Page 9 of Tesio
Reacher offered me a half smile.
“Honestly, son, you fit in here like you’d always been one of us. It’s gonna be weird as fuck with you gone. We’re losing two brothers at once here.”
“Micro is no fucking brother of mine,” Stitch hissed, but he dropped heavily back into his seat, “but yeah, not saying I’m attached to ya, man, but you’ll be missed.”
Fuck me, don’t make it harder than it already is. I dragged a hand through my slicked hair, disassembling the carefully constructed quiff, and sighing morosely.
“Guess it’s back to my old life now. Listen, though, this has been, well, I dunno. It’s been like living, and I guess that was a first for me. Kinda wish I didn’t have to leave, but that’s life, I guess.”
“Always willing to prospect you in, man, you only have to ask.”
I laughed as Reacher stood up, grasping my shoulder in a firm grip.
“I’m serious. You’ll always have a home with us, no matter what. I know it’s not the life you were born to, but maybe it’s the one you’re meant for.” I clenched my fists as my phone buzzed in my pocket, and I knew, without even looking, that my time had just run out.
“Guess we don’t always get what we want, huh, Pres? Thanks. Both of you. I’ll never forget this time here. Feels like a holiday, but it’s over and I’d better get back. The boss is already chasing me.”
The suit felt wrong,as did my fucking haircut, I missed my ride, and even my room felt wrong. We’d perfected my fucking ride; me, Rocket, and Has. Now she was just languishing in storage, and nothing here was me anymore, if it ever had been. I looked like a fucking mafia asshole again now, and as I strode to the Don’s office, as ‘requested’, I couldn’t help but resent every fucking inch of this place.
I knocked briskly on his door, and stepped inside on his barked command.
“Ah, Tesio. Back at last, I see.” He gestured to the chairs in front of his desk, and I took the not so subtle hint, dropping into the chair, before I realised I’d dropped my stiff mafia posture already. Fuck. I sat up straighter, and rested my hands on the arms of the chair.
“You look different,” Don Rossi said quietly, casting his eyes over me, while I wondered what the fuck he was seeing, when I’d just put my fucking mask back on. For him.
“Probably just missed my fine ass, bossman.”
His eyebrow raised, while I asked myself inwardly what the fuck I was doing. If I started like that, it was going to get worse,I could already feel the resentment bubbling up in me, as I tried to curb the mouthy side of myself I’d found at the club.
I lowered my eyes and took a breath.
“Sorry, boss, still working on shedding my biker persona, I think.”
Don Rossi glanced at the file in front of him, resting one palm on it.
“You have a new priority to work on, but first, I want updates. I know the culprit’s identity was uncovered, and he’s in the wind. How did that happen?” What, like it’s my fucking fault somehow?
“I was here with you, boss, he went missing on their dime, not mine.”
I didn’t even wait for the eyebrow this time, before I leapt ahead and dug the hole a little deeper.
“You pulled me away at the crucial fucking moment, and I missed all the fun.”
Don Rossi stared back at me, waiting for me to apologise for my words, but I hesitated, because I was so fucking fed up with this life already, and I’d been back a fucking hour. Why the hell did I have to pander to him, and act like a spanked kid if I dared to speak my mind?
“I’m just saying you sent me there for a purpose, and then I missed the actual moment when the big reveal happened. It’s like jerking off and never getting to finish.”
Don Rossi snorted, and that turned to a chuckle, and that, believe it or not, turned into a fucking belly laugh, and here I thought I was about to eat a bullet. Maybe that had already happened, and this was my coma dream.
“Sir?”
He waved a hand at me, taking a moment to catch his breath again.
“You know, that’s the first time, since you were a boy, that you’ve ever let out any of your character around me. You’re always so well behaved, son, I was beginning to think there was nobody in there fighting to get out.”
What the hell.
“You mean you’re not gonna shoot me for that?” He laughed again, and what is this, a fucking parallel universe or what?
