Thirty-Two
R eacher had arranged for Tori to sit with me, like I couldn’t be left alone, like I was some burden that had to be baby-sat. The worst part was that he wasn’t wrong. I did need that. I needed it so fucking much.
Worse still was the fact that being apart from him, for even a few minutes was terrifying. I’d experienced, for a few hours, what life without him on this planet would be like. I knew I didn’t want that again. I couldn’t survive it.
“You’re dwelling. You shouldn’t dwell. Let me help you sit by the window, so you can get some sun.”
Tori was fretting, and somewhere, probably down in that creepy basement, Reacher was planting his fists into Raoul’s face. I’d wanted to be there, but when it came to it, I didn’t have the strength, or the courage, to go down there. Only now… Now I wanted to see it for myself.
“I need to go down there.”
Tori frowned at me. “Outside? It’d be good for you. I’ll help.”
I smiled grimly, as I pushed up from the bed, noting that the pinch of pain wasn’t as severe as before.
“Help me dress.” She did, and once I was wearing jeans, boots, and one of Reacher’s t-shirts, because although they’d fetched my cases, I felt better in something of his, we headed carefully for the door. I waited until we’d made it down the stairs, before I confirmed we weren’t going outside.
“You want to go where?”
I pointed to the hallway, which I knew led to a door, and that creepy cold space.
“No. My god, no. We can’t.”
“If you don’t help me, then I’m going to struggle on my own. I’ll probably fall down the stairs, and hurt myself further. Reacher will be pissed at you for not preventing that.”
Tori stared at me. “Wow… you’re just going to push the guilt button immediately?”
I shrugged carefully.
“I could remind you that you massively owe me, for stealing your rape drugs.”
She looked a little like I’d just slapped her.
“Jesus. Fine, but I’m throwing you under the bus when they get pissed.”
“And they definitely will.” We turned to find Has-Been behind us, and he looked disapprovingly at both of us.
“Heard all of that, huh?” He nodded at me.
“You know I need to see this for myself, after what he did to me.” He nodded again.
“Tori, you’re relieved of duty, darlin’. I’ll take her down.”
Wow. I hadn’t expected his support, especially not if it could bring Reacher’s fury down on him too.
“Really?”
He heaved a heavy sigh. “He’ll want to hit someone for this, so I might as well make it easy for him. He won’t hit a woman, so he’d end up with no outlet.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
He shrugged, staring at me.
“How am I going to help you without touching you, is my only question?”
“Ally can’t walk without help,” Tori interjected helpfully.
“I fucking can. I just… I can’t move fast.”
Has-Been nodded again, those platinum blond dreads moving each time he did.
“I’ll walk in front of you, so you can grab a shoulder or something if you need help. If you lose your balance on the stairs, I’ll break your fall.”
It sounded like a plan, so we left Tori, who stayed right where she was, looking awkward and worried all at once.
“Be careful,” her hissed words followed us down the hall. I felt guilty for dragging Has-Been into this, but I hadn’t lied though. I needed to see what happened with Raoul. I needed to know he was stopped for good.
Walking was getting easier, and Has-Been’s plan of walking behind him, so I could lean on him if needed, was working well. We made it to the bottom of the basement stairs, and that’s when I realised I could hear Raoul’s screams of pain. They chilled me inside, and I stumbled, a gasp leaving my lips. Somehow Has-Been knew, or heard, or was prepared, because he turned, and caught my arm.
“You okay? I can get you back out of here if you like.”
I took a breath and held it for a second, shaking my head. I had to do this.
“Please, Has-Been.”
He nodded, looking wary. “I’m gonna take a look first, just to make sure it’s uh… you might not wanna see…”
“I have to see, Has. I have to know.”
His shoulders dropped, and he sighed.
“Fine. I’m still going in ahead of you though, just in case.”
He pounded his fist on the heavy door twice, and someone pulled it open. All kinds of smells hit me right away, and I didn’t even want to think about what I was smelling, because it wasn’t just blood. It smelled like a public bathroom too.
“Has, what’s up?” Stitch poked his head out, just as Has stepped aside, and let him see me.
“Jesus fuck. Are you out of your damn mind?”
I heard him mutter one word. ‘Probably’. The next face to appear, after Stitch disappeared inside again, was Reacher’s.
“Jesus, woman. You don’t want to be here for this.”
I fixed him with a glare, my hands on my hips. Again there was a pinch of pain, but not anything I couldn’t handle.
“You know I need to be. You said I could witness it.”
He grimaced, lifting a hand to his face, before he rethought it. His fingers were bloody, and his knuckles were cracked and bleeding.
“Oh my god. You need to let me patch you up.”
Has-Been cursed behind me, but I ignored him.
“Woman, I’m kinda in the middle of things, so you can patch me up later.” He leaned back into the room and muttered something, then pushed the door wider.
“You can watch, but you stay outside the room. Those are my terms, woman.”
I nodded, not wanting to step any closer, because there was a lot of blood, and Raoul was barely recognisable. His face was badly beaten, bleeding, and sagging slightly, like he struggled to bear even that small weight. His eyes were swollen almost shut.
I didn’t focus on his body, which was strung up by two manacles holding his arms above his head.
“Has he told you what you need to know?” I asked Reacher, as he turned to head back over to his victim.
“Oh yeah… almost immediately.” He smirked at me.
