And yet here we stand…
Someone in my family killed his uncle.
Hence the reason Archer wants me dead.
But he won’t kill me because I don’t know who my family is.
I can instantly feel the tension between myself, Cullen and Archer.
The cracks of whateverfriendshipthey had made to work together to find me… already showing.
They look at each other.
They look at me.
I’m just happy to be warm.
And I’m happy to be between them.
Without speaking a word, I slip my left hand into Cullen’s right hand.
I slip my right hand into Archer’s left hand.
I’m shaking.
It’s more than just being cold and being afraid at this point.
“I’m going to kill him,” Archer whispers to me. “He can’t get away with it.”
“Not tonight,” I whisper back.
“Think beyond tonight,” Cullen says. “What just walked into our lives.”
“A man with a death wish,” Archer says. “And he’s going to get it.”
“That’s aSavageway of thinking, Amatti,” Cullen says.
“I am a fuckingSavage, Doyle,” Archer says.
They now both look ready to fight one another.
I squeeze my grip on Cullen’s right hand and Archer’s left hand.
Please don’t do this.
“She’s back now,” Cullen says. “You can leave, Amatti. You don’t belong here.”
“I’m not leaving her for a second,” Archer says. “Do what you need to do, Doyle.”
“I was handcuffed to a bed in a basement,” I say. “And all I thought about was getting back to you both. To feel you against me. To smell you. To hear your voices. Nobody is leaving this house tonight.”
“Hear that?” Archer asks.
Cullen curls his lip. “We are not all cuddling in my bed. Or Jaci’s.”
“And to think you were my best friend just hours ago,” Archer says.
“I’m not your anything, Amatti,” Cullen says. “You know what this was. We had to get our girl back.”