Page 89 of Sinful Promise
And to love me, Archer has made a vow to look the other way and stay true to me anyway.
These are the things one does for those they love.
“I’ve come between you and Fletch.” My voice aches with this new knowledge. With our current reality that somehow hurts almost as much as when Archer knew, but wasn’t ready to accept who I am. “My actions are the reason we might go to prison.”
He shakes his head, quick and determined. “We won’t go to prison. Ever.”
“It’s his duty to hand us in.”
“He’s not hurt because assholes are dead,” he bites out. “He’s seen me kill before. He knows who I was before we met.” Arch pauses for a loaded beat. “He’s hurt because we lied to him. That’s different.”
“Archer—”
“That’s not prison. It’s a gun to my head.” He turns off this street and onto another a few down from the Pattersons’ home. “He’s probably gonna shoot me.”
“D-do you think he’ll come around?” I glance across and study the way the masseters in his jaw flex and grind. How his chest remains broad with adrenaline, and his hands wrap around the steering wheel as he drives. “Will we be able to get past this? If he’s okay with the act but not with the lie, then maybe—”
“I dunno.”
Pulling into a driveway behind an old Honda hatchback with the front end parked halfway into an open garage, he blocks the vehicle in. Then cutting the engine and turning to face me, his emerald stare warms my cheeks so tears almost make my eyes itch.
I don’t cry. That’s not who I am. And I’m not sorry for the crimes I’ve committed. But hurting the people I consider special to us… hurting Fletch? It really is just as unbearable as when Archer found out.
“I don’t know what he’s gonna do,” he sighs. “I don’t know if we’ll come back from this.” Slowly, he lifts his shoulders in a shrug. “Fuck knows, maybe he’s already talking to the captain. But we’re in it together, okay?” Leaning across, he rests his forehead on mine and breathes me deep into his lungs. “I have no regrets.”
“None?” My voice catches—an entirely foreign experience for me. “None at all? You could lose everything.”
He scoffs so his breath bathes my chin. “I gained everything when I met you, Minnnka.” Pressing a kiss to my cheek, he sits back and meets my eyes. “The only thing I have in this world worth losing is you. And I fucking swear, I’ll go to war for us.”
Pulling back all the way, he opens his door and slides out of the truck. Then circling around as I hurriedly wipe my cheeks, he opens my door and helps me out.
“We’re gonna be fine.” He uses the truck as a shield so anyone inside the house won’t be able to look out the window and see us. Then he cups my cheek and brings my face up until our eyes meet. “I’ve packed up and started somewhere new before. I can do it a second time.”
“So you’d leave your work?” I swallow. “Your friends. Your brothers.” Then finally, like a tap has been switched on, a single tear slides over my cheek. “Your name? Your entire identity? Because of me?”
Slowly, confidently, his lips curl into a grin. “I already have documents for us both, Mayet. Always ready. But don’t worry until we have something to worry about.”
Turning away, he doesn’t hold my hand, but he walks slowly and waits as I match his stride. Then he starts toward the front door.
“Fletch is a thousand times more likely to shoot me and toss me into a shallow grave than hand me in to the captain.”
“That’s not comforting.” I make quick work of wiping my face and taking a deep breath. Then I stand back as Archer rings the doorbell.
I’m not a cop, and technically, have no right to be here.
“If he shoots you,” I murmur. “I might shoot him.”
“Hence,” he looks back and blows a subtle air kiss. “War.” Then turning back when locks on the door snick, he looks at the woman who answers and gives her a once-over.
She’s spent the morning crying. Her face is splotchy. Her eyes, raw and swollen.
She hugs her barely-there stomach and nods, like she knows what’s coming for her.
“Tandy Alexander, you have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney.” Gently, he takes her hand and slowly spins her. “If you choose to speak, it’s my obligation to remind you anything you say can and will be used in a court of law.”
“He didn’t want us,” she chokes out. “He said he would leave her and choose us, but he just wouldn’t.”
“If you cannot afford a lawyer, we can have one appointed to your case,” he continues, though his tone is anything but hard. “If at any point you decide to exercise your rights, you can decline to answer our questions and have your attorney present.”
