“I don’t want to ask you again, sweet thing,” he says.
“Then don’t. Just fucking kill me if you think I’m a liar.”
“As I said, I believe in honor,” Archer says. “My Uncle Gino taught me that.”
“And what is honor to you? You’re threatening a woman with a knife. Does that make you feel manly? Do you feel good about yourself? Huh? You’re rich, right? You come from money? You’re supposed to be next in line to run your family’s mafia group or whatever it is, right? Who am I, Archer? Huh? I grew up poor. I know nothing. I have nothing. I got a letter in the mail saying I was supposed to show up here and that my tuition was paid for. I didn’t pay for it. So, who did?”
“That’s the part I really need you to know,” he says. “Once you know, then I can do what I want with you.”
“You’ll never do what you want with me, Archer.”
“Why? Because of Cullen Doyle?”
Archer actually grins.
A small grin, but a grin.
He has a dimple on his right cheek when he grins.
Swoon.
I’m slowly becoming that crazy lady who doesn’t just like the bad boy angle, but actually thrives on it.
Archer wants to end my life and I’m picking out dimples, muscles, and feeling warmth in places I shouldn’t.
Or it could just be the mention of Cullen’s name.
“I don’t know who Cullen Doyle is,” I say.
“He wants you.”
“Is that a concern for you, Archer?”
“Are you always this much of a bitch?” Archer asks. “Or is this your body reacting to your coming death?”
I shrug my shoulders. “Sucks for you, right? You’ll never find out. Unless you let me live.”
Archer flexes his jaw again. “I’m going to ask you again if-”
“Oh, fuck, dude,” I say. “Give it a rest. I don’t know who those people are. Okay? I don’t fucking know! What do you want me to do? Take a lie detector test? What? You have a knife pointed at me, Archer. I’m telling you the truth. I don’t know who anyone is. I just know who I lived with my entire life.”
“Trash,” Archer says. “Trash that your mother took in and helped. So, the favor was repaid.”
Chills move throughout my body. “What did you say?”
“Nothing,” Archer says. “I’m just talking.”
“Looking for that honor? Or just trying to mess with me? Huh?”
Archer lowers the knife.
He steps even closer to me.
“I scare you,” he whispers.
“You can think that all you want.”
“I will keep scaring you.”