by Jill Shalvis
The age-old need to protect her sister reached up and choked Elle. “This is sheer insanity. You know that, right?”
“He’s probably not even home, in which case I’ll get to B&E one last time.” Morgan laughed a little but it didn’t ring true. “You’re not going to be a spoilsport and ruin the last bit of fun I’m going to have for a while, are you?”
“Fine, but wait for me,” Elle said. “Okay? Just wait a few more minutes. I’m on my way. I’m bringing the cavalry.”
But Morgan had disconnected.
“You hear that?” Eddie asked Spence excitedly from the backseat. “We’re the cavalry!”
Before Elle could correct that notion, her phone buzzed.
Archer.
“Morgan’s making a move without us,” she said immediately. “I’m on my way to stop her.”
“Address.” His voice was his usual calm, although she detected enough heated tension coming through to pop corn as she gave him the best address she could.
“I’ll meet you there,” he said. “Wait for me.”
“Absolutely.”
“I mean it, Elle. This guy’s a nutcase.”
“I know,” she said but he’d already disconnected. What was it with the people she loved and their terrible phone manners? Irritated, she shoved her phone away. “You know what’s more infuriating than knowing he’s right all the time? Having him know he’s right all the time.”
From the backseat, Eddie patted her on the shoulder in sympathy. “I’ve been told it’s a male genetic disorder.”
Much of what Archer did was hurry up and wait. Ninety percent of that hurry up and wait was routine, and if he and his guys did their job right the odds got even better.
But there was always a possibility of things going fubar and completely out of their control. Archer was trained and prepared for that, so he rarely felt a leap of sheer adrenaline and genuine fear going into a job.
But he felt it now.
He, Lucas, and Reyes pulled up to the address Elle had given him and parked behind Eddie’s ancient, old Ford. He was relieved to see Elle in the passenger seat, which allowed him to take his first breath since Spence had called him and filled him in.
He’d felt a whole lot better when Elle had called him as well, but it wasn’t until right this minute, seeing her sitting there tense and worried about her sister but still waiting for him, that he recognized what he was feeling.
Relief, absolutely, but also something much, much more. He went straight to the passenger door and yanked her out of the truck and into his arms.
“What?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”
He tightened his grip and for a rare moment let his vulnerability show as he took comfort from her embrace. “You waited.”
“You asked me to,” she said a little ungraciously.
He was undone. He made it a habit to never be vulnerable and he was good at it, but with this woman, all bets were off. “Fill me in.”
“I think Morgan’s already inside. Her plan was to taunt Lars with the Russian pocket watch, telling him that she had it hidden, that she’d give it to him if he promised to leave her and me alone—”
Archer made a derisive noise.
“She’s not stupid—she knows he’s an arrogant asshole,” she said. “But he’s an arrogant asshole who will happily run his mouth to show off. She wants to implicate him. And then turn the both of them in.”
He met her gaze. “And your plan was to go in after her.”
“No, because you told me to wait. Oh and side note—you still suck at asking.”
Eddie bobbled his head on his thin neck. “Girls like to be asked. It’s a feminist thing.”
“It’s a human being thing,” Elle corrected. “You wanted me to wait for you and I did. I don’t see a car out front so probably Lars isn’t even home. We can just get Morgan out of there and—”
“There’s no ‘we’ on this,” Archer said.
“No?”
“Hell no.” He looked at Spence. “Watch her.” Then he turned to Reyes and Lucas. “You’ve got the front, I’ll go in the back.”
The guys moved like smoke, mobilizing at Archer’s orders. Archer started to vanish around the back of the house.
Elle followed him, hearing Spence swear from behind her. She didn’t care.
Archer flashed her a quick look of irritation but she took it as a good sign when he nodded at Spence. “Watch the street.”
The alley was narrow, lined with fencing and the occasional trash can. They counted buildings and Archer stopped Elle at the right gate. “I can get in and out faster alone,” he said.
“But I can keep her from doing something stupid,” she said.
He didn’t like this, she could tell, but again he didn’t try to hold her back. The back door was unlocked, the handle turning easily in her hand. She looked at Archer, surprised.
With a grim expression, he reached out to stop her from going in, stepping in front of her. “Go back,” he ordered.
Before she could follow his direction, shots rang out. Elle stood frozen in shocked horror as Archer spun toward her, tackling her down off the steps and onto the grass, hauling her behind a tree and pressing her down low there.
