Nineteen
S o in the early hours of the morning, we’d discovered two people were missing, right? One of them was that dumb fuck, Rocket, who I warned about sneaking off to rub one out with his girl, but we still had to follow it through, because of the risks to the club.
I’d say it was hilarious that Ryder was the one to get an eyeful of that, but this time he’d found him in the doc’s infirmary, and that’s not fucking cool. We don’t wanna get covered in cum, or end up laying down where he’s been rubbing his junk.
“I can’t fucking believe him! In the midst of all that’s going on, he decides to do something this stupid.”
I was with Stitch and Has, looking for the other missing person, who was still not visible at gone nine in the morning. Tommy. Tommy, our fucking bartender and chef. Nobody had any record of him leaving the night before, even the guys on the gate, and that was disturbing, because our camera also didn’t show him using the killer’s secret escape point.
We searched the entire place, from top to bottom, every room, every storage area, the basement, the second ‘basement’ where we also interrogate people, but there was no sign of him. He wasn’t answering calls, or even showing as receiving text messages. His phone was completely dead, and his family didn’t know where he was. Stitch had been the one with the pleasure of ringing his parents to ask about him.
“He wouldn’t just not show up, VP. Something’s not right,” I said for the third time, as I followed him back to Ice’s suite, which was the only place we ever fucking hung out these days. I missed Grace, and that was weird, right? I’d only known her properly for a few days, and all I wanted to do was bury myself in her, and then sleep wrapped around her, breathing in that sweet perfume of hers, even if I had to sleep in that posh bed.
“At what point do we go from wondering if he’s the bad guy, to wondering if he’s in a fucking ditch somewhere?”
Ice was checking traffic cameras in the area, and hacking whatever private cameras he could access, with Grease’s help, of course, and that fancy equipment he’d brought along.
“There was another attempt at breaching our system last night too. This fucker is all up in our business. If it’s not Tommy, we need to be concerned about his safety, because he’s as fucking reliable as-”
“His phone last pinged here, and that’s all we have. He doesn’t room here, right?”
I just sat back and listened to Ice and Grease discussing Tommy, and trying to work out shit. I wasn’t much use after helping search the clubhouse and grounds. Rocket, Micro, and the rest of us had spread out, and been as thorough as we could. The prospects on the gate were edgy, but assured us they’d tell us if they’d helped him sneak out. I believed them. A patch was too important to them, to risk it over one brother, or prospect, acting out.
My phone had been buzzing in my pocket as we carried out our search, so I finally got around to checking it.
Bossy doc: Ally is awake and seems in good spirits. I wasn’t sure if you’d been updated yet.
Bossy doc: I met Has-Been earlier too. He seems nice. He looks so familiar, but I can’t work out where I’ve met him before. Did he visit you when you were here?
I really hoped she wasn’t finding him hot, because I’d have a real issue with that, and so would Elise. Maybe she’d seen his show, because I had no idea if he’d visited me at any time when she was around. I couldn’t recall seeing them at the same time, but I’d been unconscious for a lot of it too.
Bossy doc: Are you okay? I hope you’re getting closer to finding you know who.
I snorted, having seen the first Harry Potter movie, and wanting to make a Voldemort joke at this point.
Me: I was trying to think of a cool Harry Potter joke to make there, but I’m drawing a blank. Thanks for the update about Ally.
“Hey guys? Ally’s apparently awake, and ‘in good spirits’. I guess that’s something, right?”
I could see my own relief mirrored on their faces, but I turned quickly back to Grace. This wasn’t the time or place for phone sex, but it didn’t mean I couldn’t have a little fun. God knows, we all fucking need some fun right now.
Me: What are you wearing?
I was grinning like an idiot while I waited for her reply, and boy did she make me wait, which I probably deserved, after keeping her waiting all morning.
Bossy doc: Nothing right now.
What?! Fuck me, way to give me a semi with three little words.
Me: Naked? As in right now you’re fucking naked? Without me?
What sucked was that I wasn’t alone right now, and I wanted a fucking picture of her naked, so I could rub one out over it later.
“Fuck’s sake, brother, can you focus right now?” I lifted my head from my phone, and thoughts of Grace’s sweet pussy, to see everyone glaring at me. Fuck. What did I miss?
“What?”
Stitch glared at me with more fury than I’d seen yet.
