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Pulling back so she could look at me, she shook her head. “But what if it’s not too late? I never understood why you never talked to him again after he left for college.”
This wasn’t something I wanted to get into right now, especially not with Sofie skipping around us, sensing something was wrong.
Desperate for a topic change, I turned to Sofie. “Thanks for visiting. I had a lot of fun.”
She hugged me, then took Everleigh’s hand. “I’ll be back soon for my swimming lessons.”
At Everleigh’s questioning glance, I shrugged. “Archer promised to show her how to swim fast and hold her breath under water.”
“He talked to her?” Everleigh’s voice was disbelieving. I didn’t blame her since Archer had been avoiding her.
Sofie pulled on Everleigh’s hand to make sure she was paying attention. “He told me he jumps out of airplanes. And he swims with sharks. But he isn’t scared.”
Handing over Sofie’s bag, I hugged my friend. “Maybe things aren’t as hopeless as you think.”
Sofie dragged Everleigh outside, her mind already on where they could stop on the drive home.
After waving them off, I went back to my room, collapsing onto my bed. Kids were exhausting. I didn’t know how Everleigh was glowing all the damn time.
My last conscious thought was of how I could talk to Archer about my friend without pissing him off. Something which might be impossible.
7
ARCHER
“There’s talk of another attack,”Devon said as soon as I answered my phone. “And Gunner is locking everyone down. That includes you.”
Walking outside, not wanting anyone to overhear me, I paced on the patio. “How certain is this? I’m not going to keep everyone confined to the house just because someone’s panicking.”
Devon scoffed. “You clearly don’t know Gunner if you think he scares easily. This is solid intel. Carter finally found a trail. And I have a feeling we won’t like what we’ll find if we keep digging.”
Yet we couldn’t stop until we knew who’d killed Sam, a member of our team. It had all happened before I started with Locked Security, but someone was still disrupting operations, hitting strategic locations, and attacking teams out in the field.
Resigned to spending more time close to Thea but unable to touch her, I pinched the bridge of my nose. “How long?”
“Twenty-four hours. Carter is working nonstop. He’s the best, but he can only go for so long before even he needs to take a break.”
“Keep me updated.”
I knew I sounded desperate, but I didn’t care. Thea had been doing nothing but lying out by the pool in a tiny bikini. I only had so much self-control when the object of my obsession was right in front of me, barely covered.
It was getting harder to put distance between us. But she was married and a client. Acting on my attraction was out of the question.
At least this appointment wouldn’t be forever. William was finally making headway, getting out of his entanglements with the Russians. My hunch that he’d been withholding information had been correct, and he had still been fulfilling contracts when we came on board. But he was now finally doing the right thing and ceasing all business dealings with them.
It would take a lot of money and negotiations to get him out with all his fingers attached, but maybe a little scare wouldn’t be the worst thing. He could live without his pinkie if it meant he’d never put Thea in danger again.
Staying outside, I checked in with all the guys, telling them we were on lockdown until further notice. The place was locked down tight already, so we didn’t have to put additional security in place.
Thea didn’t leave much anyway. And besides speaking to Everleigh every day, she didn’t keep in touch with anyone.
Thea had tried a few times to get me to talk to my sister. I hadn’t reacted rationally and walked off without a word.
She’d been tiptoeing around me ever since. I felt like a bastard, but the thought of talking to my sister made me want to throw up. I wasn’t ready. Eventually, I’d have to tell her what had happened to me. But not yet.
I walked back into the kitchen, where Thea was laughing with Jacques, William nowhere to be found as usual. Giving her a moment before I’d have to kill her good mood, I stayed near the glass doors, drinking in her clear voice, her full lips, and the tiny scar through her eyebrow.
She’d gotten it when she had been goofing around on my skateboard when she was sixteen and crashed into the edge of the stairs she’d been trying to jump over.
