad with all of these tubes and machines, so I just want to explain a little about his condition, since you’re his next of kin. He’s breathing on his own, so that’s a very good sign. The blood loss was the biggest problem, so he’s being transfused. He had several stab wounds to his stomach, and one in his chest. As I said before, they missed the vital organs, and any internal bleeding has been fixed in surgery.”
I leaned over the bed and kissed his forehead, which probably seemed like a strange thing for a man to do, but Ice was my brother, and he needed to know we were here. That I was.
“Brother, I’m here. We’re all here. You gotta come back to us.”
The nurse sighed. “If he does well overnight, we’ll look at waking him tomorrow. It’s easier for the transfusion process if he’s resting. It all aids his healing.”
I nodded, staring at the nurse.
“So, if he wakes up tomorrow, and nothing else is going on… how soon ‘til we can take him home?”
She shook her head at me. “He won’t be out of hospital for at least a few more days, Mr Anderson.”
“Reacher, please. I barely recognise anything else as my name these days.”
“Understood, Reacher. Does Mr Silver have an alternate name too? Something he’d prefer to be addressed as?”
I nodded, impressed that she’d even bothered to ask the question.
“He goes by Ice.”
She was frowning as she noted it on the document by his bed.
“Why Ice?”
I smirked, despite everything.
“Long story, but suffice it to say, we learned a long time ago how cold he can be.”
She looked unnerved. “Is he dangerous?” Yeah, but not to her. Not to any of them.
I shook my head. “Nah, he’s a pussy cat. Ain’t that right, brother? A real pussy … cat.” I shouldn’t have been heckling him, but it just came naturally. That was how we communicated with each other. All of us.
“I’ll leave you with him for a little while. We can only allow short visits. You understand.”
I watched her approach the door of his room.
“I assume we can leave someone waiting all night, even if they’re out in the waiting area? We don’t leave our brothers alone when they need us.”
She stepped outside, and turned to look at me, before she closed the door.
“That’s fine. As long as they behave appropriately.”
After she’d left me, I leaned on the bed again, wrapping my fingers around Ice’s right hand.
“Brother, we’re all gonna be here this whole fucking time. So you get better, so I can kick your ass for getting stabbed. What the fuck, man? Who did this? I’m gonna make sure they get this back tenfold.”
That probably wasn’t the supportive kind of shit I was supposed to be saying to him as he lay there in a coma. Jesus. I had no idea what else to say, so I just squeezed his hand, and stood there, watching as he breathed rhythmically, and the machines beeped in a steady tempo, reassuring me that he was still alive.
Alicia
T he flat was nice. I mean, it was practically just one big room, but what more did I need? I dumped the bags in the corner, curled up on the sofa, thanking god that the place was furnished, and promptly fell into a deep sleep.
My dreams were full of Reacher, and the way he’d kissed me. The way his lips had forced mine apart, so his tongue could tangle with mine. The way his hard body had pressed me against the wall, his hard dick poking at me. I wanted more. I’d wanted it then, and I wanted it now. In my sleep, my mind played out what it would be like to be fucked by him, and it was amazing. Life changing.
When I woke, I had no idea what had disturbed me, but a sound by the door had me up from that sofa, and prepared for whatever attack was coming.
The man, who let himself in with a key, was Ryder, and he sighed heavily when he saw me.
“Thank fuck. I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I’d have found you sooner, if Tori had been answering her damn phone.”
I shrugged, sitting back down on the sofa.
“No need to look for me, Ryder. I’m home now, or I guess… I’m in the home I’ll use until the lease is up.”
He joined me on the sofa, turning to look at me.
“Have you even eaten anything since this morning?”
My stomach answered that question with a low gurgle, but I shrugged again, because apparently heartbreak equals constant fucking shrugging, like it’s not my world ending.
“Not anyone else’s problem. I’ll fend for myself.”
He rubbed his face with both hands, releasing another frustrated sigh.
“Are you always this hard to talk to?”
I turned in my seat so I could face him.
“You mean to people who I’ve mostly only ever conversed with when I’m tied to a chair, and they’re yelling in my face?”
He had the good grace to look embarrassed.
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. It was a… well, a really fucked up time.”
“Tell me about it.” I rested my head on my arm, feeling absolutely shattered, even though I’d just been asleep.
“Let me take you back to the clubhouse, Alicia. Reacher wants-”
“Reacher got what he fucking wanted, okay? And now I’m out of his hair. That asshole .”
Ryder was smirking now.
“Yeah, I’ve called him that a few times too.”
“Why? Did he go cold on you after you sucked his dick too?”
His face was a picture. It was almost funny, the way he opened his mouth, and closed it again. Blinked. Then cursed.
“Jesus. That’s between you guys, and hell no, I’ve never sucked his fucking dick. Look, it’s a bad day. He’s freaking out about Ice, you know that.”
“I get that. It’s why I was trying to help him relax. I’ve never seen a guy shut down so fast, after something like that. He treated me like a fucking whore.”
Ryder looked like he wished he’d never bothered coming to find me.
“I’m not leaving with you, so you might as well go home, or wherever you plan to go next.”
He ran a hand through his hair, standing up and pacing for a moment.
“I go back without you, and honestly, the next place I will go is probably on the floor, with a bruise the shape of Reacher’s fist.”
I forced myself to shrug carelessly.
“Not my problem, kid. He made his disgust with me perfectly fucking clear.” Hell. Don’t cry . Don’t fucking cry.
I scrubbed angrily at my eyes, trying to hide the wetness from Ryder, but he didn’t miss it. His face softened, and he sat down again.
“Dammit, Alicia. You obviously care for him, and I know he cares for you. More than cares. He wouldn’t have meant to push you away like this. Jesus. He’s so fucking wrapped up in the whole Ice thing, he probably doesn’t realise that he hurt you at all.”
I swallowed hard against the lump in my throat.
“But he did, Ryder, and this is only the beginning. Every time there’s some biker problem, am I going to be the one he takes it out on? I made a huge effort today, to try and get closer to him, despite all of the common sense inside me, telling me to get the hell out, and he discarded me as soon as he got off. I’m nobody’s whore, Ryder .”
He stood up again. “Fucking hell. Look, I don’t want to leave you here upset, but I can’t force you to go with me either. God knows, I actually wish I could. He’s gonna be a mess when he gets back, and you’re not going to be there, and that’s just gonna push him over the fucking edge.”
“Well, it seems he’ll know where to find me, Ryder. I have nowhere else to go right now. I’m out of options, but I do, however, need sleep, so can you please go now?”
He glanced at the door, cursed, then nodded.
“Fine, but later when you’re back, and you see the mess he leaves me in… don’t feel like you need to apologise or anything.” He was trying to be cute, and I appreciated the effort, but I felt more and more bruised by Reacher’s rejection by the minute. I knew more tears were coming, and I couldn’t break down like that in front of Ryder. He’d never leave.
It was only after he’d left, that I realised that being alone felt even worse than him being here. By then, of course, it was too fucking late.