Page 83 of Ruthless Legacy

Chapter Twenty

I wake up the next morning and berate myself mentally because whose bed am I lying in? Not my own, that’s for sure. I can feel Archer’s warm steady breath against my ear. He spoons me, one arm draped over my waist. It’s official — I have no willpower and I hate that he knows it.

“Archer,” I say gently, tapping his arm. “I need to get up. I have work.”

He groans and nuzzles his face into the back of my neck. “Forget the job. You don’t need it.”

I tap his arm harder. “Let me up. I need to get ready for work!”

I yelp when he suddenly rolls us and he’s above me staring down at me, with sexy bed hair, that I may have tugged on a bit last night. “God, Scarlet, it’s only six-thirty. You don’t start for another hour and a half.”

“I need to shower and wash my hair. So let me up, Savage.”

He cocks a brow and smiles down at me. Relaxed, playful Archer is still taking some getting used to. I can handle him when he’s moody and demanding, but when he’s like this it really throws me off. “Who said I was done with you yet?”

I push on his chest. “Up. Now!”

With a sigh, he pulls away from me stands to his feet. He turns and offers me his hand. “Let’s get you showered, then?”

“Uh-uh, I’m not going in that shower with you because we both know what will happen if I do.”

He rolls his eyes at me. “We’ll shower nothing more. Come on, you don’t want to make yourself late.”

With reluctance, I place my hand in his and let him lead me into his ensuite. Naked Archer and a shower are just too good to resist.

Needless to say, he drops me at work with minutes to spare. I give him shit for it all of the drive there and he just smirks and eyes me in my uniform like he wants to devour me.

“I’ll pick you up at four.” He looks me over in my uniform and sighs. “Is it supposed to be that short?”

“Yes. Besides, it’s not that bad,” I reply as I tug on the hem.

His response is to snigger. “Go to work Scarlet before I take you back home and lock you in my bedroom.”

Sighing, I climb out of his car, and no sooner have I shut the door he’s speeding off down the lane. I knock on the glass door, and I see Jess come from out the back. She gives me a friendly wave and come and lets me in.

“All ready for your first day?”

“I am.” I can’t wait to feel like my own person again. Archer and Vee can tease me all they want, but I will make my own way in life.

The day passes quickly, and I soon get the hang of things. Jess just has me waiting tables today. She tells me she’ll show me how to work the till next week and I do a quiet fist bump when she turns her back as that means she’s going to take me on permanently.

There’s a steady flow of customers all day. Even Calvin pops in to pick up a coffee and he tells me to keep up the good work. By the time I finish, it’s dark outside and I’m dead on my feet. Jess gives me my shifts for the next week and tells me to take a caramel doughnut with me when I go. She asks me if I’ll take the rubbish out before I head off, so I open the side exit off the kitchen and make the short walk outside to where the bins are located and I’m that occupied on my task that I don’t hear someone come up behind me and its only when a hand closes over my mouth, and I feel cold metal at my neck that I panic.

“You were told to leave town,” the male’s voice whispers in my ear. “You didn’t take my warning seriously.”

I want to tell him I do take him seriously, but all that comes out is muffled sounds as he presses his hand tightly over my mouth to stop me from screaming out for help.

“Leave. Before you ruin everything,” the whispered voice demands. I whimper in protest when he removes the knife from my neck and runs it up my left leg and under my uniform. “I must admit you are a little temptress in this sexy little get-up.”

I wriggle in his hold, trying to get free and the knife nicks at my thigh. “Now look what you made me do. You think the Aces can protect you? They can’t. I’m always one step ahead. This is your last friendly warning. We wouldn’t want you to end up in a terrible accident like your dearest parents, would we now.”

My phone ringtone blasts out into the silence of the night, and I take his moment of distraction to elbow him as hard as I can in his side whilst I ram my head up and backwards into his jaw. It works, his grip loosens, and I take off like my life depends on it, running round the side of the café to the car park out front where I know Archer is waiting for me. He’s out of the car when he sees me.

“What’s wrong?”

“He, he…” I can’t catch my breath.

Archer cups my face with his hands. “Breathe, Scarlet. You’re okay. I’ve got you.”

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