Marked

seven

seven

Nya had just finished dealing with a leak in the Sizzle toilets when she came out to find a man behind the bar. This man didn’t work for her. She’d never slept with him and would have to think twice before labelling him a friend.

Pissed off as she was that he’d just helped himself to her liquor, Nya wasn’t threatened. “Derren?” she asked, going over to dump the wrench on the bar.

“Working hard?” he asked, swilling the liquid in his glass as he examined the tool.

“Owning a place is a lot different to managing it,” she said. “I didn’t think anything of calling out emergency repairmen when it was just numbers on a check.”

“Now it’s your job to make sure that check clears,” he said.

She nodded once. “Exactly.” He took a drink. “I’m not going to point out that we’re closed or that technically you shouldn’t have been able to get in here, I’m just gonna ask you… what’s up?”

“I owe you one,” he said, going back to fill his glass again and from his generosity to himself she was about to say he owed her two. “I don’t like debts hanging over my head. So I’m here to find out what you want for squaring with Ester for me.”

Payment.

Nya could see where Archer got his education. Her mind didn’t work in the same way, and she was about to tell him that she’d just done what she did to protect a friend, meaning Ester.

But, at the last second, she realized this was an opportunity. “I can have anything?” she asked.

“Anything.”

Emptying his glass into his throat, he slid it away down the bar and pushed his weight onto his forearms on the surface between them, while taking in an eyeful of her breasts through her damp shirt.

His interest forced her to ask, “Would you really f**k me?”

If the impact of surprise that registered on his expression was anything to go by, she’d given him the shock of his life. “Is that what you want?”

Archer wouldn’t have had a relationship with her if she’d been w***e enough to sleep with his mentor. But Derren’s lewd conduct was either meant to set her off-kilter or he was bastard enough to screw his ward’s ex-girl.

Narrowing her eyes, she pushed her breasts together and leaned closer. “Archer really f****d me up when he dumped me,” she purred. “Maybe a little payback would feel good.”

He didn’t move, but she kept edging forward. Tipping her lips higher, she had to lift her feet from the floor to gradually lever further over the bar, taking her mouth to within a whisper of his.

Derren shoved off his forearms onto his hands, straightening up. “Okay, sweetheart, you got me, you can have anything except that.”

A burst of laughter made her grin and she slapped her own palm onto the bar. “I knew it,” she said, and grabbed hold of him to pull him down so she could kiss his cheek.

“You’re hot,” he said, wearing a scowl. “But not hot enough for me to screw over my kid.”

Nya just laughed. “I’m not sure who Archer would kill first, you or me.” He might be ready to be rid of her, but he didn’t handle betrayal well, something she knew firsthand. “Get yourself another drink,” she said, slipping away from the bar to head for a table. Pulling out a chair, she swept a hand across it. “Then come take a seat.”

“That piece of s**t chair wouldn’t stand up to a session,” he said, adding more liquor to his glass.

Taking a seat at the same table, she crossed her legs. “We’re past the s*x,” she said. “You’re going to give me what I want and it’s nothing to do with your dick.”

He came over to join her and dropped into his seat with a satisfied exhale. “A drink with me?” Derren asked. “You’re cheap, girl.”

This wasn’t a simple drink. Propping her chin on her hand, she fixated on him. “I want to know why you stuck around,” she said. “Tell me about your relationship with Ester and why you looked after Archer. You didn’t have to, but you did.”

“Straight for the meat, no garnish for you,” he said. “If you guys are through, why do you care?”

Nya wanted to know about their history and Derren wouldn’t be forthcoming unless she had leverage, like this. “You owe me. This is how you can settle the debt.”

Still, he made her wait, just like Archer would. “Ester got knocked up when she was fifteen. She was barely sixteen when Arch was born.”

Nya knew there weren’t many years between mother and son, but she hadn’t known there were that few. “Oh my God, who was the father?”

“Much older guy, married guy. Ester gets pissed when I say it, but he basically r***d her.” Nya’s lips parted. “Not a back alley, middle-of-the-night r**e. He groomed her for years, she was thirteen when they met. It was sick. She says she loved him; I think it’s bullshit.”

So Derren was protective and didn’t hear what Ester said, he passed his own judgement and stuck to it. “Did he stick around?”

“Not when he found out about the baby,” Derren said into his liquor. “He took his family and left the state. CPS tried to take Archer, but Ester wouldn’t let ‘em. She and her mom moved to their own trailer, away from Ester’s piece-of-s**t father, just to keep the baby. She did great with him for years. It’s amazing if you think about how old she was and everything she was missing out on.”

