Marked (Branded Book 3)

by Scarlett Finn

  “Thought you said you protected her,” Tag said.

  “It’s a balance,” Archer replied with a nonchalant shrug. “You give her enough so she doesn’t sulk, but not enough that she’ll get herself into trouble.”

  “Do you want me to come?” Nya asked.

  She’d become more accustomed to ignoring the men’s sniping because while it was clear they still didn’t have any love for each other, they had refrained from physical confrontations. So there was a tense kind of truce between them, although she did sense Archer was often the one restraining himself. Tag’s erratic behavior still flared up, hence why Archer had probably rolled the joint.

  Nya put it on the table and kicked off her shoes to stretch her legs along the couch in a position she’d usually adopt if Ester was there.

  They hadn’t seen Ester for a couple of days, Nya didn’t know if she was still in town, or still screwing around with Derren, or if maybe their reunion had caused the woman to split. She’d drift back in eventually and if Archer wasn’t worried, Nya had no reason to be.

  “Trouble like that,” Archer said, tipping his attention to her. “You’re not coming anywhere near it.”

  “Why not?” she asked. “If you want someone to keep Tag calm, I’m your best bet.”

  “I’ll stay fucking calm,” Tag said, stomping over to grab the joint from the table.

  If Archer thought it was a good idea then she would let her friend spark up, but she didn’t think it was smart for Tag to be taking anything, especially something that may make him paranoid. But if it wasn’t strong, it might have at least a placebo effect.

  “You’re not coming because I don’t know how this fucker’s going to handle seeing Gio and that meeting’s not the one we should be worrying about.”

  “The big one?” she asked. “Who will be there?”

  “Some folks Gio’s made connections with,” Tag said, forcing to twist almost all the way around to look at him. “The fifty grand was a buy-in, least that’s what I’ve been told.”

  “Buy-in to what?”

  “That’s what we’re gonna find out,” Archer said.

  Nya could tell from her lover’s lack of intrigue that he already knew the answer, and had to be withholding the information from Tag. He’d been having secret conversations with Gio. She didn’t know that as fact, but if he’d had one, he must have had others. Nya hadn’t told Tag about what she’d overheard, and hadn’t stumbled on Archer talking to Gio again.

  Archer was holding this together and he was doing it for her, just the same as he’d got Tag clean for her and bailed Tag out so many times.

  Lifting a hand, she reached for him, making him glance down. “What?” he asked. “Was there a problem at Sizzle?”

  Sometimes it was just overwhelming to be with a man so dedicated to doing whatever it took to keep her safe. “No,” she said. “Hold my hand.”

  He did as she said and went back to reading his subtitles. “You know, Yorkie, you should come,” Tag said. “Gio doesn’t like Archer any more than I do.”

  It didn’t sound like a threat, but it did make her uneasy. “That’s true,” she said, squeezing her hand around Archer’s. “I don’t know if I want you to go, Fella.”

  As per usual, Archer wasn’t worried. “If I stay here, it won’t happen,” Archer said. “This meet is only happening ‘cause of me, though I’ve made it fucking clear I don’t trust Lucas, not an inch. Gio heard about it, he got the money, and tried to scam his way in. It didn’t work. After I spoke to Gio and he told me what he was trying to do, I talked to a guy.”

  He talked to a guy. He said it like it was nothing. Like it was no big deal. Gio hadn’t been able to get in. Tag was falling apart. And Archer had made it happen.

  For the first time, she looked at her lover and wondered what the hell he could accomplish if he used all these contacts to his own advantage. He could probably run his own criminal empire, but she was pleased that he didn’t. Archer was happy with his simple life: his girl, his home, his crappy car, and his big TV. It didn’t take much to please her man.

  The smell of the pot Tag was smoking hung in the air and she guessed that was probably responsible for her reflective mood. “I’ll stay,” she said, trusting Archer’s assessment of the situation. “But I’m staying right here and I’ll only let you go if you promise to come straight back. Both of you. How much time do you have before you have to go? Do you want to eat?”

