Felix’s eyes glitter with anger. With rage.
“She’s safe,” Archer presses. “She’s gonna survive today. Since we’ve got that cleared up, why don’t you shut the fuck up and mind your damn business?”
“Archer.” Frowning, I tug on his hand and pull him away. Away from Tim and Aubree. Away from the Malone guards, whose bodies swell with adrenaline. Away from the planes and listening ears. I bring him a full forty feet from them all, then I come around and stop in front of him. “I don’t think we have any other options here.”
“We do.” He grips my face tighter than I think he realizes. His palms sit like cinder blocks on my cheekbones. “We have a million options, Minka. And none of them include you attending that dinner.”
“He’s never hurt us before. He’s?—”
“Why aren’t you mad?” he snarls. “He kept us apart, Minka!Hehurt us. You should be pissed.”
“I am.” I wrap my hands around his wrists, my thumbspressed to his pulse underneath. “I’m furious, and since I’ll have his undivided attention in a few hours, I intend to ask him why the hell he did that to us.”
“Oh, good! So you’re gonna go to dinner,andyou’re gonna question him. I bet he’ll take that on the chin like a champ.”
He thinks I’m not angry? That I’m not enraged over the things Estefan did to us this week?I’m incensed.But only one of us gets to be riled up today. The other one is me. Which makes it my job to calm shit down before things escalate.
“He asked us to come.” I lick my dry lips. “He needs something from us, and for as long as one of us is Ellie and the other is Soph, I don’t see him turning his guns our way. He won’t hurt us, Archer, he just wants an audience with a couple of doctors and the Solomon sisters.”
“I can’t be there with you,” he moans. “I can’t help you if it goes bad.”
“You’ll be nearby. Soph’s crew will be there, too. You know they’ll do whatever it takes to keep us alive.”
“To keepSophalive,” he counters firmly. “And Ellie. You and Aubreemaybenefit from their presence, but if a sacrifice must be made…”
I shake my head, though his grip on my face makes movement difficult. “I don’t believe Soph’s people would trade us, nor do I think they’d intentionally place us in harm. Frankly, I don’t think Cordoza would, either.”
“He already did! You’re chewing on a giant chunk of naiveté right now, Chief. You remember those four nights we spent apart, right? You remember the pain?”
Fresh, debilitating agony bounces around my heart. “Of course I?—”
“Hedid that. He’s calling you across the country, banning your supporters from entering the fucking room, and he’s doing it all on less than twenty-four hours’ notice. That’s not poor planning on his part, Mayet. It’s a fucking game, and he’s setting it up so you have no time to put a safety net in place.”
“I just…” I curl into his hand and breathe. For just this minute, I search for calm. For sense. “I don’t see what other choice we have.”
“We have a ton of ch?—”
“They all include packing up our lives and disappearing. And not just me and you. I mean Aubree and Tim. Felix and Micah won’t be safe in New York anymore if we ignore Cordoza’s request, which means they’re packing up, too. That means Christabelle and the baby, and Tiia. And if Tiia’s going, then her brother will follow. It’ll mean Cato stays behind, alone, but at risk, or it means he comes, too. That’s saying goodbye to his NBA dreams. It’s saying goodbye to the George Stanley. What about Steve? And Raquel and Justin?” I search his desperate, sparkling eyes. “You can’t pack all these people up and move them with us, Archer, and we both know you’ll never leave Fletch and Mia behind.”
“I would,” he rasps. “For you. I’d miss them with my whole fucking heart, but when the alternative is riskingyou?” He shakes his head. “It’s not even a question.”
“Aubree’s confident we’ll be safe.”
“But—”
“Soph hasn’t lost a single team member yet.”
“You’re not a Checkmate soldier!” he snaps. “You’re a medical examiner with a bleeding disorder and a big fucking mouth when something trips your trigger, so if Cordoza laughsin your face when you ask why he pulled his stunt this week, you’re gonna get pissed and bite back. Next thing we know, your body is being sent home in a box, with a little note on the side reminding me to marry meeker next time.”
“You’re gonna have to trust me to take care of myself.” I twist within his grip and press a kiss to his wrist. “I know it’s hard, and I know how much this week has already hurt us. I was there; I felt it all.”
“But Minka…” he moans. “The risk is too high.”
“I don’t really bond with people, right? I don’t make friends.” I look past him and stop on Aubree’s gentle, barely-there smile and her belief, deep in her heart, that everything will be okay. “I don’t trust very many people, but I trust her.” I bring my eyes back to Archer’s. “And I trust Soph. If Imustwalk toward danger, of all the women on the planet, I’m glad I’ll be walking with them.”
Even if Soph’s priority will be completely and totally concentrated on saving her sister before anyone else.
“Time to go,” Tim barks by the plane, turning on his heels and dragging Aubree along with him. He mutters something under his breath that kinda sounds like‘get this shit done already.’
