Scarred

four

four

The door was still ajar and he caught her checking it out. That guy was still out there and while she knew from experience that sound didn’t carry well when doors were closed. She didn’t want anyone but Archer to hear what she was about to share.

“One second,” he said, bumping his forehead on hers before vaulting off the bed.

Yanking on his jeans as he left the room, he closed the door, either to conceal her nakedness from his captive or to save her from witnessing Archer manhandling him into the bathroom again. When she’d been kept captive here, Archer hadn’t shown her any more of the apartment than she absolutely had to see, that could be another reason for him hiding the bedroom.

It didn’t really matter either way. There were some grunts and shouts and scuffles from beyond the room, but she ignored them and stretched before she got to her feet. It was warm in here, so she folded the blanket to the bottom of the bed and then went to the dresser, figuring she didn’t want to be n***d while having a serious conversation.

The drawer was only ajar an inch when the bedroom door opened. “What are you doing?” Archer asked her, closing the door behind himself.

“Grabbing a tee shirt,” she said and continued to pull open the drawer. Except Archer had other ideas and came over to slam it shut again.

“I don’t think so,” he said, taking hold of her waist to back her away from the dresser and guide her back down on the bed.

“I’m not allowed to wear your clothes?” she asked. “Since when?”

“Since I’ve been living without this sight for too long,” he said, lying down with her, putting her on her back while he stayed on his side. Flattening his palm on her throat, he slid it down over her breast to her abdomen.

He cupped between her thighs and brought his hand back up over her hip to her cleavage. “I never thought of myself as a tit man,” he said, squeezing one breast, then the other.

“An a*s man?” she asked.

“A leg man,” he said, angling his body so he could reach her knee, he skimmed his hand up her inner thigh.

“I don’t have nice legs,” she said, pointing her toes.

His gaze leaped to hers. “Who told you that?”

“No one.” But she was short and while her legs were in proportion to her body, they were nothing to the towering pins she’d seen wrapped in micro-minis strutting around the club.

“So what’s your best feature?” he asked.

“My charming personality,” she said, wearing a grin.

He mirrored her amusement. “Sure it is, Squirm.”

“You don’t think so?”

“That’s not my favorite part of you,” he replied.

“So what is?” she asked, insinuating an arm beneath him to curl it around his shoulder from behind.

“My favorite part of you…?”

She had no time to confirm her question because three of his fingers curled into his own palm and the fourth, his middle finger, slid inside her tender passage.

“Hey!” she said on a half-gasp, half-laugh, smacking his upper arm. “I came here to talk to you, not for more of that.”

“You came here because I told you not to and you wanted to piss me off.”

That hadn’t been her primary reason… but it might have slipped into her decision-making process by mistake. “Pissing you off does come with benefits,” she said, rolling to her side to kiss his chest. “Lying n***d in bed with you doesn’t complement talking.”

“Sure it does,” he said, but was nuzzling her hair and kissing her brow.

On instinct, her head tipped back and linked her mouth with his. It was nice to just be together. With a contented sigh, she flopped onto her back and admired the ceiling she’d become familiar with.

“So spill,” he said, tweaking her n****e and putting his head back on his hand that was supported by his elbow. “What did you come to tell me?”

“It’s about Tag,” she said.

“There’s a surprise.” Archer dropped onto his back and they lay side-by-side, staring upward. “What s**t’s he up to now?”

Saying it fast was easier than trying to find a gentler approach. “He’s having s*x with Farrah Hexam.”

In an instant, he was on his side again, looming over the top of her. “For real?”

“You think I would make something like that up? Just to have an excuse to see you maybe,” she said. “No, I promise, it’s true.”

Archer was suspicious, but she didn’t know what of. “He told you?”

“I walked in on her n***d in his living room.”

“She hot?”

Nya gaped and smacked his chest. “Archer!”

“What?” he asked with an innocent shrug. “She’s stacked, I’m curious.”

Narrowing her eyes, she saw through his ploy to make her jealous. “No, you’re not. You’re trying to pay me back for disobeying you.” Coming here while he had someone chained up was against every rule he’d laid out for her. Nya guessed she’d be paying for her defiance for a while.

Lowering to burrow his mouth into her hair at her ear, he murmured, “If you like what you saw, you can invite her over to visit with you, we can have a little two on one action and that might solve our problem.”