  “Maybe,” Archer grumbled.

  Using her grip on Archer’s hand, Nya pulled herself into a kneeling position and looped her arms around his waist. “I’ll make that steak you like.”

  Archer rested his hands on her shoulders. “Gonna take the plunge and prepare flesh for me?”

  “I could try,” she said.

  “You get this right, you’ll be doing all the cooking, and you know I have an appetite.”

  Oh yes, she did and she recognized the innuendo laced through his voice. She took his hands from her shoulders and kissed each one before climbing off the couch to head for the kitchen. At least the first few times, she’d probably screw up making meat for him. But after all he’d done for her, it was about time she made an effort for him and this was a good place to start.

  It seemed to take years for them to return.

  There had been a mad rush of activity before the men went out. Archer got changed, checked his weapons, and gave her instructions, such as telling her not to answer the door. He did ask her if she’d rather stay in her apartment as opposed to his, but Nya refused. Her love didn’t have time to fight with her because he had to give Tag a bunch of orders too.

  Nya begged her friend to listen and made it clear to him that Archer would protect him because of how much he loved her. If Tag did as he was told and paid attention to Archer’s cues, Nya was confident that both men would come back to her unharmed. But if they got into conflict with each other or Tag decided to act on his own, Archer might not be able to protect him, or he might not want to.

  Her friend wasn’t at his peak, he was still recovering from his detox and his behavior was unpredictable. But he was impatient too, he wanted to know what Gio was up to and if this meeting was time sensitive, they couldn’t wait for Tag to get back to top form.

  Tag kind of nodded along when Archer spoke, but his superior attitude told her he wasn’t taking her or Archer too seriously.

  Although it could just be that the pot he’d smoked was chilling him out. He didn’t get agitated or anxious like he had been recently, which was a bonus.

  But it was actually Archer she worried for. Nya pulled him back before they could leave and kissed him hard, which wasn’t something she would normally consider doing in front of Tag. She stroked his face, told him she loved him, and made him promise to come back to her.

  Although he must have sensed her concern, he didn’t address it directly. Nya walked both men to the door and closed it because Archer had demanded that she lock it while he listened from the other side.

  The men walked down the hallway, Nya listened to their footsteps recede to the stairway until there was… nothing.

  No more sound.

  It was the worst silence of her life and Nya couldn’t help but feel some of Tag’s anxiety creeping around her. She had a horrible feeling that something was going to go wrong or that something was about to change and it was a feeling that didn’t subside.

  All she could do was wait.

  She couldn’t concentrate on paperwork and she’d promised Archer she wouldn’t go out. Ester wasn’t here and no one knocked on Archer’s door. She watched TV, flicking through channels faster than she could register what was on them. But it was the repetitive motion occupying her hands that kept her clicking the button. She made coffee. She drank wine. She took a bath. She tried to sleep…

  All the while her gaze drifted back to the front door as she waited to hear the sound of a key in the lock. A dozen times she thought she heard footsteps. A dozen times she leapt up a
nd held her breath in anticipation of seeing her men. But it didn’t happen.

  Evening became night and with every second that ticked by, she grew more concerned.

  How long did she leave it? How long did she wait until she tried to call? If they were in a meeting, she didn’t want to embarrass either of the men by seeming like the nagging wife or the overbearing mother. But if something had gone wrong, she had no way to help the men she loved.

  Nya had no phone number for Ester, Derren, or for Kristof. Without any way to get in touch with Archer’s pseudo family members, she’d be left waiting for someone to find her if Archer and Tag didn’t come back. Rooting through Archer’s apartment might give her some clue about how to find his allies, but she doubted it. Her lover was too smart to leave information like that lying around.

  Nya had been sitting at the dinner table for quite some time, although she couldn’t put an exact number on how many minutes it had been. She sat in the dark with her hands on the surface, staring at the door and waiting.

  And then, it happened.

