Marked (Branded Book 3)

by Scarlett Finn

  Her initial relief didn’t last and it didn’t matter that Archer had assured her that everyone was alive. Nya felt that it wasn’t enough to hear the words; she needed to look at his face and at Tag’s too.

  Nya couldn’t understand why it was so important for her love to stay with Tag and Gio today when she felt like she needed him so bad. Archer hadn’t referenced Shaw at all, she didn’t even know if he was still with them. She’d begged to be allowed to join them, but without Archer revealing where they were, she had no chance of finding them without his invitation, which of course, he didn’t give.

  Ester had been all about the wedding at breakfast. She’d made eggs and attempted to put Scotch in her coffee, Nya had her work cut out keeping the woman sober.

  Before long, it was time to get dressed. Ester spent a huge amount of time on Nya’s hair and on her makeup. The woman said she loved having a daughter who she could dress up like a doll. Nya thought she should’ve perhaps spent some more time on her own presentation.

  Although Ester did look beautiful, the woman’s dress seemed almost demure by her usual standard. By comparison to the ivory bridesmaid dress that Ester had insisted was perfect for Nya in the store, it was kind of plain. The gown Nya wore had an ethereal quality that did lend itself to the occasion, and she couldn’t deny that it was beautiful, but she did feel a little overdressed.

  Ester assured her that being the younger model, Nya should have the most beautiful dress and joked that she’d had hundreds of wedding dresses through the years and had chosen something completely opposite to normal in hopes it would be a sign the outcome of the day would be different to normal too. Changing her apparel might break the cycle of Ester’s failure to say “I do” and Nya hoped this day would be different too.

  Nya couldn’t say that she was in the mood to be festive. If Archer had been around, maybe she’d have been able to relax and embrace this joyous event.

  As it was, she hadn’t heard a peep from Derren and he hadn’t shown his face. There was a possibility that he and Kristof were helping Archer with Tag, but if they were, the last thing Nya wanted was to be with a jilted Ester if something went wrong or delayed the men.

  Nya would be devastated if some terrible fate befell her love or her friend, and almost as devastated if something happened to Ester’s.

  Somehow Ester managed to stay chipper. She looped their arms together and led her out of the apartment. They grabbed a cab and stopped at the florist on the same block as the courthouse. Nya was surprised to see the bouquets, and more surprised when Ester began to arrange fresh flowers in her bridesmaid’s hair.

  “Ester, stop fussing with me. This is your day,” Nya said as they ascended the external stairs into the courthouse.

  Ester seemed to know exactly where they were going, and took the lead in getting them to the right place. All Nya knew was that some places in the city held weddings by appointment only, whilst others were done on a first come, first serve basis, she didn’t know which Ester and Derren had chosen. She wasn’t looking forward to the idea of a long wait, although that may give Derren and Archer a chance to arrive if they’d been held up.

  Ester led her up some stairs and down a corridor to a room, but before they went inside, she stepped back to look Nya over once more. “Beautiful,” Ester said, cupping her face.

  “Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?” Nya asked, stroking a hand over Ester’s hip.

  It wasn’t a surprise that the woman had gone for a mini-dress, and the pale blue color was perfect. Ester wasn’t much older than her son and she still had such a childish glee sometimes that Nya forgot they didn’t share a birth year.

  “Now hold your flowers up,” Ester said.

  “Shouldn’t we wait to see Archer and Derren?”

  “Oh no, they’ll be inside. It’s tradition that the bride shouldn’t see the groom before they meet at the altar.”

  Only Ester was capable of making Nya smile on a day when she was so worried. Yes, Archer had assured her that her friend was safe, but she still hadn’t heard Tag’s voice. This Lucas guy may still be out there and she had no idea what had happened with the job. But Ester was the closest thing she’d ever had to a mother and this could be one of the most important days of her life.

  So when Ester linked her arm through Nya’s again, Nya pulled herself close. “Thank you for this,” Nya said.

  Ester stopped before opening the door. “Thank you for what, daughter?”

