Scarred (Branded Book 2)

by Scarlett Finn

  “I cleared your debt,” Archer said.

  Dread chilled her. Sitting up to cross her legs her knees rested on his torso. “How did you do that?”

  Nya didn’t want him taking on more of her burden. Archer had been in Columbia, saving Tag, because of her and while he was down there, he was talking to Hexam and apparently clearing up more of her messes.

  “Forget it.”

  “How did you clear my debt?” she asked, but he didn’t respond, he just stared up at the ceiling. She poked his ribs. “Archer, don’t ask me to be honest with you and then ignore me.” But he still didn’t answer, frustrating her further. “I didn’t want you to clean up after me. I was willing to do whatever he asked because he did help me.”

  “That’s what he wants you to think,” Archer said, linking his fingers behind his head. “Is that how he got you to go with him? He told you he was doing you some big favor and you went along with it, convinced he was being a good guy?”

  Being so desperate to get the story out, Nya might have missed some details. “I told him I didn’t trust him and I refused to go. I must have said no five times.”

  “Still, you went,” he said in a way that betrayed how her decision niggled at him.

  Nya didn’t like how his muttered words dismissed her. “Hey, I did what I did to protect you,” she said, getting riled. “I wasn’t going anywhere. I was willing to give it up. He told me everything and I said I didn’t care. I said that I was willing to walk away from Jamie’s killers never knowing what would happen to them until he threatened you. It was his last play. He said if I didn’t go with him that something might happen to you in Columbia, that there could be an accident, and you could be hurt. Killed, Archer. He threatened to kill you if I didn’t go.”

  She didn’t seem to be getting through to him and if violence came more naturally, she’d be inclined to punch him in the gut or grab him by the balls; he wouldn’t ignore her then. Just as Nya was about to growl at him, his head moved and his eyes descended until they landed on hers.

  “You did what?” he asked, his voice low, threatening.

  “I…” Her frustration left because she was confused and deflated now that he’d grown so cold.

  Archer sat up, scooped his hand under her chin and forced his mouth to hers. He didn’t kiss her for long, and didn’t slip his tongue between her lips. He just drove their mouths together. Then he let her go, stroked her jaw, and picked up her arm to kiss her brand.

  Nya was puzzled by the power of his harsh kiss on her lips followed by such a tender one on her wrist. Then he turned around to put his feet on the floor. Touching his shoulder, she was shocked when he bent down, away from her caress, to pick up his jeans from the floor.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  It was the middle of the night and he lived right upstairs, it wasn’t like he had a long journey home to think about or an early day. They never had early days, and both preferred the night, which they spent together whenever they could. They didn’t have captives or nightclubs to worry about either, so she couldn’t figure out why he’d be collecting his clothes now.

  He stood up to pull on his jeans and then righted his boots to stick his feet into them. Stretching farther, he snagged his tee shirt from the floor, and pulled the laces on his boots without tying them. Stuffing his tee shirt into his back pocket, he fastened his belt.

  “Archer?” she asked, rising onto her knees. Reaching for him, she didn’t manage to touch him because he took a step back.

  “We’re through,” he said.

  The words were so blunt and detached that they were like icicles jagging into her. “Very funny.”

  But when she tried to reach for him again, he retreated farther, though she hadn’t got close to touching him.

  “I told you if you ever did anything to put yourself in danger to protect me, it would be done, Nya.”

  She couldn’t ignore how serious he was and her pulse began to race. “Archer, you don’t mean that,” she said with a disbelieving laugh. “You’re not gonna leave me.”

  He scrutinized her body, the body he’d pleasured himself in not so long ago. A body he’d come back from Columbia to seek out. A body he hadn’t been able to resist even when he had a thousand questions and was desperate for information. He’d put that curiosity aside to slide himself inside of her and satisfy them both.

  But he didn’t say anything else. He just turned around and left the bedroom. Nya stayed in astonished silence for a second before adrenaline made her leap up and run through her new apartment.

