Minka
T hey all watch me. They stare.
This is worse than realizing they listened to Archer and me fuck, because I slide a needle into my arm while Archer mixes my diluent, and though I sit in my bed cubby, partially hidden under my sheets and with my curtains mostly shut, Jess whips them open again and rests her chin on her hand.
Bright blue eyes follow every single step I take, from releasing my tourniquet and allowing the rainbow elastic to fall away, to taping my butterfly needle into place and connecting the other end to a syringe filled with room temperate Factor VIII.
“So you bleed too much?” Jess nibbles on the inside of her cheek and studies me with laser-level concentration. “Do you get a lot of nosebleeds and stuff?”
“She doesn’t bleed too much,” Cato inserts. “But if she bleeds, her blood doesn’t clot like ours. The factor helps with that.”
Close enough . I gesture his way as though to corroborate.
“So if you were the one who got tossed off the side of a building and you scraped your knee, it would keep bleeding until you injected the medicine?”
“Her knee wouldn’t be the problem,” Felix explains. “A fall like that would probably mean she’s bleeding internally. Maybe in her brain, too.”
“So how do you know?” Jess glances downwards…
at her knee, maybe. “Everyone has regular bumps and bruises. I grew up with a skate ramp in my backyard, which means we fell a lot . We fell hard, and often, at high speeds. How do you know if you’ve just hurt yourself, like a regular hurt, versus the internal, more serious kinds that need medical attention? ”
“She probably didn’t have a skate ramp in her yard, Blondie.
” Kane crowds into the narrow walkway with everyone else, his chest pressed to Jess’s back and his chin atop her head.
But dammit, his dark eyes, almost pitch black in the low light, warm my skin.
“She was born with this, so she probably chose hobbies that didn’t include wheels and crotch rockets. ”
“She chose vigilantism instead.” Sophia rests her back against the outside wall of my cubby, checking her nails instead of my infusion site. “Can anyone tell me Webster’s official meaning for irony, please?”
“Shut up.” I roll my eyes and slowly begin pushing diluent into my veins. But Archer, my hero, my guard, muscles his way through the crowd and stands, front and center. He uses his impressive width to shield me from watchful eyes, then he takes the syringe and does the work on my behalf.
His stare is sweet. Stony. He’s intent and adoring.
Still, Jess leans around and finds a new in . “So, have you ever had internal bleeding and not known it?”
“No.” I lean against the window and rest my chin on my chest. I’m too tired for anything else. “It hurts, just like it would hurt for you.”
“But it happens to you more often?”
“No,” I sigh. “Because I don’t ride skateboards and motorbikes and do dumb things that might lead me to being injured.”
“Except for the vigilante stuff,” Soph quips. “And honestly, you’ve gone kinda soft on that. It’s been ages since you got your hands bloody.”
Archer glares and bares his teeth. “That’s how we like it, Solomon.”
“I’m just saying! We’ve got a vigilante who never kills, and a mind reader who doesn’t read minds.
A mafia kid who doesn’t partake in mafia activities.
An enforcer who shares his bed with an FBI agent.
And a don,” she adds nonchalantly, “who hasn’t sold a single woman in all the time he’s been at the head of the table. ”
Felix glowers.
“What we’ve got is a bunch of posers. A bunch of pretenders.”
“Or a family who could pose a significant danger to society,” Micah rumbles.
“But we maintain a tight control over who we are, instead. Intentional existence with a preference for power and comfort.” He climbs into his cubby and plumps his pillows, digging his hands behind his head and crossing his feet at the ankles.
“We don’t need to gun men down in the street anymore.
We can run our businesses and live in relative quiet and make money, all without hurting people.
Peace, unless there is no other option.”
“Bunch of sissies.” She giggles. “I can’t believe Bishop worried about you. You’re pussycats.”
Curious, Felix looks from Jay to Kane. “Which Bishop?”
“Both.” She moves away from the wall and steps into Jay’s arms, wrapping herself around his chest and snuggling in kind of how I like to do with Archer. “We’ll drive you back to the airport tomorrow. I’ve got shit to do on Monday, so this adventure is over.”
“Oh, good.” I draw a long breath and expand my chest. “Good to know we can go back to our lives now that you’ve decided you’re satisfied.”
“Your plane is clear for flying,” she continues. Talking to Felix, I suppose, since my eyes flutter closed and my factor slides into my veins at an excruciatingly gentle pace. “It was never flagged. I lied.”