  “For letting me be a part of this. For welcoming me into the family.”

  Nya had never been to a family wedding. Friends had gotten married and she’d shown up to receptions that usually ended up as drunken brawls. But she’d never been invited to a family event where she was a member of the wedding party. And here she was, walking this wonderful woman down the aisle.

  “Oh, my daughter,” Ester said, stopping to cup her face again. “You are the most gorgeous, sweetest, sassiest woman I’ve ever known. My son couldn’t have made a better choice. Thank you for loving him. I’m so very proud of you and so very proud of him and I know you’ll look after each other forever.” Ester leaned in as if to kiss her lips and then paused. “Oh.”

  The woman produced a tube of lip gloss from her cleavage and swiped it across Nya’s lips. The warm liquid was slick and felt gloopy because she laid it on so thick. But Ester was classy with makeup and Nya knew her lips would be shimmering and shining just the right amount. She trusted Ester even when she went over the top.

  “Thank you,” Nya said.

  “Chin up and keep smiling,” Ester said, projecting her breasts. “And keep those girls out.”

  She turned towards the door and opened it with a flourish before pulling Nya forward.

  twenty-one

  The room wasn’t big, there were three or four rows of chairs before what would be called the altar where the officiant stood. She didn’t see any other strangers in the room. Archer and Derren were there at the front with Kristof.

  Nya hadn’t spoken to Kristof about this happy occasion, but he seemed relaxed enough about the idea of his dad hitching his wagon to Ester’s. The three men were kind of huddled and it was strange to see them all wearing shirts and slacks.

  She didn’t think she’d ever seen Archer in slacks. Her smile widened as she thought about how handsome her man was, and wondered if one day she might be walking towards him.

  Her lover seemed relaxed and she took that as a good sign that nothing dire had happened last night. She checked all three men for bruises and blood and when she saw none, she relaxed some more. Nya didn’t imagine that the ceremony would take long, and afterwards, she’d grill Archer for answers.

  Ester led her to the front and took her flowers away before she stepped back. Nya turned to try to figure out why the woman had moved behind her, and then Archer moved up in front. She looked left and right and realized that the official was looking at her.

  “Archer?” Nya asked and he took her hand up to his lips.

  “Time to shit or get off the pot,” he said.

  She had no idea what he meant until she took a second to absorb the surroundings. The officiant was in front of them. She and Archer were at the center of the altar. Ester stood behind her while Derren and Kristof stayed behind Archer. When she turned to where the congregation should’ve been, she saw she’d been wrong, there were people there.

  Two people were right at the back of the room against the wall in the furthest, darkest corner, Tag and Gio.

  “Tag,” she said and took an involuntary step in his direction, but Archer’s hand in hers made her bungee back.

  “You chose me,” Archer said and she stopped to search his expression.

  “I don’t understand,” she said. “I don’t understand what…”

  His hand slid onto her cheek and he cupped her jaw. But Ester leaned in behind her to whisper, “Me? Faithful? I didn’t think you’d ever buy that.”

  Nya tried to turn her head to look at Ester, but
Archer held her firm to look straight into her eyes.

  Fuck.

  He wasn’t smiling. He was looking into her and he wasn’t asking a damn question. Archer knew everything before everyone else knew it and the fucker had managed to get her to the altar without her having a clue what was happening.

  Ester’s manicured fingertips popped up in front of her eyes to show something in a pincer between her thumb and forefinger. Archer took the sparkling item from his mother. “It was my mother’s,” Ester said at Nya’s back.

  The woman that Ester had worshipped and fallen apart without. The woman who’d helped to raise Archer and held the family together during the only happy times of Archer’s childhood.

  “Can we hurry this up?” Kristof asked.

  But Nya was too busy looking at the diamond ring in Archer’s hand. “So?” he asked. “Shit or get off the pot?”

  That wasn’t exactly the most romantic proposal, but that’s what it was. “You’re proposing,” she said. “This is our wedding day!”

  “She’s quick,” Kristof said.