“What changed?” Nya asked, because something had. Archer’s memories were of a party-girl mom who had a different boyfriend every week.

“Ester’s mom died on his sixth birthday,” Derren said. “Ester lost it, couldn’t handle raising him alone. She was so sure she’d f**k it up that she didn’t try. Arch hasn’t celebrated a birthday since.”

God, that was sad and her sympathy welled until tears touched her eyes. “Where do you fit in?”

“I wasn’t around then, I met Ester about five, six years after. By then, she was off the rails. I had no idea that she had a kid, thought she was a good-time gal.”

“So you took advantage of the good time?” Nya asked. She didn’t want to sound judgmental, but she thought it seeped into her tone.

“First time I saw her with Arch I went crazy. The kid had scrapes on his knees, bruises, he wasn’t even wearing a shirt. I thought she was abusing him; he was so scrawny. She ran off crying and I talked to him. Turned out, he got the bruises from scrapping. He got into every fight going, he was so angry. He fought for money, picked pockets, was into burglary, selling stolen goods. His enterprise was impressive for a kid so young. He was determined to support his mom, who was doing f**k all. He only saw the inside of a school room a couple of times a month, if that. He spent all his time looking after his mom.”

“And you took pity? ‘Cause you had Kristof?”

“Kris was off on his own by then, he was still around I guess, but he was sixteen, seventeen, something like that, I knew I’d taught him right. Arch needed someone, something his mom was never gonna be able to give him.”

“Supporting his mom is still important to him,” Nya said, thinking about how insistent he was about supporting her too.

A faint nostalgic smile flickered to his lips and he put an elbow on the table, twisting the base of the glass on the surface. “He was saving up for this dumb weight set too. He was fast and smart; it was his cunning that let him win fights. He couldn’t match the other guys for bulk… I changed that fast.”

This big guy, sitting here, looked mean. But he’d taken pity on a kid who had a chip on his shoulder and nothing going for him. “I’m totally in love with you,” she said and her smile amused him. “You did an amazing thing.” His lips stayed together. “Were you and Ester through then?”

“Naw, we knocked boots for a couple of years after that, broke-up, things got casual. I saw less of her. After Arch grew up, he stayed with Kris for a while, and everyone went their own ways.”

“When did you get back in touch?”

“We’ve never been out of touch,” he said. “We all f**k off on our own sometimes, but we eventually check-in.” He considered her. “I didn’t talk to Arch for a few months. I was surprised as hell when he said he had a girl.”

“Why?” she asked. “He believes in fidelity.”

“Yeah, but I could tell straight off that you were different,” he said, peering closer. “Something about the way he talked about you. You weren’t just a regular lay, you meant something to him.”

“I meant so much that he kicked me to the curb the first chance he got.”

Nya didn’t like sounding self-pitying and she couldn’t argue that Archer hadn’t been clear. But she had to admit that she hadn’t believed he was serious. Putting him in the line of fire to save herself just wasn’t who she was, and after how they’d met and her reaction to protecting Tag, she figured he’d known that.

His threats about dumping her, she thought, were meant to let her know he’d be pissed if she got hurt. Nya hadn’t thought he’d actually leave her. That being the case, she wouldn’t change what she’d done, and she’d do it again if it came to it.

Derren shoved his glass with his fingertips, sending it skidding to the center of the table. “That’s just Arch, don’t take it personal. He’s rigid about his f*****g rules and has more of them than I do. Ester let him do whatever the f**k he liked and their trailer was always a mess ‘til Archer started making rules for himself.”

So his way of rebelling was to clean up and follow rules… his own rules at least, because he sure didn’t care about the law.

“He’s lucky to have you,” she said.

His chin went up. “He says you don’t have folks.”

“That’s right.”

Pulling his chair closer to her, he folded his arms on the table. “I’m only telling you any of this ‘cause you’re family,” Derren said. “I’d never tell another breathing soul Archer’s secrets.”

Nya understood that. “He broke my heart, not my trust,” she said. “I would never hurt him or discuss him with anyone he didn’t trust.”

“You can prove it by telling me something about your life,” he said. “Where does Nya Yorke come from?”

Talking to Derren was easier than talking to Archer, maybe because she wasn’t invested in his judgement of her. He’d been honest, so she was truthful with him about her family life and childhood. Sharing her history with a person who’d be in her life for such a fleeting time might have seemed like a waste of time, but her step was lighter for the rest of the day.

