AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You can’t make those decisions,” he hisses through tight teeth. “You can’t flout the law and expect me to come home at night, asking you how your day was.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing your home and mine are not the same.” I pour the juice on top of the liquor and slam the bottle back to the counter. “You can go back to your apartment and your slutty cat and your sanctimonious existence, and guess what? You don’t have to worry about how my day went.”
“You’re ending us?” He reaches out with fast hands and snags my drink before I can chug it and work my way toward belligerence. “Because we’re working through a few growing pains, you’re ending this?”
I choke out a desperate laugh. “You ended us already, Archer! You don’t remember?” I throw a hand toward the front door. “A week ago, you said you loved me, and I told you who I am. I gave you a chance to prove what you say. But instead, you stormed out of my apartment and literally didn’t speak to me again until,” I look at the clock on my wall and remember I haven’t changed the time since my move, “oh, about five minutes ago.”
“I already told you, that’s me creating space so I don’t hurt you with my anger.”
“So fucking noble of you.” I take my drink back and bring it to my lips as I circle him and move along my hall. “You can let yourself out, Archer. Then you can punch your brother in the face for breaking Aubree’s heart tonight. What he did was cruel and unnecessary. She knows he doesn’t want her, but that doesn’t make cruelty okay.”
“You’re so fucking clueless.” He follows me into the hall and snags my wrist until I skid to a stop and my back hits the wall. “He wants her, Minka. He wants her so fucking much, he refuses to be with her.”
“Another hero,” I roll my eyes. “These Malone men sure are something to aspire to.”
“She will die if he chooses her!” Archer folds his neck and leans closer until his nose almost touches mine. “If our father finds out, she will be targeted. If he finds out, she’s dead and my brother starts a war. So yeah, he’s gonna kiss other women. He’s gonna protect Aubree from that life, even if it means breaking her pitter-pattering fucking heart. And in the end, maybe she’ll hate him. But she’ll be alive, and that’s all that should really matter.”
“Maybe that’s not all that matters,” I counter coldly. “Maybe some of us would rather be dead than away from the one we love. But it’s funny that Tim should care about Aubree more than you care about me. That must make me disposable. In fact,” I slide out from between him and the wall and continue toward my room, “maybe that’s why you haven’t arrested me yet. It would be embarrassing, and probably bad for your career, to be publicly dating the vigilante. But get just enough exposure, just the right number of eyes on us, and your father will take out the trash. All of your problems will go away, and you’ll never have to admit to your lieutenant you’re dating a killer.”
“You’re wrong.” He follows me to my room and presses his hands to the doorframe so his knuckles turn white and the wood groans under the pressure. “There are a million differences between him and me. Starting with the fact I’m not Tim the fucking Third, and ending with my absolute fucking certainty that I’ll protect you until my dying breath. If they wanna come for us, they’re gonna come for us whether I’m with you or not. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna invite them over for dinner, but I’m not gonna stay away from you either, while we wait for the hypothetical to happen.”
“But youarestaying away from me! You haven’t talked to me in a week.”
“You kill people for fun!”
“Isavepeople when the system doesn’t do its job. I assure you, Archer, it’s never fun. But it’s necessary, and it’s something I will continue to do until I’m literally unable to anymore.”
“Even to spite me?”
“It’s not to spite you, you egotistical buffoon! This has nothing to do with you.”
“But I’m asking you to stop.” He follows me into my room and slows where I wait at the foot of my bed. “For me, for us, I’m asking you to stop.”
“I will not.” I lift my chin and hate how, even while we fight, even while we tear each other’s hearts out, I can still spy my bed and wish we were climbing into it together in the comfort and knowledge that we’ll hold each other all night long. “I won’t trade the lives of those whom my actions will save, all because of your misplaced loyalty to a system that doesn’t work.”
“Not for the system. For me.” He reaches forward with slow movements, deliberate touches, and slides his hand into the back of my hair. “Would you give it up for me? For what we can have?”
“Emotional blackmail?” I snap. “Is that what you’re going for next?”
“No! I—”
“Why do your beliefs supersede mine?” I turn my face and bury my nose against his warm wrist.
I’ve yearned for his touch for a week. I’ve silently begged him to come this close again. I’ve wanted to hear his voice and be on the receiving end of his love, and because of the unprecedented desperation clouding my thoughts, I’ve considered a life where I could go back andnottell him who I am. I’ve considered that reality, and the repercussions of living a lie.
But every time I try, I come back to the knowledge that without honesty, there’s nothing for us to be. And without that, what’s the damn point of any of this?
“I won’t shrink myself down just so you can be comfortable, Archer. And if you loved me like you say you do, you’d be appalled at the thought.”
He groans so the pain in the sound arrows straight for my heart. “Minka, I—”
“Why should I stop, based onyourbelief in right and wrong, instead of you no longer vilifying me for what I believe to be right?”
“Because you can’t kill people.” Slowly, he glances up and meets my eyes again. “That’s not your job. It’s not your responsibility. And every single time you think you can step in front of another man and hope to get him before he gets you, I break out in a cold sweat just thinking about how you flirt with your own demise. And then what?” He slides his hand to my chin and tilts my head back until our eyes meet. “What’s the point of arguing and fighting and hurting each other if you’re only going to die anyway?”
“I could say the same about your job.” I swallow down the ball of pain straddling my throat and reach up to wrap my hand around his wrist. “Your job is dangerous. You hunt killers too, just like I do. In the end, our goals are exactly the same, but you have a badge to hide behind, and I don’t. I respect your calling and the passion you have for your work. I understand it’s what you do, and I know it’s the risk you take each day when you walk out the door. It would be unbelievably selfish of me to ask you to stop. So I don’t. I trust you to take care of yourself. I trust you to be okay.”
“So you’re asking me totrustyou to go out at night and get this shit done? I’m to stay behind like a good little housewife and wait for you to come back?”
