Page 119 of Unlocked

He didn't say goodbye. He refused to say goodbye. It was a small and possibly meaningless refusal, but it was the only one available to him.

He walked out into the corridor. Past Bunny, who met his eyes briefly and said nothing. Down the hall, into the elevator, and out through the lobby into the evening air.

It was seven forty-three.

He had one hour and seventeen minutes before he met Austin Davis in Riverside Park.

He stood on the sidewalk outside the hospital and breathed the cool air and felt the last of whatever had been soft in him over the past weeks harden back into something familiar. Something old and very, very cold.

He had loved Tatum. He still loved her. He would always love her. That was not going away, and he was not going to pretend it was.

But that love had a place, and this was not it. That soft, in-love man was not who Davis was going to meet tonight.

Archer straightened his suit jacket, shot his cuffs, and walked into the dark.

Tonight, Austin Davis was going to meet the man Archer Gray had been before anyone had ever made him want to be something better.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Riverside Park at nine o'clock on a cool summer evening was exactly what Archer had wanted it to be. Empty. Dark. The river moving below the promenade with the particular indifference of water that had been moving past this city for longer than anyone currently causing trouble in it had been alive.

He stood at the railing and waited.

Davis was three minutes late, which Archer knew was deliberate. Davis was always premeditated about things he thought signaled power. Archer heard him before he saw him, the particular cadence of a man who walked like he owned whatever ground he was crossing.

"Archer." Davis came to stand beside him at the railing and looked out at the river with a manufactured expression of solemnity. He was wearing a dark overcoat and looked, as he always managed to look, like a man arriving at an event rather than a meeting. "Hell of a day."

"Yes," Archer agreed.

"Poor Vincent Kelly." Davis shook his head slowly. "I heard it was quick at least. Small mercies."

"You didn't like Vincent Kelly," Archer stated. "You were in business with him and you didn't like him. You're not sorry he's dead, so let's skip that part and get to the part you actually came here for."

Davis was quiet for a moment. Then he smiled. "Still the same Archer."

"Always," Archer said.

In his earpiece, Ryker's voice came in low and steady. "Perimeter is clear. Two joggers went through twenty minutes ago, haven't come back. You're clean."

Archer kept his eyes on the river.

"I genuinely didn't know about Kelly," Davis said, and there was something in his voice that was different from the usual performance. Flatter. More real. "That wasn't me."

Archer gauged the man’s words and expression. He was telling the truth. Archer had been reading people his entire life, and Davis was many things, but in this moment, he was telling the truth. He hadn't known about Kelly. Which meant the Curator had moved without telling him. It appeared Davis's control over his own situation was considerably less than he believed it to be.

"I know it wasn't you," Archer said.

Davis looked at him, mildly surprised.

"You want to know why it wasn't you?" Archer prompted. "Because you're next."

Davis laughed. The laugh of a man who found the suggestion absurd. "Is that supposed to frighten me?"

"It's supposed to inform you," Archer said. "What you do with the information is your business."

"Boss," Rush's voice in the earpiece. "Movement on the north path. Could be nothing. Keeping eyes on it."

Archer didn't react.