Then, as though an idea strikes him, he pushes up straight and meets my eyes across the apartment. “Wanna come? No one is dead, but you could still hang out with me.” Then his gaze softens. “I woke up alone.”
“Oh,boo-hoo,” Cato rolls his eyes. “Soft-cock Archer is lonely.”
“Yep. I’m coming.” I push Micah’s shorts back and expose just enough of his ass for a needle. Then I stab him without remorse, and grin when his eyes snap open and his uninjured hand wraps around my wrist.
He always wakes in fight mode. Defensive. Which isn’t surprising, I guess, considering where he comes from. But his brain is quick, even when he’s sleep-deprived, so he looks me up and down, then releases my arm, completely unaware that, twenty minutes from now, his fingerprints will bruise my skin.
“Take these pills.” I pull the needle from his ass and push his water and meds closer. “Then rest. You’re good for a while now.”
“‘Kay.” He reaches out for his supplies and says nothing of the fact his amputated injury is exposed. Or that I’m once again leaning over him while he’s unconscious.
Micah Malone and I went from not knowing each other, to getting beyond intimate within a single meeting. Now, this is our new normal.
“Eat something with protein,” I tell him as I stand. Then I look to Cato. “Cook him some soup, Hoe. And wash your hands first.”
He chuckles and turns to the kitchen as though to do everything I ask. “Hey, Arch,” he nudges his brother with his shoulder as he passes. “Do you remember your tutor back in high school?”
“What?” Slowly, sluggishly, he looks to Cato. “Huh?”
“We each got one, since Dad wasn’t the kind to sit down and teach us.”
“Oh, yeah. Kate.” Then his eyes widen and shoot to mine.
“Mmm… Kate.” Cato giggles. “Sounds hot.”
“Don’t even!” I storm into the hallway and stop in our bedroom.
Stupid Kate. With her stupid ability to tutor a teen. Her disgusting inclination to sleep with children.
She’s clearly not the same tutor Cato has, since she’s probably nearly fifty at this point. But still.
“Don’t ever talk to me about Kate!” I shout back into the hall. “I don’t wanna know about her.”
“You’re an asshole,” Archer grumbles. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“What?” Cato snickers. “I only asked a question.”
I switch out my yoga pants for jeans, and Archer’s shirt for one of my own. Then, since the mornings are still chilly, I grab a hoodie, since my tattered coat is neither warm nor suitable for jeans and sneakers.
I push back into the hall and make quick work of brushing my teeth in the bathroom. Then I emerge into the living room to find Archer fully awake and dressed, his boots pulled on, and a steaming coffee in each hand.
“Thank you.” I step into his arms and breathe in his aftershave.Don’t think about Kate.Don’t think about Kate. Don’t think about Kate.
Pulling back, I bring my coffee up to sip, and hiss as I swallow the boiling hot brew so it mixes with the taste of toothpaste. “I need your brothers to move out.” I peek toward a smugly grinning Cato. “Like, today.”
“Trying.”
And yet, he knows I won’t force him to kick his brothers to the curb. But I’ll bitch about it.
It’s an understanding we both enjoy.
“And you need to take Cato for an STD check. He’s disgusting.”
“Your obsession with my sex life is almost as concerning as Kate’s obsession with Archer’s sixteen-year-old dick.”
“You test me.” I carry my coffee across the kitchen and stop close enough, I have to look up at the child. “Men have died for less. So I suggest you mind your words and go back to school. It’s best that way.”
He reaches up and flicks the messy bun I wear atop my head. “That’s cute. Go to work, Doc. Someone else needs you to be their hero today.”
