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“No problem. Goodbye, Doctor.”
The call goes dead, and silence overtakes the office—even if, outside her floor-to-ceiling windows, cars pass by on the street, and commuters honk at each other to hurry.
“How the hell did this happen?” Minka rests her elbows on the desk and drops her head in her hands. Breathing slowly, her chest expands, and locks of her hair flutter from the momentum of her breath. “What karma god did I piss off for this to happen to me in my first month?” Pausing, then peeking up at me, she growls, “Don’t answer that.”
“You took the blame for Aubree.” I sit back in my chair and rest my right ankle on my left knee. Casual. Relaxed. Not bleeding from the heart because this woman continues to reject me. “And Aubree’s out there,” I nod in the direction of her desk, “freaking out and readying to throw herself on her sword because she’s terrified of disappointing you.”
“She didn’t mess this up.” Minka pushes back and yanks her desk drawer open. Plastic rustles, and a packet opens. Then she pulls out a heart-shaped sucker and rips the wrapping off. Shoving it in her mouth with an ironic violence, she tosses a second sucker in my direction and closes her eyes the moment the candy slaps my chest. “She was doing the job, Archer. She was on-scene, she took the word of the paramedics, she got Mellet transported back here. She was going through the steps. And if I’m being fair, Iknowa guy in his shape would have been down to about two or three beats per minute. I know that shit is hard to catch, and I know by calling her off the job, probably meant he had a chance of living, considering Aubree would have removed and weighed his organs by now. Still, I was the one handing down orders. I was the one who rushed her.”
“It’s gonna be okay, ya know? The guy will live, the mayor will spin it, since he clearly has a fuckin’ crush on you.” And that knowledge, that someone so powerful, so in charge of our fates,likesher, makes my gut twist. “Everyone isenamoredby you, Minka. Aubree will lose sleep till this is tied up and you’re not mad at her anymore. And I…”
“And you, what?” Her beautiful, soulful eyes come to mine while I pick up the sucker from my lap and turn it in my fingers. “What are you doing here, Archer?”
“Making sure you eat.” My gaze drops to her rosy lips. To the sucker perched between them. “Making sure you’re alright.”
“I would like a working relationship only.” Sitting tall in her chair, she pastes on herchiefface and looks at me like I’m nothing more than any tech who walks this building. “Formal,” she adds. “And no longer complicated. I don’t want—”
“No.”
Startled by my response, Minka’s head jolts back an inch. “Excuse me?”
“No. Wearecomplicated, we aren’t only professional, and I’m gonna keep coming back until you’re ready to admit you love me too.”
“Lo—” And just like that, the color leeches from her face. “Archer, you—”
“Sold my soul to Cupid? Yeah. I’m mad about it too.”
“No, you—”
“Are in love? Yup.”
“Archer!” Impatience makes her snap. “No, you—”
“Aren’t walking away.”
My phone chirps in my pocket, while on the desk, Minka’s does the same.
Instantly, my heart trips into next gear, because whenever both phones trill at the same time, it usually means we have another dead body.
Twisting my torso, I hurriedly snatch my cell out and frown when I see Fletcher’s name. “We’re gonna keep discussing this.” I hit accept on my call, but I keep the phone from my ear for a moment longer and wait for Minka’s eyes. “I’m gonna keep coming back for you, Mayet. We’re gonna figure this out.”
“Archer,” she picks up her phone, but does the same as I do and holds it away. “You need to stop this.”
“You need to learn how to trust.” Leaning over the desk with my fists on the mahogany top, I press a kiss to the center of her forehead and revel in the way her eyes close and her breath stops.
She wants to allow this. She wants to dive in headfirst and find pure happiness.
“Whoever hurt you,” I murmur, “whoever made it impossible for you to trust,” pulling back, I meet her glistening eyes, “whoever is responsible for your complete fucking inability to be vulnerable, is about to find out what happens when they piss me off. But you…” Lifting my free hand, I slide my finger and thumb along her jaw. “I’m gonna show you that you can relax. That you can believe in what we have.”
“I don’t even know you, Archer.” Her breath comes out on a gentle sigh. “It’s too soon.”
“It’s the perfect time.” Leaning in again, I press a kiss to her lips. “You get back to work. I’ve gotta go do my shit. But we’re coming around to this conversation again and again until you can accept it and stop freaking out.”
She won’t dissuade me. And she won’t win this battle of wills. Because I might be a lot of things—the son of a gangster, a man who never slows down to spend more than a night with the same woman, a man who’s quick to draw a gun, and whose caseloads tend toward the more violent side—but when I decide I’m in something, I don’t walk away all because I’m being challenged by a stubborn streak.
“I’m gonna make it so you can love too,” I finish. “And every choice I make will be with your best interests at heart.”
She scoffs and slowly brings the phone up. “Wish I could say the same in return.”