“I don’t think so,” she sneered, giving his chest a hard enough shunt that he was forced to retreat. He flattened a hand on his pec like she’d hurt him though there was no way she could have because she wasn’t strong enough. “I’d rather watch Hexam take Tag apart than watch you pleasure another woman.”

He peered at her like she’d just revealed something intriguing. “Really?”

But this wasn’t a time to play games, so she softened. “Archer,” she said, stroking her hand over his. “I’m scared. This is serious.”

Exhaling, she didn’t know if he was pissed or just choosing to humor her because he was indifferent. “Okay, tell me what happened.”

She took a deep breath. “We talked. Farrah filled in the blanks and when Tag joined us, he didn’t deny the relationship… not that he could.”

Archer grumbled something that she didn’t hear and then he was getting up off the bed. “That guy’s a piece of work. I don’t have a f*****g clue how you managed to hold onto your friendship with such a f*****g i***t for so long.”

He wasn’t angry, which was an improvement on the reaction she’d expected. Though given what he spent most of his life doing—collecting information—he’d probably heard it all and then some. During his years of practice he must have learned how to temper his emotions, even when hearing the most shocking news.

“You know why we’re friends,” she said, bending her knees to then straighten her legs, tucking her feet under the blanket she’d folded across the width of the end of the bed. “And he’s not an idiot.”

“Sure he is,” Archer said, sliding open his closet door. “The guy does nothing but make stupid choices. He’s screwing the sister of the guy who wanted to kill him not long ago. Screwing Farrah was never the deal and Hexam will go crazy when he finds out. It’s spite, he can’t be in love with her.”

Considering it for a second, it was the only plausible explanation for throwing caution to the wind. “He might be.”

Archer turned around quick. “Did he tell you that?”

“No.”

“No, he didn’t,” Archer said, coming to the end of the bed. “He didn’t tell you he loved her. He didn’t even tell you he was f*****g her. How can there be feelings involved when he’s ashamed to be with her? You can’t be ashamed to be with someone and love them, it doesn’t work that way.”

“Says the world’s authority,” she said, sitting up in the middle of the bed and crossing her legs. “When we got together you told me we couldn’t go public.”

But he wouldn’t be cornered. “No, I didn’t,” he said. “I told you I had to talk to you before word got out because we had to lay ground rules, because I know what you’re like. Taking on causes, sticking your nose in—”

“I stick my nose in?” she asked, almost unable to believe he was making that accusation against her. “You can’t overhear that someone got a toy in their Cap’n Crunch without having to strap the guy down and water-board him until he reveals what it was. You need to know everything.”

“I know what I’m doing,” he said. “You jump into everything without thinking about the consequences. I stay neutral. You get emotional.”

“So damn neutral that when I told you six weeks ago that I was ready to go after Jamie’s killers you ignored me, and you’ve ignored it ever since. When are we going to do something about that or do you plan to let me down?”

Loosening, he wasn’t so keen on being called out. “I’m working on it,” he said, going back to his closet.

She was sick of that response. “You’re working on it, that’s what you say about everything. It’s an excuse. You’re doing nothing.”

“You don’t trust me?”

They shouldn’t really fight, not while there was a captive in the other room. But she let him be so high-handed all the time. Still, she calmed down, determined to prove she didn’t lead with her emotions. “You say that Tag makes bad decisions but can only come up with one example. That doesn’t prove your point.”

He turned his chin to his shoulder. “You interrupted me after one example,” he said. “That’s not the only one I’ve got. Ripping off Hexam was a bad idea. Ripping off anyone is a bad idea and Taggert makes a habit of it. He creates nothing but bad feeling everywhere he goes. He chose to stiff me, and that could’ve caused all kinds of s**t for him…” She assumed he was done and stroked her hands over the sheet beneath her, those were good examples of bad decisions and they had come in a short space of time, so she could understand Archer’s negative opinion of her friend. “And then there’s you…”

She stopped stroking to raise her head. “Me? What about me? Tag doesn’t make bad decisions with me.”

Slowly, he turned, ever nonchalant, while perpetually confident that he was right because the damn bastard usually was, his deliberate words edged into condescension. “For fifteen years he’s been running around after your a*s, protecting you and bailing you out. How many times has he made a move on you, huh?”

Back to this. Archer didn’t like her friendship with Tag, but she sensed that was because he didn’t understand it and not because of any inherent jealousy. “He doesn’t make moves on me,” she said. “He doesn’t think of me like that.”