  “Archer, no! I won’t let you go.” But he was already picking up the bag he’d dumped at the door. “Archer, hear me out! It wasn’t like that.”

  He stopped, dropping his hand from the door to turn to her with his bag in his other fist at the back of his shoulder. “Be very careful before you think about lying to me.”

  Opening her mouth, her inhale was stuttered. “I… I wouldn’t.”

  “Did Hex threaten me?” he asked. “Did he threaten that something would happen to me if you didn’t go with him?”

  She knew this was her chance. All she had to do was say no. All she had to do was backpedal and explain that it hadn’t been meant like that. She could even point at Tag and say Hexam had only threatened him. But Archer knew her too well. Knew her integrity. Beyond that, no matter how she’d tried in the past, since they’d got together, she could not bring herself to lie to him.

  “I love you,” she said, skirting her puny kitchen table that was pathetic in the space it was supposed to dominate. “What was I supposed to do?”

  He grabbed the back of her hand when she tried to take it to his jaw and he lowered to growl into her face. “You were supposed to tell him to go fuck himself, Nya. I’d have been so fucking proud of you if you did.”

  “I couldn’t take the risk,” she said. “I couldn’t take the risk that he would hurt you.”

  Archer chucked her hand away. “And that’s why we’re through.”

  She had to leap out of the way of the door as he flung it open. The slam that followed was so final that the sound made her jump, something she hadn’t done for an age because she was used to his loud entrances and exits.

  Naked, open-mouthed, and stupefied, Nya didn’t know what to do next. Her boxes still stood by the door, half unpacked. Her apartment wasn’t even setup and she’d already outstayed her welcome. The man she loved had just dumped her.

  A crash from above made her jump again. Archer was home. He’d just slammed into his own place. His heavy footsteps stomped across the floor. There were raised voices, feminine and masculine, the exchange was brief, then the footsteps carried on and another door slammed deeper in the apartment.

  If he’d gone to his room, he wasn’t worried about Ester’s drinking. Maybe he’d told his mother to beat it. Nya was still frozen where he’d left her, wondering how they’d gone from enamored lovers to strangers in a heartbeat.

  But when she eventually pulled herself together, she smiled. He didn’t mean it. He couldn’t. He was just trying to teach her a lesson. She’d let him sulk tonight and then tomorrow she’d go and apologize in all of his favorite ways, she’d pout, suck him off once or twice, cook him something nice to eat, and then she’d find out what had happened on his mission.

  After that, they’d forget that this horrible night ever happened. Although, her skin still prickled and she couldn’t quite shake her anxiety. Nya checked the door was locked, and took herself back to bed. It wasn’t quite the same as the real thing, but at least she had the scent of him to keep her company.

  Staring at the ceiling, she knew he was right there above her, probably pissed as hell. They’d figure this out. They couldn’t be over. She wouldn’t let him walk away.

  eighteen

  Nya was wrong. Of all the things she’d been wrong about in her life, this was the one that counted.

  Tag was crazy in love with Farrah and things were going great for them. Ny
a had had dinner with the happy couple the previous night and it was sort of weird to see her friend pandering to Farrah’s canoodling. They weren’t charged in their attraction to each other and there was little that seemed mature or intense about what they shared. But Tag liked Farrah’s giggling and the way she stared at him with gooey eyes.

  Nya might have made fun of her friend a couple of weeks ago for being so enamored. But as it stood, all she’d been able to focus on was keeping her food down because they were so sickeningly in love and that was the last thing she could face.

  It had been nine days since Archer had told her they were over and he wasn’t budging.

  As per her decision after he’d left, Nya went to his apartment the next day. He wouldn’t even let her in and glared at her like she was an unwelcome stranger before he slammed the door in her face. She’d tried again three more times over the next few days before she started to get the message.

