“I’ve been instructed to keep the car running, ma’am. But if you’d prefer I walk in with you, I’ve been cleared for that, too.”
“No. It’s…” I shake my head, Archer’s gift tormenting me like a drum in the back of my skull. I shake my head a second time and exhale. “It’s fine. I’m not sure exactly how long I’ll be, but?—”
“I’ll wait patiently, ma’am. No rush.” He turns in his seat and meets my eyes without the mirror in the middle. “I’m here if you need me.”
“Yeah.” I scratch the back of my neck and breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Nodding, I close my clutch and hold my phone separately. “Thank you, Mr. Burke. I’ll be back soon.”
I glance right as my door opens and a valet shields me from the blistering late afternoon sun with a broad umbrella. Better yet, he inadvertently hides me from onlookers and anyone elseheading past. “Thank you.” I allow him to escort me all the way to the door, then inside where the icy air conditioning works overtime to combat the hundred degrees outside.
“You are here to meet Mr. Abate?” A server stops in front of me with a crisp white cloth draped over his arm. “Please, miss. Won’t you follow me?”
“Thank you. Is Mr. Abate here?”
“Yes, miss. He arrived just a moment ago and directed me to move your party to the Luxe Room.”
Luxe Room?I unlock my phone and speed-type, even as I follow the server with barely more than a glance.
Me:
Abate’s here. We’re heading to the Luxe Room. My head is in the game, so relax. I’ll text you when I’m done.
Soph:
Reminder; I can hear basically anything you say, and I can see your GPS dot moving, so I know where you’re going, too. You don’t have to send text updates. They serve no purpose except to distract you. Focus.
I still have no visual confirmation Abate is there, so he must’ve come in through some other entrance. Which, by the way, pisses me off. I thought I had up-to-date schematics. Won’t make the same mistake twice.
Eat. Cut. Get out. Doesn’t matter what mess you leave behind, you’re clear. Probably don’t stand in front of him when you slit his throat, though. That shit is messy, and I’m not sure we can get you out without being noticed if you’re literally dripping in blood.
I roll my eyes and lock the screen, slipping my phone into my clutch to free up one hand. Bringing my gaze up, I smile as the server stops outside a closed door labeledLuxe.
“This is it, miss.” He grabs the handle and silently opens the door, revealing a room filled with shadows and flickering light. Candles surround the space about as large as my living room and kitchen combined, but only one table exists.
Seated in the shadows, his face almost completely obscured by darkness, is a man not at all the one I was expecting.
“Chief Mayet.” His lips, sinful and thick, curve to the side and reveal perfect, pearly white teeth. “Nice of you to join me.”
Stunned, I stumble across the threshold and blink, blink, blink. “Archer?” I glance back at the soft snick of the closing door, then around again. Gulping, I ask, “What the hell are you doing here?”
ARCHER
I’ve never claimed to be an honorable man, nor have I made promises to fight fair. I never declared myself a saint, or selfless, or even a gentleman.
Theonlypromise I made to this world was to protect my fucking wife. To be by her side from the moment we saidI do, all the way till the end, when death parted us, and, in the event I broke her heart, I promised to put it back together again.
No matter the cost. No matter the pain. No matter the fucking hurdles I would first have to overcome.
“Archer!?” Minka stands over me, her hand pressed to the table and her sweet, succulent tits, at the exact right height to become my dinner tonight. She leans closer, her delicious perfume wafting in to scald the base of my lungs, even as her lips peel back and reveal gritted teeth. “What the hell are you doing?”
“We had a date.” Casual as a fucking duck on water—as in, my heart thunders beneath the surface—I study her plump lipsand fiery, glaring eyes, and when she snarls, the sound barely an iota above silent, I tilt my head left and spy the clock on the wall. “Seven o’clock.”
“We donothave a date! I have a commitment somewhere else, with someone else, and you absolutely shouldn’t be here.”
“And yet—” I take the hem of her dress and roll the silky fabric between my fingers. “Here we both are. It’s dinnertime. You’re dressed up, and your eyes look like they belong to a cat. It’s like the pharaohs from your bloodline, royalty from five thousand years ago, popped back in for a night on the town.”
She slaps my hand away and turns toward the door. “I don’t know how you knew I’d be here, Archer, or how you got the server to move me to a different room, but I have somewhere else to be.”
I bound up from my chair and sprint across the room, slamming my belly to her back and crushing her against the door before she can open it.
