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“I’ll be back. We’ll fix this,” he tells me then, his hands on my hips, pulling me closer to him. He reaches up, tipping my head back with his index finger under my chin. “Don’t give up on me.” It’s a plea; he’s begging me now, and I nod.
“I promise.”
“As do I.”
And with that, he leaves, and I watch the tires of his Jeep kick up dust in his wake. My heart hurts. It aches violently, recalling every nightmare I had of him walking out and never coming back.
“He’ll be back. He loves you.” Hunter’s reassurance eases the pain, but deep down, I know it won’t stop until we’re all free.
Chapter 24
Archer
Mara fades into a sea of dust kicked up by my car tires, and I’m fighting with myself not to turn the wheel and go straight back to her. I know if I do, we’ll never finish this. We have to rid ourselves of the demons before we can have a happily ever after and all that monotonous shit.
It doesn’t take me long to return to the compound, and before I even walk through the front door, one of the foot soldiers is informing me Rebekah wants me in her office immediately. I take my time though, stopping by my room first to freshen up. I know I can smell Mara all over me, but I don’t need Rebekah doing the same. My woman may have taken the chip out of my head which made me a monster, but deep down, I think we both know a part of me will forever return to the demonic nature of the man I’ve become. I’ve done things so dark they can never be wiped from my soul.
They’ve ingrained themselves in the inner workings of my mind like a parasite embedded in my soft tissue. The chip wasn’t the only thing controlling me. The darkness which grew within was a dominating factor. Mara is the only one who can temper it down. The longer I’m away from her, the more prone to corruption I’ll become. I can sense it, feel it, fight against it for now, but for how long?
Eventually, I find myself outside the impatient Miss Ward’s office door. I can already feel the anger emanating from inside the room. It makes me chuckle, but then it’s time for the game face. I’m cocky but not stupid. I know whatever I do from now on puts Samara further at risk. Knocking, I don’t wait to be asked to come in.
“You wanted to see me.” I raise an indignant eyebrow at the woman dressed in a sharply tailored pinstriped suit sitting with a face like thunder behind her massive, carved oak desk.
“I wanted to see you a few days ago.” She gets to her feet and smooths down the lines of her skin-tight skirt before giving me a stare which would render a weaker man to his knees. “Details.”
I amble slowly over to her desk and pull out a chair on the opposite side and slide down into it. My feet are placed firmly on the ground, my muscular arms are resting on my knees. I suck on the inside of my lip in an indifferent stance.
“I thought I had a lead, stuff happened, nothing came of it.”
“Bullshit.” She slams her fist against the desk.
I yawn with boredom.
“I want answers, Archer. You disappeared.” She stills and looks at me, her facial expression softening. “You’re covered in bruises.”
“They’ll heal.” I’m not going to fall for her new tactile approach. Once upon a time, I would have played into it to get my dick wet, but now, it’s staying firmly in my pants unless Samara is the one I’m going to stick it in.
“Archer. What happened?” Rebekah asks me again, her patience wearing thin at my nonchalance.
A dangerous idea floods into my head, and I decide on impulse to go with it. With slow and deliberate, calculating movements, I get to my feet and stalk around her desk. I stand behind her and press myself into her. I’m not hard, this woman repulses me, but I feel her shudder with the memories of what I can do to her. She softens into my arms, and I reach around to bite on her ear.
“I know what you did to me,” I whisper. She tenses, and I react. In an instant, I spin her around, and I have my hand around her throat. She’s pushed up against the wall, and I’m squeezing my rough fingers around the column of her delicate neck. I could so easily break it.
“Archer,” she tries to choke out, but it’s more of a garbled need for air.
“You put a chip in my head,” I snarl. Her eyes go wide with shock at my revelation.
“I . . . I . . .,” she stutters, and I tighten my grip a tiny bit more. “Please.”
