Marked

ten-1

ten

Hurrying up the apartment hallway, she flipped on the lights, and went to the door to slide a hand onto Archer’s back as she ducked down beneath his arm to see Tag in the corridor.

“Tag, what are you doing here?” she asked. “Come in.”

Being in front of Archer now meant she could use her body to urge him back. He offered momentary resistance, silently telling her he’d be happy to slam the door in Tag’s face. But this was her best friend and he was worked up about something.

Tag came storming in and she went after him as Archer closed the door. “I told you I had to talk to him and you said you didn’t know where he was,” Tag said, his words coming out at super-speed.

“I didn’t,” she said.

Tag yanked off his jacket and threw it across the room. “I f*****g rely on you, Nya! I f*****g need you! And what the f**k is this?” He pointed at her and Archer, who’d come up at her side to slide a hand onto the back of her neck.

“What the f**k does it look like?” Archer asked.

“It looks like you’re using my friend,” Tag said, puffing himself up. “It looks like you’re a f*****g prick who’s come to take advantage of a woman who’s besotted with you, though f**k knows why.”

“He’s not taking advantage,” Nya said, walking away from Archer’s hand to touch Tag’s chest. “We’re back together.”

She wanted to tell Tag that her and Archer’s relationship didn’t matter so she could find out why her friend was so upset, but she figured it was best to get the news out since they had the opportunity. Technically, it was news that suited Tag if he was going to need Archer’s help, which he must if he was here and desperate to talk to him.

Except her friend didn’t seem to see it that way. “Back together? I told you to stay the f**k away from him,” Tag barked.

“I think Taggert has to go now,” Archer murmured in his ready-for-murder tone.

“No,” she said. “And you two are not going to get in each other’s faces again. Tag, my relationship is my business. You know I’ll always listen to your opinion, but that doesn’t mean that I’ll do everything you tell me.”

His anger seemed to be teetering on the precipice of mania. “You do everything he tells you,” Tag sneered, pointing past her to Archer.

“I don’t,” she said. “He’d like me to. But I don’t.”

Tag wasn’t going to back down. “Oh, yeah, name one thing he’s told you to do that you haven’t.”

“I can name plenty,” Archer muttered from behind her. “I’d keep her locked up safe in this apartment for the rest of time if I got my way, ‘cept the woman insists on going out there and living her life, protecting fuckers like you and me. I told the woman to get you the f**k out of her life. I said you do nothing but cause s**t for her. But she didn’t consider it for a second. So if you’ve got beef with me, that’s f*****g fine. But don’t dare question Nya, ‘cause much as I f*****g hate it, she loves you.”

“Yeah?” Tag spat. “Well I hate that she loves you.”

They despised each other and glared over the top of her head, but neither man was making a move to get physical with the other and this was when she’d expect that to happen. When the scowling continued for another few seconds, she wondered if they’d be here all night. Nya had other plans, and to get to them, she’d have to hurry this meeting along.

“Tag what happened?” she asked. “Forget Archer and me, tell me what’s going on.”

“Gio’s coming back,” Tag said. “And I plan to take the fucker down.”

So he didn’t reserve all his hatred for Archer. “He’s one of your oldest friends,” Nya said.

“I want to kill him,” Tag said, storming over to flop onto the couch. Sliding to the edge, he was rigid as he cracked his knuckles.

Archer dragged Nya under his arm and with the heavy weight of it burdening her shoulders, he tugged her to an armchair and pulled her onto his lap.

“And you brought that s**t to my girl’s door? I think you and I need to have another little chat,” Archer drawled, sinking against the backrest.

Nya wriggled her a*s on his thigh. “Who knows what hobbies I’ve picked up since we split? I could be an assassin now.”

Except her joke wasn’t so funny when she said it aloud. Not long ago, they’d believed she was a murderer and it was a title she’d always been uncomfortable with, even if the man they thought she’d killed deserved to die. Archer’s arm dropped from the back of his head to curve around her waist in unspoken comfort.

“Three minutes ago, I thought you were split up,” Tag said, having missed the couple’s subtle exchange.

“So it was fine to bring it here if I wasn’t around to kick your a*s? News flash, I’d have done it anyway.” Archer squeezed her boob. “What else has he asked you to do while I haven’t been watching?”

“He doesn’t make me do stuff,” Nya said.

Archer pulled her back to show her his grimace. “You made that sound dirty.”

That hadn’t been her intention at all. “Did I?” she asked.

But he stroked the back of his finger over the swell of her breast. “Maybe that’s just where my head’s at.”

Yeah, they had a lot of catching up to do and this was an interruption she could’ve done without. He wasn’t even close to satisfied yet and just that moment of shared eye contact was enough to reignite their arousal.

“Uh,” Tag said, smacking his hands on the arms of the chair. “I have a serious problem. Don’t you give a f**k?”

“Yes,” Nya said. Shaking her head to force her eyes away from Archer’s, she ran her hands into her hair and deliberately turned her back on her lover. “Gio stole your money, he’s coming into town, you want to kill him. I’m paying attention.”

“I’m not,” Archer grumbled behind her. Slouching down in the chair, he squeezed her hips to rock her a*s over his groin as he let his head fall against the low back of the chair. “I forgot how sweet that a*s feels right there.”

