Marked (Branded Book 3)

by Scarlett Finn

  Archer had his back to her and was talking to Derren about some sports team. Interrupting, Nya went to his side and rubbed her hand across his back as she kissed his bicep.

  He glanced down at her. “Can he come out to eat?” she asked.

  Archer lost his ease. “No,” he said, pulling more boxes from the paper bag.

  Ester was now at the foot of the table with two wine bottles and two wine glasses. “Why do you bother with the glasses if you’re just gonna have a bottle each?” Derren asked Ester.

  “It’s civilized,” Ester said. “Something you wouldn’t understand.”

  Derren scoffed. “Yeah, ‘cause getting blind drunk is real classy.”

  Archer pulled out a handful of paper-wrapped chopsticks and Nya tried again. Pushing herself closer, she traced her lips against him. “Please, Fella,” she whispered. “What could possibly happen? Derren is here. If you have to take Tag down—”

  “I don’t need back up for that,” Archer snapped at her. “I have rules—”

  “Not for this,” she said. “He’s detoxing. He’s not a prisoner. He knows who you are, where we are. The only thing he doesn’t know is why he’s been locked up. If we don’t let him out here, I’ll eat in there with him.”

  “You’re not eating in the bathroom,” Ester said. “Chase, don’t make her eat in the bathroom. She should eat at the table with the family.”

  “Yeah, this is fucking Walton Mountain,” Derren mumbled, grabbing a box and snatching up a pack of chopsticks. Digging around in the food, he was looking for something that he didn’t find. After gobbling a few vegetables, he drove the sticks into the food and slid the box across to the opposite side of the table. “No meat in here, princess, that one’s all yours.”

  Ester gasped. “Wow, you actually remember that she doesn’t eat meat? We should write down the date and time, Derren was considerate of another human being; it’s a first, history in the making. Have you been reading the advice columns in your porno mags instead of just looking at the pictures?”

  “Nah, I just fucked my way through a vegan commune,” he said, “a guy can snack on a dozen of them and still have room for dinner.”

  “Ugh, you’re disgusting,” Ester said, dropping into her chair at the end of the table to gulp from the wineglass she’d just filled.

  Derren propped an elbow on the table to lean toward her. “Want me to roofie you now?” he asked, then sneered. “You’re one dumb bitch saying shit like that, you know?”

  “Oh, what the fuck do you care?” Ester asked and the pair continued to snipe.

  Nya stroked a hand across Archer’s chest to get his attention again. “Stop it,” Archer murmured. “This is the shit I’m talking about. You’re using those big, sad eyes on me, Squirm.”

  “What harm can it do?” she whispered. “You have that bolt…” Dropping her eyes for half a beat, she reminded him that Tag could be tethered. “Let him come and eat with us. After what happened this afternoon, he’s probably all kinds of messed up. I mean we were in there having a ball, while he’s being tortured.”

  “I turned the bathroom light off. He can sleep.”

  And that was Archer’s version of being considerate. “Please, Fella,” she whispered, kissing him, brushing her lips back and forth across his arm. “It will make me happy.”

  His upper lip curled a fraction and she could tell that he wanted to curse. Grabbing her arm, he hauled her across to the chair perpendicular to Ester, diagonally opposite Derren, and thrust her down into it.

  Archer shoved the food container at her. “Don’t you fucking fight with me,” he said. “The guy’s wearing on my last fucking nerve, you understand?”

  She nodded and he stomped away toward the bathroom.

  “You really care about your friend,” Ester said. Derren was watching the bathroom with concern written all over his face. “That’s a nice quality.” She patted Nya’s forearm and urged the box of food closer to her. “It’s good, you should try some. This is Chase’s favorite Chinese place.”

  Tag was swearing and complaining when Archer pulled him out of the bathroom. Her love dragged her friend up the hall and threw him into the chair at the head of the table. Dropping down to snap the padlock into the chain, fixing Tag to the floor, Archer then went over to grab the chair next to hers. He flipped it around and then hunkered down to straddle it.

  Stretching across the table, Archer used the length of his arm to push all the food boxes, bags, and utensils away from Tag.

