Scarred (Branded Book 2)

by Scarlett Finn

  “I love you, Ny,” he murmured. “Watching you walk away from me with that look on your face…” his voice trailed away.

  “Archer, we have to go,” a female voice in the background said and although it wasn’t distinct, Nya would guess that it was Farrah’s.

  “I’ll call you later,” he said into the phone one more time and then the message ended.

  He’d call her later, what did that mean? Her time or his? She had to go to the club tonight, if nothing else, it would keep her busy, though she didn’t relish the idea that Hexam may approach her when Archer wasn’t even in the country anymore.

  But she’d rather be there, surrounded by people with things to do, than sitting here staring at the walls, waiting for Archer to call. She trusted why he was doing this, trusted that his intentions were good and motivated by his love for her.

  Guilt and worry swirled in their conflict for dominance over her emotions. He shouldn’t be doing this. Her love shouldn’t be anywhere near this mess and yet he was travelling to one of the most dangerous countries in the world, for her.

  The only reason he was a part of this mess was because of her. Wherever he was going, for whatever reason, this mission had to be dangerous, he’d said he was risking his life. Nya didn’t want that, especially when she couldn’t trust Tag to have Archer’s back.

  Discomforted, she did her best to fill the rest of the day with mindless jobs like household chores. But as she speculated on where Archer was now and what he was doing, she wondered if he was thinking of her, cursing her for getting him into this.

  Tag had drawn them in to another dangerous scenario and this time Nya had been left behind. She couldn’t support Archer when she wasn’t with him. All she could do was hope that he would come back to her in one piece and that their relationship would survive this.

  Coming to work in Sizzle was supposed to distract her enough that she wouldn’t sit staring at the phone waiting for it to ring all night, like a lovesick teenager.

  But sitting in the office, with her legs crossed, and one foot tapping against the leg of her desk, Nya had done nothing but stare at the device lying in front of her.

  Her chin was propped on the heel of her hand and she was gnawing on her pinkie nail, wiggling her pen between her first two fingers. Archer had said he would call, but the flight would be like nine or ten hours and God only knew how long it would take him to get from the airport to his final destination. And who knew what cellphone reception was like in Columbia? Maybe he had to wait for a landline; did they have those down there? Maybe it wasn’t easy to make calls out of the country. Nya didn’t know.

  She didn’t know how long he would be down there, didn’t know when he would be coming back, and if he never got to a phone, she could be waiting here for days or weeks, never hearing from him, and jumping every time the door opened, straining to hear every whisper trying to pick out his voice.

  Tag was gone too. All of her support network had left the country, left the continent, and she didn’t have the first clue why. Nya tried to console herself by focusing on Sizzle. Keeping this place going was her job, it was Tag’s club, Archer had put in time here, so she had to keep it together. But still, listening to the pulse of her pen and the thud of her foot, she had to admit, if she had more confidence in their destination, she’d probably be on a plane by now.

  But what would be the point in chasing after them? It would be tough enough to find them if they stayed in Bogota, but if they travelled, which was likely, being that both Hexam and Tag were involved in the drugs trade. They could be anywhere on the continent by now, dealing with the worst kind of people.

  The only thing that gave her any hope, was Farrah’s presence. Hexam wouldn’t have sent his sister somewhere dangerous. So as long as she was with the two men, Nya believed that Archer and Tag should be safe. But Hexam did business with men in that country, that’s what Archer had said. Farrah could be secreted away to some fancy house somewhere. This could be Hexam’s way of separating her from Tag. Maybe the whole thing was a ruse.

  Archer would know what was going on. He knew everything; he’d have been ferreting out information without Hexam’s knowledge. Still, Nya stared at her handset, praying for it to ring. Did all the airlines have telephones? She’d never been outside the US.

  Ridiculous as it was, when the door opened, she pounced to her feet. For a split second, she was sure that Archer was going to walk through it. It was impossible, because if he’d gotten on a plane, he would still be in the air. If he hadn’t boarded the flight, he’d have been back with her by now.

