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“I’m ready to be less mean.” Following my lead, she backs up and rests against the mirrored wall. “I’m ready to, at the very least, be in the same space and not rip his head off. Tim’s is where we go to blow off steam. It’s where we go after sucky days like today. And me holding a grudge makes all that awkward.”
When the elevator opens again on the ground floor, we step out to find Seraphina Lewis’ perfect, skirted ass standing about thirty feet away. She waits by the revolving doors, staring out as though contemplating the purpose of existence.
“I’m not ready to break up the band,” Aubree finishes. “And we all know Tim’s considering leaving for New York soon.”
My temper sparks, and I glare at her.
“I didn’t say Iwanthim to go! I just mean he’s got it in his head that he will. So if me being nice could change his mind and keep him here, then that’s what I’ll do.”
Hearing Aubree’s voice, Seraphina spins and pierces us with a look. “Chief! There you are. I’m glad I caught you before you left.”
“We were in my office,” I tell her dryly, pushing through the revolving door and emerging into the perfect, balmy breeze outside. “Where we always are.”
“I know. But you’ve got a delicate case on your table today.” Her heelsclick-click-clickas she rushes to keep up. “I didn’t want to go up and disturb—”
“You didn’t want to go up and risk seeing her,” I cut in. My phone bleats in my hand, flashing Archer’s name and loosening the knot of tension I didn’t realize was coiled inside my chest. “You were being a wuss and avoiding seeing something awful.”
Bringing the phone up while the other two talk, I swipe to answer, then press the phone to my ear. “Hey, Detective.”
“Hey,Minnnka.” He breathes my name the way someone might exhale in relief. “Shit, it’s good to hear your voice.”
“Yours too.” I fall back a couple of paces and close my eyes as the wind whips my hair around. Spring is coming, and the electricity is palpable in the air. “I’ve missed the hell out of you today.” I bring my hand up to loop my finger around the chain circling my neck. “It annoys me how much.”
He chuckles. “I missed you too. And I don’t have to whisper to say it. Why are you outside?”
“How’d you know I was outside?”
“Because I can hear the wind.” His breath comes a little heavier, as though he’s walking. Moving fast.Coming toward me? Or striding away?“Where are you?”
I open my eyes and glance back to the fifteen-story building I consider my home away from home. “Just leaving the George Stanley. Heading to Tim’s for a burger. You?”
“Leaving the station. I’ll meet you at the bar. Are you walking alone?”
“No.” I glance ahead and find my colleagues just ten feet in front of me. They chatter and laugh, despite their tendency to bicker the way siblings do. “Aubree and Seraphina are with me, too.”
“Oh, Sera?” Fletch’s voice tears through the call, leaving me reeling as I’m torn from the little bubble I thought only Archer and I occupied. “Seraphina’s going to Tim’s, too?”
“Go home, Fletch.”
“Coming to Tim’s for five,” he counters instead. “Getting a peek at her, then I’ll leave and have dinner with Moo.”
“Go away.” Archer’s breath comes out on a grunt, so in my mind, I see him shove his partner aside. “Aubree’s cool with going to the bar?”
“She’s trying to be mature andkind,” I tell him. “She’s being the bigger person, because she’s afraid if she stays mad at him, he’ll have more reason to go to New York.”
“Shitty reason to forgive someone,” he grumbles. “And he’s not going to New York. You look beautiful, by the way.”
“What?” I spin in place and grin when, a block away, I find the two detectives speed-walking in my direction.
My heart skips when Archer’s lips stretch wide and reveal a perfect—and by perfect, I mean devilish—smirk. It’s the same kind he wore the day we saidI do. The same one he tempted me with the day we met. The same smirk he wears when we’re lying in bed, sated after a marathon session and an orgasm for the record books.
Killing our call and slipping my phone into my bag, I drop the keys in after and hold my ground until the guys catch up.
“Hey, Dimples.” Fletch passes like a blur, fast and furious, with a gentle tap to my hip. Then he continues on to catch up to the other two.
Archer closes the rest of the space between us at an almost jog. Bullet wounds and long days won’t slow him down.
We clash with anoomph, and my lungs empty as he wraps his arms around my torso. He doesn’t give me a chance to breathe. No time to prepare myself. Instead, he squeezes so tight, a grunt works its way along my throat, then he lifts, and, surprising us both, my legs wrap around his hips and my arms go around his shoulders.