  Nya couldn’t be offended by his sarcasm, she was still in shock. She couldn’t believe this. Archer hadn’t proposed, hadn’t even hinted that he was going to soon. Yet, here they were, together at the altar.

  “Shit,” she said, although it might not have been in response to what he said.

  But Archer was sliding the ring onto her finger and she glanced toward the corner where Tag was seated with Gio. Tag was here. She could be reassured that he was alive and relaxed enough that he didn’t appear to be bruised or bloody although in the darkness of the corner she couldn’t make out all of his features.

  Gio was incidental and yet there was something profound about the fact that both men were present and neither were objecting or making a scene.

  Nya looked at Archer again. “How did you know I’d say yes?”

  He leaned in to whisper in her ear. “I know fucking everything,” he said and threw an arm around her shoulders as he turned them towards the officiant. “You heard my lady, let’s do this.”

  The ceremony was short, Nya was right about that. They were asked to repeat vows and Archer said everything he was supposed to. He had wedding bands. Wedding bands! Nya had no idea how he’d managed to get those so quickly when she hadn’t even been aware this was happening.

  Ester had only come to her after Tag said he was leaving five days ago. Had it been because she’d chosen Archer that he felt obliged to do this?

  Before he slid the ring onto her finger, she pulled her hand away. “Wait,” she said and tension sprang into the air. “You love me, Fella? You’re doing this because you love me?”

  “Why the fuck else would I do it?” he asked. “Yes, I fucking love you.”

  “But you didn’t want to do it last week. Why now?”

  She might feel guilty about asking the question or having this conversation in front of so many witnesses. Except, by not even bothering to propose, Archer hadn’t afforded her the opportunity to ask them in private.

  “You chose me,” he said.

  “You didn’t think I loved you? You didn’t think I would?” she asked. “You thought I would choose Tag; that I would always choose him.” Her hand dropped to her side and she took a half-step back. “How could you not know that I love you?”

  “I never thought you didn’t,” he said. I just… didn’t know if it was enough. You were right about me, Squirm. I need stability and I want to give my woman security. I wanted to be your guy, but I could never be as long as you belonged to him and you did belong to him, Squirm. For fifteen years, you did.”

  And Archer had needed proof that he’d surpassed Tag in her estimations. Nya hadn’t known it was possible for Archer to be insecure and maybe that wasn’t the right word for what he’d felt, but he hadn’t believed she would give him the stability he needed. Not until she walked away from Tag to stand by Archer’s side.

  This had been her failing; she hadn’t made him see how deep her feelings ran. “You give me what I need, Fella,” Nya said. “There isn’t anyone I value more than you.”

  He curled his fingers around her wrist and lifted her brand up between them. “You belong to me, Nya Yorke. And every day I’m gonna show you this and remind you that nothing will ever change that. I won’t let you walk away. I won’t let you leave me. And I will never break your heart again. We’re gonna do this now, today.”

  He was so damn sure, Nya felt the prickle of her hackles rising as arousal tickled her lower spine. “Oh yeah? And if I say no?”

  “Hmm,” he exhaled a single beat of a sinister hum and his mouth slanted. “I can have any woman I want. Blackmailing you would be easy if you want to convince yourself that I’m making you do this against your will.”

  Oh, he got her. He understood. He read her mind. He felt her emotions as strongly as if they were alone. This was reminiscent of the first time they made love; she was playing, and he played right back.

  “Maybe I’m just looking for payment,” she said, letting her chin rise slowly. “Trouble is, everybody’s price is different, and you don’t know mine.”

  “I think I do,” he said and she gasped when his arm shot out to hook her waist and he hauled her body against his. “I think I know exactly how to tempt my horny one.”

  She had once promised to give him information in exchange for sex, but she leaned back against his arm when he ducked down to try to kiss her. “How do I know you’ll treat me right if I give you what you want?” she asked, losing the battle to restrain her smile.