She’d told Archer that her old nightmare was over because she’d faced those demons. Since then, she’d confronted things about herself and her own psyche that gave her a new outlook. It was just a shame she had no one to share this new attitude with.

Nya got through the Saturday night at the club and spent most of Sunday there making plans for the renovations that were starting that week. She’d given Jada instructions and left early so she could read through the information she’d printed off the internet about selling a business versus managing it by proxy. Nya knew nothing about this s**t and would have to bone up fast, because time was running out for her to make a decision before renovations started.

She had just got out of a cab at her apartment building when her phone rang. “Tag?” she asked.

“I need to talk to Archer.”

Sure he did, she swallowed a grumble and fumbled for her door keys. Since Levi had moved in the communal door was locked more often and as a woman on her own, she appreciated that even if it meant a delay for her on the sidewalk.

“I’m not with him,” she said, going into the entryway, and since she had her keys out anyway, she stuffed her folders under her arm, shoved her purse aside and headed for her mailbox. “Call him on the phone.”

“I’ve been calling him all day,” Tag hissed. “The fucker won’t pick up.”

“I wonder why that is, Tag, maybe ‘cause you threatened to kick his ass.”

“You think he’s afraid of me?”

No, not even a tiny bit, but she couldn’t say that. “I think he’s angry… or maybe he’s just busy.”

“What does he have on today?”

Tag had told her that Archer was bad for her, was thrilled when they broke up—told her to cut all ties, or at the very least, limit her contact. And now that she didn’t know the details of her ex’s schedule, it was inconvenient for her friend.

Even when they’d been together there were times it was impossible to get information about Archer’s plans out of him. “I have no idea,” she said. “He doesn’t share the details of his calendar with me.”

“Will you call him for me?” Tag asked.

She didn’t like how frantic he sounded; either something was really wrong or he was using drugs. If it was the latter, being that it was only around nine-thirty, that didn’t suggest social usage. “I don’t need to talk to him,” she said. The last thing she wanted to be was in the middle of the two men again.

“He’ll pick up if you call, you know it, please, Yorkie.”

“Fine,” she said, looking through the letters she’d pulled from her mailbox. When she saw nothing interesting, she unlocked the box above hers. “I will tell him to call you. But that’s it, Tag, and don’t f**k him around, okay? It’s not the way to get him to do you a favor.”

“Thanks, Yorkie.”

They hung up and she dialed Archer, although Tag was wrong, he didn’t pick up and the call went to voicemail. She was looking through his mail when she heard the beep. “It’s me, Tag says you’re not picking up and he has to talk to you,” she said, and clutched the letters to her chest as she frowned at the wall. “Is this about Gio? You bypassed me completely, didn’t you?” They hadn’t talked since their mutual gratification incident in the hallway. “You’re not going to be weird with me now after… whatever. Call Tag, please.”

She hung up, stuffed the letters into her bag, and locked up the mailboxes. She’d just pulled out her key when she heard the apartment door behind her open.

Whirling around, she saw Levi admiring her. Nya thought he’d hate her and be running for safety, but his eyes had definitely been on her a*s before she turned around. “Do you want to get a drink?”

Wow, okay, that was unexpected. Nya wasn’t sure where this was going. “I’m sorry about the other day, he’s protective, but he’s not usually such a pig.”

Actually, he could be, but most of the time, in public, Archer was amiable. He wasn’t super social, but he was only rude to people who’d done him wrong. Unless these two shared history that she didn’t know about, Levi had done nothing to wrong him.

“I’m gonna guess you guys broke up recently,” he said.

“Forty-four days.”

He smiled. “She’s still counting it in days.”

Yeah, that did make her sound pathetic. “Sorry, it’s… habit, and one I’m trying to break.”

“Then you should come for a drink with me,” he said. “There’s a bar just a block over, I’ve been meaning to check it out.”

A shithole bar with bare floorboards, standing room only, and a distinct smell of urine lingering in the air. “It’s a dive bar full of old men,” she said. “I don’t think we’d fit in.”

“If you know somewhere better, I’m up for trying anything,” he said, leaving his apartment to come closer. “I got invited in to everybody’s place except your ex-boyfriend’s. I think that deserves a consolation prize.”

It probably did and after the way Archer had treated him, Nya didn’t want to create more friction. “Let me dump this stuff upstairs and get changed. I’ll come back down in ten.”

“Deal,” he said. “And if you want to get dinner too…”

“A drink is all I’m committing to,” she said.

He could ask all he liked, but she couldn’t sit through a meal when she had so much to do. She’d go to the old-man bar with him, he’d hate it, and then they could come home, so she could get through her reading.