“You have a tendency to do that,” Tim growls. “Ever heard of the boy who cried wolf?”
“Hmm. Nope. Never heard of it.” She turns, her voice coming just a fraction louder to my ears. “The bus is fine, too. I just wasn’t ready to let the chief leave while she was still mad at me.”
“Mmhmm.” I move off the wall and lay my head on my pillow instead, careful not to bend my arm or fold the tube feeding my veins.
Dragging my eyes open, I’m met immediately with Archer’s heated stare.
His watchful gaze and long, pretty lashes coming down to kiss his cheeks with every blink.
“Next time, we know not to come running when Soph calls. It’s a trap. ”
“We have a safeword now, anyway.” She slips out of Jay’s arms and stands shoulder to shoulder with Archer, tilting her head to the side. “Got me feeling a little sentimental seeing you like this, Chief. Usually so formidable and in charge. Now look at you, all cuddled up and powerless.”
“Not powerless.” Snarling, Cato stands on her other side and creates a Sophia sandwich. “Never powerless when she has us watching her six.”
“Oh, right,” she snorts. “The soft don, the cop, the basketball player, and the bartender.”
“Your mistake is in underestimating your enemies.” Micah takes out his phone, scrolling one-handed so he appears entirely uncommitted to our conversation. But I see his gritted jaw. The tight rein on his temper. “You may someday regret it. But who am I to warn you?”
“It’s a code word.” I frown and think it over in my mind. Jericho. Jericho . Jericho . “Not a safeword.”
“Same same.” Infuriatingly gentle, she reaches into my cubby and bops the end of my nose. “Goodnight, Chief. Sleep well. I’m gonna spend a few hours with your mind reader while you’re otherwise unconscious. You don’t mind, do you?”
“Leave her alone.” I force myself up to my elbow. “Don’t make me mad, Sophia.”
Unfazed, she turns and smiles at an unsmiling Aubree. “Tell me about your gift, Doctor. I want the nitty-gritty details and the accuracy rate. Data matters to me.”
“Sophia—”
“I thought I was a fake?” Aubree folds her arms and leans back against Tim’s broad chest. “What data could a con artist possibly offer you?”
“So annoying.” I bring my focus to Archer, sleepy and slow. “She’s annoying.”
“She’s a big girl, Minnnnka.” He finishes with the syringe plunger and gets to work undoing me.
He peels the tape off my arm and tears open a small, round Band-Aid, and with practiced hands, he pulls the needle from my vein and replaces it with the plaster dot to catch the droplet of blood we lose every single time.
“She’s gonna be okay, babe. She’s got claws, too, and she’s always been perfectly capable of fighting her own battles. ”
“Plus, she’s got Tim.” Micah glances across from his cubby and smirks. “Kinda wish I brought Tiia. I left her at home because I thought we were heading toward danger. Now I’m lying here alone, and she’s got claws, too. If I brought her, she could tear Soph’s face off and make a fun evening of it.”
“Shame,” I sigh. “Wasted opportunity.”
“You’ve got better control of your home than Kane has of his.” Snickering, Jess meets Micah’s eyes. “He thought we were heading toward danger, too. But he couldn’t quite keep me where he wanted me.”
“I’ll try harder next time.” Kane drapes his arm over Jess’ torso, seatbelt style, and leads her away. “Let’s give the chief some privacy now, Blondie. Besides, aren’t you gonna protect Soph from the Malones?”
“No.” She takes his hand, so instead of being pulled away, she becomes the puller. The leader. “Take me to bed, Bish. Soph can fight her own battles.”
“You can sleep now.” Archer leans in to the cubby and stops with his nose just two inches from mine. His warm breath bathes my lips. “I’ll keep watch.”
“K.”
“I love you.” He kisses my cheek. “See you in the morning.”
“We won the dare.” Lazy, I allow my lips to curl into a goofy smile. “You didn’t steal anything.”
“Cato broke in and stole a belly dancer statue thingy from the drug store.”
“That’s not grand larceny.” I fall into the grips of a yawn, squeezing my eyes shut and stretching my mouth wide. When it’s gone, I blink through the moisture in my lashes. “You were so focused on us, you completely failed the dare.”
“Our statue beats your sweet fuck all.” Cato shoves his way back to the doorway of my cubby. “You grabbed nothing, Mayet. We won.”
Snorting, Ellie shakes her head and clamps her lips shut.
“Go to sleep.” Archer lays his fingertips over my eyelids. “I’ll join you soon.”