MINKA
“Hey. I know you got my texts. What are you doing?”
My breath catches in my throat, tears blurring my vision until I can barely see more than three feet in front of me, and since the universe isn’t done taunting me yet, a furry blur skitters across the tree-lined road, forcing me to whip the steering wheel to the left. I gasp as my wheels skid on the tar, the sound screeching into the cab loud enough to scrape at my soul.
Dammit. Dammit. Dammit!
“Chief?” Soph’s biting tone cuts through the SUV's speakers. “You know I’ve got you hooked into every piece of tech I own, right? Which means I know you’re recklessly speeding down that hill. Are you running from a bear, or do you enjoy playing with your life?”
“Archer knows.” Tears scorch over my cheeks, burning my skin as they slowly, torturously roll south. “He knows, Soph!” I swipe the horrifying moisture from my face and breathe.Justbreathe. I’ve felt this way before. I just have to breathe. “He knows what we did to Agosti.”
“Uh… okay? So, you’re the primary participant in a police car chase, then? Is that why you’re risking your life on that hill?”
“No!” Furious, I tap the brakes and come around a curve in the road. “Oh God, Soph. He knows. I got home from work and walked into a fucking ambush. Him. Felix. Tim. Aubree,” I choke out. “They knew! And I was such a dick that, instead of having an actual conversation and working this through with him, I basically ended my marriage.”
“You…” She draws a stunned breath. “What?”
“I’m so stupid!” I slam my palm onto the steering wheel, the thump reverberating up through my wrist and into my shoulder. Which is just another reminder of everything I’ve screwed up. “He was so mad.”
“What the hell do you mean you ended your marriage? These things take time, Chief. And a judge.”
I bring the SUV around the final bend and onto flat road, my eyes shooting to the rear-view mirror and my pulse thundering in my throat.Is Archer following me? Do I want him to?“It was just a fight,” I whimper, slowing the car before I run some sweet family and their Golden Retriever down during their evening walk. “We’ve had this argument before. The one where I want to protect the girls, and he wants to protect me. We keep going around and around, because we can never truly come to an agreement that makes us both happy.”
“So you…” She’s lost. Perhaps for the first time in her life, Sophia Solomon can’t quite keep up. “You asked for a divorce?”
“No!” I drag the heel of my palm over my left cheek. Wipe iton my pants. Then I swipe the other side. Wipe it on my pants. “I said it’s possible he jumped intousa little too quickly, and that maybe he didn’t realize how serious I was in my convictions. If he needed time to reconsider our marriage, he could take it.”
“Well, that was stupid.” She rolls her eyes. I don’t see it. But Ifeelit. “Believe it or not, Chief, but I know a thing or two about stubborn women setting good things on fire instead of admitting they’re kinda scared of vulnerability. Turn the car around, dummy. Go back and tell him you've changed your mind. He doesn’t get time or space to reconsider, ‘cos you already have the wedding certificate, and you’re not giving it up. Eat a meal. Drink some wine. Go to pound-town and work through the anger with sex.Thenyou can talk it out.”
“God.” I squeeze the bridge of my nose and release a long, pained groan. “I’m so stupid.”
“Not usually.” She takes a leisurely sip of her drink. “But with this? Yeah. That was stupid. Now you need to stop freaking out, stop speeding like an idiot, and just…” She pauses for dramatic effect. “Stop setting shit on fire. Turn your ass around, go home, deal with your business.”
I drop my hand and bring the car around a corner, my eyes flitting to the rear-view mirror again.
Will he follow? Or has he finally realized how much fucking work I am?
It was only a matter of time.
“I can’t go back.” My voice crackles and aches. It burns and scratches, each word an assault on my already sensitive throat. “He doesn’t agree with what we’re doing, and I can’t stop what we’ve started. We’re not compatible.”
“Me and you?”
“No! Me and Archer.”
There are no shiny trucks riding my bumper. No angry cops glaring at me through the mirror. NoArchersbegging me to come home. Our entire relationship, from the moment we ran into each other inside the airport and, just a couple of hours later, shared a bed, has been on fast-forward. Everything we are has been passionate and accelerated, and, luckily for me, too quick to allow Archer a chance to truly think this through.
But now I’ve gone and given him the one thing that could undo us: time.
“He deserves better than to go round and round with me about the same shit, Soph. He deserves?—”
“A woman whodoesn’tinsist on becoming the ultimate fucking martyr just so she can avoid having a real conversation for once in her damn life?”
“I—” I frown. “What?”
“You did a thing this week, Chief. You don’t regret doing it, since Agosti was a piece of shit, but you knew Archer wouldn’t approve. Now you’re throwing yourself on a sword and ending your relationship first, all sohecan’t end it. Being the breaker saves you from the pain of being the broken. Jesus,” she huffs. “You act like we’re not exactly the fucking same.”
“Soph—”
