I turn to face him because there’s nothing going on. I’m not doing something I shouldn’t, although I can’t say the same for Archer.
“Archer’s just Archer,” I say before turning back to the cup of coffee I’m desperate for.
He doesn’t ask questions. We all have access to the files. He could easily satisfy his curiosity with my daily reports, even as anemic as they are, but we tend to stay out of each other’s cases unless we’re working on them together. Client privacy is one of Deacon’s biggest concerns, and we mostly respect that.
If anyone is going to go digging further into my business, it’s Wren.
As if thinking about him pulled him from the depths of computerlandia, Wren opens his office door and steps out.
His eyes find mine, and I nod in his direction.
“How’s your ass?”
I jerk my eyes in Jude’s direction, trying to determine whether he mentioned the dog bite to him or if Wren has been digging a little too deep and somehow came across the video of it happening. It wouldn’t be the first time. Wren tracked Flynn and Remington through the streets of New York and was the first to know something was going on with those two when he captured their very first kiss on a security camera.
“It’s fine.”
He busies himself at the coffee station, and his silence is its own form of pressure. For a man that has the world at his literal fingertips, he sure is patient.
“I was wondering why you’re here.”
“I work here,” I say, my tone sarcastic.
“Yeah, but Archer Bremen isn’t at home.”
I nearly spill coffee down the front of my shirt when I jerk with the news.
“What?”
“He’s at the park over off Clover Drive.”
“Alone?”
“He’s got his dog with him.”
Jude chuckles, but I’m too busy standing from the sofa and deserting my cup on the table.
“Take him a snack,” Wren yells after me. “From the videos he’s posting online, the man looks starved.”
Starved for attention maybe.
Chapter 10
Archer
Second-guessing myself isn’t easy for me to wrap my head around, and maybe that’s because I’ve had so many things at the tips of my fingers for so long, I’ve forgotten that not everyone lives with full access to anything their hearts could ever desire.
So I was genuinely shocked when I made it back downstairs and found Brooks gone.
Maybe it’s because I’m not a hundred percent certain of Brooks Morgan’s sexuality. He didn’t watch me like I imagine a straight guy would. The way his throat worked on a swallow several times while I jacked off, while I tasted myself, didn’t seem very hetero.
I could lie and say that I had no expectation when I sat down and started jacking off, but that would be a lie. It would also be a lie if I said I never did that before, but I have.
Fletcher flashes through my mind and the night I finally gave in to something I’d been fighting for so long.
The difference is, I knew Fletch was gay. He’d been out of the closet since we were teens. He was never ashamed of who he was. You’d think that would give me the confidence I need to step out from behind that curtain too, but I find it’s easier just to keep a firm grasp on the other half of my sexuality, the one that doesn’t make people do a double take when walking down the street. Little kids don’t point and ask questions when a man and woman walk through the mall holding hands, but heaven forbid two men do it.
I smile as Princess chases a butterfly through the lush green grass.
“Don’t go far,” I tell her as I power on the remote in my hand.
I know people are watching me. It’s not like I’m wearing some sort of disguise, but I also know I can’t just be a twenty-something guy, flying a drone in the park either, no matter how much I just want to blend in with everyone else.
The black and yellow machine lifts from the ground, hovering a few feet in the air before gliding to the right. I should feel relaxed. It’s a gorgeous day, not too hot despite the cloudless sky.
“Archer!”
I turn in the direction of a voice, smiling when I see a preteen walking toward me with a wide smile on his young face. He seems like a fan in his dark clothes and layers of leather wristlets, but before he can get too close, a woman grabs his hand and pulls him away with a scowl on her face like I disgust her.
Because of my own choices, I have no idea if it’s the addiction thing or the gay thing that’s stopping her from allowing her kid to approach me.
I debate flying the drone into the back of the woman’s head as she shuffles her kid away, but there are too many witnesses for shit like that. Also, I’m not exactly the type to be prone to violence.