  “What the fuck is this?” Tag demanded. Derren flanked his other side, opposite Archer, and Tag was glaring at them all, his hair disheveled and his eyes narrow. “What the fuck is this, Nya? What the fuck do you all think you’re doing? What kind of sick fucking game is this?”

  “It’s not a game,” Nya said, standing up to retrieve one of the many Chinese food boxes that were still in the middle of the table. “We’re eating. It’s past dinner time, but it’s the first chance we’ve all had to sit down.”

  Although Ester had food in front of her, Nya had only seen her drink alcohol until now. Ester pulled a mini egg roll from a box in the middle of the table and began to munch while looking from Tag to Nya and back again.

  “He probably feels like shit,” Ester said. “If he’s detoxing, he won’t want to eat.”

  “Detoxing,” Tag snapped. “I don’t need to detox. I don’t have a problem.”

  “Shut the fuck up,” Archer said. “Nya wants you here to eat, so eat. You don’t want to eat, you go back to the pipe. I really can’t be fucked listening to you.”

  “Oh, yeah? At least you’ve got a fucking choice. You and your sick fuck session this afternoon,” Tag said, glaring from Archer to Nya.

  The disgust on his face filled her with guilt. “I’m sorry you had to hear that,” she said.

  “Why?” Archer asked, finding a box and digging into the food. “He knows we’re back together. You think he doesn’t know we fuck?”

  “It’s not the same as hearing it,” she said. “He’s my friend; I wouldn’t want to hear him.”

  “Yeah, well he’s not as considerate, believe me,” Archer said, picking up a second box to eat some more. “Him and his fucking girl weren’t so discreet in South America when I was sharing a fucking bunk with them.”

  Nya didn’t feel quite so guilty after finding that out. So Tag and Farrah had been happy to go at it, not only in the same apartment as Archer, but in the same room. While they were in the throes of passion, Archer would have been missing her and been worried about their relationship and her wellbeing because that was the time Hexam had her in his hold.

  “You should be happy they’re happy,” Ester said and Nya realized that Tag’s attitude was souring the woman’s opinion of him. “Nya loves Archer. She loves him very, very much.” Ester took her hand. “And they’re going to be together forever.”

  A burst of laughter came from Derren. “Listen to you, Ms. Fairytale,” he said. “You think he’s gonna buy her a pair of glass shoes and blind her family?”

  Nya wasn’t quite sure if that was the original version of Cinderella, or Derren’s take on the twisted tale. “If she asked him to,” Ester said, turning up her chin. Nya recognized that same condescending attitude she’d used in Louie’s when Derren confronted them about the court papers. “Archer loves her too, Derren, you haven’t seen them together. Not together, together.”

  “I’ve heard him talk about her, and her talk about him. Long as one of them doesn’t fuck around, I think they’ll be good.”

  “Nya doesn’t fuck around,” Tag barked. “This loser’s the one who dumped her, broke her heart, ‘cause he’s too much of a shit bag—”

  Archer shot to his feet, but she caught his wrist. “Fella, calm, be calm,” she said. “Tag, that’s forgotten, ok? And Archer never screwed around on me.”

  “You’ve got a lot of anger, guy,” Derren said to Tag and then fixated on Nya. “He your ex? You used to fuck?”

&nb
sp; Nya shook her head, but Archer spoke. “No, they’re just friends,” Archer grumbled as he sank back into his chair. He pulled Nya’s chair closer until it abutted his thigh. Picking up the box in front of her, he pinched a carrot with the chopsticks and fed it between her lips. “Quit worrying about him and feed yourself.”

  “Heard Gio’s in town,” Derren said and that drew her focus away from the man trying to look after her.

  Tag glared at her. “Anything you don’t trust these bastards with, Yorkie?”

  “Nya didn’t open her mouth,” Archer said. “Derren knows what’s going on.”

  “So, it was you, that’s way better,” Tag said.

  “There’s that anger again,” Ester said, waving her chopsticks at Tag. “I see what you meant, Der. He is all pent-up and filled with rage, you know what that is? That’s withdrawal.”

