Branded

by Scarlett Finn

  “Yorkie!” Tag rose to start walking towards her, but began to slow as his smile slid away. He’d noticed Archer. Her friend stopped three meters away from her and he’d never done that before. By now, she should be in his welcoming hug. “Did he hurt you?”

  Archer was right about Tag’s assumption and that posed her a problem. Denying that Archer had brought her here against her will would lead Tag to believe they were sleeping together. But if she confessed the truth as to how she and Archer had come to meet, Tag would have his men take Archer down and she’d promised him he wouldn’t be threatened here.

  “I brought him here by choice,” she said, not answering the question. “You have unfinished business with him.”

  “Do I?” Tag asked, observing her then Archer. Raising a hand, he swept his finger around and everyone else in the room cleared out. Once the door closed, Tag circled, keeping his distance as he repositioned himself to put his back to the windows. “Are you fucking him?”

  Men must all think alike, she glanced at Archer who gave her an “I told you so” brow bob and she sighed.

  “You told me you always paid your debts, Taggy,” she said, not acknowledging the insulting question. “Do you owe Archer money?”

  “No,” Tag said. She hadn’t expected such a flat, abrupt denial, or for Archer to move so quickly in his attempt to get past her.

  Tag reversed wearing an expression of panic, but she opened her arms and put herself in front of Archer’s stampeding form to body block him. He collided with her back and she had to strain not to stumble, but Archer grabbed her upper arms to steady either her or himself. Whichever it was, it kept them both on their feet.

  “Move, Squirm,” Archer demanded.

  “No, just calm it, Arch.”

  His grip tightened, but he stopped trying to wrestle her aside.

  “I don’t know what he’s told you,” Tag said. “You shouldn’t have brought him here, Yorkie.”

  This situation was more of a clusterfuck than she’d realized. Tag wasn’t usually afraid of anyone, but he’d been worried when Archer got mad a minute ago. Her friend didn’t usually renege on deals either.

  Something serious was going on and she planned to get to the bottom of it. “I brought him because if you owe him money, you should pay him. Are you telling me he’s never done work for you?”

  This time, Tag took a bit longer to respond. “Yeah, he did… He killed three of my men… Bet he didn’t tell you that.”

  No, he didn’t. Archer must have felt her muscles grow rigid because the bite of his grip on her shoulders increased. “I didn’t kill those pricks,” Archer said. “You wanted to know where the drugs were coming in and I told you.”

  “You sent my guys into a trap.”

  “You talk shit, Taggert, if I wanted your guys dead I’d have taken care of them myself. I wasn’t there, no one saw what happened. Your guys fucked up. You know it. You’re too embarrassed to admit how shit your operation is. Luck is all that gets you through, Taggert!”

  Her friend seethed, Tag didn’t like anyone questioning his ability. Few men took kindly to being labelled incapable. If Nya was honest, she was a bit offended too. Taggert was smart, thoughtful, and thorough. If he trusted the men he’d sent in to do a job, then she would’ve trusted them too.

  The argument wasn’t over and Tag didn’t need her to defend him. “You were offered two keys for your trouble, Archer. More than you deserved,” Tag said.

  “What the fuck would I do with your drugs? Green is what we agreed on. You’re a con man, Taggert, the worst kind.”

  Both guys were arguing their side with words, but Nya kept her body in front of Archer’s because she didn’t want this fight to get physical. “And what about you? Feeding clients bullshit information. We would never—”

  “You owe me, Taggert. And as your man Gio said, I know everyone. Want me to spread word that you renege on deals? No one will work with you once I get word out.”

  She’d asked him not to cause physical harm to Tag, but she’d neglected to include other kinds of damage. Twisting, she glared at Archer. “Don’t threaten him.”

  “Mouth shut, Squirm,” he said.

  Nya had thought this would be a tense but quick meeting. She’d been wrong. “If he says he doesn’t owe you—”

  “He does and he knows it,” Archer said, monitoring Tag. “Why else would I be here?”

