Page 88 of Sinful Promise
“Yep.” I snatch up my gun from the couch and re-holster it, since I can’t make an arrest without having my weapon. Then I take Minka’s wrist and drag her out of our tight group.Too many people. Not enough space.
And with the exception of Mia, I’d say every single person in my apartment has either killed, or has the potential to kill, another human being.
That’s too much firepower, when my wife is being entirely too generous with information she really shouldn’t give.
I stop in the kitchen a few feet from Cato and take out a pen and paper. Then I write down our pregnant killer’s information as Cara reads it into my ear.
“Are you serious?” Minka peers over my shoulder as I scribble. “Jesus. She’s colder than me.”
“We’re no longer discussing that in front of an audience.”
When Cara is done and I have an address written on my paper, I hang up the call and glance across the room to Fletch.
“Arrest someone, or don’t. Shoot someone if you feel the need. But I’m going to work, and you’re gonna have to make a decision. Do whatever you’ve gotta do, Fletch. But be aware that I’m gonna protect the people I love.”
“And what about us?” He takes a step forward with rage in his blood, and his hands strong but gentle as they cradle his daughter. “I thought we had love, too?”
“We do.” I shove the paper into my pocket and my phone into the other. “But there’s friendship, and then there’s family.”
“Am I not family?” he sneers. “Am I not worthy of truth and honesty?”
“You are.” I drag Minka to the door, but look back Fletch’s way before I pull it open.
Cato and Micah watch us. Mia’s eyes swing from her dad to me.
I’m not sure if, in all her life, she’s seen us like this.
“Now you have the truth. You have it all. But don’t you dare stand there and tell me you wouldn’t burn the entire fucking world down if Mia needed you to. Or Jada,” I bite out, “back in the day. Don’t pretend you’re any different from me.”
“Don’t talk about Jada,” he snarls. “Don’t even say her name.”
“Or Fifi,” I push on. “Don’t act like you wouldn’t go to war if you found her in an unsafe situation.”In a club. In a miniskirt and with heartbreak in her eyes. “You have it all now, Fletch. Do with it what you will. But I’m not lying down on this.”
“War?” His nostrils flare with rage. With hurt. With intensity. “You’re declaring war between us?”
“No.” I pull the door open and lead my wife out. “But it kinda looks likeyouare. Come on.” I step into the hall and make damn sure Minka walks too.
“I’m gonna go tie this one up,” I tell Fletch as an aside. “I can do it without you if you want. Feel free to use your time to decide where we go next.”
But prison ain’t it.
I’ll take her away before I let someone else remove her from my side.
MINKA
We travel in silence. Tense, heated, painful silence, as Archer’s jaw grinds and his eyes sear the road ahead of us.
I don’t talk about where we’re going. Whose home we’re visiting. I don’t discuss Jason Patterson’s killer. Or her reasons for mowing the man down.
Sure, he made promises to Whitney on the day of their wedding.
But maybe he made similar promises to the mother of his daughter.
Just as Archer made promises to Fletch years ago, but then he went and made promises to me.
That one word—promise—is supposed to mean forever. Static. Everlasting. But to be human means to be complex. It means to have feelings, and desires. Wants and needs. It’s saying what needs to be said to survive, and doing what needs to be done to cope.
To be okay with my existence in this world, I’ve killed. It’s how I got from one day to the next: removing monsters from our streets.
