Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,75

near the same voice.

“Guys,” Ian cut in before I could answer. “If she wants to take her own car, we’re not going to fight with her about it.”

“We’re not fighting,” Coop jumped into the fray when Jake glared at Ian, but Archie ignored all of them, even if I was all too aware we were having this conversation just outside the apartment door where anyone could hear us. “We’re expressing concern and asking why. She hasn’t taken her car in months, I don’t think it’s an unfair question.”

“It’s not,” I told Archie. “But I may need to cut out at lunch and go see Maddy.”

“Fuck no,” he swore, then grimaced as he raked a hand through his hair, disheveling it. A myriad of expressions rioted across his face, and he wasn’t alone. I started away from the door to let them work through it, but Archie fell right into step with me. “Babe, can we discuss this before you put yourself through that?”

“I don’t know that I’m going, but she apparently wants to talk enough that she’s going to pull this with the apartment. I didn’t even think about the fact that she’s the one on the lease.”

“Except the apartment is paid for,” Archie reminded me. “And while leases matter and names matter, money also matters. They couldn’t throw you out as long as it’s all paid.”

“Do we know that for sure?” We were now standing between Jake’s SUV and Archie’s Ferrari.

“I’m about eighty percent certain,” Archie assured me. “But it doesn’t matter what she does, we can fight her and we will.”

“Agreed,” Jake said, and Coop nodded. “You don’t have to see her.”

I didn’t want to see her, that was the difference. At the same time, avoiding her wasn’t a long-term strategy, at least until my emancipation was decided.

“What do you want to do, Angel?”

“Dude, you have got to stop being Mr. Super Reasonable now,” Archie informed him. “That’s Coop’s schtick. He gets through when none of us can.”

I bit back a smile when Jake snorted and Ian just rolled his eyes. “I’m not being super reasonable. I’m trying to figure out what Frankie needs us to do based on what she wants to do before we all bulldoze through this and make it worse.”

My heart squeezed. “You’re not going to make it worse,” I told them, all of them, and I put a hand against Archie’s chest. “I love you for wanting to just dive in and take this on for me. And I may very well need your help. But I also need to know why Maddy has suddenly declared war again.” Could it have something to do with the DNA tests? They’d been here all along. So either she already knew the answers, or she didn’t care about them.

Knowing her, it could be both.

“And I may call Erin and see if she can squeeze me in today before I talk to Maddy.”

“That’s a good plan,” Coop said. “Do you mind if I ride with you?”

“Subtle,” Jake said. “I can ride with you too.”

Ian chuckled softly, but it was Archie who grunted, “If she wants privacy, us riding with her isn’t going to give her that.”

That was a concession. He did not want me fighting this alone. To be honest, I didn’t want to fight it alone either. But I needed… “I need to establish some boundaries with Maddy and take back some control. Not talking to her the other night was absolutely the right call.”

I wasn’t ready to deal with her then, not when I’d been in a safe, focused mood. The ambush had unsettled me a lot. Not letting her in had been what I needed then. Taking the fight to her…that was what I needed to do now.

“I’ll talk to Wittaker first,” I said finally. “Since I am suing for emancipation, I shouldn’t talk to her without my attorney.”

Archie’s smile warmed me inside and out. Which was good, because the cold was starting to sting my cheeks.

I caught Ian’s eye and then Coop’s, they were both just waiting, but a muscle ticked in Jake’s cheek and the sound of his teeth grinding had me leaning into him as I wrapped an arm around his waist. “Drive me to school?”

The minute I asked, the relief draping the guys wrapped around me almost as tightly as Jake did. “You’re humoring me, Baby Girl.”

“And you’re going to let me,” I answered him.

It took us a couple of minutes to sort out cars. Ultimately, we all rode with