  Archer got lower without kissing her, but his face almost came to rest on hers. “You want vows?” he asked. “How about I vow to eat my Cheerios every day, Nya Yorke. I vow to cook for you. To clean.” Only because she wouldn’t do it right, but saying that might shatter the moment, so she kept the quip to herself. “I’ll take care of you, pay your rent, your bills, and you’ll always have free cable, baby. Anyone who hurts your feelings, your heart, or that beautiful body will wear my mark for the rest of their lives after I’ve taken the ounce of flesh you’re owed. I love you, Squirm, and you’ll know it every day.”

  He let her go to pull back the cuff of his shirt, yanking it so hard that the button came clean off.

  Nya inhaled when she saw the gauze on his wrist. He grabbed the adhesive on the corner and ripped it off without flinching. “Arch!” she called, but his name disappeared when she saw what was burned into his wrist.

  It was a mark that hadn’t been there before, a brand of his own. But instead of his initials, they were hers, her married initials. “Squirm—”

  “Archer,” she murmured and her finger drifted toward the wound she recognized as only a few hours old. “God, you idiot, why did you—”

  “Because any pain you feel, I feel,” he said and grabbed her wrist to align it with his. “You belong to me and I belong to you. If you bleed…”

  “You bleed,” she whispered.

  “If you hurt…”

  “You hurt,” she said, understanding his need for this brand.

  “And for every second that you’re in pain…?”

  “You’re in pain,” Nya said and a tear slipped from her eye as she smiled. “I love you so much, Chase.”

  “I know it, Squirm,” he said and let his fingers sink into her hair as he pulled her up and matched their mouths.

  The kiss got deeper and she curled her fingers into his shirt and yanked herself higher, wishing she could throw herself up into his arms. But that might be a bit too intimate for this moment. He’d branded himself or had one of the guys do it for him. He’d marked his body to prove it was hers. He hadn’t gone out and got a tattoo, he hadn’t even used his blades to carve the letters.

  Archer had endured the pain exactly as she had and he’d done it voluntarily.

  “Uh… I now declare you husband and wife…” the officiant said, quite clearly off-kilter, and Nya couldn’t imagine that this was a typical ceremony.

 
She was laughing as they broke their kiss and hugged, but that only lasted a second before Ester pulled her back and into her arms, and then there were hugs and kisses and back slaps as they signed what had to be signed and moved down the aisle into the hallway again.

  Elation made Nya forget for a second that she must have gone right past her friend. “Tag,” she said, but as she turned to go back through the door Tag and Gio came out.

  Nya’s smile fell and she held her breath as she waited to see how Tag would react to what she’d just done. He took her hand and guided her away from the others. Nya looked over her shoulder to see Archer watching them go, but he didn’t chase them down, didn’t pull Nya back, didn’t interfere.

  Tag pulled her into a hug and every single muscle of her body loosened. He was alive, he wasn’t angry at her anymore or if he was, he was letting it go at least for this minute and as she let herself sink into his arms, Nya put her arms around her friend.

  “Tag, what happened? The job? Everything that happened—”

  “Shh,” Tag said, easing back and stroking her hair to then put his palms on her cheeks. “Archer got to us before we left for the job. Shaw explained that Lucas, the fucker was gonna screw us over. We didn’t go to the job and that was a damn good thing. The cops showed and busted a couple of guys, the rest fled. Everyone’s on the run, scrambling, turned out Archer did more than save our lives, he saved us from jail too.”

  “So you’re best friends now? You knew this was happening? The wedding?”

  “No, not until after. Archer took us to a safehouse with people he trusted… I still don’t like him,” Tag said, but he was smiling, which was an improvement. “We talked. I wanted to shout, wanted to take a swing at the guy.” He always did. Both of them could be accused of wanting to pummel the other. “But, Yorkie, I don’t know, there’s something in his voice when he talks about you. It wasn’t ‘til we had nothing but time I realized we’d never talked, him and me, not like equals. There was always a debt to be settled or a drama going on, or we were too busy trying to outdo each other. But when we were just two guys drinking beer, talking about a girl… I get it, Yorkie. I get that he cares about you and I get that I can’t always give you everything you need. He is willing to go further than I am. He is.”