She reached out and grabbed his shoulders. Morgan. Morgan was in there! “Archer, we have to get to her—”
“I know. Stay here,” he demanded in her ear and then he was gone.
She was wholly on board with that. She stared down at her shaking hands and gasped in horror.
One of them was covered in bright red blood. Blood that wasn’t hers.
“Elle.” It was Spence, kneeling beside her.
She looked up at him. “Archer was hit.”
Chapter 24
#Crickets
Elle tried to control her crazy breathing but couldn’t. Spence had her by the hand, probably to keep her from running into the house more than for comfort. They couldn’t see much. There’d been no more gunfire and the odd silence scared her more than the shots had. She pulled out the knife Archer had given her all those years ago, the one she tucked into her pocket every morning out of habit, and slowly peeked around the tree.
“Holy shit, Elle,” Spence said, looking impressed at the sight of the knife.
Reyes and Lucas burst out the back door from inside, guns drawn. Morgan was between them, looking unharmed. They located Elle with unerring ease, so either she wasn’t all that well hidden or Archer had told them to come find her.
“Thank God,” Elle whispered as she hugged Morgan fiercely. Then she turned to Reyes. “Archer,” she demanded, fisting her hand in his shirt. “Where’s Archer?”
He looked down at the knife in her other hand and arched a brow like Spence had. “He’s right behind us.”
“He’s been hit,” she said, heart in her throat.
“Shit,” Reyes said, turning back to the house just as Archer pushed through the doorway, shoving Lars in front of him.
Reyes and Lucas rushed up to detain Lars as sirens wailed in the background.
When Archer was relieved of his burden, he hesitated, weaved, and then dropped to his knees.
Elle rushed to his side, gathering him against her as he started to slump over. “I’ve got you,” she said, clutching him to her. She had him and she wasn’t letting go no matter what his stubborn ass said. She tore at his shirt to see how bad it was.
“You’re carrying my knife again.”
“Still,” she corrected.
He let out a tight smile. “Better than diamonds any day.”
Her vision got hazy when she realized he’d been hit in the groove between his chest and shoulder and that he was losing way too much blood way too quickly. His face was pale and he was cool to the touch as she lowered him down and carefully placed his head in her lap so she could apply pressure and try to slow the bleeding.
“Elle,” he gritted out, peering up at her intensely as the paramedics began to cut away his shirt. “Are you—”
He got his eyes halfway open again. “You’re so pretty, Elle. Both of you.”
One of the paramedics was working at staunching the free flowing blood, the other checking vitals and speaking into a cell phone. Spence was at Elle’s side. “Don’t worry. They’ll put a Band-Aid on it and he’ll be fine.”
Archer weakly flipped him off and then grabbed Elle’s hand. “You really okay?”
“Yes.” She ducked around the paramedics working over him and clutched his hand to her chest. It was utter chaos around them and yet it somehow felt like they were all alone. “And so are you, dammit,” she said fiercely.
A tight smile twitched at his lips. “Yelling at me even when I’m flat on my back.” His eyes drifted shut and he muttered something that sounded a whole lot like, “Christ, woman, I love you . . .”
The words reverberated through her, rocking her to the very foundation. “What?” she whispered. “What did you just say?”
He didn’t respond. Or move. She whirled to Spence. “What did he just say?”
Spence, who’d been watching the paramedics, gave her his worried look. “I didn’t hear him say anything.”
“But he did. He said—” She whirled back to Archer, leaning over him. “Say it again!”
“I’m sorry,” the paramedic said. “He’s unconscious.”
Elle put her face close to Archer’s. “If that was some kind of goodbye, Archer Hunt, I swear I’ll follow you and bring you back myself. Do you hear me?”
“Lady, the people in China can hear you,” the paramedic said. “Aliens can hear you. Everyone can hear you except him. Now I’m going to have to ask you to step back.”
Spence pulled Elle back. “Easy, tiger. There’s a bunch of cops here. No sense in getting arrested with the actual bad guy, right? I mean I’d bail you out of course, but you might have to spend a few hours in lockup in an orange jumpsuit first, and I know how you feel about orange.”
“He was shot.” God. Shot. Because of her. “He has to make it, Spence.”
“He will out of sheer orneriness, trust me.”
All around them was wild pandemonium. First responders were everywhere. Reyes and Lucas had been separated and were answering questions. As was Morgan. Elle gasped in horror when they clicked handcuffs on her sister, and she ran over there.