  Jada came in. “There’s some guys here to see you,” she said. “They’re causing a problem out front with security.”

  Men. Plural. The club was still open, she couldn’t handle a brawl right now and this wasn’t a random attack if these people were asking for her. Nya didn’t have to wonder who had come for her when a familiar man walked through the door.

  Shoving Jada aside, Hexam focused on her. “Nya,” he said and she didn’t trust the smile on his face for a second. “You have some pretty employees.” He turned to look Jada up and down.

  “Get out of here,” she demanded of Jada, recalling what had happened to Jamie. “Tell security to leave them be.”

  “That’s right,” Hexam said. “Take your fine ass out there and get my men a drink.”

  He closed the door, using it to push Jada along against her will. To her credit, the youngster made eye contact with Nya like she was worried. But Nya had lost one employee to this man, in the most horrific way; she couldn’t lose another.

  “Your men can have anything they want,” Nya said. “You don’t have to scare the staff.”

  “I’m not here to scare them,” he said, folding his arms.

  “Just me?”

  There was an odd moment that passed between them. A sort of charged tension sizzled, they both knew, to an extent at least, what cards the other held. But they stood, facing off because they knew, but both of them still bluffed, waiting for the other to break.

  Nya had no safety net. Hexam could take anything from her that he wanted. Archer wouldn’t walk in. Tag wouldn’t stumble on the scene. Some insecure part of her subconscious was transported back to her father’s kitchen when she was fourteen years old, when Tag’s brother had first put his hands on her.

  The impact of dread was the same; it hit her so hard that she couldn’t inhale. Then, she was a scared kid and now she was all grown up. So she pushed that fear down, dampening it with every ounce of strength she had. Archer had told her the nightmare would never come true, and here she was, living it. If only she’d known then that the nightmare was nothing to the horror of how her night would end.

  “I’m here to make friends,” he said and still she couldn’t trust him.

  Hexam wasn’t smiling anymore; he was examining her expression, her body language, and probably trying to assess what kind of a person she was.

  “If you wanted to make friends with me, why did you bring a posse?”

  “I brought three guys,” he said. “I don’t travel alone in shitty neighborhoods like this one.”

  Nya had spent too much time with Archer because when she opened her mouth, sass almost leaked out and then she had to remind herself that she got away with her sarcasm with Archer because he loved her. Not every strong guy who was bigger than her would accept it, especially when she had no intention of softening the verbal blow with a kiss or caress.

  “I could’ve come alone,” he said. “There’s not a guy out there who doesn’t owe me something or that I couldn’t bribe. Besides, your security isn’t as strong as you like to think. I walked right in here the other day, didn’t I?”

  “I have enough friends,” she said and sat down to pick up her pen.

  He swaggered closer. “That’s not the way I see it. I think you need a friend. A friend who can do you a favor.”

  Nya stopped fake reading the order sheet on the desk to look at him. “What kin
d of favor?”

  “When a guy goes out of town, it takes him a few days to catch up. It didn’t hit me until I was sitting looking at you, that you have a right to be pissed at me.”

  “Thanks for the permission,” she said and pretended to make a note on the paper.

  She did make a note, though she had no idea what she’d just written down on the order sheet, but she didn’t like looking at the bulk of his muscles, or the colored tattoos of curse words and weapons on his biceps. He had fire tattooed from his wrist to his elbow, and while the red, yellow, and orange may be mesmerizing, it made her think he’d been borne from hell.

  “My guys fucked up when they came in here. They dropped your bouncers in the street outside. I don’t know what shit went on in here. But I know your girl didn’t make it out.”

  Clenching her fist around the pen, Nya couldn’t let her anger show. Archer’s voice was in her head telling her to “Calm it.” Telling her to “Hush.” Telling her to hold it together.

  “No, she didn’t,” Nya said, fixating on the figures on the paper. “What’s your point?”

  “Those guys pissed me off and I think you’re pissed off at them too. Means we’ve got something in common.”

