Marked

two-2

“Archer!” she shouted because she didn’t want Tag hurt.

He was digging in Tag’s pockets, holding him on the wall with his powerful forearm. Tag objected, but Archer didn’t stop frisking him and it wasn’t long before he pulled a bag of white powder from his pocket.

Archer swore and leaned hard on the arm pressed into the width of Tag’s shoulders, holding the bag in his face. “You sonofabitch, you don’t bring drugs into this club, never again, you hear me? Ny is cleaning this place up, you f**k! You f*****g bring drugs in here again and you won’t get back in.”

“You can’t stop me,” Tag spat over his shoulder, his cheek pressed to the wall, he couldn’t move under Archer’s compression.

“Every guy in this place was vetted by me,” Archer snarled in his ear. “If I say no, you don’t get through the door. I don’t give a f**k who you are, you’re not gonna f**k this up for her.”

With a pounding heart and her hands over her mouth, Nya was in shock that Archer was so vehement. After receiving the deeds, Nya had rehired every security man that Hexam had laid off. “You’re no one to her,” Tag said, trying to push away from the wall Archer had him pinned to.

Archer relented enough that Tag could shove from his grasp. “I’m more to her than you are,” Archer sneered.

Tag yanked down his jacket to straighten himself out. “Not a f*****g chance! You’re temporary. In six months, she won’t remember your name!”

No way was that true. Nya was offended, Archer would be too. “Tag!”

She didn’t think Archer heard her because he got in Tag’s face. “Long as you keep f*****g up and putting her in danger, I’ll be around,” he growled. “You better get used to my face, ‘cause I’ll be looking over your shoulder for a long time.”

Tag cursed and shoved Archer but he didn’t go far and shoved back. Nya sped over because this was going to escalate fast. “Both of you stop it,” she said, getting between them. She grabbed a handful of each of their shirts and glared at them both, but they were still snarling at each other. “Stop it! I love you both and there’s room in my life for the two of you. But goddamnit, don’t make me knock your heads together!”

Tag tried to surge forward and her elbow bent, but Nya used the wall that was Archer to straighten her arm and push Tag back. “Let me go, Yorkie!”

Adrenaline increased her panic. “You’re not fighting in here!”

“Outside,” Tag said still tussling to get past her.

Pulling away from her grip to pull off his jacket, Archer tossed it onto the desk. “Let’s go,” Archer said.

Leaping around her love, into his path, she splayed a hand in the middle of his chest. “You’re armed,” she said, thinking of the knife he always kept on his belt.

Reaching behind, he dragged the knife from the sheath and slammed it onto her desk. “I don’t need a weapon to take down this piece of shit.”

“I’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Tag declared, heading for the door.

Archer was amped, but Tag was halfway out the office. Rushing over, she tried to block him, but he was too intent, he’d knock her down before stopping, so she hurried to the door and slammed it. “Stop it! If you do this, I won’t talk to either of you again!”

Archer was by the desk, his scowl set on his face. Tag was glaring too, but he was focused on her. “This has f**k all to do with you, Yorkie, get out of the way! I’m gonna take this guy down! He treats you like s**t, he broke your f*****g heart! This is long overdue!”

Going to her friend, Nya took his shoulders. “You’re emotional, Tag. Archer’s not gonna touch you while you’re like this.”

“He’s a chicken-s**t,” Tag said.

Archer stormed over and shoved him to the side. “Get your a*s to the street, Taggert! It’s past time I took you down.”

Spinning to pin her rage on him, she pushed Archer’s chest. “If you won’t f**k me when I’m drunk, you won’t beat him when he’s high!” That must have gotten through because some of Archer’s bluster eased until he backed down. “Now sit your a*s in here, Fella. I’m gonna put Tag in a cab and I’ll be back in two minutes!”

It took closer to twenty. She got him outside, but Tag still thought they were fighting and wanted to go back in for Archer. She calmed him down, but it took two security guys to get him into the cab. She gave the address, paid the driver, and promised Tag she’d call to make sure he got home.

After that drama, she had to deal with Archer. Setting the office in her sights, she ignored the patrons pouring out of her club, as it was closing time. Even if Archer thought he was going to get away without facing her wrath, she would be going to his apartment. The best part was, Ester was at his, so Nya was guaranteed to get inside.

But when she stormed into the office, Archer was there in her chair, swinging side to side. Throwing the door closed, she went to him and shoved her knee to the inside of his thigh to stop his movement.

“What the f**k is wrong with you?” she asked.

His arm shot out in the direction of the door. “He brought drugs into your club. If he was anyone else, I’d have tossed him onto the curb, forced him to eat the lot and let him die in the gutter.”

