Page 47 of Archer

Crispin looked over at his friend. “I don’t think you can catch pictures of ghosts with a regular camera.” He glanced back at me. “Can you?” He didn’t wait for an answer before turning to Elton again. “I’m sure you can’t. He’s not a ghost. He’s a person, and we saw him! He was there, and then he was just… gone.”

“Who, Crispin? And people don’t disappear into thin air.”

“Jordy. We saw him. I’m sure it was him, so we went after him, and he disappeared. Like he was there, and then poof, he was gone.”

I refused to let how damn cute he looked all worked up over the disappearing, maybe Jordy, distract me. He’d scared me, and because of that, we had things to discuss. “Crispin, I don’t know what happened to whoever you saw, and I don’t know if it was even Jordy. What I do know is that this”—I motioned to the mess of belongings scattered in the parking garage—“is not okay. How do you think it looked when I showed up and you were gone, and your stuff was all over the place?”

“I’m sorry, but he was getting away,” he insisted.

“You can’t just run off after people. And you definitely can’t assume that just because Cort is a good guy that Jordy is as well. We don’t know him, Crispin. This was not a wise or safe choice.”

He hung his head and let out a sigh. “I guess not. I just didn’t want to lose him. Not if we had a chance of finding him for Cort.”

“So you chased after him, and he still got away. Meanwhile, you left all your belongings right here, out in the open, where anyone could have found them or taken them.”

Just then, the door leading to the parking garage flew open, and Hitch came through. His focus was solely on Elton, who’d been standing quietly, glancing between me and Crispin. When he reached us, he looked around at the clothes, books, and shoes all over the place.

“What happened here?” he asked Elton.

“We thought we saw Jordy, so we chased after him.”

Hitch’s brow furrowed. “What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking…” Elton hesitated like maybe an acceptable answer would come to him, but he’d heard how it went between me and Crispin, so he knew better. “I was thinking that Crispin and I were going to help Cort find his little brother.”

Hitch looked at the scattered items around Crispin’s car and let out a sigh. “Head on inside,” he said firmly to Elton.

“But I need to help Crispin carry his stuff up to Archer’s apartment,” Elton protested.

Hitch glanced at me and smirked. “I’m pretty sure the two of them can handle this. Now, come on.” He placed a hand on the small of Elton’s back and gave him a gentle push toward the door. I thought I heard something about, “At least you weren’t wearing pajamas,” but I wasn’t sure.

I let them go and turned my attention back to Crispin. “Let’s get this picked up, and we’ll bring it upstairs before we have a nice long talk about personal safety and you scaring me half to death.”

“I’m really sorry, Daddy. I wasn’t thinking. I saw him and reacted.”

“I know you just wanted to help, and I want Cort to find his brother, too, but sweet boy, you’re what matters to me. Do you hear me?”

He nodded and started picking up his things.

I started helping before pausing and taking a good look around at all the stuff now that I could think clearly. “Did you bring everything you own?”

“Not everything,” he said, he said with a small smile. “Just the stuff that was at my brother’s.”

Crispin

It took two trips up to Archer’s place, even with him carrying the majority of my stuff. He still didn’t look too happy with me, but he didn’t exactly look angry either. I waited in the living room until he’d taken the last of my clothes to his bedroom.

He came back into the room and sighed.

“Are you mad at me, Daddy?” I asked nervously.

Archer shook his head. “That isn't the word. You scared the hell out of me. I’m realizing that you have no sense of self-preservation at all.”

“That's not true. It's daytime, and we were outside the Windsor. Besides, Elton was with me. It’s not like I was alone.”

Archer barked out an incredulous laugh. “So knowing Elton was with you is supposed to make me feel better? I’m not sure that’s the reassurance you think it is.”

Okay, I guessed he had a point. “Well… it was Jordy.”

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