Page 16 of Reacher's Ride or Die

“Yonkers only agreed to be my VP until I could find another suitable candidate to be voted in. The rest of the guys like you, Reacher, and I think that they’d all agree that you’d be the perfect Vice Prez.”

“I appreciate you saying that, Hurricane,” he said. “But I just started a new job and a new relationship with Brandi. I’m not sure that I can handle much more being added to my plate.”

“Will you at least give it some thought before you make a decision?” Yonkers asked.

“Of course,” he agreed. “If you give me some time to think it over, I can give you a better answer. I just need to wrap my head around your offer and talk to Brandi about it. I know it sounds corny, but I want her to be a part of my life, so I like running big life decisions past her.” When they both agreed that she should move into his house, they talked it out—the pros and cons of living together, and when they came up with more pros, she agreed to move in with him. Her place was in a scary neighborhood, and there was no way that he wanted her living there—not after she agreed to be his.

“Thanks,” Hurricane said.

“In the meantime, make sure that you watch your six,” Yonkers said.

“Will do,” Reacher agreed. “I’ll be in touch when I know more. I’ve got to get back to work now,” he said.

“Right, no problem,” Hurricane said.

Reacher got down out of the truck and looked back at his two friends. “Thanks for keeping an eye out for me guys,” he said. “It means a lot knowing that I can count on you guys and the club to keep me safe.”

“Not a problem,” Hurricane said. “Stay in touch.” He nodded and checked his watch. With any luck, he’d have just enough time to get across town, and then, he’d start snooping around the warehouses for any sign of human trafficking. If the Vipers were involved, he needed to get a head start because they were going to be hard to pin anything on—especially human trafficking.

Brandi

Brandi worried about Reacher every time he went to work. He told her about Yonker’s and Hurricane’s suspicions and how the Vipers might be involved in trafficking women. She already knew that working with deadly chemicals wasn’t a safe job, but now, he had to worry about his club’s rival—the Vipers.

Reacher promised to check in every few hours with her, and if she didn’t hear from him, she was supposed to call Hurricane or Yonkers to let them know. Apparently, the guys had a whole plan in place in case things went south. She knew that Reacher had told her about the plan to make her feel better, but for some reason, knowing that they had to have a “Worse Case Scenario Plan” in place made her worry even more. And now, Reacher was almost thirty minutes late checking in, and she knew that she needed to call Hurricane. She sneaked into the kitchen, not wanting to alarm Gloria about Reacher possibly being in danger, and found Hurricane’s number in her contacts.

“Hello,” he answered after the first ring.

“Hurricane, it’s Brandi,” she said.

“Everything okay?” he asked. She could tell that she was interrupting him, and she kind of felt bad for calling him over something that might turn out to be nothing.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted, “Reacher was supposed to check in about a half hour ago, and he’s late. I’m worried, and well, he told me to call you or Yonkers if this happened.”

“Yeah, you did the right thing, Brandi,” he said. She nodded and rolled her eyes at herself for thinking that he’d be able to see her through the phone. “I’ll get a few guys to go down to the docks with me and check things out. Yonkers is here and wanted to know if you told Gloria,” he said.

“Of course not,” she said, “I know how she feels about Reacher, and I don’t want to upset her right now.”

“Good,” Hurricane said, “I’ll be in touch when we have news about Reacher,” he promised.

“Thank you,” she almost whispered, “please find him,” she begged. The thought of never seeing Reacher again flashed through her mind, and she let the sob inside of her out.

“Don’t worry,” Hurricane insisted, “we’ll find him for you.” He ended the call, and she buried her face in her hands and cried.

“There you are,” Gloria said. “Hey, why are you crying, honey?” she asked, wrapping an arm around Brandi.

“Um, I’m just having a bad day,” she said. That was partially true because Reacher not checking in ruined her entire day.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Gloria asked.

“No, thank you for offering though,” Brandi said.

“Did you and Reacher have a fight?” she asked.

“No,” Brandi insisted, “I think my hormones are just out of whack,” she lied.

“Well, why don’t you head home early and get some rest? You’ve been working yourself to the bone,” Gloria said.

“I can’t do that to you,” Brandi insisted. “You need me here.”

---