“Trust me, no guy runs around after a p***y like yours without wondering what it tastes like.”

“Archer!” she chastised him and screwed up her face because the idea of Tag and her p***y being subjects of the same sentence grossed her out.

Non-apologetic, he spread his arms. “I tell it like it is.”

“And you think that was a bad decision? That Tag has never tried to have s*x with me proves that he makes bad decisions? You don’t know him as well as you think you do.”

“I don’t think I know him at all,” Archer said, almost cutting her off. Pivoting back to his closet, he was more interested in completing his task than finishing their conversation.

His interest made her curious. “What are you doing in there?” she asked, leaning to the side, trying to see what he was doing, but she saw nothing but shadow beyond him. His body filled the width of space that the closet door had occupied anyway.

“I need to call a guy,” he muttered.

“Call a guy?” she asked. “Who do you need to call?”

“I need to find out when Hexam’s coming back into the country.”

“So he did leave,” she asked, inspired by relief because she hadn’t followed up to find out if he actually had gone, as Archer had said was his intention.

“Yeah, he did, a couple of weeks ago.”

That would’ve been around the time Farrah called Tag. “Farrah knows you. When I said your name—”

He whirled around. “You used my name in front of her?”

Despite his obvious anger, she couldn’t be apologetic. “Why wouldn’t I? What happened to not being able to love someone if you’re ashamed of them? I’m not ashamed of you.”

His jaw worked, sometimes she pushed his patience. “I remember your little speech about being proud of your guy,” Archer said. He remembered everything. “But you have to be smart, Squirm. She knows we’re together?” Nya nodded. “Shit.” He caught his forehead in his hand.

“Why is that a bad thing?” Nya asked, considering making a dig about his interest in Farrah.

Except the situation was complicated enough without trying to factor in her own dislike of the idea of Archer fantasizing about other women.

“Because now when she tells her brother that she’s with Tag, Hexam will find out that Tag’s best bud, you, is dating me, the guy who was supposed to be neutral. The guy who set up the deal in the first place.”

Humbled, she sagged. “Oh,” she said. “That’s a fair point.”

“Hmm.”

Tag only knew Farrah because Archer had set up the deal with Hexam, assuring him that Tag would do as he was told and nothing more. “But Hexam doesn’t have to know,” Nya said, grabbing a pillow from behind her to pull it against her chest. “Does he? I mean if he’s away, you can find out when he’s coming back and we’ll make sure the relationship is over by then.”

Hope made him perk up. “You told Tag to dump her and he went along with that?”

She couldn’t lie to him. “I couldn’t do it while she was sitting right there,” Nya said and he deflated into a scowl again. “But he knows I’m not happy.”

“How does he know that? No, wait,” Archer said before she got the chance to take a breath. “Scratch that stupid question. I’ve never met a person so bad at hiding how she feels.”

Nya was proud of her honesty and her emotions, even if that meant displaying more emotion than Archer would like her to. “Farrah seems nice. It’s a shame. I think she really likes Tag.” Recalling how Farrah had reacted to the mention of Tag made Nya pose her next query. “Should I giggle when I hear your name?”

His wandering thoughts snapped back to her and he frowned. “Should you what?”

“Never mind,” she said, they had other things to worry about now. “The next time that I get a chance to talk to Tag alone, I’ll tell him that this is a bad idea and that he has to break up with her. I don’t know how it will go down, he can be stubborn.”

“Bullheaded,” Archer said. “You’ve told me that before.”

She couldn’t let him come up with a war plan because they were on the same side. “But usually if I make it clear that something means enough to me, he’ll do whatever I ask.”

“The game’s changed, Squirm,” Archer said, seating himself on the end of the bed. “You’re competing with another woman now. One he has to care about or he wouldn’t have taken the risk of screwing over Hexam… again. Unless he really does have a death wish. This could be some sort of power play, and Tag’s using this sister to show Hexam he’s superior.”

“Tag wouldn’t be that petty,” she said, although she wasn’t completely confident in that statement. “He wouldn’t use an innocent woman just to make a point.”

“Then you’re in serious trouble,” Archer said. “Because if he was using her, you could use those big doe eyes of yours and appeal to his ego and he’d do whatever made you happy. But if he really cares about this gal and you go in telling him to break up with her, just because it makes our lives easier…” He shook his head. “I don’t see it happening.”

