Seventeen
R eacher let me cry for a little while, but by the time I calmed down, he was already walking me to his office. When we stepped inside, I noticed a tired looking Stitch waiting there for us, and on the desk were three steaming mugs of coffee.
“You woke him?” I asked Reacher, as he towed me along to his chair, and dragged me into his lap as he sat down.
“Yes, woman, because this club is run by two super smart motherfuckers, so we need him on this. Brother, Ally here is about to tell us who she’s running from, and in doing that, we find out who attacked Ice. And then? Then we’re going to plan some fucking retribution.”
Stitch sighed heavily. “Should I have laced the coffee with something stronger?”
Personally, I felt like he really should have, but Reacher shook his head, pulling me tighter against him. I guess my time for holding back or stalling really had come to an end. They wanted answers, and I knew I owed them that, especially for Ice. How could my shit have come down on him like that?
“You want me to talk from here? In your lap?”
He let out a sharp bark of a laugh.
“You’re sure as hell not going anywhere else. I need you here right now.”
“Don’t get a boner if I wriggle then, old man.”
His arms tightened, and he let out a slow relaxed sigh, like he took comfort from my sassiness.
“Come on, woman. If you do this quickly, we can still get some fucking sleep tonight.”
Stitch lifted his coffee. “I’ll drink to that.”
I stared warily at Stitch. There was no way out of this, was there? I had to tell them, but would Reacher even still want to know me after this?
“Ally, please. I assume you’re feeling awkward or something, but you can tell me anything, and Stitch? He’s the closest thing I have to an actual brother, more than anyone else here. I trust him with my life. With all of my secrets. Hell… he’s seen the worst of me, and he’s picked up the pieces more times than I can count. So don’t hold back, okay?”
Shit. “This isn’t going to be easy, not for me to say, or for you to hear. Dammit, I need to pace. Can you let me move, please?”
His arms loosened, and then dropped away.
“If that’s what you want.”
It wasn’t. I instantly missed his arms, but also I couldn’t speak without thinking carefully about how to say it.
“Um… I’m not sure where to start. A few years ago, I was in a pretty average job. You know, working in an office, doing uh… finance stuff.”
They were both watching me as I paced, and my god. I was actually going to have to say it.
“Uh… the money wasn’t great. You know, one of those companies that keeps wanting every last ounce of your soul, but not enough to want to pay a decent salary.”
They were sipping their coffee, and I desperately wanted some, but it’d make me stall again. If I didn’t do this now, I never would.
“My mother’s care facility wanted her out. She’s uh… she has a mental condition. It makes her violent. Brutal. She uh… she assaulted one too many of the poor people trying to look after her, and it meant I had to look for somewhere better equipped to deal with her issues, and her… uh… violent nature.”
Reacher frowned at me. “Violent like kicking guys in the nuts for no reason?”
I took a moment to catch up with what he was referring to, damn him, don’t stop me now.
“Oh… no, and it was your fault because you were… no, I just… and I’ve apologised for that already.”
Stitch looked from me to Reacher.
“She did that?”
He shrugged, shooting him a sly wink.
“She made it up to me.”
I glared at them both, feeling my willingness to share the horror of my life dwindling with every damn interruption.
“Can I continue? This is hard enough already.”
I caught matching smirks on their faces, but they both nodded.
“You had to move your mother. Carry on,” Reacher prompted.
Jesus . I grabbed the spare coffee and took it with me as I paced.
“You have to understand. These places are expensive, and I mean, devastatingly expensive. Like they’ll take your home, and all your savings, and then still expect like nearly two thousand pounds a month for the privilege.”
“Assholes.” I ignored Stitch, and ploughed on before I lost my nerve entirely.
“The thing is… once I’d sold her place, and downsized my entire life, I was still struggling to meet the payments, and… and so I had to resort to other things.”
“Like the deal with Tori.”
I stared despairingly at Reacher. “That’s all you see when you look at me, isn’t it? Some sick accomplice who helped a damaged woman do awful things to innocent men. What’s the point of me even telling you the rest of this? You know what? I’ll… I’ll give myself up to them, and they’ll leave the club alone. I don’t need to put us all through this.” I slammed the coffee on the desk and marched to the door.
“Reacher… if you want me to stop her, I’m gonna have to touch her.”