  An excellent question. He’d been sure about his need to be here. With a sick sister, it made sense he’d be sensitive about collecting money that was owed to him. It was vital to his sister’s survival that he could pay for her treatment.

  Tag had acknowledged that Archer had done work for him by giving him valuable information. Based on that info, his men went in and got dead, trap or not, they must have had a deal for payment.

  “You’ve got balls showing up here,” Tag said. “Doesn’t matter if I owe you or not, I can’t let you leave.”

  Archer had come into Sizzle looking for Tag after Jonno and a bunch of others had shown up. Those others wanted something from her friend too, something different to what Archer wanted, and she hadn’t found out what that was.

  “What’s going on?” she asked. Concern for Tag drove her forward and Archer let her slip from his grasp. “It’s not like you to hide.”

  “He’s a coward,” Archer said, but she chose to ignore him.

  “Tell me what’s going on, Taggy?” she asked, sliding her palms onto his. Linking their fingers, she got closer. “Are you in trouble?”

  “It’s my job to be looking out for you, Yorkie. Don’t worry about the crap going on in my life. You’ll be safe here… I should never have left you out there alone. We’re too easily connected, anyone who asks will find out you’re my girl.” Something she’d asserted to Archer she wasn’t, several times. This wasn’t a time to say it again. “You don’t mind hanging here for a bit, do you?”

  “Course not,” she said, he’d never steered her wrong and if he needed support she’d stick around to give it. “Give Archer his money, let him get out of here and—”

  “He’s not going anywhere,” Tag said. “If he walks out of here, he’ll send a squad of his buddies to—”

  “I don’t need any backup,” Archer snarled. “I can take you down any time I want.”

  Tag’s machismo was showing too. “Oh yeah? Come on then, what’s stopping you?”

  Tired of the pissing contest, she growled at them both. “If it will hurry this up, I’ll get a ruler and measure both your cocks right here. The posturing thing isn’t attractive; maybe we could just skip it.” Getting to the point bought her respect and cut through the bullshit. “You have to let him go, Tag. You can’t keep a guy like him tied up in a little apartment like this. What are you going to do? Kill him?” She didn’t like the shade that gathered behind her friend’s gaze. “Tag, I won’t let you. I can’t—”

  “You’re protecting him?” Tag asked.

  Retreating from her hostile position, she loosened. “I’m asking you not to hurt him. Just forget Archer. Get him out of here, so we can focus on figuring this out.” Whatever this was.

  “I’m going nowhere without my money.”

  Given Tag’s mood, Archer would be lucky to get out of here at all. But Archer was desperate. Tag’s whole hand slipped onto her face and she let him caress her cheek because she knew from experience that it calmed him. “Pay him the money, Tag, please,” she said. “Anything for an easy life, just get rid of him.”

  Tag’s other hand moved onto her waist. “Why do you give a fuck about—”

  “He needs it, Taggy, his sister is sick.”

  Tag’s smile was slow. Outrage filled her, could her oldest friend be happy that another human being was in pain? “Poor, Yorkie, always fighting battles,” he said. “You’ve been taken this time.”

  Being honest should’ve enticed Tag to be fair toward Archer. Except her friend was wearing a look of amused satisfaction that didn’t make her fee
l good. Until now, there had been no reason to doubt Archer’s story. Tag was accusing her of being naïve, so Nya had to ask, “What do you mean ‘taken’?”

  “He bullshitted you. Archer doesn’t have a sister.”

  Turning away from her friend to pin Archer in her sights, Nya didn’t have to ask if that was true because although his expression hadn’t changed, there was guilt written all over his face. If that had been a lie then there was a chance everything else was too, including his pledge to help her.

  “You don’t have a sister?” she asked.

  Quick to jump on the defensive, Archer didn’t offer any apologies. “He owes me. What I do with the money is my business.”

  “You’re a real prick,” she said. So much for being street smart. Tag was right, she’d been taken for a fool while wanting to see good in the soul of the man who’d made a shitty first impression. She should’ve known better and was probably more pissed at herself than him. “Get your ass out of here.”