  She glared at him. “Good for us… Do you think I’m that stupid? Do you think I’m going to believe you actually came here to make friends with me?”

  “I’ve known Archer a long time,” he said, sitting down and lifting an ankle to his opposite knee. “A lot of years. We’ve worked together, close together, and sometimes we’re on opposite sides. It’s the way the game’s played.”

  Which were exactly the words that Archer had used. “I know,” she said. “I know men like you. I’ve known men like you since I was a kid. There were men like you on my block when I was in diapers looking out the window watching women on street corners being pushed and heckled into cars, crying and screaming women. Some weren’t even women, they were girls, who didn’t want to do what they were told. But they were beaten there on the street like dogs if they didn’t. I’ve seen good people sucked into your world. They owe a bit of money. They owe a bit more. They do you a favor. You do them one back, and then you own their ass.”

  “Good.” While she’d meant to take the wind from his sails, she’d actually managed to bolster him. “Then you’ll know what I’m about to do for you isn’t free.”

  “What are you about to do for me?” she asked because she couldn’t believe he would sign over his baby sister to her best friend just to make everyone’s lives easier.

  “I’m on my way somewhere and I want you to come with me.”

  She laughed. “Yeah, right, why would I do that? Besides, weren’t you told to stay the fuck away from me unless Archer was around?”

  “Archer’s my buddy,” he said. “I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to bail you out. I’m doing it because you’re Archer’s girl, that’s the reason. And I know where he is right now, so do you.”

  Bristling, she didn’t know whether to admit the truth or not. But Archer would never have gone south and claimed to her he was saving Tag’s ass, if it wasn’t a job he was doing for Hexam. “I don’t know where he is,” she said, but wasn’t going to play dumb. “But I know where he’s not.”

  “Here,” Hexam said. “Arch plays everything close to his chest, even with his whores, don’t take it personal. ‘Scuse me.” He held up a hand. “His lady, that’s what he calls you, isn’t it?”

  In front of others he did, not in private. If he was here, he’d take exception to her being called a whore. So she appreciated Hexam taking the time to correct himself. “Maybe.”

  “You know Archer’s a stand-up guy. He’s told me he’ll do a job, so I know it will get done. And you know why he’s there?” he asked, pulling his chair closer to the desk to lean over it. “Because I don’t trust your boy, Taggert. One guy could do what I sent them down there to do. But I know your weasel of a friend will find a way to wriggle out of it. So you might think Arch is putting his ass on the line for me. He’s not. He’s putting it on the line for you. Do you know how fucking tough it is to get Arch to work when he doesn’t want to? ‘Cause if it was anyone else and I called Arch and said, ‘Hey, man, you wanna go babysit for me?’ He’d laugh in my fucking face. You know it and I know it. That guy got on a plane to go to the World’s asshole, because I can’t trust Taggert to do fucking anything right.”

  Nya couldn’t even argue with him. Tag had a way of looking out for himself and he could be bullheaded. If someone told him to do something that he didn’t want to do, he would dig his heels in and he wouldn’t do it. She’d always been the exception, but even her influence had limits.

  Maybe Farrah was different and maybe that was why she was there. But that didn’t matter. If Tag was sent down to Bogota to do a job to prove to Hexam he loved Farrah, he would have to do it and if he didn’t, he’d lose her. But whatever this job was, it was important enough that Hexam needed it done either way.

  So whether Tag tried to back out or not, Archer was there to stand behind him and make sure it got done. Hexam stood to lose nothing. The thing he needed done would get done, Archer would make sure of it. And Tag may lose Farrah if he didn’t do it. God only knew what Archer would lose. The only reason he was there, was her.

  Nya lived with enough guilt. But this was one she knew would weigh on her for a long time yet. “So why would you come here to do me a favor?” she asked. “If I’m just the bitch that got your bro, Archer, messed up in this shit, why would you do me a favor?”

