Minka
MINKA
“ I s there a reason you were not at the airport when I asked you to be?” Archer snags my hand and tugs me down to sit on his lap. It’s anger, but it’s worry, too. It’s an ‘ I’m pissed at you ’ but it’s also an ‘ I can’t bear to not have you touching me ’, all at the same time.
It’s Charlie Fletcher laid out in a hospital bed, stitched up, bandaged, and healing.
It’s his family, in pain. And Archer Malone handles that kind of stress only one way.
With me.
“I texted you back, Mayet! You were supposed to stay away.”
“First of all,” I turn on his lap and look down into his eyes, smiling, if only to lend him a little peace. A little reassurance. “I’m not the wife who takes orders. You know this.”
He firms his lips, impatient and stressed the hell out.
“Second, I was already in the car when you texted. In fact, I was getting out of the car right about the time you came running out of the bar and took off like a lunatic along the street. No one had any clue, or any inclination, to tell me what the hell was going on. So I made an educated guess that you were in pursuit of your cop killer.” I press my hands to the sides of his face and rest my lips on his forehead, right where a gun was earlier tonight. Then I spy his lip, split and swollen enough to make my heart clench. “I’m not the wife who stays home with an apron and a meal waiting for you. So if that’s the kind of bride you wanted, then you chose wrong… twice.”
“And if he reacted differently?” he insists. “If he tossed his elbow back and slammed you in the face? Broken bones, bleeding from the head.” He tilts his to the side in intimidation, I think. Or his attempt at it. “I’d have been a sitting duck, tending to your wounds while he had free range to pop us both off.”
“Luckily I had myself under control then, huh?” I plop a gentle kiss on his aching lips and turn when Mia’s laughter is a tinkling rain, better than the real thing in the middle of a summer evening. She sits on her father’s belly, her feet on either side of his torso, and her whole body convulsing when he tickles her ribs. “Mia,” I mock chastise. “You’re gonna wake up the whole hospital with your laughter.”
“He’s tickling me!” She howls, the exact sound an injured man needs to hear when his universe is focused on ensuring his four-year-old is alright. Because maybe he was shot on the job today. Mayyyybe it’s the kind of wound that scares a man’s friends and leaves a doctor with shaking hands. But he’s okay. And his daughter is okay. Everyone is fine. And Detective Taylor is currently ruminating in a cell down at the police station. Archer will finish that tomorrow, I suppose. The formal interviews. The official arrest. It’s all coming. But not before family.
“This way!” Aubree’s voice echoes along the hallway, filtering through the busy footsteps of a functioning hospital. Doctors and nurses shuffle in every direction. Lives are being saved. And cops stand guard in the hall, because one of their own is in here tonight.
Officer Clay watches the door most intently of all.
“Here comes the cavalry,” Fletcher rumbles, smirking even when Mia’s foot slams against his bandaged wound. “I’d know her voice anywhere.”
“She’s kinda loud.” Wrinkling my nose, though it hardly stifles my smile, I turn to the door and watch as the doctor in a glitter puffer jacket, bell-bottom jeans, and platform shoes walks through. Her eyes burn with worry first, but that makes way for relief the moment she catches Mia’s beaming smile.
“I leave you alone for ten minutes!” She lopes into the room and smacks a violent kiss on Fletch’s forehead just as soon as she can reach him. Then she firms her lips and meets Mia’s animated gaze. “Ten minutes, Moo! And Daddy goes out and gets himself hurt. What a ding dong!”
“He’s a ding dong!” Cackling, she opens her arms and jumps ship when Aubree offers, tossing herself and her red Care Bear from her father’s lap, kicking him in the process and drawing a pained gasp along his throat, though the girl will never know. Then she lands in Aubree’s embrace, wrapping her legs around her hips and leaning back so Aubree is forced to hold on or risk dropping her on the floor. “My daddy is a ding dong, Miss Aubree. He’s so silly. But he said we can go home in a little bit.”
Skeptical, I look across at our patient and lift a brow when our eyes meet. He’s not going anywhere tonight, so I don’t know why he’d tell such a lie. Ding dong .
“Oh, you’re awake.” Stuffy and caught off guard, Fifi skids to a stop at the door, her eyes locked onto Fletch’s and the willow green in them, vacillating between worry and embarrassment.
Maybe she thought she’d sneak in while he was unconscious.
“I-I’m sorry, Detectives. I didn’t mean to…” Her eyes meet Mia’s. Longing. Hurting. Hurtful , when she peels them away again, silently rejecting the girl’s unspoken request to jump ship again and score another hug. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You can take a seat.” Fletch’s voice is hoarse, pained after a day in hell. But physically, he’s fine. Considering. Setting his hands by his hips, he pushes up and readjusts his body so he can sit upright. Then he attempts to twist and grab the bed remote.
Fortunately, Aubree reads his mind and taps the buttons for him.
“We’re gonna get hotdogs on sticks soon, Fifi!” Mia speaks loud enough for everyone, glowing when Cato steps through the door. He’s her favorite, I think. Though neither would say so out loud. “Cato! We’re gonna get hotdogs on sticks.”
“It’s after five o’clock,” I drawl, checking the time purely to taunt the woman. “Good of you to give us your time, Ms. Lewis.”
“I’m just gonna leave.” She backs up again, startling when she bumps into Tim. Because the whole gang is here, I suppose. “I’m sorry. If you could just?—”
“Sera.” Fletch snaps her name, growling the two syllables until she comes to a startled stop and bravely glances back. “I’m okay.” He drops his chin so a million silent words pass between the two. Then he adds, “And so is Moo. Everything is okay.”
She swallows, the movement visible in her throat. Then she chokes out a rasping, “Okay.”
“Though I consider it a bad omen.” His smile grows wider. “The day you leave the esteemed Doctor Mayet is the same day I’m injured on the job.”
“Right!?” I spin in Archer’s lap and catch her blanching expression. “It’s a sign, Fifi! You need to stay with us, not trollop off to work for some other tool.”
“Some other tool?” Mayor Lawrence crams himself into the room, turning what was a private suite with plenty of breathing space into a cramped hallway closet, with recycled air and no room to fart, should the need arise. Justin admonishes me with a look. Disappointment. Shame. That fatherly expression dads are so skilled at. “I take offense to that.”
“Why would you—” But then it hits me. Stunned disgust, betrayal, and rage bubbling in my veins. “Him!?” I swing my gaze to Fifi’s. “You left me for him? What the hell!”
Continue the Mayet Justice series in Sinful Deception
But before that, read Tim and Aubree’s book, titled Lost Kingdom , which is book 3 in the Underbelly Enchanted series.