  “I’m not an addict,” Tag said, but there was no denying that he was pale and anxious.

  His skin was clammy and his eyes were sunken like he hadn’t slept, and he wasn’t eating either. Loss of appetite was a sign, not only of the drug use itself, but of the nausea he may be experiencing without it.

  “Yeah, I heard he’s going around town paying your debts and talking you up, I’m wondering how you got a guy to be that loyal,” Derren said. “You’re in a fucking state, if that guy’s holding your shit together, you should be rimming his asshole, what’s with the attitude?”

  Ester made a sound of offended disgust and dropped the box of food to the table; her chopsticks fell with a clatter. “Some of us are eating, Der!”

  “You never had a fucking problem opening your mouth for any part of any guy,” Derren said. “You’ll put anything in your mouth.”

  Now it was Tag’s turn to revolt. “What the fuck are you doing with these people, Yorkie? What the fuck happened to you?”

  “Happened to her?” Ester said, once again showing her outrage. “Nya saved your ass from what I hear, and my boy keeps pulling you out of shit. You wanna know why they’ve got you in there? It’s to stop you doing something stupid like getting yourself arrested for being high or murdering a man who it turns out is trying to save you. You’ve got a real problem with pride, and you don’t want anyone to help you? Fuck you. I’ll tell my boy to put you on the street and leave you there.”

  “Nya won’t let you hurt me,” he said, scowling at Ester.

  But Ester took her hand, “Nya’s one of us, we’ll look after her. We won’t let you take her down.”

  “That’s not what he wants to do,” Nya said.

  “Sure it is,” Derren said. Leaning back in his chair, he made eye contact with Archer. “You girls wanna clean this up. I think we need to talk business.”

  Ester stood up to toss the food boxes into the paper bag they’d come in. She went to stack the food in the refrigerator, then grabbed up the chopsticks and the wine glasses to dispose of them in the sink.

  Nya couldn’t believe that Ester was being so compliant; it seemed to be against her nature especially with the way she and Derren fought. But Ester grabbed her purse from the breakfast bar and tossed it over her shoulder before seizing Nya’s wrist to take her out of her chair. As Nya would expect, Ester also snagged a wine bottle.

  Saying nothing else, she led Nya toward the hallway while Derren and Archer moved in closer to her friend. Tag was looking at her with those wild eyes again, although she didn’t know if he was worried or angry. Nya tried to object, but Ester just pulled her harder and kept on going until they were all the way in the bedroom.

  “I can’t leave them out there,” Nya said, trying to get to the door, but Ester dumped her things on the dresser and rushed over to get in front of the door.

  Taking Nya’s shoulders, Ester ushered her over to the bed. “They’re gonna make your friend see sense.”

  “You don’t understand. When Tag and Archer get together, they always end up fighting. I can’t let them hurt each other.”

  Ester stroked her arms. “Tag is attached to the floor, he won’t hurt Archer.”

  “But Archer might hurt him,” Nya said and her panic increased.

  “Do you trust him? Derren’s out there, he won’t let Archer go overboard. You want your friend to see sense and understand that this Gio guy’s helping him out and that he has a problem with Charlie… Unless you want Archer to keep him attached to that pipe for the next ten years, you have to let him do his thing, or else your friend will just go back out there looking for another high if he doesn’t figure out that he has to quit the habit.”

  Nya had to trust Archer, but it was difficult. At the club today, he’d listed the reasons that he wanted to hurt Tag and the only reason he hadn’t, was her. She had also jumped to conclusions and although he hadn’t said it, he’d been hurt by her judgement.

  “Should we go down to my place?” she asked.

  Ester shook her head and sat them on the bed. “We can’t go back out there until they come to get us.”

  Nya relaxed and smiled. Sliding back, she crossed her legs. “You know a lot about this.”

  “Even after Der and I broke up, I saw him with Archer a lot. I don’t think he even knows how I used to watch them train together. Much as we fought like cat and dog every minute of the goddamn day…” Ester’s glare turned into a smile. “He did something for Archer I can’t repay. He kept him honest. Gave him values and taught him about being a man in a way I never could. I know for sure if Der hadn’t stepped in when he did that Archer would be dead or in jail by now.”

