Stitch (Phoenix MC #4)

One

B eing back at the club was weird. For weeks since I’d discovered ‘the thing’, I’d hidden away at my sister’s place. Doctors and hospitals, and fucking surgery, had left me in a bit of a mess, because I felt like I’d given up. That thing was big, so there was no way it wasn’t cancer. I wasn’t ready to die, but I could already feel it creeping up on me, imagined I could feel it growing inside me.

Had I been monitoring my remaining nut for it? No, I wasn’t even fucking looking down there. I couldn’t. I couldn’t look at what was left of my junk. It would be too real, and I wanted to hide from ‘real’ and ‘actually happening’, and lie to myself for as long as I could.

“Seth, what are you doing? It’s nearly noon.”

Elise was on my back already, and she still refused to call me by my road name. I wasn’t sure why she’d insisted on coming to the club with me, but here she was, and she was insisting on sleeping on the foldout bed Reacher had added to my room.

My suite was a little larger than the ones the others live in, but not as big as the President’s. Perks of being the VP, I guess. It had room for my bed and hers. I’d tried giving her my actual bed, but she was as stubborn as me. The road name thing was gonna have to change though, now that we were back at the club, because we had rules here.

“Do you need help in the shower?”

“Fuck’s sake, sis, I told you I don’t need that kind of help. I’m not an invalid.” Only I was, but it was one of those things I was putting on the ‘realities I wanted to ignore’ shelf. She was doing nearly everything for me. I just didn’t care enough to even get up in the mornings, and if she wasn’t here with me, I’d just stay in bed until I died there. It was going to happen anyway, so why bother?

I rolled over and took the pillow with me, blocking out any more nagging from her, so I didn’t hear the door until some bastard grabbed the damn pillow, and tried to wrestle it away from me.

“That’s enough lazing around, asshole. I need you back on the clock.” I let Reacher take the pillow, and then turned over to ignore him completely.

“Get lost.”

He grumbled for a moment, then grabbed hold of the bedding.

“Get up, or I’m gonna rip this shit off, and leave you there naked and pathetic.”

I rolled over to glare at him.

“Is this your idea of tough love? Believe me, I’ve heard it all from her already.”

Elise let out a huge sigh, and stomped over to the dining table, sitting down with a coffee. She looked tired, like her weariness was ingrained into her bones now. I could see it from across the room.

I knew she was exhausted, because I’d been an insufferable ass these last few weeks. It was like I was watching myself from the outside, and every time I was a dick to her, I could see it happening, and I couldn’t stop it. I hated the person I’d become, but what was the point in trying to change it? I’d be dead soon, wouldn’t I?

“That’s it.” The covers were wrenched away from me, and I cursed at Reacher.

“Come at me if you think you’ve got the strength, brother. You look like shit.”

Reacher wandered over to join Elise, and instantly I was on alert. It was dumb, because I knew that she was a grown woman, and I wasn’t in charge of her virtue or whatever, and hell… Reacher was married, so I had nothing to worry about, but I couldn’t help it.

She was my baby sister. Mine to look after and protect. We were all we had, and the fact that I could die on her and leave her all alone, was killing me just as quickly as the cancer.

“Get away from her.” I was standing at last, my fists clenched at my sides.

“Dammit, Seth, will you just calm down?” Elise stood up, glaring at me, while Reacher just stood beside her with this smug-ass look on his face .

“I suppose you think that was smart. You think you won, or some shit.”

I flipped him off and headed for the bathroom, slamming the door hard.