Chapter 14 #2
"Nothing. Now I understand why you didn't want me to see your bedroom, Tatum.
" Josh's eyes darted between them. He walked over to the kitchen and dropped the towel on the counter.
"Well, I'll leave you to it. Tatum, just remember what I said.
Bunny is really looking forward to you stepping up. Have a good one."
Josh breezed out of the apartment.
Tatum whirled around to stare at Archer.
He was devastating like this. His shirt was only half-buttoned, exposing a V of skin and the hard planes of his chest. He stood there in his socked feet, no shoes.
His hair was ever so slightly mussed, as if someone had just run their fingers through it.
All of it gave the very clear impression that he and Tatum had been thoroughly occupied in her bedroom and had only just been interrupted.
The last thing she needed was for Bunny to hear from Josh that she was sleeping with Archer Gray.
"What the hell were you thinking?" she demanded, even as her body registered that his hand was still resting at the small of her back, warm through the fabric of her shirt.
She stepped backward, putting space between them before her brain entirely stopped functioning.
"He’s going to tell Bunny we're sleeping together. "
Archer dropped his arm and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. The movement made his half-open shirt shift, revealing more skin. "And that's such a bad thing?"
Her mouth went dry. Focus, dammit.
"Yes. I mean, no. I mean, with Bunny, yes, it's a bad thing."
"It's better than him walking in and discovering your secret room, isn't it?"
She breathed out. He was right. Of course he was right. But standing this close to him, watching the way his eyes tracked over her face, she was having trouble remembering why she was supposed to be angry.
"You're right. It is. But it's just—"
"What?" Archer said, his voice dropping lower.
Never mind. Heat was creeping up her neck, and she refused to let him see how much he was affecting her. She stepped back, putting more distance between them before she did something she'd regret. "What are you doing here?"
His tone shifted, the warmth receding, leaving ice in its path. "You were supposed to wait for me."
"I can take care of myself. I just wanted to come here and get some work done." She took a breath. "And by the way. You replaced everything in my apartment?"
"Yes."
"I mean, it's extraordinary. Why would you do that?"
"Because it had to be replaced anyway," he said matter-of-factly.
"Well, yes, but I could've replaced it in my own time. Maybe I wanted to change things."
"Do you want to change things?" he asked, his eyes steady on hers.
The cold fact in his tone was replaced by curiosity. She stared at him. "That's not the point." Frustration rose, adding heat to her cheeks.
Archer's jaw tightened. "You're right. The point is, you were upset. Someone desecrated your personal space. I had people fix it so you have your space back. I thought it would give you peace of mind. Was I wrong?"
"No. You weren't wrong. I just didn't expect it." She exhaled. "Thank you."
"Not a problem."
"What do I owe you for it?"
Archer waved his right hand dismissively before dropping it back to his left bicep.
"No, seriously. It must have cost thousands, especially since it was done quickly." There was no way she was letting him pay for everything. It went against her nature in every possible way.
He shrugged. "Something like this is an easy fix."
She wanted to argue further, but her cell phone went off. Bunny. Again. She silenced it.
"There were scuff marks on the railing. On the terrace."
Archer straightened. "Show me."
"They're not there anymore. Josh leaned on the railing and put his hands all over them."
His jaw tightened. "What was Kent doing here?"
"I hadn't answered Bunny’s calls. Apparently, she's been trying to reach me, and I've been ignoring her, so she sent him to check on me. I genuinely hadn't looked at my phone with everything that's been happening."
"Is that normal?"
A bark of laughter escaped her. "Normal with Bunny? There is no normal. Only what Bunny wants when she wants it."
Archer's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing. "Did you get what you needed done?"
"I did get some work done. And I'm more convinced now than ever that there's definitely someone else involved. Maybe two someones."
"I agree," Archer said. "Any ideas on how we track them down?"
Tatum crossed her arms over her chest. "Not really. It's a hard paper trail to follow. Names have to appear somewhere, but it's a lot of digging."
"I have the resources to dig," Archer said. He moved to stand in front of her, his presence filling the space between them in a way that made it very difficult to think clearly. "But you have to give me places to start."
Tatum stared at him. That was the crux of it.
She'd gotten the information from a friend who worked in the DA's office, someone who shouldn't have handed it over in the first place.
So she wasn't just trusting Archer with her work.
She was trusting him with her friend's career.
It was a big ask. And at the moment, she wasn't sure she trusted anybody.
Her chest felt tight. This was more than just the case. This was about letting someone in. Relying on someone. She hated doing that. Her grandfather had drummed self-reliance into her from the time she was small. She pushed the thought away.
Archer seemed to understand what she was wrestling with.
"Tatum, at some point, you have to decide whether you trust me or not.
If you want help with this, help getting those people their money back, then you have to give me what you have.
I won't lock you out of it. You can be there every step of the way. "
The sincerity in his voice made something inside her shift. She wanted to trust him. God, she wanted that more than she cared to admit.
"Why do you want this information?" she asked. "What's in this for you?" She couldn't quite make herself believe he was doing it purely for her.
Archer's face hardened slightly. "I want to know if Austin Davis is part of this. It's exactly the kind of thing he would do. He needed money, and suddenly he has some. If I can prove it's him, it gives me leverage."
It was the truth. It stung slightly, but she gave him credit for saying it plainly.
And it occurred to her that if Davis was involved behind the scenes with the Granite Industries scam, it wasn't the only thing he was up to.
She was sure of that. She knew more than she could say, bound as she was by privilege.
That particular constraint had never felt so frustrating.
Archer lifted her chin with his knuckle.
The touch was light. Deliberate. It sent a current straight through her that she had absolutely no business feeling.
"So… The question is," he said quietly, "do you trust me, Tatum?"
She looked at him. Really looked at him. At the patience in his expression, the intensity underneath it. At the way his eyes held hers without flinching. The half-buttoned shirt was doing nothing to help her concentrate, reminding her that he'd dropped whatever he was doing and come here for her.
She didn't have an answer.
Not yet.
Standing here, feeling the pull between them, the heat and the danger and the possibility of something she hadn't let herself want in a very long time, she really didn’t have an answer, but she was beginning to think she might want to find one.