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Bet he does.
“Doctor Mayet.” Speak of thedevil, and one of the Malones shall appear. Micah sets a heaped tray of steaming steaks on the dining table and pats his hands together to rid them of… crumbs, I guess. I don’t know. Then he wanders across the room and sweeps his beloved under his arm.
It’s so wonderfully odd, the way she melts into his side and relaxes when she couldn’t do so prior.
It’s the same kind of magic Archer possesses when he holds me.
“Good to see you, Doc. Even better to have you here for somethingotherthan a medical emergency.”
“Christabelle nearly dying,” I lift a finger, as though to tick the incidents off. “Tiia being shot. You, yourself,” I smirk, “with a few of your own wounds.”
“It’s proven beneficial to have a doctor in the family.” Humored, Felix steps around our small group, dragging Debbie along with his hand wrapped around hers, and leads her to the table. “I always knew Arch would put the family first and marry right.”
“Yeah, because he chose me purely to serve his brothers’ misadventures.” I gift Micah and Tiia a small, exasperated smile, accentuated with a roll of my eyes, then I circle them and head to the table. My stomach is screaming for food, and tomorrow, when I’m dragging myself out of bed for an early morning after a late night, I know I’ll be unhappy with things.
Especially now that I’m staying so far outside the city and will have to factor a commute into my day.
“Archer was certainly shopping for doctors when we met. It was the first question he asked me: ‘Can you stitch a wound, save a life, and keep your mouth shut about the mafia?’”
Not.
“He’s a good boy.” Grinning, Felix mows right over my sarcasm and helps Debbie into her seat. He presses a kiss to her temple and slides her chair in, then he pulls out the one beside it, gallantly offering it to me. “Since Archer’s not here, and you’re the only stag at our party, as your host, I feel it’s my duty to?—”
“I’ve got it.” I snag the chair on Tiia’s left, while Micah chuckles, plopping into the chair on her right. “Thank you though, Mr. Malone.”
“You’re especially unkind when he’s not around, huh?” Taking the chair he offered me for himself—not the head, which is interesting—he reaches across and grabs a thinly cut steak and gently places it on the plate in front of Debbie. “I’m surprised he didn’t burn that city down to ensure he could come with you.”
My stomach dips for all the same reasons it dipped when I stepped onto a plane without him. “He wanted to. He was planning to. But work kept him away.”
“He’s running a cop-killer case,” Micah rumbles seriously. Despite the surprised jerk of my head as I lean forward and glance back to catch his eyes, he sets his arm on the back of Tiia’s chair and massages the column of her neck. His thumb on one side, his fingers on the other. He makes it so her eyes soften and her cheeks flush. “I keep my ear to the ground. I know that you have two cops down.”
Growling, Felix drops a steak on his plate with an undignified plop. “I had no fuckin’ clue I’d worry about himmoreliving the straight and narrow life. Our world is dangerous, Mayet. But his is worse.”
“He’s competent and smart.” Tiia takes the salad bowl from the middle of the table and slowly piles leafy greens onto her plate. “He has a team around him who have each other’s backs. Maybe this case is particularly confronting, but the chances he’ll be caught unawares and harmed by the guy he’s looking for are slim.”
“Comforting.” I don’t set my phone on the table and dial the one number I want to, though it takes herculean willpower to stop myself from doing exactly that. “He thinks he caught a break on the case while I was in the air, which is good, I suppose.”
“You suppose?” Debbie narrows her eyes with curiosity. “Why would that be a bad thing?”
“Because the closer he gets to his perp,” Micah rumbles, “the closer he gets to his perp’s weapon. It’s a double-edged sword.”
“This dinner is depressing.” I stack food on my plate and prepare to choke enough down to get me through. “I’m sure you’ll understand if I simply eat and go to my room.”
“You gonna call him?” Felix softens his expression and smiles when I glance up. “Can I hang out while you chat?”
I breathe out a quiet laugh and shake my head. “Not happening. But I’ll text and let you know he’s alive and well.” I glance across to Debbie, though I’m not really sure who I should ask. “I have to be in Manhattan by eight in the morning. At the courthouse by nine.”
“We’ll have a car out the front waiting for you,” Micah answers instead. “And a security detail. You don’t have to worry about?—”
“No security. But thanks for the car.”
ARCHER
My phone buzzes in my pocket just as I step into my apartment. Notourapartment, the one I share with Minka and Cato and have done since earlier this year. But mine, the one I lived in for years before meeting my beautiful wife.
She’s out of town, and I have no desire to mope in front of my brother for the next few days, so I take up residence in my old home, sniffing the musty air as I wander in, and grinning when I spy Minka’s little blue winter hat still on the kitchen counter.
I don’t remember the last time she wore it. And I have no clue how or why it was left here. But I kick the door closed and snatch up the fluffy fabric, bringing it to my nose so I can breathe her all the way into the depths of my lungs.
