Page 5

I went outside after that frustrating discussion, because it occurred to me that I’d dropped my damn phone out there somewhere. It hadn’t been in my room, or down between the cushions of the sofa they’d dumped me on. Doc didn’t have it. So outside was the only option. It was a warm afternoon, and when I realised my phone wasn’t outside either, I had to accept the truth. I’d lost it last night.

It could be anywhere. At that bar. At the bitch’s lair. Anywhere in between. Maybe even in the car she’d driven me in. Who knew? I crouched against the wall, breathing in the warm summer air, and wondering what the fuck I should do next.

“What’s up, brother?”

It was Torch. He’d apparently been with me the night before, which wasn’t a surprise, since we normally hung out together. We’d been at the same school, and even though we hadn’t moved in the same circles then, we’d latched onto each other when we ended up at the same club. I’d known him twelve years now. As a brother. Family .

“I lost my phone,” I finally muttered, glancing at him. He’d crouched beside me, scratching at his shaved head. He kept it shaved, so the tattoos were visible. In my opinion, you’d have to be insane to let someone tattoo your scalp, but it suited him. The fact that it was an intricately detailed skull design, making it look like you were seeing under his skin, but with his face on the back of his head, just made him look more deadly. And that’s without knowing exactly why he’s called Torch. I know, and it scares the hell out of me .

“Want me to help look for it?” He asked, pushing up from his crouch to start mooching around.

“It’s not here, and it’s not inside either.”

He stared down at me. “So I’ll look for it at the bar when I go. They open soon.”

“I’m coming with,” I hissed, pushing up from the ground to glare at him.

“Brother… I wish you could, but, you know, Pres’s orders and all.”

I lunged at him, grabbing the front of his cut.

“Don’t you fucking try. I’m going with you.”

He didn’t retaliate. Just stared me down.

“Instead of having a hissy fit, why don’t you try thinking clearly. If your phone’s still on, maybe Ice can track it.”

I blinked, my grip on his clothes loosening as I realised my head was firmly up my ass right now.

“Jesus. I should have thought of that.”

“And you would have, if you were in your right mind. Brother, I don’t know what happened to you, but I’m on your side, yeah? Always. So let’s go see Ice, and see if he can find your phone. If it’s out there somewhere, I can’t stop you if you decide to follow me. Your bike isn’t locked down. Yet.”

I watched the smirk cross his face. Thank god someone was thinking straight.

We headed up to Ice’s room, thumping our fists on the door, while he cursed us from inside. By the time he wrenched the door open, his face was like thunder.

“What the fuck is wrong with you!” He snapped, turning and walking back to his kitchen counter, where we could see the cause of his frustration. There was white powder spilled on the floor. He’d been doing a line, and we’d startled him.

“You have any idea what you just fucking wasted?” He crouched down on the floor, trying to gather up enough of the cocaine to snort. From. The. Floor.

“Ice, come on, man. We need your help.” The glare we received was enough to make us both shut it, and stand there, while he tracked the powder he apparently would curse his temple-like body with, and snorted what he could find. Then he pushed himself up, rubbing at his nose.

“You fuckers owe me.”

“Hey, you snort dust off the floor if you want. I ain’t paying for that shit,” Torch muttered, flipping him off.

“What the fuck do you want?” Ice hissed at us.

“He lost his phone,” Torch jerked his thumb in my direction.

“So fucking what?” Ice replied, sitting back at his table of fucking screens, then he frowned, rubbing his eyes. “Hang on. Last night, you say?”

I shrugged. “Not like I can remember, is it?”

Torch grabbed my arm. “What? You… that’s why they’re freaking out about last night? Were you drugged?”

I nodded. “The MILF?” He quizzed. “She looked pretty harmless to me, or I’d have followed. You know, we could have double teamed her.”

It wouldn’t be the first time we’d shared a woman. In fact, why hadn’t we last night?

“You didn’t like her?” I asked Torch, frowning at him as he turned from staring at the screens to look at me.

“Huh?”

“You didn’t want a piece of her?”

He shrugged. “She told me to bugger off. Said she’d rather lick a cat’s ass than go near me.”

That didn’t make sense. Women, for some reason, always wanted to fuck Torch. He was that bit of rough that got them off. And rough was the word. He wasn’t gentle, and they fucking loved it.

“But she wanted me?” I frowned at him. Chicks never picked me over him.

He shrugged again. “I didn’t question it, brother. Figured you were due one on your own. Kinda wish I hadn’t backed off now though. You’d have had backup.”

Did he know? “It was one woman. I can handle myself,” I finally said, looking at Ice again, who was swearing at his computer.

“No luck?”

He shot us both a withering glare.

“ Please . I’m texting you the location, Torch. Can you now fuck off and leave me alone, or do you wanna trash a few more lines of the finest fucking coke I’ve had in ages?”

Jesus . “You should try vodka, brother. Much less damaging to the parts of you we actually need.”

Torch barked out a laugh. “We don’t need his nose. Bastard probably can’t smell a damn thing anymore.”

I shook my head. Idiots. Torch lifted his phone from his pocket and nodded.

“Got the deets, brother. Let’s go find us a phone, and maybe get some answers.”

While I liked that idea, I wasn’t sure I wanted him knowing any of what happened. He’d think of me as too weak, not man enough to be a brother anymore.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Reacher barked, just as I sat astride my VMAX. Bollocks .

“Getting some air, Pres. It’s been a shit day.”

He grabbed my arm. “You’re not going out on your bike. You were drugged, asshole, and you’ve been drinking. You could kill yourself, and then we’d have to replace you. You’d be causing me extra work.”

I glanced over at Torch. “Well, I’m sure as fuck not riding bitch. Not with him.”

Reacher smirked. “That’s my point. You’re grounded. Torch, what’s going on?”

I glared at them both as they discussed the situation, and then I cursed as he sent Torch out, with Micro as backup. Micro? He was barely a fully patched fucking member in my opinion.

“Seriously? I’m going stir crazy here. I need to get out.”

Reacher pretty much manhandled me away from my bike, and started walking me inside.

“And that’s fine, if you’re going out to do something not destructive. But I know you. You’re going hunting, and you’ll get yourself killed in the process. Did I mention that I don’t want to have to patch in one of the prospects right now? None of them are ready. You know that.”

I glanced at the gates then, looking at the two prospects milling about over there.

“Wait… what about whoever let the car in last night?”

“Now you’re thinking straight. We’re just going to talk to that little prick now. Come with me, and let’s see what he has to say.”

I walked with him, regret and frustration filling me.

“I am thinking straight, Pres. I just needed air.”

“You were going off half-cocked to try and catch this bitch alone, when you’ve probably still got that shit in your system, and that isn’t going to help anything. And stop trying to bullshit me. You know me. You can’t bullshit a bullshitter.”

Fuck .

I had no choice. I let him lead me back inside, and we headed for what we liked to affectionately call interrogation room one. It was a small room off the bar. It was lockable, and discreet enough if blood got spilled. Interrogation room two was the basement. Concrete floors, and no way out except the one door in, and if we took a prospect there, he wasn’t coming back out.