Archer needed to learn to temper his feelings for Tag; she didn’t often see him this riled. “But fighting?” she asked, pushing her knee into his leg, but his thighs were already far apart, pressed into the arms of the chair. “Why would you want to fight with him when he’s so messed up?”

“Your boyfriend is always messed up.”

Eurgh, just the sound of that word on his lips in such a snide way tempted her to lift her knee higher to drive it into his groin. “Don’t start,” she said. Grabbing his jacket from the desk, she thrust it at his chest. “Just get the f**k out of here, go home.”

“He gets the royal treatment and I get tossed out for saving your a*s?” Archer said, shooting to his full height to shove his arms into his sleeves. “You took him outside, got him a ride; I bet you paid the driver too.”

“Yeah, I did,” she said, going around to snatch up his knife from the desk. “Because his best friend just screwed him over, he’s lost a bunch of money, the girl he loved just dumped him ten days ago and now he’s picked up this stupid habit.” Grabbing the bag of coke from beside Archer’s knife, she shook it. “How the f**k do I get him off this? Far as I know, he hasn’t touched coke since he was twenty-one.”

She tossed the bag to him. Archer examined the plastic wrapped powder. “With your boy, Tag, you have to pick your battles. You act like he’s together, but he’s a f*****g mess and he’s dragging you down.”

Nya couldn’t remember Archer ever saying a positive word about Tag and it hurt her heart that they continued with their feud. “Why don’t you like him?” she begged. Standing his knife on end, she pressed her weight onto the butt of it, driving the point into the desk. Nya couldn’t care about defacing property when her best friend was on a path to self-destruction. “If you could support him, help him… Arch, you could make such a difference.”

But he was still angry and groaned. “Don’t ask me to like him, Ny,” he said, shoving the drugs into his pocket. He reached over to swipe the knife from her. She fell forward but righted herself as he returned it to its sheath. “I’ll mop up the s**t around you. Anything that might touch you is my business. But I spent a week in South America with him and I didn’t see a single thing I liked. I won’t go an inch further than I have to for him in the name of protecting you.”

It was frustrating that Archer could be so cool and detached when Tag’s life was falling apart. How could two men she cared about so much be at such opposite ends of the personality spectrum? Neither would agree to bridge any distance between them, even though it would mean so much to her.

“Don’t put your hands on him again,” she said. “If there are drugs in this club, they’re my problem.”

“Suits me,” he said, but she’d seen the depth of his anger. Maybe Archer felt an affinity for this place because it was him who had put it into her hands. He could’ve owned it himself; all he’d have had to do was sign his own name at the bottom of the deed instead of hers.

Brett Hexam wouldn’t have wanted to give up Sizzle and she sure made an easier target if he decided he wanted it back. But Archer had done what he saw as the right thing and put the club in her name, she’d worked hard to nurture this place. Deciding to clean it up was the first goal. Nya was tired of the shady deals and the shifty characters. But it would take time; she was never going to make a palace out of a slum.

“Great,” she said. “Now f**k off.”

“I have the car. I’ll give you a ride.”

Nya was still too angry and although he had his own snit on, he expected her to put their argument aside. She couldn’t. “I don’t want to get in a car with you tonight, Arch. So f**k off now or follow me home. I don’t want to see you.”

He stopped on his journey towards the door. “You’ve never f*****g said that before.”

“Yeah, well you’ve never almost murdered my oldest friend in the street. What were you planning to do out there, huh? Were you gonna hurt him? You know how much he means to me.”

“And how much do I mean to you?” he asked. “That guy was so strung out, he could’ve pulled a g*n on me or anything. You don’t know what he was carrying.”

“You patted him down, you knew,” she said. Going to him, she got up close. “When we met, I told you that Tag never loses. But he was willing to give up everything for Farrah and now he’s in a place where he doesn’t know himself. He doesn’t know what’s happening to him or how to get it together and he thinks Gio’s screwing him over. Then he comes in here and thinks that his oldest friend brought her ex into a private office to rough him up. His life is falling apart.”

But Archer had no sympathy. “It’s his doing. I won’t feel sorry for him just ‘cause you use those big doe eyes. Gio f****d off because he was tired of hiding, tired of being second everywhere including in Tag’s eyes. Farrah left your boy ‘cause she’s a spoiled brat who gets obsessed and infatuated, then she gets bored.”

“That’s not his fault,” she said. Leaning back, Nya folded her arms, but didn’t retreat. “Do we pick who we fall in love with, Fella? Of all the girls you’ve ever dated, you probably didn’t think I was any different to them when we started screwing. But by the end, it wasn’t the same thing at all, was it? That’s why I make a fool of myself with you, acting like some pathetic, clingy, stalker. It’s ridiculous and it’s embarrassing. If I could slap myself in the face some nights, I would. I’d tell myself to let it go. I’d pack my s**t and I’d disappear. That’s exactly what I should do.”