Chapter 12
TWELVE
“Who are you?” Jimmy said, lifting his chin.
Archer slipped his hands into his pockets. “I’m Scarlett’s new man.”
“He is not ,” Scarlett said, stomping up to the two of them.
“I beg to differ,” Archer cut in.
“Scarlett, is this guy bothering you?”
“No, he’s just being funny.”
“I can call the cops if?—”
“It’s fine, Jimmy.”
“Yeah,” Archer said, baring his teeth. “It’s fine, Jimmy.”
Jimmy ignored Archer and let his eyes roam down to Scarlett’s toes and back up again. Archer felt the urge to gouge his eyes out. “You look great. Did you get my texts?”
“She did,” Archer replied. “Your use of emojis was quite…revealing.”
Jimmy met Archer’s gaze and frowned. “Do we have a problem here?”
“No problem,” Archer replied. His head was full of noise. He wasn’t quite sure what he was doing here, and he had the impression he was embarrassing himself. But he couldn’t help it.
“Listen, Scarlett,” Jimmy said, ignoring Archer. “You never got back to me, but maybe we could hang out sometime.”
Archer looked at Scarlett, who shot him a glare. She obviously wanted him to drop this stupid confrontation, but he wouldn’t—couldn’t—do that. His feet were rooted to the ground.
Scarlett took a deep breath. “Jimmy, I’m not interested in dating right now.”
Jimmy shrugged. “We don’t have to date.”
Before he knew what he was doing, Archer had his hands around the other man’s collar, and he was slamming him against the ice machine next to the door. Jimmy flailed against his hold, but Archer just leaned in and growled, “Say that again, tough guy.”
“I get it! I get it! She’s yours! Let me go.”
Archer tightened his grip on the other man’s shirt. “You don’t talk to her like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like she’s only good for one thing.”
“Archer—” Scarlett warned.
He stared Jimmy down, his eyes narrowing.
Jimmy relented. “Fine.”
“Apologize.”
“What?”
“I said, apologize to her. Tell her she deserves better.” Distantly, Archer realized his voice had become almost unrecognizable. He realized he was probably on camera, threatening a man at his workplace.
But that man had disrespected Scarlett right in front of him. He’d texted her like she should come running to him after two years. This man was a little worm, just one more person that had let Scarlett down.
Jimmy’s eyes were furious as they met Archer’s. He snarled, and Archer slammed him against the ice machine once more.
Finally, Jimmy’s gaze slid over Archer’s shoulder. “Sorry, Scarlett. Now call off your attack dog before I call the cops.”
“Archer,” Scarlett said, and Archer let the other man go. He stalked back to the car and got behind the wheel, cracking his neck from side to side.
Scarlett circled around the front of his truck, got in, and glared at him. “You’re a brute.”
“He had no right to talk to you that way.”
“First of all, what way? And second of all, you provoked him!”
“All I did was tell him that he’d overstepped. He’s the one who took it further.”
She huffed, and Archer started the car. They sat there for a few moments, not moving, until reason finally began to filter back into Archer’s brain.
He’d been troubled by the visit with Ralph, and he was still reeling from the idea that his old mentor could have killed Ethel. And he’d taken that out on Jimmy—and by extension, on Scarlett.
Kneading the steering wheel, he glanced over. “I’m sorry, Scarlett.”
She twitched the hem of her shirt, pursing her lips. “What, exactly, are you sorry for?”
Archer’s eyes narrowed. “Why do I feel like this is a trap?”
“If it is, you set it for yourself.”
Gritting his teeth, Archer grunted. She was right. He’d lost that edge of aggression during his confrontation with Jimmy, but it hadn’t solved the underlying issues: Ralph might have killed someone, and Archer was falling for a woman who might not want anything to do with him.
Sighing, he said, “I’m sorry I embarrassed you.”
There was a short, charged silence. “ That’s what you’re sorry for? Not threatening another man? Not going all chest-beating gorilla back there for no reason?”
“He talked about you like you were a piece of meat,” Archer said through gritted teeth. “And I didn’t like the way he texted you.”
“He just wanted to hook up.”
“Exactly!” The word exploded from him, and then he clamped his lips shut.
Another tense silence stretched while Archer tried to wrangle his out-of-control emotions. He wanted everyone to know how precious Scarlett was to him. And yes, he wanted to beat his chest to let everyone know what they were up against when they insulted her, intentionally or not.
He startled when Scarlett began to giggle. Glancing over, he caught her glittering gaze as she shook her head. “No one’s ever done that for me before.”
“He needed to be told.”
“Right.”
“You disagree?”
“What’s the next step? Pee on my leg to mark your territory?”
Some of the tension drained from Archer’s shoulders. He leaned his head back against the headrest and said, “Sweetheart, if that’s what it takes, that’s what I’ll do.”
She laughed harder and smacked his arm. “Stop it. Now put the truck in gear and let’s get out of here.”
He huffed, relaxing, and the last of the tightness in his muscles eased. As he got to the gas station’s exit and waited for traffic to clear enough for him to turn onto the freeway, he noticed Scarlett frowning at something on the other side of the road.
“What’s up?”
She dragged her gaze away from the strip mall and met Archer’s eyes. “Just that Mercedes. It looks like the one I saw driving by the night of the murder.”
“I thought that one was silver.” The car she pointed to was black.
“No, not the car that sped off. A car that drove by when the cops were doing their thing. It had windows tinted so dark I was sure it wasn’t legal, like that one, and a white pinstripe.”
