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“It’s a precaution, Doctor.” He moves to the car door and gently pulls it open to reveal a black interior. “Ms. Hale has one. Ms. Cannon has one. This is simply the wish of Felix, and since Felix is my boss…”
“At least he’s not a pain in your ass for free,” I rumble. “I don’t even get paid.” Accepting my fate and taking out my phone to prepare my, ‘I landed, safe and sound’ text for Archer, I slide into the car and startle when Michaels slams the door faster than I anticipate.
Then I jump again when a beautiful Malone smile beams in the darkness.
“Hey, Doctor Cutie Pie. You’re not staying in Manhattan, by the way. No fuckin’ chance.”
I drop my head back with athwumpand crush the phone in my palm, a proxy for the throat I’d rather throttle. “Goddammit, Felix!”
“I’m gonna kill him.” I stalk through Felix’s massive, multistory mansion and stride up the stairs toward Archer’s room. Not his childhood room, since Cato took it after Archer moved out, but the room they’ve made up for our visits anytime we come to New York—which has been nearly a dozen times in the last twelve months alone.
I cross the duffel over my torso one way, and my briefcase the opposite, freeing up my hands, and though it’s probably not polite to scream about my host in his own home, or make death threats to his brother over the phone, I do both. “He practically abducted me, Archer! You said he promised to leave me alone. But here I am, another of Felix’s kidnapped damsels with no way out unless I want to hurt his feelings. Ugh!” I throw my hands up as I come to the second-floor landing. Then I keep going. “Hurt feelings! This is who I am now?”
“You’ve evolved,” Archer snickers. “Six months ago, not only would you not care about his feelings, you would have slit his throat.”
“I’m still considering it! Now I have to stay at the house. Which means I have to socialize with people. And now he’s got Debbie, and Micah has Tiia, which means they probably want to like… ya know, paint nails and braid friendship bracelets or something.”
“The fact you don’t know that grown ass women don’t spend their time doing that entertains me. Debbie—as in, Christabelle Cannon—is an exceptionally successful, busy journalist. She pays someone to paint her nails. She’s not gonna sit on your bed and offer to do yours. And Tiia ended up with Micah, which essentially means?—”
“She’s crazy?” I growl at the guard who stands on the next landing. “Because she fell in love with a Malone? Oh wait!” I slap my own forehead and earn a wrinkled expression from a guard. A different one! Not Michaels. And not the other one. “I fell in love with a Malone too. Look how well that turned out for me.”
“Babe…” Exhausted, he sighs. “If you don’t want to be there, get in the car and leave.”
“I can’t!”
“Yes, you can. He put you there because he loves you and wants to protect you. But he’s not gonna tie you down and amputate your limbs if you choose to walk out.”
“Isn’t he?” Anger rockets through my veins as I come upon the fourth floor and turn to find my room. “Are you sure, Archer? Because he has a certain reputation, ya know? As in, he’s the freakin’ mafia, and now that your dad is dead, he’s kinda the don. New York City has a rich history of violence that revolves squarely around him and his kin.”
“I’m his kin.” Smirking—I just know he is!—he sits back in his office chair until the whole structure creaks. “He won’t kill you if you leave. He promised.”
“He also promised not to bother me when I arrived in New York!” Iburst through the bedroom door and come to a screeching stop, because immediately, I’m met with the scent of Archer’s aftershave. We haven’t been here in more than a month, and the room is clean, which means Mary has come through and turned it over in preparation for our next visit.
But still, his cologne lingers.
And that scent, that reminder of home, is enough to almost strangle me.
“It smells like you in here.” I take a long whiff without a single care for the guard still in the hall. “Archer… I forgot this was how you smelled when I first met you. I’ve become used to it.”
“Taking me for granted,” he play-scolds. But his voice turns gentle. His ache, more pronounced the longer we’re apart. “I won’t be able to smell you until I go home, and by then, I might be so fuckin’ desperate that I’ll quit my job and come to you anyway.”
“I’m kinda glad Felix brought me here.” Setting my bags on the floor, I turn back and close the door to buy myself a modicum of privacy. God forbid Felix actually hears something nice about himself. “He’s irritating. And the fact he took the choice out of my hands has tripped my temper. But if I have to be anywhere,” I sigh. “I like that I get to be in this bed that you’ve slept in before.”
“I’m glad you’re there too.” He exhales a long breath, so the sound carries through the call. “I was leaving it alone, because you said you wanted to be in the city. But having you at the house where my brothers can keep you safe makes my belly feel a fuck-of-a-lot better.”
“I suppose this means proper home-cooked meals. And spending time with family.”
He snickers and scratches at the stubble on his jaw, the coarse grates an audible sound that paints a picture in my mind. “You have my sympathies, Doctor. Have you eaten yet?”
“No. We just arrived at the house when I called you. I was planning to grab something once I hit the hotel, but now…”
“Put on a pretty dress instead. You get to be Micah and Felix’s fifth wheel. Have you seen Christabelle and Tiia yet?”
“No, they weren’t in the car. Neither was Micah. And when I say I just got to the house, I mean, we literally pulled up, I got out and angry-dialed you, then I stomped up the stairs and shouted unkind things about the don.”
“You?” he taunts. “I don’t believe you’d behave in such a way.”
“Shut up.” I walk to the massive bed and turn to sit on the end. The mattress compresses under my weight, but the cloud-like luxury is enough to bring a groan to my lips. “I miss you, Archer. It’s total bullshit.”
