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Fletch dragged me down to Tim’s the moment the clock struck five and we’d finished running our perp’s sketched face through every store for a ten-block radius of The Stitch, The Opulus, and the bay.
That amounts to hundreds of doors walked through in a four-hour period. Hundreds of store owners. Hundreds of worried faces as, as predicted, they panicked the moment we mentioned there may be a person of interest nearby.
Everyone knows that’s code forThere’s a killer walking our streets. Eyes open, people!
Fletch is ready to take a break for an hour and get something to eat. But my heart and soul know we’re in the eye of a storm and a third body is coming to us within hours.
No way has our killer stopped now, when he’s only just started.
But for now, we seek food. Peace. And a reminder of why we keep turning up to a job that pretty much sucks.
I sit on a stool bolted to the floor, while twenty feet away, my brother slings drinks and chats with his customers. Across the room, the door opens so a frigid blast of icy wind sprints in and blows the hair back of those closest. But within that wind and snow and cold emerges a stunning brunette whose eyes lock on to mine the second she crosses the threshold.
In just a millisecond, she reminds me of mywhy. She becomes my reason for everything. My plan for the future, and my excuse to kill anyone who might step in our way. By merely existing, Minka Mayet slides under my skin and changes what I thought my life would look like. By merely breathing, she gives me a different purpose and a hell of a fucking target on my back.
Men like me shouldn’t have weaknesses. But while she stands in the doorway and the cold rushes in to grab at her, and still, she peels her coat off and smiles for me—purely and solely for me—my stomach swirls.
Because I’m pretty much fucked.
“Minnnka.” Just as soon as she’s near, I open my arms and pull her close.
She sure as shit wasn’t heading this way for a hug and a public display of whatever the fuck we are. But it’s been a day since I was last able to touch, and there isn’t a part of my soul able to let her go.
I drag her between my legs and wrap her up with my arms. And though at first, she tenses up, it takes her only a moment to relax against my chest and exhale a sigh.
I rest my arm around her hip and press a kiss to the warm skin behind her ear. “I didn’t even know I was missing something till you walked in the door.”
“Archer…” Her lashes flutter closed as her heart thuds at a too-fast pace. “You’re making this seriously complicated.”
“Mmm. It was never my intention, but here we are anyway.” I nuzzle my lips against her neck. “Are you gonna bitch about it, or you gonna settle in and see where we go?”
“Probably the first.” Her breath comes a little faster when I nibble on her skin. “A little bit of the second. I met the mayor this afternoon.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No!” She shoves back out of my hold and snaps the electrical current humming between us. “Are you gonna bring that up every single day for the rest of our lives?”
“Are you saying there’s a life to be had… together?” Chuckling, I bring my hand to the collar of her shirt and finger the fabric aside. “Don’t put yourself in that kind of position again, and I’ll stop giving you shit about it.”
“Sure.” She rolls her eyes. But her hip remains resting against my leg. “Next time, I’ll let the psycho point his gun at you instead.”
“Better me than you.” Leaning in, I press a gentle kiss to her collarbone. Another to the middle of her throat. She tastes like sin and smells like my sheets. “What’d you think of DA Justin Lawrence? I got a quick peek at him a few hours ago, but we didn’t talk.”
“He actually seems pretty solid.” Peeling herself back and robbing me of her skin to taste, Minka rolls her eyes a second time when my expression turns wounded.
Dropping onto the stool beside mine, she searches Tim’s side of the bar and waves him over when he glances up.
Since I don’t get to hold her, I turn on my stool and sandwich her legs between mine. “Do you mean solid, like he’ll mow you down and hurt you? Or solid like you think he’ll do a good job?”
She smiles at Tim when he sets a sparkling glass of soda by her hand. He didn’t ask for her order, but he’s realistic enough to know we’re not done with work yet tonight.
“Solid, like I think he’ll do good things for Copeland.” Picking up her drink, Minka snags a straw when Tim offers it, then she stabs it into her glass and brings her seductive eyes back to me. “I think he’ll run things a little militaristic for a while until he gets comfortable,” she admits. “Which means we have to keep our respective offices clean, reports have to be filed properly, cases have to be run straight down the line.”
Finally, she sips her drink and shrugs. “All of which I do anyway, and I’m not hearing complaints about your work. So I don’t think Lawrence’s appointment will be a bad thing for us. It would have been a nightmare for Doctor Chant and others like her.”
Pausing, she smacks her lips in appreciation for her drink. “How’s your lieutenant run his division?”