  Metal touched metal and there was movement, but she was in such a daze that she almost didn’t believe they’d truly come home. It wasn’t until the door opened and Archer came inside that she finally sucked in a breath.

  “Oh thank God,” she said, but didn’t get up because she couldn’t trust her legs to hold her yet.

  Archer’s glare was cold. She hadn’t seen him appear so detached in a long while, probably not since the time she’d sat in this chair when she’d been tethered to the bolt beneath her foot. She wasn’t fastened to it now, but she might as well have been, the weight of those frosty eyes kept her pinned in the seat.

  Tag came in next, with Gio, and another man she didn’t know.

  The unknown man moved away from the door. He seemed the most relaxed of the bunch. He was big, tall, but not scary. There was something striking about him, almost mesmerizing, that drew her eye. Maybe it was the angle of his jaw or the keenness of his eyes, but as far as she could tell he wasn’t trying to intimidate her. After he registered she was there, he looked away to examine the apartment.

  Tag was laughing. He had his arm around Gio; it seemed the men were the best of friends again. Gio gave the door a shove to put it back into the frame and Nya didn’t know what to think. Archer had moved into the kitchen to retrieve something from the laundry closet.

  Tag and Gio were talking at a hundred miles an hour and laughing, their mood was so high it seemed they were bouncing off the walls. The new guy drifted into the living room and dropped into a chair, resting his hands on the arms, all loose, like he was in a doctor’s waiting room and not surrounded by the others.

  “Yorkie!” Tag exclaimed like maybe he’d just noticed she was there. He opened his arms wide. “We’re moving to Phoenix!” He gave Gio a slap on the back, but ice cascaded through her veins. “Gio’s got it all figured out. We’re starting anew, just like you wanted, Yorkie. You, me, and Gio, we’ve got it made, we’re hitting the big leagues.”

  “Phoenix,” she said. “Arizona?”

  Tag laughed.

  Nya couldn’t connect the joy from this man with the despair in her heart. Looking at him now was like looking at the Tag of the old days, before the drugs, before Hexam, before Archer. When it was just the two of them, happy friends moseying through life without all these terrible situations that had been thrust upon them recently.

  “We’ve got a week,” Tag said. “That gives us time to get everything sorted out. There’s one little job we’ve gotta do first too, but you don’t have to worry about that.” Putting an arm around Gio, Tag gave him a friendly shake. “Isn’t this guy the best?”

  Her daze was making it difficult for her to form new thoughts. “The best?” she said. Gio sure looked pleased with himself.

  “How are you doing, Nya?” Gio asked. “I feel like it’s been an age since we all hung out. I leave town for a few weeks and everything goes to shit.”

  “Yeah,” she said, wishing he hadn’t come back. “Phoenix.”

  The word came out again as she wondered at how many thousand miles away that city was from here. It was all the way across the country, but it might as well have been in another solar system. Her gaze floated around to Archer who was on the other side of the breakfast bar with a half-full glass of Scotch in one hand and the open bottle in the other.

  Archer never drank hard liquor. Never. Beer, sure, but he kept his wits and hated heavy drinking. He hated to see Ester get drunk and because his mother had done it so frequently when he was a kid, he had a kind of disdain for those who used booze as a crutch.

  Her friend was exuberant like this development might solve every problem they’d ever had. How could he not see this was the worst thing that could’ve happened to her?

  “It’ll be fucking amazing. The weather. The women. The life,” Tag said. “It’s exactly what we need. You were so right, Yorkie, when you said we had to start again and get away from this shitty town and all the crap. What better place than Arizona?”

  Having a stranger in the room made this situation more difficult. Although the guy didn’t seem to be observing, he was staring straight ahead, he wasn’t even looking at any of them. For a brief second, she wondered why he was here and what was in his mind. But there was too much in her head and in her heart for her to worry about him now, so she blanked him out.

  Warmth touched the outer corner of her eyes. “Tag,” she said, rising from her chair.