“I’ll bail you out,” she promised thickly.
Morgan gave her a tight smile. “Get Archer taken care of first. Don’t leave his side for me.”
“Morgan—”
“I can wait,” she said, voice steady, her eyes not quite as much.
Elle hugged her fiercely. “I’m so proud of you.”
Morgan’s eyes filled with tears and a low sob escaped. “Right back at you, sis. But seriously, I’ve survived every single screw-up I’ve ever made and we both know there’ve been some spectacular ones. I’ll be okay.”
Elle gave her another hard hug before they took Morgan away. She turned to Spence. “I want to call a lawyer for her—”
“We’ll call mine on the way to the hospital.”
The medics were still working on Archer, starting an IV, controlling his bleeding. When they had him where they wanted him, they clicked the stretcher upright and prepared to wheel him out to the waiting ambulance.
“We’re following them,” Elle said to Spence.
He already had the keys out. “Yep.”
This time there were no smartass comments from the peanut gallery in back. Nothing from Eddie but a tense silence. Spence gave Elle his phone, and while he drove, she called his attorney for Morgan.
When they arrived at the hospital, they were told Archer was in surgery and were directed to a waiting room. Elle called Willa, who was better than any calling tree. She called all the others, and within the hour they’d piled into the waiting room with her. Pru and Finn, Willa and her boyfriend, Keane. Haley in her optometrist’s lab coat. Kylie, still wearing sawdust and sporting a suspicious Vinnie-sized lump in her sweatshirt pocket.
All of Archer’s guys were there too as well as Mollie.
“Didn’t expect to be back at a hospital so soon,” Joe said.
Spence’s attorney called back to let her know that Morgan’s bail hearing was set for first thing in the morning. Beyond that, he couldn’t say for sure, but he felt that it was possible she’d get off with restitution only, no additional jail time.
Elle knew and believed that Morgan wanted a clean slate more than anything, so this got her more than a little choked up and hopeful for her sister’s future. She thanked him and disconnected. “I’ve got to call Archer’s dad,” she said.
Spence sucked air in through his teeth. “Not sure if Archer would want that.”
Elle looked at everyone else.
Joe shook his head. “He’ll be pissed.”
“Super pissed,” Finn agreed.
“But it has to be done anyway, right?” Elle asked.
No one answered.
That meant the call was hers to make. Fine, she’d made tough and uncomfortable decisions all her damn life, what was one more, right? She didn’t have his number but she knew what station he’d retired from. She could at least get a message to him.
Spence did her one better and once again handed over his phone. He had Archer’s dad’s direct cell number. Elle left a message and then realized how full the waiting room was.
For a man who lived like he was an island, Archer sure as hell had a lot of people who cared deeply about him. She hoped he knew it.
“Sit, honey,” Willa said, patting a chair between her and Pru.
Christ, woman, I love you . . . Archer’s words echoed in her head. At least she hoped that’s what he’d said.
“How do you do it?” Elle asked Pru, the one of them who’d been in love the longest. “How do you handle the sheer, overwhelming emotions of it all? And then there’s the biggee—why?”
Pru smiled. “When you find someone who knows you’re not perfect but treats you as if you are anyway, someone whose biggest fear is losing you, it’s worth whatever you have to go through.” She glanced over at Finn. “And if that person is someone you can wake up in the morning with and let see you without makeup and whatever other armor you use to hide from the world . . . well, you’d best hold on tight because if you let that go, then there’s no hope for you.”
Finn pulled Pru into his arms. “Never letting go,” he murmured.
Elle’s heart took a direct hit. She didn’t want Archer to let go . . .
Two hours later, a man wearing scrubs and holding a clipboard appeared in the doorway and looked around the very full room. “Archer Hunt’s family?”
She jumped to her feet. Everyone else stood up as well and they all began to speak at once.
The doctor blinked.
Spence and Elle stepped forward, and the doctor look relieved.
“He’s out of surgery and in recovery,” he told them. “We’ll be moving him to a private room shortly and then you’ll be able to visit him a few at a time. Shattered collarbone and some soft tissue damage. He lost a lot of blood and required a transfusion, but he’s going to be okay.”
Several hours later Elle was in Archer’s darkened room with Joe. Spence had gone to get them some caffeine. They’d sent everyone else home until morning.
