Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~ARCHER~
S he’s been sitting on the balcony with her knees drawn up to her chest, watching the sea, since we got home two hours ago. She’s hardly said a word. Her dark hair blows around her face in the breeze, and her expression is sober.
But I can see it in her gorgeous, unusual eyes.
She’s scared.
And that pisses me right the fuck off.
“Here’s some tea.” I set it on the wide armrest of the chair and sit next to her.
“I’m not sick,” she reminds me and tries to offer me a smile.
“It’s just tea, E.” I can’t help but touch her. Maybe I need the reassurance as much as she does. I reach out to link my fingers with hers and give them a squeeze. “You heard the officer. It’s probably kids.”
She doesn’t touch the mug. Doesn’t tear her eyes away from the water. But her fingers tremble in mine.
“I have a bad feeling,” she says as she takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “A very bad feeling.”
“Hey.” I pull her out of her chair and settle her in my lap, kiss her temple, and cuddle her close. “You’re safe here, E.”
She doesn’t reply. She just leans her head on my shoulder and continues watching the water.
“What would you normally do after work?” I ask.
“Run errands, maybe go to lunch with Lindsey. Perhaps try to get a walk in at the beach.”
“You should take that walk. It’ll help.”
She looks at me now and then kisses my cheek. “Do you mind if I go alone?”
I don’t want to admit that I’d prefer that she go alone. I have some things to do, and I’d rather she wasn’t here when I do them.
“I don’t mind at all. Enjoy your walk.”
She stands and takes a sip of her now-cold tea. “Thanks for this, too.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I won’t be long.”
“Take all the time you need.”
She doesn’t have to go back inside to get shoes or a jacket. She just jogs down the staircase that leads to the sand and takes off to the south, toward the rocks we ran to together.
I take a moment to watch her, and then I walk inside to my office, sit at the computer, and make a phone call.
“This is Montgomery.”
“This is also Montgomery,” I reply to my cousin, Matt. “Bad time?”
“I’m home today,” he replies. “What’s going on?”
“Is your line secure?”
He’s quiet on the other end for a moment. I hear him walking, then the sound of a door closing.
“How secure do you need, Archer?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose, already regretting this call. Still, I trust my relatives implicitly, and I need information. It’s handy having a police detective in the family.
“Arch?”
“Yeah.” I clear my throat. “I need some information, and I can’t tell you why I need it.”
“That’s not really how this works.”
“I know. Matt, I found Elena. Let’s just say what I need to know involves her family, and if they were to find out that I was looking, or trace me to where we are, it could be incredibly dangerous for her.”
“What do you want to know?”
“I need to know what their movements have been. Specifically, if they’ve traveled out of state. And if so, where.”
“Archer, traveling isn’t against the law.”
“But you could look, without alerting them.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Archer, be careful. This family isn’t warm and fuzzy. They’re ruthless. And they’re sneaky as fuck. Maybe you should leave Elena where you found her and get on with your life away from the damn mafia.”
“If it was Nic, would you walk away?”
He sighs hard on the other end of the line. “No. I wouldn’t.”
“Didn’t think so.”
“I’ll let you know what we find, but it’ll be a few days. I want to make sure we do this right, and on the down-low, so low that no one can detect it. If it’s done any other way, it could put my men’s lives at risk. I’m not willing to do that, not even for you.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to. Thanks.”
“Why now, Arch? What happened?”
I don’t know how much I should tell him. The less he knows, the better. “Someone broke into Elena’s house this morning. Ransacked it. Local cops think it was kids, but I want to make sure there’s no chance that her family is in town.”
“Understood. I’ll look into it. Be careful.”
He hangs up, and I sit back in my chair, staring out at the water. Elena would be livid if she knew what I just did. But I have to know, and I trust Matt a hell of a lot more than I put faith in the cops here.
“I’m finally getting spaghetti out of you.”
I lean my shoulder against the fridge and watch as Elena chops up an onion to add to the ground meat sizzling on the stovetop.
“I figure since you’re driving me all over, and letting me stay here, it’s the least I can do.”
“You don’t have to repay me,” I reply and watch as she dumps the onion in with the meat. “You’d do the same for me.”
“Maybe.” She shrugs and then grins at me. “Okay, probably.”
“Are we having garlic bread with that?”
“Of course. And Caesar salad.”
“You’re a goddess.”
She barks out a laugh and stirs the pan. “The old cliché of charming a man through his stomach sure is true with you.”