  Sizzle was the only thing that kept her going. When she got tired of analyzing every noise she heard from the apartment above, she forced herself to go out and spent most of her hours in Sizzle. The place had never been so efficient.

  All the jobs on the to-do list that had piled up for years were done. All the maintenance was up-to-date, as was the paperwork. Nya worked every minute of every shift, and tonight was no exception.

  Ester had disappeared within a couple of days of their break-up. She had come down to Nya’s apartment to find out what had happened and why Archer was in such a foul mood, shutting his mother down every time Nya’s name was mentioned. But Nya couldn’t tell Ester the whole truth, because his mother hadn’t known about Columbia and Tag and Hexam.

  Protecting his mother was important to Archer and Nya wasn’t going to beg the woman to make a case for her. From what Nya knew of Archer’s mom, she didn’t stick around in the tough times. When things got sticky, Ester found herself a new town, or a new man, or a new job. She was a party girl, interested in fun; she didn’t want to deal with her son stomping around the apartment or any negative vibes.

  Nya tried to spend time with Tag, but he was too caught up in Farrah and his work with Hexam. Whatever had gone down in Columbia, it must have been successful, but her friend refused to give out details. He hadn’t asked about her mood, but probably knew her well enough to recognize the signs of a heartbroken Nya. Although, she couldn’t remember ever feeling this bleak after a break-up.

  The music in Sizzle was pissing her off. It seemed to grate on her every night and she began to wonder if managing a nightclub was really for her. But this wasn’t the time to quit her job. She’d just given up an apartment that was hers in deference to a place that wasn’t. And she’d lost her man. She couldn’t handle another change.

  She wanted this night to be over.

  “Your boyfriend’s here,” Jada said, popping up at the side of the register.

  “My what?” Nya asked, her thoughts were too busy to concentrate on what the girl was saying. “What time is it? Isn’t it nearly—” Just at that moment the music went off, and she exhaled in relief. “Oh, thank God.”

  This was the point of the night when she could start urging her customers to the exits. But it would be another half an hour to forty minutes before everyone was out.

  “I said, your boyfriend’s here,” Jada said.

  Turning to Jada, Nya was about to correct her and tell her that Tag wasn’t her boyfriend when it hit her that Jada had never met Tag. Whipping around, she saw that yes, there by the entryway, on the other side of the room, was Archer.

  But he wasn’t seeking her out, he had a group of her security men around him, and they were engaged in intense discussion. Except she needed her security guys doing their jobs, not shooting the breeze.

  So she closed the register, left the bar, and marched over to see what was going on. There were eight of them in a huddle around Archer. All of them were twice her size, but that didn’t stop her from pulling their arms to yank them out of her way.

  “Can I help you with something?” she asked, fixated on Archer and irritated that he’d bypassed her in her own place.

  “No,” he said. “Toddle off and count your money.”

  Oh, his condescension, she wasn’t surprised by it. “This is my job. I’m the manager. If you have a problem, I’m the person you need to talk to. These men have a job to do too. In case you hadn’t noticed, the music is off, that means it’s the end of the night, which is when these guys have to get everybody out.”

  Archer’s jaw ticked. “She’s got a point,” Robbo said.

  Archer leaned back against the doorframe and folded his arms. “I’ll wait,” he said, glaring at her like he wouldn’t let her win.

  Glancing at her employees, she smiled. “Let’s see if we can break our personal best and get these people out in twenty minutes. I want to be home early tonight.” Nya didn’t care about getting home early. But the security guys took her at her word and scrambled to get the patrons out. “If you’re gonna conduct business, you should show up earlier,” she said to Archer when they were alone. “Our opening hours are on the door. Don’t tie up my employees; bring your own if you need shit done.”

  “I follow orders,” he said. It was insulting how he could show up here and lounge around the place, using that damn cool, lazy voice, like she was just another obstacle in his day that meant nothing to him. “That’s all I do these days.”