“You don’t know him like I do,” Nya said, secure in their friendship if nothing else.

Progressing up the bed, he sat in front of her. “And you don’t know what lengths a guy will go to, to keep the woman he loves.”

Taking hold of his shoulders, Nya climbed into his lap. “Implying, I suppose,” she said, looping her legs around him as he rested back on his hands. “That you would do anything to keep me.”

Narrowing one eye, he exuded suspicion. “I smell manipulation. If it’s more s*x you want, you got it. Ask for anything else and I’ll tell you to call back later.”

“I want Jonno,” she said, massaging his shoulders. “I was watching Jada in the bar last night and I kept seeing flashes of Jamie. It feels like we’ve forgotten about her. I get these vivid images in my mind of what she went through… It’s not right.”

“What is it you want to do?” he asked. “There were seven of them. Do you plan to kill seven men? Is that what will make you happy?”

Murder seemed too easy. Yes, if a man put up a fight and it became necessary, she certainly wouldn’t weep over the loss of any of them. But she wanted more than just a bullet in the back of their heads.

“I want to hurt them,” she said. “It’s not enough to simply take their lives. I want to make them suffer like she did.”

It seemed there were no limits to what she could say in front of Archer, nothing shocked him, and she never felt judged when she was honest. “Every man has a pressure point,” Archer said. “I can make them suffer. We’ll hit them one at a time.” That was more of a promise than she’d had from him until now. “Let me get rid of this guy and then we’ll take out the trash.”

“This guy,” she said. “This job. How much is it you’re making for him?”

Scooping his hand under her chin, he pulled her in for a kiss. “Not a cent,” he said.

That upset her, but she wouldn’t jump to conclusions. “Then why?” she begged, desperate to understand.

“He knows where the first guy is.”

Gaping, she was in disbelief. He’d said he knew the identities of four of the men at Sizzle on the night Jamie died. Nya had asked for them to start planning on how to take those men down and Archer hadn’t confirmed anything with her, now she found out he’d been working on it all along.

Her smile was automatic. “I love you,” she said, taking hold of his face to smudge her lips onto his.

“There isn’t a minute that goes by that I’m not thinking of you,” he said. “You think I don’t care, you think I forget, but I don’t. I just know how to bide my time and be patient. I know this is important to you and I don’t plan to let you down.”

Kissing him, she couldn’t stop smiling. “I love you,” she said again.

“Good. ‘Cause since you’re here and you don’t have Sizzle, I’ll let you stay a while.”

“Thank you,” she said, kissing him again in presumption that more s*x was on the agenda.

“Are you hungry?” he asked. “I’m hungry.”

Which had become synonymous for him asking her to cook. “I’ll see what you have in there,” she said. “But you have to let me wear something.”

“Only ‘cause there’s another guy in the house,” he said, standing up and keeping her body twined around his. “I’ll let you cover up, but my hands get to go anywhere they want to.”

“Like every other day of the week,” she said. “Your hands belong on my body.”

“And your body deserves attention, lots and lots of attention.”

Sitting her on the dresser forced her to straighten her legs on either side of him when he opened the drawer to pull out a tee shirt. White. She should’ve known, he always tried to put her in the white one because it allowed him to see the outline of her n*****s through it.

“It’s a compromise,” she said, pulling it on when she’d usually object. “I want to see what you have that might fill me up.”

“I got something real special for you, girl.”

When he tried to step deeper into the vee of her thighs, she put a hand on his chest to ease him back. “In the kitchen, Fella,” she said in a sultry tone, drawing her eyes away as she hopped down off the furniture to sashay toward the door. “There’s a mess to clear up in there. That will keep you distracted while I cook and if you plan to kick me out before bedtime, I see a foot rub in my future.”

Opening the door before he could argue with her, she went to do as she’d said she would. Archer didn’t like to leave his apartment for long when he had someone captive, but he’d never let her leave here to go home alone. He’d walk her to her front door, kiss her goodnight, and then put her inside and listen to her lock the door. He’d risk losing the captive, risk exposing himself, risk his possessions, his livelihood, his reputation, all to make sure she got home safely as she’d done for years before he came into her life.

Sometimes his sense of responsibility dwarfed her, but it wasn’t unwelcome. These acts, his superiority, his heavy-handed nature, it was all his way of proving his love and she welcomed that every day.