“So why isn’t he dead yet?”
Torch stepped into my view from the other side of the door.
“Because it’s my turn to play now.”
I caught the same reaction from Reacher, Stitch, and Has-Been when I turned to look at him. Horror. Wariness. Disgust .
“Can I get started, Pres?” I heard a hissing noise, and then a whoosh, like something caught fire, and that’s when I noticed the blowtorch in Torch’s hand. Suddenly I wondered if I was about to see the reason for his road name.
“Oh Jesus.” Has-Been backed up out of sight, and I looked at him.
“I’m not fucking watching,” he said, his hands up defensively. Oh god.
I turned back to look as he approached Raoul, the flame lifting to the man’s face. As Raoul started to scream, I backed up too. That was too graphic, too violent, and too disgusting for me to watch. Less than a minute later, Reacher and Stitch left the room too, and both looked almost shell-shocked.
“Let’s go, woman. I need to get cleaned up.” I noticed then that there was blood on most of Reacher’s clothes. His cut was absent, as was Stitch’s, and he, too, was splashed with blood.
I swallowed hard. “At least he’s paying for what he did.”
Has-Been made a gagging sound.
“We’re all fucking paying now. Fucking hell, I think I can smell it.” He hurried up the stairs, and Stitch followed just as quickly. I glanced back at the door.
“Is he killing him?”
Reacher pulled a face. “He will. Eventually.”
Reacher
I wish I didn’t know what he was doing down here, but the fact that wouldn’t leave my fucking mind was that I knew exactly what he was doing. I can still remember the first time he did it, and we all gagged, and some guys even threw up. He’s got a taste for it now, probably goes further each time. That Raoul bastard was definitely paying for his crimes. If he thought the beating he got from Stitch and me was the worst of it, he knew now that it was a fucking blessing.
“Reacher?”
“Yeah, woman?”
Ally stared at me from the bottom of the stairs.
“Uh… can you… can I walk in front of you?”
I blinked. “Jesus. Yeah, of course. That’s exactly where you should be. I don’t want to touch you while I’m covered in his filthy blood, but I won’t let you fall.” Dickhead. It was time to get my head back out of my ass, and focus on this fucking goddess of a woman.
I ushered her back up to our room, and sat her on the bed, without touching her, because I was covered in the bastard’s blood.
“I’ll get this crap off me, woman. I’m not letting it touch you.”
I headed for the bathroom, stripping off and tossing my t-shirt into the bin, keeping the jeans, which were mostly blood free. They went in the laundry bin. Jesus. What a fucking mess he’d be by now.
I stepped under the shower, sighing with relief at the sensation of hot water hitting my chilled skin, like it could wash away the filth of that bastard, and the memory of that entire session in the basement.
The bastard had started out mouthy and cocky, and sure he was getting out alive. He didn’t realise that only one person has EVER left that room alive, and right now she’s in my fucking bed. I didn’t want his blood near her. It was bad enough that it was all over me, but she deserved to stay clear of his taint, and she would be now. Forever. Because he’d never survive what Torch was doing down there. Ugh. My stomach roiled at the thought of what was happening down there right now.
“Reacher?”
I opened my eyes to see Ally sitting on the closed lid of the toilet, watching me shower. Hell… her eyes on me was actually just what I fucking needed. Like I could feel every sweep of her gaze, a tangible sensation that wiped away some of the horror of the day.
“You okay, woman?”
She shrugged. “Are you? You’ve been in here for ages.” I hadn’t realised. I’d been lost in thought.
“I’ll wash up and be right out.” She nodded, but didn’t move. “You staying to watch?”
I saw a small grin in response.
“Hell yeah.”
With her fucking eyes on me, I rushed through the process of getting clean, trying to ignore my dick, which wanted to join in with anything involving that woman, even though she really wasn’t up to it yet.
I wrapped a towel around my waist, and let her lead me to the bedroom, where she insisted on sitting beside me, and tending to my bleeding knuckles. The sting of the antiseptic wipes was something I welcomed, because it kept me in the moment, rather than letting me dwell on the abomination taking place in the basement. I felt awful for the poor prospects, who’d have to clean up after Torch.
“You made a real mess of your hands,” Ally was muttering, as she carefully cleaned up the cuts, and dried them gently. We couldn’t really bandage them without putting my hands out of commission, but they’d stop bleeding soon enough.
“He deserved every fucking blow, woman. Nobody hurts you and gets away with it. You get that, I mean, by now, you do fucking get that, right?”
She nodded, swallowing hard.
“I just don’t want you overdoing it.”
“I’m not overdoing anything. I’m not an invalid, just because I had a… what did they call it? ‘Event’, yeah, fucking lame word for it. I was just under excessive stress. I mean, you’re not going to cause me any more stress, are you?”
She giggled, and that was exactly what I fucking needed.
“Just don’t leave me, Reacher. I can’t handle it if I’m not with you.”
Jesus. That was like a punch in the gut. I grabbed her face and pulled it to mine, scowling at her.
“Not gonna fucking happen. You’re mine.” I lowered my lips to hers, something I’d fought the urge to do while she was recovering, because I knew the second my lips were on hers, I’d want to fuck her, and she was still injured. It was killing me staying away, but I think that single thread of control just broke.
“Woman? Just how injured are you still?”