Page 44 of Grumpy Billionaire Bad Boy

"What?"

"We need to clean this up." She points to the mess. "We can't leave it like this." She goes straight into the kitchen, dropping the remains of the chair into the trash, and looks through cabinets until she finds what she's looking for, then goes to work doing exactly what she said.

"Grace," I say. "Are you okay?"

She turns to me."Are you crazy?"

"Are you?" I pause and then add, "Why did you give him your number?"

"You have no idea who they are, do you?"

Chapter 14

Archer

"Are you sure you're okay?" Ivy asks me, her face scrunching up as she examines mine.

"Yeah. I'm sure." Nothing a cold shower and a few days of licking my wounds won't fix. I've been worse off and recovered, we both know that.

She seems to buy my answer, not pressing on my injuries or what just happened any more."What's the deal with you two?" Ivy says to me from the entrance of my apartment building.

"Nothing." I cross my arms and do everything I can not to go back down to their car and stab my brother for being a dick to London and her friend. Why London decided to test him, I'll never know.

"You're lying."

"I am not."

"Why is she staying in your apartment, Archer?"

I take a breath in. How much should I tell her? What information does she need to know? If I give her something, maybe it will shut her up and get her to let it go.

"What's his deal lately, anyway?" I try to divert things back to Seven because then maybe she'll forget her train of thought.

"He seriously needs to get it together," Ivy tells me. "It's embarrassing." She barely pauses before ripping right back into me. "But don't try to change the subject. I need to know what's going on, right now."

"Keep it down." I step toward her. "Nothing is going on. A friend asked me to keep an eye on her and keep her safe for a little while. It's temporary, Ivy, nothing to worry about."

"I'm not worried, I'm just confused. You hate people. You barely speak to us. It's insulting you're letting some stranger crash when you can't even show up to family dinner."

"I know, I'm sorry."

"I'm so fucking sick of hearing you say sorry. I need actions, not some weak-ass apologies." Ivy's face softens. "I get it, Arch, you've been through a lot. But we all have. We've all lost someone close to us. We can't lose you, too."

"You're not going to lose me."

She tilts her head. "Then why does it feel like I already have?"

"She means nothing to me, Ivy. This is all a means to an end. I'm doing Silver a favor, okay? I'm simply paying a debt." I don't add that the last part is a lie. I fulfilled my debt to Silver when I hacked into the Manor's impenetrable security. My hands were clean of him and honestly, he's lucky I even allowed him to ask me something so fucking foolish. But a debt is a debt, and I owed him a favor. Now, he owes me one, one that I never asked for, one that has done nothing but wreak havoc on my life the second she stepped foot on my doorstep. "Soon enough I'll get rid of her, and we'll put this all behind us. But until then, she's going to be here, okay?"

"You promise?" Ivy looks up at me, her saddened eyes tearing at my heart. She's desperate to fix the cracks in our broken family but I don't know how much more we can take before things fall completely apart.

"And wait, Silver? Seriously? I thought you weredone,Arch?"

"I'm trying to be. It's not my fault no one will respect my wishes."

"I know it's hard with how things are. We're trying to legitimize all of August's affairs…but it's hard. There are too many threads tying everything together. The entire empire was founded with…" She trails off, not finishing her sentence, but both of us know what she's referring to.

August saved us, but in order to do so, he had to hustle in any way he could, doing the unspeakable to gain enough to get us out.

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