But I’m not in the military anymore, seeped into the air between them.
Silence descended swiftly, and it didn’t feel entirely comfortable. It felt like there were things unsaid between them. To fill the silence, Elise blurted out, “I guess we fell asleep last night, huh?”
He chuckled, low and throaty. “You do have a way of exhausting me.”
“Considering I blacked out too, I’d say the same back to you.” She laughed and then noticed the clock on her nightstand. It read 7:16 AM. Well aware of the busy day ahead of her, she slid out of bed. “We better get up and moving.” But she stopped short when her cell phone rang next to her clock. She grabbed it and smiled. “You’re up early,” she said, putting Penny on speaker.
“I don’t even want to talk about it,” her friend grumbled.
“You’re on speaker,” Elise added quickly. “Archer is here.”
“Morning,” Archer said.
“Morning.” Penny’s loud yawn crackled through the phone line. “I thought you’d like to know that the cops have solved your break-in case. Give them a while, and I’ll bet they’ll call to update you.”
“Was it related to the Phoenix case?” Elise asked.
“Nope,” Penny said. “It was about your Wadsworth case.”
Elise blinked. And blinked again. “Calvin Wadsworth broke into my office?” She heard the disbelief in her own voice.
Penny laughed. “Well, no, not him. He hired a thief-for-hire.”
Elise slowly shook her head. Sure, she hadn’t known for sure Connie or Isaac were involved in the break-in, but she certainly didn’t expect Mr. Wadsworth to be behind the crime. “I need you to explain all this to me.”
“Okay, I’ll give you the short version from what I’m seeing on the report,” Penny said. “Calvin found out his wife hired you to find evidence of his cheating. Maybe his wife was pissed and told him. Who knows. Anyways, I guess he’s been planning to divorce Mrs. Wadsworth, and the prenup she signed would basically give her half of his money if he cheated. Obviously, he needed to get your evidence. Hence, the break-in.”
Even Archer was shaking his head. “How did the police find out Wadsworth was behind it?”
“The fingerprints they found matched a kid already in the database,” Penny reported. “They brought him in, and to get a lighter sentence, he gave up Wadsworth. The old man came in and confessed it all.”
“Damn,” Elise said.
“Right,” Penny agreed. “Anyways, that’s all I’ve got for now. Good luck this morning. Toodles.”
The phone line went dead.
“Well, we’ve got our answer for that, then,” Elise said.
“We do.” Archer gave his head another hard shake. “People are truly unbelievable.”
“You have no idea,” Elise said, heading for her closet, waiting…and waiting…
“What did Penny mean by ‘good luck this morning’?”
Elise smiled to herself. Of course, he wouldn’t miss that. “I’m going to meet with Isaac.”
A pause. Then Archer’s voice hardened to a tone she’d never heard from him before. “Say that again?”
Yeah, she’d expected his displeasure on this particular subject. A month ago, she would’ve thrown some witty remark his way and steamrolled over his dominance. Now she knew him and where his protective side came from—a good place. She ditched her nightgown and took out a pair of panties and a cotton bra, sliding into them. “You’re not going to be difficult about this, are you?” she called.
The heavy silence continued until she exited the closet in her lingerie. Archer sat up in bed, looking like a woman’s dream come true with a body earned from hard work and dedication. “When I asked you to help on this case, I never requested you directly speak to the people involved.”
Late last night, she’d caught him up on everything Penny discovered about Connie and Isaac. He wasn’t pleased then, considering things only seemed to be getting more confusing and more twisted, and he certainly didn’t sound it now. She chose a pencil skirt from her closet, and as she slid into it, she asked, “Did you forget this is my job?” She took a pink silk blouse and white camisole off the hanger and slipped into it. “I need to get into his head, and to do so, I need to meet him.”
Archer frowned from the bed. “Where exactly is this meeting going to happen?”
“At a restaurant in midtown at 10 AM.” His frown deepened, so she added, “I’m a possible investor in his new startup.”
His tough demeanor broke for a moment. Surprise glinting in his eyes. “Penny arranged that?”
“She did,” Elise confirmed, tucking the blouse into her skirt. “Luckily for us, Penny slid me into his morning schedule.” She did a little spin, holding out her arms when she stopped. “Well, once I get my hair and makeup done, do I look the part of a rich investor?”
His head cocked and eyes narrowed slightly in the seconds before he slid out of bed wearing only his boxer briefs. Dear God, Archer was not a pretty man; he was built from rough strength and hard angles. And it made keeping her clothes on difficult. “I don’t like this,” he said, reaching her in a few powerful strides. “Confronting people is my job. Your job is to hide in the shadows.”
“My job is to trap the guilty,” she countered. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
He tipped his head back, his Adam’s apple dipped. “We’re a team, Elise.” He cupped her face. “Always a team. That’s how this works.”
He took a pained breath, and she regretted not going about this in a way that fully included him. “You’re right,” she finally hedged. “We are a team in this, and I’m sorry. I’m not used to that. Usually, it’s just me and Penny. How about we do this? Meet me at the restaurant. I’ve asked Penny to get me a table by the window so she can tape our meeting. You can watch from a distance.”
His mouth met hers in the next second, and he kissed her like he meant it. Hard. With tongue. Only when he had her wiggling against him did he break the kiss, and he was smiling. “A much better—smarter—plan.”
“Because it includes you?” she asked.
He grinned. “Exactly.”
Archer still didn’t love Elise’s idea, even a couple of hours later. Sitting behind the wheel of his truck, he watched her from a distance on what looked like a date with a good-looking, rich man. He’d rather undergo a root canal. Penny had set Elise up in one of Manhattan’s most expensive restaurants, a place Isaac likely visited often to discuss business outside of his office. From the outside, the restaurant didn’t look like much. Only three tall windows faced the street, but they revealed a room full of happy customers. The brown brick on the exterior was faded in a way that looked purposefully done, but the large crystal chandeliers seen through the windows spoke of elegance. While Archer watched every laugh and smile Elise threw Isaac’s way over the course of their brunch meeting, his imagination began to run wild. He might have no claim on her…yet, but his heart hadn’t gotten the memo. Gut twisting, he grabbed his wallet from the dash, pulled out Penny’s card, and dialed her number. The ringing came through his truck’s speakers.