Nya tried to be as discreet as she could about grinding herself down, but Archer’s groan gave her away. She had to smile; she’d never let him forget again. It felt so damn good to be exploring her power over the man again.

Tag wasn’t amused. “It’s his f*****g attention I need,” he said, getting up just to sit down again. Tag straightened his jeans and curled his fingers around his knees, then around the arms of the chair.

Observing her frantic friend made some of her joy dwindle. “If it’s Archer you need, what are you doing here?” she asked.

It wasn’t difficult to be curt with her friend at this minute because all she felt when she looked at him was pissed off. He’d come here high and she hated drugs; he knew that. It just proved to her how far gone he was that he couldn’t go without the drugs for one simple visit to a friend’s house.

“When was the last time you slept?” she snapped before he could answer her last question.

“What the f**k does that matter?” he asked, curling and straightening his fingers on his thighs.

Tag rubbed his palms on his lap and she noticed how much weight he’d lost as he worked his jaw. Driving his fingers into his hair, her friend shifted to the front of his seat and then slid back into it again.

What an i***t; she’d probably never been so mad at him. “You can’t keep your a*s still for two minutes, how are you gonna kill a guy?” she asked.

“Killing a guy is easy,” Tag said. “You just have to know who to pay.”

Outrage made Nya shoot to her feet. “That better not be why you’re here,” she exclaimed. “That’s not what Archer does. He wouldn’t kill for you! He wouldn’t—”

“Hush,” Archer said, seizing her hips to yank her into his lap again. “He knows I’ll know a guy.”

“Not just one,” Tag said, becoming alert. “I bet you know a bunch. Any who take requests?”

“Why?” Archer asked. She twisted to see that the back of his head was on the top of the armchair, and he was staring at the ceiling completely unfazed by this intense conversation that was making her heart pound against the inside of her ribs. “You want to make it hurt or you wanna make it slow?”

“I knew it!” Tag exclaimed.

Archer’s voice drifted. “I know a guy who spends days taking a man apart, piece by piece. He won’t leave a drop of blood at the crime scene, but he’ll send an inch of flesh to every person who ever met your victim. I know another guy, who can slide a knife between the ribs, right into the aorta—lot of blood though. If you want a bloodless scene, you want to shatter the skull at the temple, rupture the meningeal artery… There’s a menu of ways; poisoning, dismemberment, piercing the brainstem, cracking the neck. You could shoot the guy, but no one should hire anyone else to do that for them. A gunshot’s easy,” Archer said. “It’s knowing when and where to do it that’s the problem.”

Nya thought he was finished but couldn’t think of anything to say. Except as his eyes closed, her lover continued. “You could tie him up—exposure’s a b***h. Starvation’s tolerable, but unpredictable, you never really know how long they’ll hold on. It’s a bad way for your victim to go, but it’s the isolation that f***s with their head. Dehydration only takes a few days. Sometimes you get a good show. You can send a guy insane just by withholding liquid. There are drugs that make a guy feel like he’s on fire. Others that aim right for the pain center of the brain, they itch and scratch and tease that motherfucker until the guy is ready to tell you anything you want to know. You can liquefy the guy—watch his brain dribble out his eye sockets…” Okay, that one made her feel sick. “So…” Archer said, lifting his head to look past her and pin his gaze on Tag. “Do you want it to hurt?”

“That bastard stole from me!” Tag said. “Damn right, I want him to suffer.”

Archer exhaled a half-laugh and his head fell back again. “You’re a real dumb f**k, Taggert,” her lover said.

“Hey!” Tag said, flying to his feet with such rage that Nya was driven to do the same.

“I don’t want you fighting,” she said, but Archer hadn’t moved.

“You can’t tell me he’s armed now,” Tag said. “The dude’s not even wearing shoes.”

“How many times I gotta say it? I don’t need a weapon to hurt you,” Archer mumbled.

Archer was certainly more clear-minded than Tag; he wasn’t high on any drugs, unless s*x endorphins counted. But Nya knew her man, and he was armed. His knife would be strapped to the back of his jeans.

“Can’t you guys get along for two seconds?” she asked. “Tag, I know you’re upset about Gio. But maybe you should hear Archer out because when he gets like this…” Nya presented her palm toward her boyfriend while keeping her focus on her friend. “He knows something more than you do. Hell, Tag, haven’t you figured it out yet? He always knows something more than you do.”

“I’m in the f*****g know. I’m in the f*****g loop!” Tag asserted, offended by her implication that he wasn’t. It was the drugs, again, causing his anxiety and paranoia.

“Archer always knows more than everyone, it’s not a reflection on you,” she said. “This is what he does. You know it. He listens. Why else would you keep coming around here to speak to him?”

“He’s cheap,” Tag spat.

“How the f**k would you know?” Archer said, sitting up straight. “All the s**t I’ve done for months Nya’s paid for, not you. You’re using her when you use me.” Tag scoffed, but Archer wasn’t letting him fake ignorance. “You f*****g know it. Why else would you show up here when you’re looking for me? Why else would you call her and demand she gets me to call you back? You don’t come to me. You go to her because you know I’d do anything for her, even if it means saving your sorry a*s. You’ve got to know, Taggert, I’d have sent you down the river months ago if it wasn’t for this girl. And yet you come to her place in the middle of the night, strung out like a junkie b***h looking for the next fix.”