“Your passcode. 1-0-0-3-2-1. It’s the date Will went missing. I feel like a fucking idiot for not catching that.” Archer gives me a sad smile, picking up the phone in its pouch. “I’ll put this in our safe for now until we can figure out what the hell to do about it.” He slips from the bed, but pauses in the doorway, looking back over his shoulder. “I wish I could tell you we know where Will is, but we don’t. What I really want to know is who the fuck planted that evidence in Kingston’s room … and why?” He shakes his head as we stare at each other for several uncomfortable seconds. “Lock the door behind me. I’m nervous as fuck now. We’ve missed something huge.”
EIGHTEEN
KINGSTON
“You know,you could have gone somewhere it’d be easier to find you.” Archer leans against the doorframe dressed in the dark-gray joggers he’d had on earlier, his chest bare, carrying a bottle of my honey whiskey by the neck. His brows lift as he waits for me to respond, and I get a distinctCome on, manvibe rolling off him.
I glance to my side as I begin to transfer my darks into the dryer, one damp heap at a time. I should have known he’d eventually come looking for me. He always does.
Eyeing me with interest, he brings the bottle directly to his lips and swallows several times before he offers it to me. He looks fucking exhausted. Then again, the last eight hours or so have been a spectacular shit show for all of us. I hadn’t realized my emotions could be dragged in so many directions or that my heart could be stomped on so viciously.
Tonight’s events are the only reason why I’m not going to say anything about him hitting the bottle so hard. Anytime something stresses him out, he turns to alcohol to dull the big emotions. Always has. Hell, join the club. But lately, he worries me.
“It’s dark in here. You know that, right?” Archer snickers, taking another swallow. Funny guy. Always trying to make me laugh when I’m in a bad mood. And yep, I’m definitely in a foul one right now.
Ignoring his question, I grit out, “You know we’ve gotta be up in”—I lean over to check the time on my phone on the counter next to the washing machine—“like four hours.” I jut my chin at the bottle. “Didn’t bother with a tumbler this time, huh?”
“K, life is one huge suck right now. Who gives a shit how I get the whiskey inside me, so long as I do?” Then lower, he murmurs, “You know this is how I cope. It’s Archer Modus Operandi 101.” He lets out a ragged sigh. “Now, do you want to share or what?”
I shut the dryer with a bang, not giving two shits what time it is, then dump my whites into the washer, toss in a pod, and push start. I pivot toward him, resting my hand on the counter as I slowly let my eyes roam over him. Satisfied by my leisurely perusal, I reach for the whiskey and take it, watching him as I tip the bottle up and let the amber-colored liquid slide down my throat.
Archer takes the bottle back from me, lifting it to his mouth for a swallow before rubbing his hand over his chest. He stares into my eyes for a moment, then lets loose what I’ve known was coming from the second he appeared. “So, let’s talk for a sec. I’m sure you’ve been going over shit in your head the same way I have. What do you make of Elliot knowing Will? I can’t fucking believe I didn’t catch that.” He’s not doing a great job of hiding his irritation. I know my Archer, and he’ll beat himself up over it for a long time to come.
I growl. “Not just knowing him. Best friends, she said. Cousins.Family.”My chest clenches uncomfortably at the thought.
Eyes wary, he nods. “Yeah. I went back and pulled up their initial letters of recommendation, looked more carefully at both families. I think he’s her second cousin by way of their mothers, which made it not at all obvious.” Shrugging, he lets out a sigh, rubbing his hand over the stubble on his cheek. “She literally had the perfect way in, between the masculine-sounding name and us not realizing she was related to Will.”
My jaw twitches, recalling how dumb we’d felt to realize the committee responsible for vetting our pledge candidates had fucked up royally. And that was before we knew why she was really here. I work my jaw back and forth, chewing on that fact. “Yeah, yeah she did. Snuck right in.”
“Stole our fucking hearts, too.”
I grimace, not wanting to admit that at the moment, even if he is right. “What the hell do you make of the goddamn phone in my nightstand?”