She adds sauce and seasonings. Garlic. Gives it another stir, then covers the deep pan.
“It needs to simmer for a bit,” she says.
“Good.”
I move in fast, turn her to the wall, and pin her there as my mouth ravages hers. The desire, the all-encompassing need for her never ends. No matter how many times I have her, it doesn’t appease the fire I feel for her.
Her mouth is eager under mine, matching me nip for nip. Her hands are in my hair, fisting and then combing, then clenching again.
I move in closer, glide my hands down her sides to her ass and then lift her. She wraps those gorgeous legs around my hips, and I grind against her, making us both moan in pleasure.
“Need you,” I whisper against her lips. I push her hands over her head and pin them there while I continue kissing her senseless.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No, Archer.” She wiggles out of my grasp and pushes against my shoulders. “Let go.”
I set her down and blink rapidly as she hurries away from me across the kitchen and wraps her arms around her middle.
“Whoa, what just happened?”
She clamps her eyes shut and whispers, “Shit.”
“I’m gonna need you to talk to me, babe.” I carefully step toward her. “If some asshole hurt you?—”
“No, it’s nothing like that.” She shakes her head and pushes her fingers through her hair in agitation. “It’s just the whole having my hands pinned above my head thing. It gave me a bad moment. And I know that’s not fair to you.”
“What a mean son of a bitch,” I growl as frustration and rage fill me all over again.
“Without question,” she agrees.
“I wish he hadn’t died,” I admit and prowl around the living space. “Because I’d like to rip him limb from limb until there’s nothing left of him. What right did he have to treat you like that? You’re his daughter .”
“I was his possession,” I remind him. “And, yes, he was mean. Ruthless. Feared. And my mother? Well, I don’t know if she was worn down so far by that time that she had no fight left in her, or if she really didn’t care about me at all. I don’t remember ever receiving a kind word or affection from either of them.
“But if someone else tried to mess with me? They were dealt with. So while they didn’t love me and couldn’t be bothered with me most of the time, if push came to shove, they had my back.”
“Out of principle, but not because they loved you.” Anger rages inside me. Elena is sweet and kind. She always has been. How could they not love her? “Obviously, because he tortured you for marrying someone you loved.”
“To them, obligation and love were the same thing.” She huffs out a breath and walks to me. “I’m not afraid of you, Archer. I don’t think you’re going to hurt me. I just had a bad moment when you had my hands over my head. It was a gut reaction that had nothing at all to do with you.”
“I want to hurt them for hurting you,” I admit softly and finally reach out to drag my fingertips down her cheek. “I want them all to pay.”
“They did.”
“All of them.”
She shakes her head. “My cousins, my uncle, they were always great. I don’t know how my father had so little emotion in him, but his brother-in-law, my aunt’s husband, was always loving and fun. He has a great sense of humor, and he was always fair. I loved him. I grew up with his three sons as if they were my brothers. They didn’t do anything wrong.”
“And yet, you’re running from them.”
She frowns and looks down. “Because I have to. Even if they love me. And I, them. The fact that I fled the family doesn’t change. There will be hell to pay if they ever find me. The punishment won’t go unfulfilled.”
“And what do you think that punishment will be?”
“Death.”
“You already said they don’t physically harm the women in the family.”
“Not my death.” She swallows hard. “Yours.”
“They don’t know that I’m here.”
“It doesn’t matter. They know that, no matter what over the years, you’ve been the one thing in this life that means the most to me. Father made me leave you and promise never to pursue you again. And he swore, that you—your life—would always be the thing the family held over my head for the rest of my life. Or yours.”
“So, I’m the pawn used to hurt you.”
“If you want to put it like that.”
“That’s not okay with me. I’m a grown man, and I can fight my own battles.”
“Not against them.” She sits, her face lined with worry. “You can’t win against them, Archer. But they don’t matter as long as they don’t know where I am.”
I pull her to me and wrap my arms around her, holding her close. “They won’t find you.”
“Enough of this,” she says and pulls back to smile up at me. “I have dinner to finish. You haven’t eaten in about three hours. You must be starving.”
I smile for her benefit. “I’m withering away over here because someone’s holding out with her spaghetti.”
She laughs, plants a kiss on my chin, and walks away.
“This will be ready in fifteen minutes.”
I don’t have the heart to tell her that I’m not hungry. For the first time since I can remember, it’s not food that I want at all.
It’s revenge.