  Nya took Ester’s hands into her lap. “He told me the same thing. He’s grateful for what Derren did too and Derren has a lot of love for him.”

  “That’s true.” Ester smiled. “He and Arch just understand each other, they always have, even when Derren and Kristof would fight and he and I couldn’t stand to look at each other… Arch and Der were just kindred spirits who understood when to be patient, when to back off, when to push. It’s quite amazing to see them work together.”

  Maybe it would be, and Nya would be interested to know when Ester had seen the duo in action, but this wasn’t the time to ask. “Now…” Ester went into her bag to fish out her phone. Putting on a playlist, she began to sing as she pulled out a deck of cards. “We could be here a while, let’s have some fun.”

  fifteen

  A while turned out to be right, and Ester kept turning up the music every time the men began to argue. Although there wasn’t quite as much pounding of flesh as Nya might have expected, there was some verbal conflict. With the door closed, it was tough to pull out specifics of what was being said.

  She’d had a few swigs of wine from the bottle Ester had brought into the bedroom and was feeling buzzed. It was easier to be relaxed about what might be going on out there between the men she cared about when she had Ester keeping her entertained.

  The cards were still spread on the bed, but Nya was laughing at one of Ester’s stories and couldn’t remember what game they were playing.

  When the door opened and Archer came in, it took Nya a minute to regain her breath.

  Leaping off the bed, she went toward him. “What happened?” she asked.

  “You deserve a fucking gold medal,” Archer said, grasping her chin. “I thought for sure you’d be out ten times checking on us.”

  “I trusted you,” she said, caressing his jaw. “What happened?”

  “He’s going to give Gio a chance. We’re setting up a meet in a couple of days. We’ll find out what’s going on, Taggert’s agreed to hear Gio out and work with him if everything checks out.” Her mouth fell open. “He’s in the bathroom again, he knows it’s the only way he’ll get clean and he’s promised he won’t touch the drugs again.”

  Turning around, Nya could only gape at Ester who was finishing the last of her wine. “Told you, daughter,” Ester said, swinging her arm wide as she rose from the bed. Dumping the empty wine bottle on the dresser, she went back to the bed to turn off the music and gather up the cards. “I
fucking told you!”

  Stuffing everything into her bag, Ester walked over, and slapped a hand to Nya’s opposite cheek so she could smack a kiss to her cheekbone. She pinched her son’s face before strutting out of the room.

  Nya went after her to see Derren standing at the other end of the table, sliding a knife into its sheath. “You looking for a ride, bitch?” he asked. Ester was already sashaying towards him. Archer came into the hall and put his hands on the sides of Nya’s neck. “Catch up tomorrow, son.”

  Derren lifted his hand high above his head in a backwards wave as he held the door open for Ester who was blowing them kisses and reversing out of the apartment. The door closed a few seconds later.

  “They’re going home together?” she asked, wondering why Ester wasn’t staying here. “Like, together?”

  “Who the fuck knows, I don’t ask,” he said, kissing the top of her head.

  There were open food boxes on the breakfast bar beside beer bottles, and she guessed that the mess was driving him insane. “He’ll look after her,” Nya muttered to herself.

  “Grab your purse, I’ll take you home,” he said, but she spun on the spot.

  “I want to stay the night,” she said. “Look at this mess; you have to clean that up. I can help.”

  But she knew what he was like, anything she did he would probably re-do or at least check twice before he relaxed. “You know the rules,” he murmured, kissing her head. “You don’t spend the night while I have company.”

  “This isn’t any company. Even if Tag got loose, he wouldn’t hurt me. Besides, whatever the fuck you did to brainwash him, it sounds like you’ve got him under your fucking control.”

  He used his thumbs to raise her jaw and pressed his mouth to hers. “If I make an exception once, you might think I’ll do it again.”

  “Tag is the exception,” she said. “Do you really think you’re gonna have him attached to your floor more than once?”