“ Like fuck . Ally, dammit, come back here.” Reacher dragged me back through the door and slammed it, turning the key, and shoving it in the pocket on his cut.
“Asshole.”
“I wasn’t judging you, dammit, I was just asking a question, so will you stop being so fucking prickly, and get on with it.”
“Prickly? Fuck you! This is my life. This is the mess that I know I made of it. If I want to hold stuff back, or I struggle to tell someone like you, you judgy bastard, then I damn well will.”
“You sure you guys don’t need to hatefuck before we finish this?” Stitch was grinning at us, as Reacher deposited me back by the desk.
“Carry on,” he practically barked those words at me.
“Fine! Yes, I got caught up in all kinds of shit, okay? I tried gambling, which just made things worse, of course. Once I’d messed up there, and ended up in so much debt, I was getting death threats, I made a deal. A deal to clear those debts in other ways. ”
Reacher snarled, launching himself back up from his chair, his fists clenched.
“Did you sell your fucking body?”
Reacher
I f she said yes to my question, I was going to lose my fucking mind. Would I still want her? Yes, of course I fucking would, but would I want to kill every bastard who had even looked at her? Also fucking yes.
“Answer me, woman.” I was towering over her, watching her shrink back in the face of my rage.
“Reacher, you’re scaring me.”
I smirked. “Bullshit. We both know that you’re definitely not afraid of me, woman, but you’re afraid of these other bastards, so tell me. I’m pretty close to losing my shit right now. Was it sex?”
She glared at me. “Because that’s all I’m good for? You think that’s where I learned all my fucking bedroom skills? You’re a judgemental prick, aren’t you?”
“For fuck’s sake, woman. Did you let them in your pussy or not?”
She raised her eyebrows, and folded her arms.
“None of your business.”
I leaned closer, and lowered my voice threateningly.
“Want me to fuck the answer out of you, woman? You really think I won’t?”
Stitch cleared his throat. “If that’s the plan, can you just catch me up later? I really don’t want nightmares, if I actually get back to bed tonight.”
Alicia sighed. “I transported drugs for them, okay?”
We both fell silent, because what the fuck did she just say?
“You’re… What? Drugs? For who?”
She swallowed hard. “The money I owed was to the local loan sharks, but… they have connections. There’s a European drug cartel looking to expand right through London, and they needed drugs taken back and forth. They literally just needed someone who wouldn’t look like a drug dealer, like a mumsy old cow like me. And… you know, if I got caught, I’d end up taking the blame.”
I looked at Stitch, then back at her.
“You were trafficking drugs… for some cartel branch? We’re talking drug cartel guys coming after us?” Jesus Christ. When she said she had trouble, I had no idea it was this kind of trouble. Drug cartels? Around here? London would be a big market for someone from the UK, but from anywhere else? It’s peanuts, surely.
“How long were you doing this for them?” Stitch asked, stroking his beard as he pondered. He was right. I should have asked that, but my head was clearly in the clouds, or my ass, or my pants.
Alicia was chewing at her lip. “About four months, and it was terrifying. They’re terrifying people, and it’s why I ended up working for Tori. It was better than the alternative.” The alternative being drug running for a cartel. A fucking cartel.
“I’m guessing things ended badly with them.”
She started pacing again. “I… I wanted out, but you know… once they’ve got you under their control, there’s no way out. So…” she covered her face with both hands, muffling her next words, “I figured I’d make my own way out.”
Things were about to get worse. I could feel it. In fact, I could almost fucking taste it.
“What did you do?” That was Stitch, probably just wanting to get this done, because he was clearly running on fumes.
“I went to the police.”
“Fucking hell.”
She nodded, moving her hands from her face, her eyes wide and panicked.
“Big mistake, I know. Once someone high up enough actually took me seriously, I was involved in some kind of big ‘sting’ operation. They wanted me to help them trap my contact, just so that they could do whatever the hell it is that they do, but instead, it went horribly wrong.”
“Let me guess. The cops were working with them?”
She frowned, as my words halted her pacing again.
“How the hell did you know that? It wasn’t all of them, just one, but one was enough. He made sure that I was found out, before the sting could go ahead, and they were waiting for me. They were so pissed, and I thought they were going to kill me.”
“Why didn’t they?” It didn’t make sense, unless there was something else they wanted. She was stalling, and I didn’t like it one bit. “Speak, woman.”