  Hexam opened his hands and then brought them together in a clap. “Because you’re his lady. And you ask any guy in this town who the one guy they want on side is, and they’ll all tell you Archer.” Archer didn’t have property. He didn’t have a patch. He didn’t deal drugs or weapons or anything like that. “ ‘Cept that sonofabitch won’t give his loyalty to no one. He stays neutral all the fucking time and won’t give his allegiance or withhold it. Sometimes I think he works against folks just so they don’t get the wrong idea that he might be soft or on their side.”

  Archer had told her he worked best when he was neutral. “It’s worked for him,” she said.

  “Archer knows everything and everyone. I know guys he’s screwed over who would still suck his dick if he put them on their knees. Because if you control Archer, you control half the board. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t owe him something from some time even way back. And anyone else? He has dirt on so deep, they’re scared to take a piss without asking him.”

  Fear, gratitude, blackmail, Archer had so many plates spinning, but he did it without breaking a sweat. “What do I care?”

  “Are you kidding? The gal who sucks the cock makes the man dance.”

  Hexam wasn’t subtle. “And you want me to make Archer dance for you?”

  “Not right now, but there might come a time…”

  So he wanted her in his back pocket. “Thanks, but no thanks,” she said.

  “You don’t even know the favor I’m offering to do for you. It could be big.”

  “There’s nothing I want from you,” she said. “Except…” The last word slipped out and it was too late to take it back.

  “Except what?” he asked, peering at her. “What do you want?”

  “I want Archer home safe. I don’t want you sending him away on planes anymore.”

  “That’s sweet,” he said, and she knew he was mocking her with his smile. “Unfortunately, not even I can make a plane turn around and they must be landing soon, right?” He looked at his watch, but not for long enough to actually read it. “They’ll need to land to refuel, so while they’re there, they might as well do the job.”

  Nya wasn’t going to beg for information on when they’d be back. Hexam might make it seem like they would be on the tarmac for minutes only to turn around and come home. But she didn’t believe that.

  “Why don’t you come with me?” he asked. “You can leave any time you want. All you’ve got to
do is get in a car with me. I’ll send my boys away. Just you and me, boo. We’ll take a ride.”

  But she wasn’t a soft touch. “I get in a car with you and you could drive me anywhere. There could be a thousand guys waiting for us wherever we go.”

  “Maybe this will change your mind,” he said, lifting his hips, he reached behind him and he pulled out the biggest handgun she’d ever seen in her life. He opened the clip, showed her the bullets, slammed it back inside and loaded it before putting the piece down in the middle of the desk not far from her phone. “Does that make you feel safer?”

  Guns. Nya didn’t really know what to do with guns. She’d seen them at Tag’s place in the past, had boyfriends who used them, even her father had a shotgun. But she’d become accustomed to seeing Archer’s knives around the place and wasn’t sure how she felt about holding a gun.

  But as she had the thought, Hexam reached behind him for something else. “Or maybe you’d prefer this,” he said and slapped a sheathed knife about five inches long beside it. “You can keep hold of them both. I swear to you, no one will hurt you. Archer must have told you something about me. What did he tell you?”

  That he didn’t order quick hits. The people who Hexam wanted to hurt weren’t hurt quickly, they were hurt slow. So whatever he was planning, even if it was sinister, she wouldn’t end up dead, not tonight. But she wasn’t going to share Archer’s hints with this guy.

  Weapons weren’t supposed to be allowed in here. Hexam probably wouldn’t have let himself be searched and bringing a group to distract security would’ve let this guy sail through without a confrontation.

  “No,” she said. “I won’t do it.”

  “Listen, boo, I could’ve come in here and dragged you out kicking and screaming. There wouldn’t have been a fucking thing any of your men could do about it. Archer isn’t even in the country. The chances of anyone getting word to him in the next forty-eight hours are nil. Not close to nil, Nya. Nil. And even if by some sheer miracle, someone managed to talk to him, do you have any idea how long it would take him to get back here? At least a day, not a short, daylight-hours day, I’m talking twenty-four hours, and that’s without delays… and just so we’re clear, we’d make sure there were delays. Do you know what kind of fucked up shit could happen to you in twenty-four hours?”