Page 89 of Snowbound with the Santas

“Holy shit,” Nick murmurs, and he slides his hands down the bars. “We’re dating a prison chick.”

“Is she really a prison chick if we’re also locked up? Surely, the prison thing cancels itself out?” I smirk softly.

“It’s kinda hot,” Archer remarks. “Always had a thing for a woman in cuffs. Also, Nick, please don’t ever saychickagain.”

“What, is that not the thing these days?” Nick rolls his eyes.

Archer pats his shoulder and squeezes. “It’s just not you.”

Nick snorts out a laugh and nods. “Fine.”

“How do you feel?” I ask, watching Rayne as she rocks back and forth slightly.

“Honestly?” She lifts one hand to toy with the edge of her hair. “I don’t know. Tired, I think. Like a weight’s been lifted. There’s almost something soothing about finally having people hear the truth. I don’t know what will happen, but at least Ashton can’t hold it over me anymore.” Her head tilts to the side. “He looked shocked. I don’t think he ever expected me to tell the truth. Or maybe he was more surprised that people believed me. I’m not sure. My mom…” Rayne groans. “God. I think she’s going to write me out of her will.”

“Who needs that shit, anyway?” Archer says. “We’ll take care of you.”

Nick and I nod in agreement.

Rayne looks at each of us in turn and smiles, then her brow snaps down and her eyes narrow. “So, does one of you want to explain why the hell you attacked my uncle?”

“Youruncle?” My body recoils at the thought.

“That man is your uncle?” Archer snarls, and the disgust is so clear in his tone. I shoot him a glance since he sounds like he’s seconds away from gagging. His face is paler than normal, but I understand why. He likely has the same anger simmering in his gut that I have.

“Not by relation,” Rayne clarifies. “But yeah, he’s Uncle Cecil and you both beat on him like he pissed in your cereal.”

Nick clears his throat as if trying to warn Rayne away from the topic. Archer returns to the wall and faces it. His body is bunched so tightly that the wrong word is surely going to make him snap, so I take over. After all, Rayne has been truthful with us, so it’s only fair we return the favor.

“Rayne, do you know what your uncle does for a living?”

Rayne shrugs. “Some kind of government work, I think. Why?”

I exchange a glance with Nick and sink my teeth into the inside of my cheek. “You remember when Archer was telling you how he got his scars? And what… what happened to my brother? How there was a suit giving the orders. Bad orders. And if not for his carelessness or even recklessness, then my brother, Harry, would still be alive?”

All the color drains from Rayne’s face. “No… no, you’re not saying…”

I nod solemnly. “Yeah. Cecil Banks was the one in charge of that mission, and countless others. He might be asuitto the outside world, but he works for the Ministry of Defense and he makes shitty fucking calls. I had to spend months staring at his fucking face during the court trials, but like always, they deemed he had done no wrong and there was no way he could have anticipated the outcome.”

“As if my verbal warnings on the ground weren’t clear enough to stop the operation,” Archer snarls and he slowly turns around. “But scumbags like him? They tell you to push forward or come back and face a court martial that there’s no end to. They take away your choice so you’ll be a good little soldier. As far as I’m concerned, he killed Harry. I don’t care what the court said. I was there. I know he was at fault.”

Rayne’s face falls and the hair she was playing with becomes tightly wrapped around two of her fingers as she listens. By thetime Archer finishes, there’s a crimson splash across her cheeks and her eyes sparkle slightly.

“I’m so sorry. I had no idea. I mean, I knew he had a government job and it always took him away from things, but I had no idea it was military-related. And then…” Her eyes widen. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you both to see him here.”

“I saw red,” I admit. “Like something swallowed me up. For years, I’ve wanted to get my hands on that bastard, but the suits are always protected. I’ve wanted to make him feel even a fraction of the pain he made me feel, but…” Shaking my head, I slump against the bars with a low groan. “It’s the sort of thing Nick tells us to work through.”

“Hey.” Nick raises both hands. “I tell you to let it go because it’s better for your physical and mental health. Keeping that pain for over a decade is a killer. But when the culprit walks right up to your face… I don’t know.” He huffs softly. “Maybe active aggression is better therapy.”

“I never…”

I hear Archer’s voice crack for the first time in my life.

“I never thought I would see him again. I thought… I dreamed of the things I would do to him and I always thought that sinking my first into his face would make me feel a hundred times better, but instead I…” Archer stares down at his bruised fist and slowly turns it over. “I still feel empty.”

“Please hug him,” Rayne murmurs, moving to clutch the bars. “I want to and I can’t.”

Nick and I close in on Archer and for once, he doesn’t shrug off the affection of close contact. We hug him as tightly as we can while Rayne watches with shining eyes.

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