Twenty-Seven
S titch called a break, and dragged us all from the room, locking Micro inside. Micro . We’d been friends for a few years, closer than friends. Brothers. How the fuck was this possible? I know I’d asked myself a million times, but I was no closer to an answer. He was Leif’s son? And apparently that made him Lissa’s brother? What the fuck?
I don’t think I’d ever known that little fact about her, in fact, maybe nobody really did, except for Ice, the Pres, and the VP. Clearly it wasn’t a big problem for her, but apparently Micro had been here in the club purely to fuck with us. He’d lasted for two years, or had he? Had he been working against us for so long, that there were a thousand more things he might own up to, that we’d never realise were him?
Grace practically led me back up to my room, because I was almost in a daze. Seeing him sitting there, tied, and at risk of death was bad enough, but the fact that he was so unapologetic, and defiant, it just all proved the point I kept wanting to deny. He did this. He did all of it. Killing, raping, attacking, kidnapping, the list just went on.
“Torch, sit down.” I was standing by my bed, and how the fuck did that even happen? I stared blankly at Grace, and she lifted her eyebrows.
“Now, Mr North. I don’t have all day to pander to you.”
Whoa. I sat, and it wasn’t because I was being submissive, or some lame shit like that. It was just that her tone of voice broke through the cloud of whatever the fuck I was wallowing in.
“That’s better. Take a breath for me, and just try to push the emotions aside. I’m not Lissa, but even I can see you’re drowning in your pain right now.”
I let her take my hand, but I had to force myself to concentrate on her touch, so I’d feel it.
“I’m so fucking screwed up by this. How could it be him? How the fuck has one of my closest friends been stabbing us in the back this whole time? Stabbing me in the back. Fuck.”
“It looks to me like he felt he had a good reason for it, but you saw what I saw, right? A lot of it is bravado. He’s afraid, Torch. He knows he won’t survive this, and he always knew it was going to come to this.”
“Babe, I know you’re trying to help, but his actions can’t be justified, especially what he did to you, and Elise, and Lissa. Fuck. His sister. What if he’d… Jesus. If my brain goes there, I’ll lose my fucking mind.”
“You need to rest for a bit, just like the others do. The emotional toll this has taken on each of you shouldn’t be ignored.”
I sighed, falling back to lay flat on the bed, dragging Grace with me, so I could hold her against my chest.
“I’m surprised Reacher and Stitch wanted to call it a day already. Surely they’re not thinking of letting this go?”
Grace shook her head, lifting it so she could look at me.
“Reacher was close to exhaustive collapse, Torch. He’s been running on fumes for days, with Ally being in the hospital. This is too much on top of that, and with his heart… I mean, it’s just a lot for anyone to handle right now, but there’s no rush. Everyone’s safe again now.”
What the fuck was she saying about Reacher’s heart? Was he sick? Did we have a President about to fucking die on us?
“Stop looking at me like that. I can’t tell you anything, and I shouldn’t have looked at his medical records, but he looked drained when he was in with Ally, and I was nosy. I’m ashamed of myself for that.”
“But his heart, babe?” She shook her head.
“He’s fine, as long as he takes care of himself. Tell me about Tommy. Who’s he, and why is he in danger?”
Fuck me. I had no fucking clue about that, did I?
“I don’t know, babe. He’s a good guy, or at least that’s what we all believed, but then clearly we’re a gullible bunch of fuckers, right?”
“Torch, stop focusing on that part of it. There will be plenty of time to pick apart every moment of your friendship, and blame yourself for everything, but the blame belongs firmly on his shoulders. He’s the one who chose to hurt people. All you did was treat a man like a brother, when you were given no reason not to.”
I shrugged grumpily. “Yeah.”
“So, Tommy?”
I rubbed a hand over my head, staring at the wall for a moment, while I tried to get my brain to fucking catch up.
“Jesus, I don’t know. He was missing last time we did a headcount, and we found some messed up shit in his locker, but now I don’t know how much of that was faked by Micro. Fuck , I need to talk to him.”
I was standing again all of a sudden, my fists clenched at his sides, because suddenly this couldn’t wait. It really fucking couldn’t.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Torch. Don’t Reacher or Stitch decide on that stuff?”
I headed for the door, even though my old lady just made a great point.
“No. I mean, no, fuck that. I need to talk to him right now.”
I didn’t check if she was following me, as I headed down to the basement. I knew where we kept the key, so I’d grabbed it from Reacher’s office on my way through. All I needed was a few minutes alone with Micro. I had stuff to ask him, that I didn’t want an audience for.
I unlocked the door, and stepped inside, and he shot me a knowing grin.
“I’ve been expecting you, man. You took your time though. Thought you were gonna stand me up.”
Grace
I didn’t know what to do, but instinctively I knew that Torch shouldn’t be alone with Micro. He was hurting, so terribly, but being alone with him could escalate things to a potentially fatal degree.
I grabbed my phone and dialled Lissa’s number.
“Hey, everything okay?”
She sounded sleepy, and I hated that I might have woken her.
“No. I don’t know. I feel like I’m betraying a confidence, but I’m worried.”
“Is it Torch?” Suddenly she sounded wide awake, and I heard a male voice in the background, probably Ice.
“I don’t know how things work here, but hypothetically, if he’d gone down to talk to Micro alone, should I be telling someone?”
She sighed heavily, and murmured something quietly, receiving a harsh ‘fuck!’ in response. I guess I’d already told someone, right? Would Torch hate me for this, or would he recognise that I was doing it to protect him?
“Ice is letting Stitch know. You did the right thing, Grace. If Micro gets in his head, and I suspect their closeness makes that a potential possibility, then it could do him some real damage.”
I’d been standing by the door to Torch’s room, unsure whether to follow him or not, but now I knew. Shit. I should be with him. I pulled it open, and headed into the hall.
“I’m going down there now. I don’t want him getting hurt more by this monster.” I suddenly realised that was technically Lissa’s brother, or half brother, I was talking about, but she didn’t disagree with me.
“Stay out of the room. I’m sure Stitch will be down there any minute. Don’t get caught up in the crossfire.”
Screw that. I ended the call and ran for the stairs. It was too quiet when I approached the door, but I hesitated there before trying to go in, because if the situation was too tenuous, I could escalate things, purely by walking in at the wrong moment. My priority was Torch’s safety. I guess, even above my own at this point.
“Where’s Tommy, man?”
“That’s not why you’re here, buddy. Ask what you really wanna know.”
Torch cursed, and fell silent, and just as I reached for the door, he spoke and I froze again.
“How could you do that to me ?”