  Except Archer didn’t follow orders, he was his own boss. Her expression scrunched. “Whose orders?”

  After pushing away from the doorframe, he walked away from her. The rabble was getting too much; this was the bottleneck that forced the large crowd to squash into the tight corridor to get out the front doors.

  Archer didn’t have the patience to listen to the din, but he could’ve answered her instead of being outright rude. She was sick of him ignoring her and the pity she’d lived with since they split began to change hue to become anger.

  Spinning around, she spotted him heading for the office. Before he went in, he looked across the floor at her and made eye contact. Did he want her to follow him? Whether he wanted it or not, she was going.

  Hurrying across to the office, Nya didn’t know what to expect when she went inside. The office held memories for them and they were about to make another one, positive or otherwise. But this was the most he’d spoken to her since he’d left her standing naked in her apartment. So Nya was going to hear him out.

  Closing the door, she rested her weight on it and wasn’t surprised to see him sitting in her chair at the manager’s side of the desk. There was a blue file on the surface that didn’t match Sizzle records.

  “Hexam,” he said and probably because she didn’t understand, he explained. “I follow Hexam’s orders now.” Linking his fingers, he laid his forearms on the desk over the blue folder. “And so do you, Sweets.”

  That was the pet name he used in front of other people when they were doing something wrong, he had never used it in private before. “Me?” Leaving the door, she went to sit in the guest chair. “Is this about—”

  “No,” he said and picked up the blue file to hold it out to her. She didn’t know what would be inside, but she took it and opened it up to read. He gave her just enough time to figure it out before he spoke again. “Your boyfriend signed over ownership. I guess that’s what happens when you’re in love.”

  She couldn’t believe it. But he was telling the truth. This was a document transferring ownership of Sizzle from Tag to Hex. “I can’t… I can’t believe it,” she stuttered. “When did this happen?”

  “They’ve been talking about it for a few days, he didn’t tell you?”

  She shook her head, numbed by the words in front of her eyes. “I had dinner with him before my shift. The bastard never said a word.”

  “I guess he thinks it doesn’t matter. You get to stay on.”

  Whoop-de-do for her, instead of working for her best friend, who gave her free rein, she would be working
for the only man who’d ever seen her kill. “He’s changing things. That’s why you were talking to my guys.” When she looked up, he was nodding. “And you’re here to oversee the transition?”

  “I don’t know his plans. I didn’t fucking ask,” Archer said and that he didn’t seem to care about being in the dark was a stark contrast to the man she knew. “I was told to come here and make sure those guys knew what was what.”

  Security was the first to know, probably because Hexam would want his friends to get priority and his enemies to be barred. “Why would Tag do this?” she asked.

  “His price for Farrah.”

  “Why would Hexam want a nightclub? Why would he want this nightclub?”

  But his eyes didn’t warm. Her Archer wasn’t the man in the room with her. This wasn’t the man who was calm and patient with her questions, the guy who would take his time to explain to her the things she didn’t understand. He was switched off. Professional. Detached.

  “Just keep doing what you’re doing. When Hex wants to shake things up, you’ll know.”

  “How?” she asked when he rose.

  “He’ll send someone.”

  “Will it be you?”

  “I go where he points. Tonight he pointed here. Who knows where he’ll point tomorrow.”

  Archer came out from behind the desk, but she couldn’t let it end like this. “You’re doing this because of me,” she said and he stopped halfway to the door. “You’re running Hexam’s errands like a bitch because of what I did.”

  He’d said that he had cleared her debt and now she got it. This was the price. Archer had agreed to put himself in her place, to put himself under Hexam’s boot, freeing her from the position.

  “I don’t want you to do this, Fella,” she said, leaving her chair and tossing the file to the desk. “I don’t want you to compromise yourself. This isn’t who you are. If I fucked up, I fucked up, that’s my mess. Let me pay the price. You shouldn’t.”