“Oh, I fucking did, you can bank on that.” His jaw works to one side, then the other. He chews on his lip a moment before he makes a deadly quiet assertion. “I made Alec listen.” He exhales hard, his face grim as his gaze lands on us before it drops again to the floor.
My brows shoot up, eyes darting from Archer’s fierce expression to Cannon at my side who immediately gives me a look that I read asOh shit, what the hell does that mean?And I agree with every ounce of his sentiment. What the fuck happened here while we were gone?
I stand from the chair arm and step closer to Archer, whose body has gone rigid. Squatting down in front of him, I carefully reach out and put my hand on his thigh. “I need you to tell me what you did.”
His head snaps up, and he blinks at me. “I went down there, and those pathetic fuckers were watching a movie.A goddamn movie.”He looks up at me from under half-hooded eyes. “It made me so fucking mad that what happened hadn’t affected them at all, with the exception of the obvious swelling of Alec’s nose. Meanwhile, Elliot is upstairs upset and freaking apologizing to me for losing it on him.” He presses his lips into a tight line. “It wasn’t right. I was already mad, but when our eyes connected, and Ifeltthe arrogance seeping from his pores—I saw red. I walked over, snatched a beer bottle off the coffee table, and smashed it upside his insolent head.”
I’m about to speak when Archer holds up his hand. “I’m not done. I grabbed that fucker’s hair in my fist and made him look at me while I held the broken end of the bottle to his throat. I cut him a bit.” His breath heaves out. “And I told him if he came near her, that’d be it.”
Behind me, Cannon huffs out a noise of obvious approval, and when I glance over my shoulder at him, he has a big fucking grin on his face.
“Archer, did you think we’d be mad at how you handled things?” I rasp. “You were defending Elle. You fuckin’ did exactly what Cannon or I would have.”
Slowly, his lips twitch into a smile. “I was definitely not myself.” He places his hand over mine on his leg and squeezes. “Fuck, it felt good, though. I scared the shit out of all three of them. I was waiting for one of them to piss their pants.”
I nod, glad to see Archer in better spirits. “Let’s hope this was the turning point, but I’m sure it won’t be. I swear to fuck there has to be a reason they haven’t let up on her, but maybe they will now. Elliot continues to prove herself over and over again.”
This girl is fire, absolute grace and determination under pressure. She’s the hurricane whipping, but at the same time, the calm in our storm.
Cannon grits his teeth and lets his fingers fly, clearly with a lot to say because the notifications begin to ping in rapid-fire.
They’re ballsy.
I assume they want her gone.
But it makes no fucking sense to push our buttons.
I’d say they’re jealous fucks…
But I don’t know if that’s it.
I groan, considering. “Unless they could see this as a way to oust us? They could go to the alumni easily.”
“Has that ever happened before?” Archer’s brow furrows.
I’ll admit it—I know a lot of fucking details about the history of the brotherhood, and I was brought up with all this stuff in my head with the expectation that it would someday be me running this show. What’s happening is kinda unheard of. “Nah, I don’t think so. They’ve removed brothers a few times, but never the head of house or senior members.”
Cannon huffs out a loud breath and shoots us a few more messages.
But why not fucking do that in the first place?
The second she showed up.
They could have done it weeks ago.
Unless they were too chicken shit to go to the alum.
I scrub my hand over my jaw. Possible.Probable,even. “Fuck it. I’m not worried about that right now. Archer, you’re sure Elliot was physically unharmed earlier? You checked her over well?”
Cannon’s brow furrows, but he responds since Archer hasn’t.
You know he would have.
I nod, but it bothers me that Archer hasn’t answered. In fact, it seems like he’s daydreaming or something, or maybe he’s listening for Elliot across the hall? I dunno. “Arch.” My voice is sharp. Commanding. And it snaps Archer out of whatever daze he’d been in.
He exhales loudly, his eyes flicking my way. “What?”
I squeeze his leg once more before sitting on the floor at his feet. “What’s going on with you?”
