Page 35 of Archer
Paying no attention to what she’s doing, she outright chews on her lips as she thinks. I can practically see the wheels spinning out of control in there. “And where’s off camera?”
“The toilet.” I grimace, then rake a hand through my hair. “You know what? Can you hold on a sec? I’ll be right back.” I spin on my heel, then stop. “K, could you come with me?”
“Yep.”
I have a feeling I know where this is going, so it’s definitely necessary that I do this before she outright asks. I head directly to my room, open the top dresser drawer, and pull out the Faraday bag.
Kingston shuts the door behind us. “What’s going on?”
I shake my head, grimacing. “Our girl is fucking smart. I know where she’s heading with the questions she’s asking about where she’d go to cut. She knows I have this.” I look down, slapping the bag in my palm. “I think it will go a long way to build trust between us if we give it back.”
His brows shoot up. “We still have no confirmation of what is in there, correct?”
“Nope. We just assume a phone from the shape of it, but there’s no way to know whose it is without taking it out.”
“Do we think she knows whose it is?”
“I’m not actually sure. I’d say it was an old phone of hers, and she’d been hiding where she is, but that doesn’t make any fuckin’ sense because we know Nick has her current phone number. It doesn’t feel right to me.” I blow out a long breath and rub my hand over the stubble on my cheek.
Kingston’s brow furrows. “Yeah, I don’t know.” Pressing his lips together, he sighs. “Well, in any case, I think you’re right. We keep this from her when she’s already guessed we have it, we damage her trust in us.”
I sway toward Kingston and grip the front of his shirt in my fist while I stare into his eyes. “I can’t lie to her, K. I won’t.”
He brings his arms up, threading his fingers through the hair on either side of my head, and holds me steady. “I know. Neither can I. This week, the depth of her pain… it’s been so fuckin’ hard for me. She’s ingrained in my head. In my thoughts. I don’t know what I’d have done if she hadn’t been strong enough to say something to you, and you hadn’t acted on it. I’d—” His words catch in his throat, and he shakes his head, unable to finish.
“I know. And that’s why we can’t afford to mess this up.” My eyes drop to his lips as I touch my forehead to his, and our gazes lock as we breathe in each other’s breath. I claim his mouth, and our lips and tongues do the rest of the talking, each of us seeking to calm the other. I allow myself to get lost in Kingston, knowing in my gut that the moment I admit that I took the bag from her room that it could unleash truths we aren’t ready for.
SIXTEEN
CANNON
I definitely don’t mind beingthe one left behind with Elliot if Archer needs to hash things out with Kingston, but it also leaves me with way too much time to think. Elliot is unusually quiet. Whatever she’s thinking in that smart brain of hers has her forehead pinched and a frown pulling at the corners of her mouth. I don’t blame her for being overwhelmed by the shit that went down with Alec and what Archer just told her about securing the potential hazards in her room. It’s enough to throw anyone for a loop.
I can’t help but feel part of this is my fault. If I hadn’t decided to see my doctor two towns over for a quick checkup, Elliot probably wouldn’t have been forced into the situation she found herself navigating today. Maybe it’s stupid to assume I could have stopped the asshats from messing with her, because Archer was here, and it still happened. Those guys are tricky fuckers, always waiting until we’re looking the other way to pull shit. They know exactly what they’re doing. I’m sure of it.
“Did everything go okay at your appointment?” Elliot inhales deeply, hazarding a quick look at me as she nods toward my phone, subtly letting me know she’d like a response, no matter how I choose to give it.
I tap out a few lines to satisfy her curiosity.
Yeah. He said I’m fine.
Continue as is.
“With the Keppra, you mean?” She smiles hesitantly at me, like she’s unsure if I’ll allow this particular line of questioning. I’m slowly coming around to sharing things with her. In the past, I tried to keep my condition from girls, thinking—no,knowing—it would make me less desirable. Trying to hide it caused more issues than it resolved, though, and no one ever stuck around the self-appointed mute guy who randomly had uncontrollable seizures. But Elliot? She doesn’t see my epilepsy like the others did. She sees me—the man, not the medical condition. The seizures are simply something that’s a part of me.
She’s everything I never thought I’d find. And I knew it from the first time I set eyes on her. I couldn’t explain it if I tried. And there’s no fuckin’ way I’d risk losing Elliot now, even if it means learning to share more of myself. Emotion claws up from within me. I need her in a way that scares the shit out of me. Desperate. Fierce. Obsessive. She owns my heart.
I dig my teeth into my lower lip and nod before shooting her a few more texts.
I need to stay on it longer.
Or I won’t know if it’s working.
“Makes sense, I guess.” Elliot goes back to twisting her fingers together, like she’s been doing the last several minutes since Kingston followed Archer into his room. She’s clearly distressed and trying to keep her mind off things, and now that I’ve answered her questions about my appointment, she’s slipping right back into worry again, and I don’t know how to help, except to be here for her.
We’re quite a pair, sitting here in silence. I have plenty on my mind, too. That fucking awful recording Archer had showed us earlier is at the forefront of my thoughts. I have a one-track mind with some of this shit.
Aside from all the awful things they’d said about her and the way they’d treated her, that fucker Alec had admitted to watching Nick take her. It’s probably a good thing I hadn’t witnessed that bit of assholery in person because there’d have been a trio of dead juniors floating in the pool.