  As Archer drew his sneer away from her, Nya felt herself sliding down in his estimation, which shouldn’t bother her. But it did. Except Archer had been the one who’d lied to her. He’d been the dishonest bastard. It wasn’t right that he should be allowed to dismiss her like she deserved no respect.

  With disgust, Archer focused on Tag. “This is your last chance to end this,” he said. “If you make me take what’s mine, I’ll make sure it hurts you.”

  “I’ll take my chances,” Tag said, sliding an arm around her.

  From Archer’s point of view, it probably didn’t look like she’d intended to help him at all even though she had. Things weren’t so clear anymore and she wanted to talk to Tag alone before doing anything else. Archer’s objection to her doing that was no longer relevant because Tag did have the upper hand here. Archer could start a fight, sure, but he couldn’t fight everyone.

  Finding out he was a liar put in jeopardy everything that she thought they’d agreed on and she wouldn’t go out of her way to get him money until Tag had explained exactly why he’d withheld the payment in the first place.

  Leaving with Archer wasn’t an option for her, she wanted to support her friend, and she wasn’t sure Archer would support her. So when he looked at her like he expected her to speak up, she pushed her shoulders back and sealed her lips, sending him a signal about her intention.

  “Just like I said you were,” Archer said to her. “His girl. Watch your back, Squirm, he doesn’t know the meaning of loyalty. You and me had a deal and I’m a guy of my word, but if I don’t hear from you in forty-eight hours, we’re through.”

  Archer glared at both of them in turn before pivoting and storming out, slamming this door and then the front door after he departed. She didn’t actually see him go, but she heard the door clatter into its frame. Now she was alone with Tag, Nya was ready to hear what he had to say.

  eight

  Tag took her shoulders to turn her around to face him. “I think you need a drink, and then you need to tell me how in the fuck you ended up with him.”

  Breathing in and out, Nya watched Tag go over to the kitchen to pull a bottle of wine from the fridge; he carried it and two glasses over to the couch he’d been on when she arrived. When he held up a full glass to her, she unglued her feet from the floor and went over to sit down beside him.

  “Tell me everything,” he said, filling his own glass as she settled back to drink her wine. “Start at the beginning.”

  Nya needed some blanks filled in herself before she started to fill any in for Tag. In the past, her friend had never disappointed her and she wasn’t ready to let herself believe that he might now. “I told him that you’d pay him. That you paid your debts,” she said.

  “Was that after he made up a dying sister?” he asked. Nya didn’t like the smirk that he hid as he shuffled back to settle in the corner of the couch facing her. “I’m surprised, Yorkie, you usually recognize mens’ bullshit from a hundred paces.”

  Yeah, it did surprise her that she’d accepted a lie, but this wasn’t an ordinary lie designed to get a guy laid. This was a genuine lie; one Archer had sold with sincerity. “What do you know about him?” she asked. If Tag could be so certain about Archer’s lack of female siblings, he had to know the man to some degree.

  “Not a whole lot. Everyone says he’s the guy to go to if you need to know something,” he said. “That’s how I ended up hiring him, he’s discreet, and can find out anything. Literally anything, that’s what I was told. But he can also be paid to keep any secret.”

  Working with people who could keep quiet was vital to what Tag did, though she didn’t understand all of the specifics. “Why did he screw you over?” she asked. “Why would he send your guys into a trap?”

  Tag shrugged. “Don’t know. But they showed up and three got killed, the other three barely made it out with the cargo.”

  “With the cargo?” she asked, surprised that he’d had his guys complete the mission. “If it was a trap, why didn’t you pull your guys out?”

  “There was a lot of money in that warehouse.”

  Money. His men were in danger and he got them to do the job despite knowing that it could cost them their lives. “Did Archer know the men you were stealing from?”

  It could be an old-fashioned double-cross. “Stealing?” Tag said, bending to put his glass on the coffee table. “It’s not stealing, they owed me.”

