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“No! I assign her to a skilled team who can do it faster than me, while I do other parts of my job. If I micromanage my staff and demand to do everything, then the answers you seek will come five times slower. Instead of starting tox screenings now,” I look at the clock on my wall, “at six in the morning, they began two hours ago, at four, when we sent the samples to the lab. I work the body and discover her inability to clot, while the lab works the rest and tells me what she ingested.”
I sit back in my chair and study his eyes. “Icoulddo everything, Archer, just like you could walk the streets and hand out parking violations. But we each have our fortes, and we know the most productive way to spend our time. Me looking over my techs’ shoulders every minute of the day is hardly conducive to getting answers. Just like your questioning now.”
I push up to stand and fix my coat across my chest. “If you have nothing else to discuss, you and Detective Fletcher should leave. Doctor Emeri and I have work to do.”
I move around my desk and vaguely gesture toward the door, but what I was intending as a gentle goodbye, Archer snags my hand and turns into so much more.
I exhale through my nose. “Detective—”
“Leave.” He stares deep into my eyes, but my heart and soul know his words are for Aubree and Detective Fletcher. “Now.”
Loyalty seems to be in low supply around Copeland City, because the duo jumps up with fast feet and races out of my office. Neither care to check that I’m okay. Neither care about my wishes in all this. They simply bolt and desert me to fend for myself.
“Archer, you can’t—”
“I’m not done with this.” He continues to hold my hand; not so tight that he’s hurting me, but tight enough to keep me still. “I never intended to hurt your feelings, Mayet. I didn’t just get busy and hope you’d slink away. I was working. You were working.Wewere working. But I was inside this building damn near every single fucking day, and you went out of your way to avoid me.”
“I’m not looking for a relationship.” I lift my face and point my jaw. “I’m not looking to settle with a guy I met inside the airport literally the moment I arrived. I’m here for a new job, to pursue my career, and to take the team at the George Stanley from good to great.”
“You can do both.” He leans in slowly, telegraphing his move, and presses a gentle kiss to the bruise I know colors my chin. “What you do here, and what we do when we’re off-duty, are two completely separate things.”
“I have to focus on my career,” I reiterate. “Ihaveto, because my team and my patients deserve that from me.”
“And what about me?” He presses another, even gentler kiss to my chin. “What do I deserve?”
Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Don’t say it!
“Maybe you deserve Chloe.”
Dammit!
Chuckling, he presses an intoxicating kiss to my cheek. “If you’d simply ask, Minka. If you’d swallow your pride and just ask, I could explain it all.”
“I’m not proud.”I absolutely am. “I’m setting boundaries.”
“Your boundaries are the reason you sleep alone at night.”
Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Do not say it!
“But do I?”
Archer’s head snaps back, and his eyes lock on to mine. Temper rages in his blood as he searches my gaze for truth.
He digs for my secrets and comes too damn close to convincing me to make admissions I’m unwilling to make.
“Do you sleep alone?” His words are slow. Controlled. Dangerous. “Minka?”
“The fact of the matter is…” I swallow, because his intense stare makes my throat dry. “Who I sleep with at night is really none of your business.”
“I figure whoIsleep with at nightisyour business.” He holds me tighter. Closer. “The thought that you’re in bed with someone else doesn’t… It just…” He brings those perilous eyes back to mine. “Don’t push me like that, Mayet. Don’t take swipes just because you have hurt feelings.”
“Or what? You’ll call daddy dearest and snitch on me?”
“Why are you so obsessed with my past all of a sudden?” He shakes me a little, though I’m not sure he means to. “When I told you about that, you hardly blinked. The fact I told you was a huge exercise in trust. You took that information easier than finding out Tim is my brother. But now you’re pissy about a hypothetical woman in my bed, so you’re gonna toss that shit in my face?”
“I’m not obsessed.”I’m obsessed with everything about this man. I’m obsessed with his scent, and his strong hands. I’m obsessed with his mind, and the way he so desperately tries to take care of me.“I guess I’m just processing the things you told me. You claim to be strictly attached to the law, Archer. You act like you’re superior somehow. But I wonder if you’re not just like the vigilante you’re searching for.”
His mouth twists into a feral sneer. “He and I are not even close to the same.”
