He'd been inside the house.
When the police had asked for a copy of the file from my father's office, it was nowhere to be found—just a blank space in the filing cabinet where Archer swore the file had been not twenty-four hours earlier.
He'd immediately called in a security company, and I watched silently from the couch as the uniformed guy talked Archer and Steele through the new system. Bree had gone home, albeit reluctantly, and that left me with Kody.
"Here, I made you cocoa," the buff, blond god said softly, sitting down beside me on the couch and handing me a steaming mug. I took it because no one in their right mind—or otherwise, as the case may be—would decline fresh cocoa while it was storming outside and they were experiencing any level of shock.
But that was the only thing I wanted from him.
"Don't you have somewhere better to be?" I asked him, my tone caustic. It was a poor coping mechanism, transferring my emotions into being a bitch, but whatever. I’ve never claimed to be perfect.
Kody gave me a small frown of confusion, and from the corner of my eye, I noticed the security guys had finished up and were leaving.
"Uh, no? I cancelled my PT clients for the day when Arch called earlier." He sounded genuinely confused by my snarky remark.
I rolled my eyes. "You sure Drew isn't waiting for you somewhere? You two sure looked like you made up from last weekend's fight."
Kody's lips parted, and he seemed a bit stunned. Too bad for him that the other guys had heard what I'd said.
"What's this about?" Archer asked, folding his arms. "I thought you took care of Drew."
"I did," Kody replied, his tone sharp. "I can only assume Madison Kate happened to see me today at the exact moment Drew kissed me. Which, I might add, is terribly coincidental timing, Princess. Were you following me?"
I barked a laugh. "Like hell. I went to Nadia's for coffee and cake. And it didn't look much like you were pushing her away."
Kody stared at me for a tense moment, then his lips curled up in a grin. "Damn, MK. Green is a good color on you."
"Oh fuck off," I sneered. "I'm not jealous, just wondering what the hell I got slapped for if you were still hooking up with her anyway."
"Hold up," Archer interjected. "You got slapped? When? How?"
I broke eye contact with the green-eyed playboy beside me and peered up at Archer, who still stood there with his huge-ass arms folded. At least Steele had sat down on the armchair opposite us.
"Last weekend when Kody took me to Nadia's. His girlfriend—"
"Not my girlfriend," he butted in.
"—assumed I was the latest victim in the revolving door of his bedroom, and slapped me for the fun of it. I guess. Isn't that kind of fucked up, though? Blaming the other woman for a man's infidelity?" I crinkled my nose, still annoyed about being caught in the crossfire on that one.
"Nice one, dickhead," Steele murmured, while drumming his fingertips on the arm of his chair and staring at me way too hard.
Archer just shook his head and sighed. "You're an idiot, bro."
Kody shrugged but didn't say anything to the contrary.
"Okay, new security system is all set up. No one is getting in without half of Shadow Grove hearing about it." Archer checked the time on his phone. "Dinner will be ready in about an hour and a half. Kody, we got time to do a quick session?"
"You bet," Kody replied, ruffling his fingers through his hair. "I'll get changed and meet you in the gym." He gave me a weighted look, like he was trying to silently communicate something to me, but I was drawing a blank. When I just blinked back at him like a damn owl, he sighed, then stood up and left the room.
Steele laughed quietly, shaking his head.
"What?" I asked, confused as all hell.
His lips arched up in a smile, and it transfixed me for a moment as I remembered how intoxicating it felt to kiss him. But it was only a moment, then I remembered Archer's sneering disgust as he demonstrated thorough knowledge of that intimate moment.
"Nothing, Hellcat," he replied with a chuckle. "Nothing at all."
Liar.
I decided not to reply. Instead, I tucked my knees up tighter to my chest and sipped my warm cocoa. It was really good... really good. What the hell did Kody make it with to create such an intense flavor?
"Careful," Archer murmured, "Kody spikes his cocoa with liquor."
I nodded. "It's delicious."
The corner of his mouth tugged into what he might consider a smile. To everyone else, it would just be an involuntary facial twitch.
Steele wandered out of the room, mumbling something about having work to do—I guessed he was heading to the workshop—but Archer paused halfway out of the living room.
"What now?" I asked him in a flat tone. "Just thought of a cutting barb you needed to deliver before it got stale? Want to call me an idiot for not believing you about the stalker in the first place? Just spit it out and go pump some iron or whatever. Literally nothing you can say will touch me right now, so do your worst."
He rubbed his palm across the dark stubble on his jaw, giving me a look that walked the line way too close to pity. "I was just going to say you're welcome to come mope about your shit decisions in the gym. You know, if you don't want to be alone right now."
Just like that, Archer D'Ath proved me wrong again. His words touched my soul, alright. Just not in any way I'd been prepared for.
I lasted about half an hour in the gym, sitting on the floor and watching Kody put Archer through the paces of what, to me, seemed to be the workout from hell.
Don't get me wrong; despite having avoided the gym since arriving home, I was no slouch in the fitness department. The difference was, though, that I worked out to stay fit and healthy so I could run away from someone chasing me. Riot Night had proven the necessity of that. Archer and Kody seemed to relish in the sheer pain of pushing their bodies to the absolute limits. It was scary hot, but soon the novelty wore off.
I yawned and stood up from the floor right when Kody was making Archer do this weird thing with two huge-ass ropes that stretched half the length of the room.
"I'm bored," I admitted after Kody barked at Archer not to stop, then came over to check on me. "I'm going to go see what Steele is working on in the garage."
Kody grabbed a small towel and wiped the sweat off his face. Despite his role as Archer's trainer, he wasn't exactly sitting back and watching the whole time.
"I thought you were pretty pissed off at him," he said, watching Archer as he continued making waves with the heavy-ass ropes. The big guy then dropped the ropes and did some stupidly impressive push-ups with one hand, then some jumping things, then back to the ropes.
I cleared my throat, realizing I'd just gotten distracted. "Uh, yeah. I am. But I'm also shit-scared some psycho will jump out from behind a hat stand and like... make a human skin suit out of me. So I'll make lemonade for now."
Kody gave me a half smile. "Babe, life gave you more than lemons. You got like... I don't even know. Tomatoes. When you ordered strawberries."
I wrinkled my nose and sighed. "True that."