  “And you owe, Archer, don’t you?”

  Tag didn’t like the question and although his tension betrayed it, he didn’t argue. “Are you tired or hungry?” He stood up. “I’ll send one of the guys out to get us some food. Gio will want to catch up with you too. Stay here. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Nya recognized cagey Tag. Changing the subject was one of his standard modes of operation. She’d always believed that he did it to protect her, which had been his default state for a long time. Sometimes she resented his need to keep her at a distance from his work, because she wasn’t as delicate as he made her out to be. But his business was just that. His. Given that he dealt with drug dealers and double-crossers, she didn’t mind being kept in the dark about most of it.

  After Tag left the room, she slipped off her shoes and curled her legs up underneath her. Archer had lied to her and for some reason she couldn’t stop thinking about that. She needed to know if he’d lied to manipulate her or if it was because the truth was worse than the lie. He needed his money, or maybe he just wanted it, and he’d thought lying was the only way to get it.

  Archer had threatened Tag and she didn’t want the men to clash. Both of them were pigheaded and she wanted to understand what drove them both. Averting a war was going to fall to her. If Archer did as he said and began to badmouth Tag then he might have the reach to ruin Tag’s business. And if Archer had done a job for Tag, and hadn’t set him up, then he deserved to be paid and she’d have to play Tag’s conscience. She had some prying to do.

  Tag did his best to avoid the topic of Archer for the rest of the night. He brought in the men she knew, including Gio, and they ended up having an impromptu party. Because sleeping space was limited, she crashed in bed with Tag, as she had dozens of times before. Instead of breakfast, they ended up having brunch because they slept so late.

  At the table, Tag whispered some instructions to Gio, causing him to take everyone else out of the room, leaving her alone with Tag for the first time since Archer had left. “What are you doing here, Tag?” she asked before he’d even turned away from the door that had just closed. “This isn’t a neighborhood you’d ever choose for yourself. Holing yourself up with a bunch of your guys, that’s not your style either, not unless you’re scared of someone coming for you.”

  “Scared?” he repeated, whipping around. “You know me, Yorkie. I don’t get scared.”

  “So what are you doing here with your whole crew in one small apartment?”

  Sauntering over to the table, he sank into his chair to pick up his espresso. “We’ve got a b
ig job on, don’t worry about it, Yorkie.”

  “I’m worried about you, Taggy,” she said, pushing her own plate aside to get closer. “If you don’t want to tell me why you’re here then that’s fine, whatever.” She was worried about him but couldn’t force him to reveal his secrets. “But you should pay Archer his money.”

  The movement in his lower lip told her that he wasn’t impressed. “You’ve got a real hard-on for this guy, why do you care if I pay him or not?” Because she needed him, she needed Archer and his skills to identify each of the men who’d hurt Jamie so she could hurt them too. “I don’t want him coming after you.”

  That was true as well, but not the whole truth. Nya knew Tag well enough to understand he’d never support her need to retaliate against the Sizzle attackers. But Tag was caught up enough in his bravado not to doubt what she’d said.

  “I’m not afraid of Archer,” he said again. “You never told me how you hooked up with him.”

  Just as Tag had never told her a bunch of things. But double standards were his specialty in a lot of ways. Still, Nya would have to tell him the truth eventually and given that it was a day after Archer had left, Tag had cooled down a bit. “He was in Sizzle, the night that… that Jamie was killed.”

  Tag’s nonchalance dissipated and he gained mass as he sat up straight. “That fucker hurt you? He was one of the guys who killed my men?”

  “No,” she said, reaching over the table to catch his hand so he couldn’t stand up and storm off. “He came in after Jamie was… after they’d hurt her and threatened me. Archer took me out of there.”

  “He saved you?”

  She hadn’t thought that at the time and it probably hadn’t been his intention, but she found herself nodding. “He asked me about you and I wouldn’t tell him, but… when he told me that you owed him money, I thought… well I didn’t think it was a big deal to bring him here so that you could settle up. You always told me that you paid your debts.”