  “I’ll take care of everything,” Tag said. “Don’t you worry. We’ll get your stuff packed up and shipped out. Don’t worry about Sizzle either; I’ll have someone step in to manage it until we can get the place sold. We’ll get you set up somewhere real nice in Phoenix.”

  “Taggy.” The warmth in her eyes became ice as the moisture that gathered touched the cool air around them. “I’m not moving to Phoenix,” she said and it took a minute for his smile to fall. His eyes darted around the room as he tried to figure out what the hell she was saying.

  “You’re not…? What?” he asked, stepping away from Gio for the first time.

  Saying the words aloud gave her back some of her equilibrium. Nya was still devastated, but her determination was solid. “Phoenix. I’m not going to Phoenix.”

  She felt the stranger turn his head, felt Archer’s eyes on her and Gio’s too. But Tag was the only one she could see. Even the apartment faded to a blur. Her friend came closer to the table until his hands touched the back of the chair opposite to where she was.

  “I don’t understand,” he said. “Where I go, you go, and we’re going to Phoenix.”

  “No,” she said and it was an odd sensation to feel her heart break for a man who she’d loved for fifteen years. Nya could tell as his anger grew and his tears fell that a fracture was forming between them. What they said now would dictate the future of their friendship. “I’m not going to Phoenix. I love you and I want you to be happy, but I can’t go to Phoenix.”

  “Yes, you can,” Tag said and his head moved side to side in a disbelieving shake. “If I’m going to Phoenix, you’re going to Phoenix; it’s as simple as that, Nya. I’m not asking you a question. I can’t go without you. We’re family.”

  In the past, there wouldn’t have been a question about her joining him, so she wasn’t offended by his assumption. Though it would’ve been nice if he’d realized her life wasn’t the same as it used to be.

  Nya wouldn’t waver. “If you think it’s what’s best for you, I want you to go. If that’s where your future is, your life, then it’s where you have to be. But my future is here, Taggy. This is my future.”

  It wasn’t easy to tell him the truth of what was in her heart because Tag was right that where he went, she went, and that had always been the way. For fifteen years, they’d been like planets in each other’s orbit—never far apart.

  One would move a few miles and the other wouldn’t be far behind, almost like there was a bungee rope between them pull
ing them together. Though they’d become loose at times, she’d always maintained her ties with Tag even through her years with Damien.

  “I can come visit,” she said. “And you can come back—”

  “No,” he said. “You’re gonna pack your shit and we’re gonna leave. We’re setting up. A fresh start. I’m gonna take care of you.”

  Because he always had. He’d always been all she had.

  How could she make Tag see that things were different now?

  “I can’t go,” Nya said. “I appreciate you wanting me with you. You know how much I love you and you’re right, we are family, that won’t change even when we’re far apart.”

  But she had no way to know that for sure because they never had been.

  Something changed in the way he looked at her and his confusion became a sneer. “This is because of him,” Tag said, extending an arm to point towards Archer who was still standing behind the breakfast bar. “You’re choosing him over me.”

  “It’s not a choice,” she said. “I can always love you both. I will always love you both. But you don’t need me, Tag. You don’t need me hanging around, pulling you down, judging your life and sapping your resources.”

  “And he does? You’re not staying here with him! I won’t let you! He’s no good for you. I told you that!” There was so much anger in her oldest friend. But Nya understood that while her grief made her cry, his made him angry. “You won’t survive without me,” Tag said, his volume increasing. “He’ll use you and dump you just like he did before. You’ve only been back together a week, less than that, and you’re choosing him over me?”

  “Please, Taggy,” she said. “It’s not about a choice. My life is here. Yes, Archer and the club, and my home and… I don’t want to go to Phoenix and start again. This is my home now.”

  But he didn’t see it. “Fuck home! This is not your fucking home! I’m your fucking home! And it is about a goddamn choice, one you’ll make right here and right now!”

  “No,” she begged. “You can’t ask me to choose between my oldest friend and my future.”