“I promise!” Chuckling, he leans close and kisses my lips. “I don’t smoke anymore.”
“Mmhm.”
And since I’m a good wife, the selfless, sweet, awesome kind, I glance down at the demand bobbing between us. Lowering to my knees once more, I take his length in my hand and squeeze tight enough to make the cop cry out in pleasure.
“Shush,” I scold, “or the neighbors will hear you.”
ARCHER
“So… Felix is back?” Tim sets a glass of soda down in front of Minka, then another in front of me. On Minka’s other side, Aubree sits with tight shoulders and a jaw grinding with anger, because she’s pissed at the fact the love of her life is Timothy Malone the Third—heir to an empire he never told her about. “He went to your apartment?”
“He went to Archer’s apartment,” Minka clarifies.
The place is half-full, the music is loud enough to hide our conversation from anyone sitting nearby, and on Tim’s side, a woman in her late twenties works the bar and slings drinks the way Tim has done on his own for the longest time.
“Aubree and I were there to collect clothes and the cat for Archer, and just as we were about to leave, Felix knocked.”
“What’d he say?” Tim’s jaw flexes with unresolved venom, but his hands work around a delicate wine glass as he wipes it dry to be hung in the rack. “Did he threaten you?”
“No, he was being kinda playful. Something about wanting to hang out. He was lonely. I told him to go back to New York, then we closed up and left.”
“But he has keys or something,” Aubree volunteers through tight lips. “In the time it took us to go down the stairs and get onto the sidewalk, he made his way to the fire escape to wave goodbye.”
“Asshole.” Setting his rag aside, the wine glass to his left, Tim rests his elbows on top of the bar and attempts to secure Aubree’s eyes. “He was playing with you. He’s taunting you and Minka. But you’re not in danger, I swear.”
“Didn’t say I was,” she spits out. “Though, we can both agree your promises aren’t worth a great deal these days, right?”
Aloof and unkind, Aubree pushes up to stand and refuses to meet his stare. Instead, she looks to Minka. “I’m going home for the night. I’ll see you at the office in the morning.”
“Yeah.” Minka’s already tired. She’s done with today, and she’s done with being my nurse. She’s fed up with even the thought of my family, and right now, she looks like she might be done with sitting up on her own. “I’m going up in a sec too. Do you want us to walk you home?”
“No, it’s fine. I’m gonna catch a ca—”
“Aubree, wait.” Lightning fast, Tim reaches across the bar and wraps his palm around her wrist. “Stay and give me five minutes. I just wanna ta—”
“No.” She flicks his hand off and flashes a nasty smile that promises pain if he touches her again. “You had a million chances to do that before now. You chose not to.”
“Aubree…”
She snatches her jacket and twists it on, then she turns away from the bar, away from the untouched soda, and glides across the room to let herself into the cold outside.
Into the dark.
Into the danger, now that Tim doesn’t get to watch her every move.
“Just let her go.” Minka brings her gaze away from the door and back around to Tim. “She wants to be left alone. And,” she shrugs. “Aubree’s not all wrong. You had the chance to talk to her; you refused. You could have told her the truth—or at the very least, a version of the truth you could be okay with. In the end, you left her blind, and she got a front row seat to your girlfriend’s murder.”
Pushing up to stand as well, she shrugs into her coat and pulls the front across to cover the yoga pants she selected after our shower.
We’re in a bar, and everyone else is dressed up. Patrons mingle and hope for sex. For fun. For a little flirting and plenty of liquid courage to get them through the night. But Minka wears cotton stretchy pants and my hoodie. Messy bun and no makeup.
“You made your choice, Malone, and that’s fine. But it was the wrong one. Now you live with the consequences.”
“I was trying to protect her,” he snarls. “I was doing what I thought was right. I was keeping her away from my family—which is exactly what Archer should’ve done for you.”
“Yeah, you protected her so well, she got your ex-girlfriend’s blood on her shoes.” Turning away from the bar, Minka comes to my good side and wraps her arm around mine. “Archer and I are together, which means he chose right. You screwed up.”
“Minka—”