Chapter Minka #4
“You sprung a leak?” He searches my eyes. My nose. My lips. His attention drops to the stark red splotch on my shirt, then to my hands. “Bleeding nose?”
“Yes. Just a bleeding nose, I promise.”
He swallows a suffocating lump of nerves, so I see it, literally, moving along his throat. “Okay.”
“It’s too damn hot out, and I’ve been digging around a dumpster in an alleyway for hours, so I guess my blood was running thinner than usual.”
“You’re okay.” He exhales a noisy breath of relief. “You’re safe.”
Say it all, Mayet. Say it fast. “I took one of Jen’s trial Factor meds.”
“You—” He snaps his lips closed. I’m pretty sure he stops breathing. Stops functioning. Stops existing.
“About a minute ago,” I rush on. “My options were to go home and infuse, or sit here and try Jen’s thing.”
“You chose the—” He closes his lips again, so the clack of his teeth filters into my soul. Please don’t be angry. Please don’t be angry. Please don’t be angry. “You chose Jen’s untested, not-yet-approved trial drug?”
Furious, he draws his dangerous glare around to Sophia so even the formidable, fearless ballerina takes a single step back. But then he brings his eyes to me again. “Did you choose that, or were they forced on you?”
“She—”
Though Soph tries to answer, he cuts her off with an outstretched hand. A stop sign. A warning. Then he tucks my hair back and searches my eyes.
“I chose,” I rasp. “New details have come to light regarding the testing phase, so I made the decision I felt was best in this situation.”
His jaw clenches. His teeth grind. His entire soul burns with the temper he works so hard to bottle. But his eyes, on mine, soften. “Okay.”
My breath comes out in an explosive, stunned exhale. “Okay?”
He strokes my cheek with the pad of his thumb. “As long as the choice was yours, I trust you to choose well.”
“Really?” My voice crackles, which only adds another weird layer to my already weird tone. “That’s it?”
“It doesn’t make me feel good when you’re afraid to tell me things.” He leans forward and presses a gentle kiss to my lips, even with the tampon strings hanging between us. “The fact you’re visibly relieved that I’m not exploding right now is proof I’ve done the wrong thing in the past.”
“Archer, no—”
“I worry about you. I fucking tremble at the thought of losing you. But making you afraid of me?” He clears his throat.
“Teaching you that telling the truth ends with me shouting and raging and being a complete prick?” He shakes his head.
“No. I’m not doing that anymore. So, as long as this was your choice and not a big-mouthed ballerina stuffing something down your throat… ”
“I’m offended by your words, Detective Malone.”
His lips curl into a handsomely devilish grin. Then he inches forward and kisses me again. “Thank you for telling me.” Finally, he pulls back and looks me up and down. “How do you feel? Hemorrhaging? Clotting? Stroking out?”
“None of the above?” I say it like a question, only to end my sentence with a shaky snicker. “I feel fine, actually. Nervous. Stressed. Not tired like an infusion would normally make me.”
“That’s the pep,” Soph inserts eagerly. “Jen put a little zing in there to get your day started right.”
Hesitantly, I bring my hands up and cover my nose with one, then I tug the first tampon out with the other and wait for the drip.
I wait for the blood to flow. For my shirt to get messier.
I sniffle to gauge the things I can’t see, and when my nose doesn’t leak, I drop the tampon into my trash and gently tug the second out.
“It worked.” Soph snatches up her phone and dials, slamming the device to her ear and inching in on Archer’s space so her cheek almost touches his. “Jen! It worked. Mayet was bleeding, so she took the M&M.”
“No shit!?” Jen exclaims loud enough for us to hear. “How long ago did she take it? Can you weigh her? How’s her pupillary reflex? Take her temperature! Internal would be best, but—”
“Stick a thermometer anywhere inside me, and I’ll rip your throat out.
” I inch forward, now that I don’t have things hanging out of my face, and press a better, longer kiss to Archer’s lips.
“You’re here for an update on your DB, right?
” I drop the second tampon in the trash. “Let me run you through it.”
“Soon.” He draws my hand up and kisses my wrist. My thumb knuckle. My palm. “Someone needs to tell me what that stench is first, because honestly, I’m struggling to be near you right now, Chief.”
“She bathed in dead people decomp.” Soph straightens her long legs and turns away, her phone still pressed to her ear.
“I’ll try to get her temp later. She doesn’t seem open to the idea right now.
FYI: her bleeding stopped within a couple of minutes of swallowing the pill, she doesn’t appear to be running a fever, she’s not shaking, but she is making googly eyes with the detective.
” She swings my door wide and strides into the hall.
“She took it with cold coffee, not water. So maybe add that to your notes.”
“Cold coffee?” Archer firms his lips, mock-disappointed. “Really, Chief?”
“Shut up.”