AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Right. Because the vigilante only kills the dregs of society. You killed…” I shrug. “Whoever you wanted.”
“Not the same,” he snarls.
Releasing me so I stumble back a step, Archer digs a hand into his pocket and takes out a granola bar. When I don’t automatically take it, he grabs my hand and slaps it into my palm. “Eat something before you pass out. And tonight, I’m gonna come find you.”
I scoff to hide the way my stomach tumbles at his words. “That sounds like a threat.”
“It’s not. It’s a promise that I’m coming to spend time with you. I want to see you outside of the George Stanley, Minka. I want to see you, period.” He brings his broad hand up so his fingers gently caress my jaw. “Tonight’s not infusion night, right?”
Stunned, I take a step back until his hand falls away. “What?”
“Your factor infusion. That was last night?”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“Because.” He moves in until the toes of his boots touch mine. Then he brings his hand up once more. “You infused on the sixteenth of December. I remember,” he grits out, “because it scared the fucking shit out of me. You infused again on the eighteenth. Math tells me last night was infusion, which means you’re clear tonight.”
I narrow my eyes to suspicious slits. “And byclear,are you saying my medical issue is an inconvenience to you?”
“No.” He leans in and presses a feather-soft kiss to my lips. “But I know it makes you sleepy. I don’t want to demand your attention if you really should be at home resting.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t demand my attention at all.” I step back again and hiss when the backs of my legs hit my desk. “I don’t have time for you, Archer. And I definitely don’t have time for you and another woman.”
His phone trills, loud and commanding. And though I can read in his eyes that he’d rather continue this conversation, duty demands he drop his hand into his pocket.
Studying the screen for just a beat, he accepts the call and brings the device to his ear. “Detective Malone.”
I watch as his expression changes. As his eyes darken, and his arms grow larger with adrenaline. I stare as he works, and then I swallow my nerves when he acknowledges his call and hangs up.
Groaning as exhaustion beats at his heart and mind, he slides his phone back into his pocket and breathes out a defeated sigh.
Before I get the chance to step forward, to comfort him as my instincts demand I do, he looks up again with eyes firing with rage.
“We caught another one.”
My heart gives a hard knock. “Another one what?”
“Another homicide. That was dispatch.” He turns toward my office door, but not before grabbing the hem of my coat and tugging me along. The moment he opens the door and Fletcher spins to meet us, I know he has taken the same call. “Another girl. Another suspected homicide.”
“Another bleeding from the eyes and mouth,” Fletch growls. He brings his gaze to me. “Can you put a rush on that lab stuff, Doctor Delicious? I’m starting to worry a little bit over here.”
“Yeah.” A single look toward Aubree has her dashing to collect the bag we take on scene. “We’ll follow you,” I tell the guys. “Aubree will drive, and I’ll call the lab for an update.”
“Let’s go.”
Archer walks me all the way to the elevator and on so the doors close us in, but where he and Fletcher get off on the lobby floor, Aubree and I go one level lower to collect a car that belongs to the building.
“What did you and Arch talk about in your office?” As soon as Aubree slides into the driver’s side and starts the engine, she looks to me and raises a brow as I fasten my seatbelt. “Looked kinda deep.”
“He knows my infusion schedule.”
“Hmm?” Slowly pulling out of our parking space, she maneuvers through the garage and steers us toward the up ramp. “What do you mean?”
“He remembered the exact date I infused last month. And then he went ahead and did the math to figure out that I infused last night.”
“I mean…” She brings us to the crest of the driveway, grinning when she catches Archer’s eye where he idles in their piece of shit cruiser. They were waiting for us, and I can’t decide if the change in Archer’s expression when our eyes lock is a figment of my imagination, or something so much more. “Don’t we all have your schedule in our phones now?”
“What?” Breaking that connection with Archer, I look at Aubree and frown. “No.”