“Hmm,” Archer said, and the car disappeared in his rearview mirror. “What’s in that strip mall?”
“A nail salon, a vacant shop, and that Quick-N-EZ loan place.”
“The one owned by that guy who kidnapped Camilla?”
“Yeah. Frank Smith.”
Archer’s frown deepened. “You think he has something to do with this?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he was just driving by that night, and I’m reading into it. Maybe it’s someone else’s car.”
“Maybe,” Archer said, but his frown didn’t go away.
That afternoon, after Archer dropped her off at home, Scarlett stopped in at Amelia’s house, where the rest of the girls had gathered. Camilla had brought a box full of pastries that would be stale by morning, and Amelia was pouring out cups of coffee. The three of them greeted Scarlett with wide smiles.
“We heard Archer got his truck back!” Lucy exclaimed. “Have the cops handed over your store yet?”
Scarlett shook her head, dropping into an armchair. “Not yet. They still need to process it some more, apparently.”
“Darn,” Camilla said, putting a chocolate cupcake on a plate for Scarlett. “Eat this.”
Scarlett took the plate, trying to hide her smile. Camilla loved feeding people, and it made Scarlett feel loved to be on the receiving end. “Thank you.”
“So what’s been going on?” Lucy asked as she tucked her feet beneath her. “Did you and Archer come up with a game plan last night when he was at your place?”
Scarlett choked on a bite of chocolate cupcake. “How did you know Archer was at my place last night?”
“Cormac called Archer this morning,” Lucy explained. “Are you okay? Do you want some water?”
Coughing, Scarlett shook her head, but Camilla appeared with a glass of water at her elbow. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Scarlett said, accepting the water. She took a big gulp. “Archer…talked about being at my place with Cormac?”
A tiny frown appeared on Lucy’s brow. “He said you had dinner together.”
Scarlett nodded. “Right. Yeah. Dinner.”
“Why?” Amelia narrowed her eyes at Scarlett. “Did something else happen?”
“No,” Scarlett answered quickly—too quickly. “No, we hung out and had dinner. Then my Wi-Fi went out.”
The three other women stared at her for a beat. Amelia spoke first: “Did you…get it fixed?”
“Oh…yes. The…the router. I restarted it.”
Camilla and Lucy exchanged a glance, and a pit formed in Scarlett’s stomach. This was exactly why she didn’t want to get involved with Archer. They’d fooled around on her couch, and now her friends could tell she was lying. But she couldn’t tell them the truth, because they’d get excited, and they would think there was something real developing between Scarlett and Archer.
And there wasn’t. There was lust, and Scarlett knew how quickly that faded.
Just look at Jimmy. He was all for a quick hookup, but he was out at the first sign of trouble. Not that Scarlett cared, really; she didn’t want to be with him. But his attitude was all too familiar. Men didn’t stay interested when things got tough. Even her ex had cut and run without a word after four years together.
Lucy plucked a chocolate chip cookie from the platter on the coffee table. “Archer said you were planning to go up to visit Ralph Lewis this morning.”
“That’s right.”
“What did Ralph say?” Amelia asked.
Scarlett shrugged. “He said he was at Bussy’s, but he got there an hour before the murder happened.”
“So it couldn’t have been him that killed Ethel,” Camilla said.
“Unless he’s lying,” Amelia added.
Lucy looked at Scarlett. “What did Archer think?”
Scarlett licked frosting off her lip and swallowed the bite of chocolate cupcake she’d taken. “He’s convinced it wasn’t Ralph. I think I agree, but there’s always that little kernel of doubt.”
“What are you going to do?” Camilla asked.
“Well, tomorrow we’ll go to Bussy’s and see if the staff remembers what time Ralph came in. If it was around five o’clock, like he said, we can eliminate him.”
“I still can’t believe the detective would think you committed murder,” Camilla said, shaking her head.
“He’s good at reading people,” Lucy added. “When he was investigating the counterfeiting stuff, I think he could tell when Cormac was trying to pull one over on him.”
“You mean when Cormac’s mom drove a car through a plate glass window and tried to play it off like an accident?” Camilla asked, brow arched.
Lucy laughed. “Yes. Exactly.”
“But if it wasn’t Ralph who killed Ethel, who was it?” Amelia said, always one to focus on the important things.
Scarlett let out a long sigh. “I have no idea.”
“You know what they say,” Camilla said sagely, “follow the money. I bet if you find out who was buying all that counterfeit cash last year, you’ll find out who killed her.”
“How do we do that?” Scarlett looked at the coffee in her cup like she’d see the answer in the grounds at the bottom.
“I’ll ask Marlon,” Camilla said. “I bet Elton can figure it out.” Elton was the tech wizard who worked at Elite Security, the company that Cormac and Marlon owned.
“Marlon and Cormac are already on it.” Lucy gathered her hair up in a ponytail as she spoke, glancing at Scarlett. “As soon as you and Archer said you thought you were suspects, they started looking for that silver car.”
Scarlett nodded, and the conversation moved on. She spent a few hours with her friends, and she left feeling recharged, calm, and more rational.
Now if only she could keep that frame of mind when Archer was around, she could get through this mess. The problem was, as soon as he shot her one of those devilish grins, her brain seemed to leak right out of her head.
Still, when she snuggled on the couch that night—alone—she looked forward to the following evening at Bussy’s, when she’d see Archer again.