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“You won’t.” He grabs the files on the edge of his desk and stacks them neatly. “In fact, I’m bumping you both down to Detective II—and that’s where you’ll stay until long after I retire.”
“Captain!” My partner charges forward and presses his hands to the desk. “We’re beingdemoted? We’re good cops!”
“Because you just told me that a killer is, in your book, a hero!” He shakes his head with disgust. “That won’t stand with me, Detective Fletcher. Not now, and not ever.”
Then he leans to the right and pins me with a look. “And you’re a Malone. Your family is consistently, and currently, on several Most Wanted lists. You werenevergetting lieutenant. In fact, you’re lucky you have a badge at all. Now go.” He waves his hand toward the door. “You’re both dismissed—and stripped of all active cases, effective immediately.”
“But, Cap. What about Marina Georgi—”
“Victor Georgiana was apprehended at LAX Airport this morning. He’s been—”
“LAX?” I exclaim. “What the hell was he—”
“He was fleeing the country with a one-way ticket to Greece. While you were busying yourself with a case I’d explicitly banned you from, your colleagues caught a killer.”
Now he sits back in dismissal. “So report to me on Monday, and we’ll get you started in your adjusted positions.If you complain,” he charges on when Fletch opens his mouth to speak, “you’ll get traffic duty. So I suggest you turn yourselves around right now. Silently. Get out of my office while I clean up this mess with the bank. The mayor—” he picks up his trilling phone, and slams it down again, “is up my ass and tearing strips off everyone because of what happened.”
I don’t say shit. I don’t cry about my demotion. I don’t whine because my captain is mean to me. I don’t even sulk because Bower is being a dick about my family. I move my feet and escape a lifetime of prison.
I drag Fletch along the corridors and onto the escalators that lead us down to the lobby.
“You didn’t rat me out,” I murmur. “Even though you could’ve.”
“He asked me about your alibis. I didn’t lie.”
“You could’ve tossed us under the bus.”
He chokes out a laugh and steps off the escalator a single step behind me. Together, we turn left and push through the doors to emerge into late afternoon sunlight outside. “Even if I’d said you and Delicious were his perps, he’d have to prove it—which is damn near impossible, if not for Mayet admitting her shit to me. So…” he shrugs. “I chose friendship. I chose brotherhood.”
“You risked your career.”
He coughs out a laugh and claps me on the shoulder to get us moving on the sidewalk. “I just got a demotion shoved up my puckered asshole for you, Arch.” He looks my way and smirks. “We still have beef. But… we’ll work through it.Here,” he presses. “In Copeland. Now walk faster, or we’ll be late for Moo’s birthday party.”
EPILOGUE
Archer
Fletch and I walk through the door of his apartment to find shit spewed from wall to wall. Kinda like what my apartment would look like if Slade had been successful in carrying out his goal, but in Fletch’s case… there’s rainbows, and unicorns, and glitter.
“Daddy!” Mia bounds up from her position in the middle of the living room rug and dashes through the crowd surrounding her.
Aubree. Fifi. Tim. Even Felix, though fuck knows how he got in here with Aubree on babysitting duty. Cato sits on Fletch’s recliner, his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands while he watches me.
I have no doubt he’d have killed Fletch if I’d left Bower’s office in cuffs. My brothers are not here to celebrate a little girl’s birthday today, but to hold that little girl ransom until Fletch made better the damage he did. So I nod for Cato and free him from the plans he was formulating in his mind.
“Moo-Moo!” Fletch crouches and catches his baby on the fly so her swinging legs kick me when he spins. But I don’t mind, because a single beat after hugging her dad, she turns in his arms and dives for me.
“Uncle Archer!” She wraps her arms around my neck and squeezes tight enough to cut off my air.
But fuck if I care. It’s been too long since I freely hugged the little girl who makes us all better people. Me. Fletch. Even Minka, the woman who was only passionate about work before Moo skipped into her life.
“Happy birthday, beautiful.” I press a kiss to her cheek while she giggles, then I pull back and drop another on the other side. “How does it feel to be four, huh? Four!”
“It feels the same as it did yesterday,” she sniggers. Releasing her chokehold on my neck, she cups my face and stares into my eyes like I hung the moon and the stars. “I missed you, Uncle Arch. You didn’t have hotdogs on a stick wif us in ages.”
“I know.” I wrap her up tight and breathe in the little girl’s scent. “I’m sorry, honey. Daddy and I have been…”Fighting.“Super busy at work. Which isn’t a very good excuse, honestly. You’re the most important, no matter what.”
I lower to one knee and set her on her feet. “Uncle Arch and Aunty Minka got you a present, beautiful. But it got a little lost. So I’ll get you another tomorrow, I pr—”