“We’re trying to find a missing fucking brother right now. Can you get your head back in this shit? Who saw him last and when?” That question was sent back at the rest of the group as I joined them again, my phone in my pocket, even though I felt it buzz with a new message, and forced myself to hold back on checking it again.
“I have him coming in yesterday morning, and I know he was on dinner shift, so he’d have left in the evening,” Ice said, scanning through camera feeds. Thank fuck he recorded everything, and held weeks’ worth of shit on his drives. Without this, we’d be even more blind than we already were.
“Huh.”
We all waited impatiently for him to explain what the fuck that meant, but the fucker could drag this shit out for hours if he wanted to. Finally Stitch groaned.
“Seriously, Ice, get to the fucking point.” He lifted his eyes from his screen, looking more than frustrated or worried. He looked scared.
“I can’t find any sign of him leaving here, and uh… we have a bigger problem.”
“Which is?”
He glanced at Grease, whose eyes widened as he looked at what was on Ice’s screen.
“We have a camera blackout at the utility entrance. It was out for almost ten minutes last night.”
What the fuck.
Grace
T orch hadn’t replied to my last message, in response to his cranky one about me being naked. I wasn’t, obviously, because I’d been on shift, but it had been fun to play with him, even though I knew he had so much going on right now. Maybe I felt like he needed the distraction, or something to smile about. Now I was worried that distraction might have caused him to come to harm.
I watched time pass after that last message, and finished my shift, getting home after midday, and still with no response. I didn’t want to message him again right now, in case I was being needy and pathetic, but what if something was wrong?
I ended up messaging Lissa, because I was out of ideas, but worried enough to try something.
Me: Hey, just checking in to see if everything’s okay? Torch has gone quiet on me. Ally seems to be doing well, by the way.
Lissa’s response was almost instant.
Lissa: Thank you for that. We’re so relieved she’s awake and starting to heal. I’m not sure exactly what’s going on here, but the fire alarm was triggered really early this morning, and something’s going on.
Shit. The fire alarm? I started grabbing my keys and heading for my door, but what exactly was I going to do? Rush to the aid of a man far more capable of protecting himself than me? Risk getting hurt in my dumb attempt to protect him? Show my face in the one place he and others of his club had warned me to stay away from?
I slumped as I reached the front door again.
“I’m an idiot,” I murmured to myself, taking my keys back to the hook and hanging them. There was nothing I could do there.
Me: Is everyone okay though? There was a fire?
What more could I do, but text the one person who would talk to me without judging me for my neediness?
Lissa: It was done deliberately for an emergency headcount, but I don’t know what the outcome is. I’m locked in with the other old ladies for safety, and updates are slow right now. That means something’s happening but I don’t know what yet. As far as I know, Torch is fine though. I saw him outside a little while ago from the window.
Not knowing was so hard. Not being able to just call him up and ask questions even harder. The trouble was though that we hadn’t really even had a chance to discuss what was happening with us, to define it. Was I his girlfriend? A fuck buddy? A passing fling? Someone to fuck a few times? It was really hard to know what boundaries existed between us, when I had no idea what was actually happening between us.
I definitely had strong feelings for him, and I was fooling myself if I didn’t think that started the first time I set eyes on him. I’d rebuffed his advances that first time around, and the second time, to see him coming into the hospital unconscious, suffering from a severe stab wound, and life-threatening blood loss, was such a shock to the system. I’d been so afraid I wouldn’t be able to save him. That I wouldn’t be able to see him or hear that snarky voice of his again.
Refusing his advances during his recovery had been fun, despite how it might have appeared, and despite how conflicted I’d been about letting him in at all. The verbal bantering had been a very special kind of foreplay, and now I’d experienced what he was capable of, the dark twisted side of him, and the sweet caring side, and I wanted more of it. All of it.
Lissa: Is everything okay with you? Do you need Torch to call you?
What would I do without Lissa? I figured she’d already moved on, what with everything apparently going on in the club, but she was still thinking of me.
Me: Only when it’s safe for him to do so. Hearing his voice would be good.
It’d be more than good. I needed it, just to know he was okay. Wow, I’d gone from needy to borderline obsessive, hadn’t I? I glanced around my impeccably tidy home, and realised if I had something to clean or tidy, I could distract my mind for a bit. I didn’t have it in me to deliberately make a mess, just to clean it up again, but there were always things that needed to be reorganised, right? I headed upstairs to my dresser, pulling open the top drawer. It could always be tidier.