Archer shakes his head, throwing up one hand before taking another gulp of the whiskey. “Obviously planted. Whoever did it… fuck, I mean, I guess they were probably hoping for exactly what happened. Throw suspicion on you. And thatcouldmean someone else in the house knows who Elliot is. Or… at least that she’s looking into what happened? Right?”
My teeth grind, frustration at our inability to see the entire picture mounting. “Yeah. I guess. If it had anything to do with her at all.” I pause a beat before I growl, “So, whothe fuckput it in there? They had to have been holding it this entire goddamn time. It’s evidence in a missing person’s case. And we now have it in our possession. I don’t know what to do about that.”
Archer winces. “We’ll have to discuss that once we’re sober. No decision-making now. Just speculation.” He clears his throat. “How the hell did she find the phone in the first place? Was she searching your room?”
I wet my lips, “That’s the thing. She wasn’t. She said she found it in my nightstand, right? So, that’d be the day after she got knocked on the head. She asked me to borrow a charger. I told her where I had one, directed her to the drawer myself. I left to go look at those goddamn ugly notes in her bedroom, andboom.She must have gone in for the charger and found the wrong black pouch. Figured out that it was Will’s.”
“And didn’t tell us. Because…?”
“She didn’t trust us? She thought we were culpable? I don’t fucking know!” I slam my hand down on the counter, agitation boiling through me before I grab at the back of my neck and tug hard. One breath after another heaves from me, and I snatch the bottle of whiskey from Archer, letting my mouth fill with it. I swallow as much as I can, but some ends up dribbling from the corner of my mouth, sliding down my jaw to my neck.
Archer exhales, and it comes out a low, nervous laugh. On a groan, he murmurs, “K, I know we’re confused and upset, but fuck you’re one sexy bastard when you’re mad.” The corner of his mouth twitches up into a half smile, and he shakes his head before looking down for a moment.
Needing something, anything that will get me out of my head, I tip the bottle up to my mouth again, but this time, I purposely let more whiskey trickle from my lips.
Archer groans as he reaches up, running a hand through his hair, which is already standing on end. His steel-gray eyes track the whiskey as it drips down my throat.
I do it again and again, needing the alcohol to buzz through my system like it’s already buzzing through his. I cock one brow at him as my eyes narrow. I need… fuck, I want Archer right now with a desperation that seeps from my soul. I eye him carefully. If I know him as well as I think I do, he’ll be more than willing. I groan, wondering if it’s wrong to have so many emotions swirling around my mind about Elliot, our foursome in ruins, and the mess our brotherhood is in, yet still need Archer so desperately.
Almost as if he’s reading the thoughts the moment they flash through my mind, Archer is on me, fast as a bolt of lightning. He slides his tongue along the path of the liquor that’s dribbled from the corners of my mouth. Fuck, at least this is one way to slow him the fuck down. I can tell from the dilation of his eyes and the lazy swipe of his tongue, as well as the unbridled moans passing through his lips, that he’s at least halfway to drunk. He really must have been pounding the bottle up in his room before he came to find me.
I groan as he reaches my neck, and his talented tongue flicks out, catching droplets that’d gotten hung up in my stubble. He grasps me by the back of my neck and pulls me in to devour my lips. I press myself to his body, feeling the heat of his skin scorching me all over. He tugs at my hips to bring me closer, and his cock nudges mine, sending a shockwave through me. My heart rate accelerates, stumbling over beats, pushing blood through my body, and making my dick swell.
Arms wrapped around each other, we strain together, thrusting our hips and grunting out our passion. His lips on mine are warm and firm, and his tongue— Fuck, Archer’s tongue should be classified as an illegal weapon. The things he does with it. He strokes it into my mouth, taking possession of me, slides it along my jaw. Dips it into the hollow of my neck. It makes me so fuckin’ hard to know Archer wants me like this. He’s got my blood heating like mad right here in the laundry room. My gaze lands on the bottle of whiskey, and I can’t resist asking, “Still want to share?”
