AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Just in case things go awry,” I amend. “I doubt they will, but I’d rather be a step ahead and keep my friends safe. Our killer is slicker than this. He has a plan, and he’s gonna run through it now that I gave him something new to focus on. But being in this godforsaken house,” I groan, scrubbing a hand through my hair in frustration. “I’m realizing the really fucking obvious flaw in my idea.”
“That you have to spend the night inside a house you don’t want to be in?” Finally, she releases a little of her rage, her breath coming out on a rattling exhale to make way for comfort. Reassurance. “You’re inside your father’sotherhouse, and you don’t like it?”
“I haven’t been in here in a really long fucking time, Minka. Like…” I lift my head and stare up at the ceiling. “I was a kid back then. Beaten. Bloody. My life was so ridiculously different to how it is now… I’m completely unrecognizable.”
“You were a child at the mercy of bad people,” she soothes. “You’re grown now, Archer. You’re in control of your own destiny.” She pauses for abeat and allows a soft smile to etch into our call. “You made really brave choices when you were still a kid. Choices that changed the trajectory of your life.”
“Would you still be my wife if I were the old version of Archer Malone? The mafia kid? Or would you have considered me ruined goods and tossed me back the second you realized the fish you’d caught?”
She scoffs, breathy and mocking. “There’s only one version of you. Remember? All of the smaller, singular pieces of you make up the whole. You’re the cop. And you’re the fourth son of a dead gangster. You’re the homicide detective who hunts murderers, and you’re the guy who has, to put it bluntly, murdered others.”
“Sure hope no one is monitoring our calls,” I tease. “That little sound bite could go to a grand jury.”
“There’s only one person monitoring us,” she snickers. “And that person has also murdered others. It’s a system of non-snitching that works out. And she promised not to listenallthe time. Just when she hears her sister’s name.”
I choke out a soft, exhausted laugh. “Michelle—fuckin’—Mancino. The way my life has come all the way around again is a joke. You had dinner yet?”
“Yeah.” She snuggles into bed and hums in the back of her throat. “Mary made a baked chicken dinner tonight. That’s two home-cooked meals in a row.” She cracks a smile that comes across the line audibly. “I might bring Mary home with me. She’s yet to annoy me, so…”
“You’re fierce in all things, beautiful. But I don’t think you’d pry her from Felix’s side for all the money in the world. Showered?”
“Yeah. You don’t have to micromanage me. I’m on this call to chastise you for being a dummy on national television. Not so you could make sure I’ve been fed and watered.”
“Infused?” I continue anyway. “That’s tonight, and I know you took your medication with you.”
She practically growls. But she’s done exactly what I asked of her. I’m thinking of her and not of my father and the things he did in this room. “I haven’t infused yet. I was saving my vengeful hate for when you finally deigned to take my call. I’ll medicate after we hang up, then I’ll go to bed.”
“Feeling okay?” I steamroll over everything she says, cold and mean and exactly the way I know will pique her anger. “Tired?”
“Awake enough to remember the reason I wanted to talk to you. Whyare you poking at that guy the way you are? If you think you know who killed those detectives, make the arrest and be done with it.”
“Not yet. Hang on, I’m gonna call you back.”
“Wait.” Stunned, she shoves up so fast, I know the whole bed jostles. “What?”
“I said hold on.” I drag the phone from my ear and kill our call. Then I jump over to the video option and dial again. I want to see her face. I want to look into her eyes when she’s angry with me.
The call rings only for a second, then she accepts and gifts me with an image of her pursed lips. Her fiery eyes. Her flushed cheeks. Because beneath the fire is a sleepiness that instantly helps me relax.
“It’s rude to hang up on people like that, Archer. You didn’t even ask if I wanted to video chat with you.”
“Consent was implied when you accepted the call.” I drag my bottom lip between my teeth and spy the cute camisole she wears to bed. The lacy edges and absolutezerocleavage she shows off. “You’re tired, huh?”
“You called to tell me I look like crap?”
“I called to see your face, because you’re so fucking beautiful it takes my breath away.” I angle my phone, like I could somehow magically get a new view. “Lift your cami, babe. Show me.”
“You’re insane if you think we’re gonna?—”
“Put your hands in your panties. Touch yourself and let me see you come.”
“Archer!”
“What?” Chuckling, I spread my legs a little wider and reach down to unbuckle my belt. “I’ll touch and you’ll touch. You only need one hand to hold the phone. None, if you perch it against a pillow.”
“Arch—”
“I’m not asking,” I snarl. Finally, my tone catches her off guard and brings a stunning, glowing red to her cheeks. “I wanna see, and you want to please me. We have privacy, and it’s rare that we’re apart like this. I’m not gonna send you away just to recreate this moment, so don’t waste it, Minka Mayet. Take your top off, then reach into your panties and touch yourself.”
