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“Didn’t mind giving it anyway, Chief Mayet. As a detective, I’m a man of observation.”
“Just give it a go,” Raquel inserts before Archer and I can truly get started. “Contract states a three-month trial period. If he sucks, you can boot him in August. But he’s gonna rock it. I promise, I did my homework on this one.I’mthe one who has to work with him, so you know I’m not going to waste my money on a pretty boy who slows me down.”
“Doctor Raquel…”
She smacks the elevator door when it attempts to close. “Three-month trial. Try it, and at the end, you’ll tell me I was right.”
“She won’t.” Archer sets his hand on my hip and brings me forward until we step into the elevator. Turning back and pressing the button for the ground floor, he pulls me closer when Fletch, Mia, Aubree, and our new workplace puppy, Doctor Campbell, follow us in. “Even if you’re right,” he clarifies. “She won’t say so.”
“Shut the hell up.” I smack his hand from my hip and meet Fifi’s stare as she waits outside with Raquel. “We’re going to Tim’s. You coming?”
Her eyes flick to Fletch and shutter for a beat. But then she shakes her head and takes a step back. “No. I have something tonight.”
“A date?” Fletch demands, not at all gentle in his obnoxious probing. “Who are you going on a date with, Sera?”
“Yeah,” Mia pipes up, though for not the same reasons. “Who are you dating, Miss Fifi?”
“That’s grown-up stuff.” Fifi smiles for the little girl, genuine, unlike when she fakes pleasantries for Fletch. “Your hair looks cute today, Moo. I like the little braids.”
“Fanks! Daddy did them this morning.”
“Yes, very cute,” I insert. “We’re going now. Bye, Fifi.” I hit the ‘close door’ button and shut my eyes so I can get a minute of solitude. Peace and quiet.
It doesn’t last more than ten seconds before Xavier asks Aubree about a case she and I ran months ago: Mayor Tribble—Lawrence’s shady predecessor—who was shot and killed by… well,me.
But that was self-defense.
As soon as the elevator doors open, I grab Archer’s hand and bring us out and to the right. Then I meet Aubree’s eyes and nod toward the building’s exit. “Go ahead. I just need a couple of minutes.”
She stops on a dime and spins back with caution in her stare. “Everything okay?”
I nod and bring my free hand up to crush my thumb against my eye. “Fine. But I need a little quiet. So you guys go ahead, and we’ll catch up in a few.”
She hesitates for a beat, her crush on a new, studly, lab tech no way nearly as important as her concern for me. But I wave her away, silently and blindly begging for a moment alone before I explode.
“What’s the matter?” The second they’re gone, Archer pinches my chin between his fingers and waits for my eyes to flicker open.
When they do, I find myself surrounded in perfect green, like we’re in some faraway forest no one else gets to visit.
“What’s. Wrong?” he repeats, slower this time, and pinching harder when my instinct is to shake my head and dismiss whatever it is I’m feeling. “Tell me now, or we go home and fight it out. But you’ll tell me before the night is over.”
“I’m just tired.”
I reach up and wrap my hand around his thick wrist. But my words flow, instead of remaining locked down where they belong, and my worries are enough for him to relinquish control and stroll beside me as we head toward the large revolving doors.
“Life is so busy right now. With Cato at home, and Felix’s new life as the headguyin New York stressing me out. And Fletch all twisted up about Jada not being who she needs to be for Mia. And Aubree ‘swearing off men,’ though we know she’s stupid in love with Tim. And—”
“And the mayor?” he inserts, leading me through the door and onto the sidewalk outside. He wraps one hand around mine, and reaches out with the other to carry my bag. “Our lives are busy every day, Mayet. Always. Jada’s always gonna fall short, and Aubree’s always gonna pine for Tim. Fletch is Fletch, and Cato has been with us for weeks already. The only difference today…” He glances down and waits for my eyes. “Is the mayor.”
“I don’t think he hurt Anna,” I exhale on an explosive breath. “He didn’t kill her, Archer, but he’s not helping us keep his name out of this.”
“And despite your aversion to caring about people and making yourself vulnerable. You give a shit about Lawrence. So now you’re worried about what’s gonna happen to him.”
“How can I not be? He treats me like his daughter! Even though I don’t like it, he—”
“Loves you anyway? Even though you act like affection is awkward, he makes sure you know it’s there, because that’s what dads do.”
“His daughters are my age,” I sigh. “If it were up to him, we’d be siblings for real. I didn’t even know this man last year! But he decided he liked me, and now he has my nervous system in overload, all because a woman he knew has been murdered, and my husband is the lead detective on the case. We can’t escape this, Archer, but he’s not cooperating, so—”
