sight and ready to stick my neck on the line. But he turned away before seeing the defiant glare in my eyes.
"I've got a hot date with my girl tonight," he told us with a lazy grin as he wiped his bloody knuckles on a rag. "Don't burn the fucking house down while I'm gone, yeah?"
He shot another sly smile in MK's direction, like he’d just remembered that his girl was her mom. Thankfully, he left before shit got any worse, and a few moments later we heard the roar of his motorcycle peeling out of the driveway.
The moment it was safe, MK dropped my hand and rushed over to where Archer remained lying on the ground.
For a second, I thought she was going to burst out crying. But then she slapped him across the face—hard, too, if his answering groan was any indication.
"What the heck is wrong with you?" she demanded, her little hands curled into fists as she glared down at him. "Why didn't you fight back? You could have killed him, and you know it!"
Archer just rolled onto his back, groaning as he laughed. "It's hilarious that you can't curse, Princess."
She whacked him in the chest, making him hiss with pain and cradle his ribs. Something was definitely broken there. A deep frown marked her brow, but she didn't apologize. It was cute as hell.
"You're so dumb, Arch," she mumbled, sitting back on her heels as I offered my hand to help him sit up. "Why did you pretend you couldn't fight?"
He flashed her a grin, and it tightened a knot in my stomach. Arch liked MK, despite treating her like an annoying tagalong. He saw something in her that spoke to his stained and damaged soul. I saw the darkness in her too, but I wanted to protect her from it. Arch wanted to draw it out and make her embrace it.
"Strategy, little princess," he replied with a grunt as he pushed himself up from the floor and limping over to the bathroom.
She wrinkled her adorable nose, and turned to me for translation.
I just shrugged, offering her a hand to stand up too. "He means by not revealing our strengths to Zane—or to Damien—we're holding the power. If they don't know what we're capable of, they can't ever see us coming."
Her big, long lashed eyes widened, and she followed Arch into the bathroom, where he'd started assessing his injuries. He'd pulled his shirt off. Bruises were already spreading across his midsection. Fucking Zane would pay for that one day. Just another mark against him when the time came.
"You guys are planning something?" MK demanded to know, folding her arms and raising her chin with stubborn determination. "Good. No offense, Arch, but people like your dad and Zane shouldn't have power. They just abuse it to make themselves feel better about their tiny dicks."
I choked on air, my cheeks heating in shock that she'd actually just said that. "Cat... what the fuck do you know about their dicks?"
Archer just snickered as he dabbed blood from his mouth. "You said dick. That's just one step away from fuck. I reckon we'll have corrupted you by the time you leave here."
Her cheeks turned pink, her gaze ducking to the floor. "Whenever that is," she mumbled.
"Hey," I said, reaching out for her again. I couldn't seem to stop touching her—in a totally platonic way. "It'll be soon. Did you say your dad comes back from Europe next week?" The one week forced vacation her mom had brought her on was now coming up on three weeks... but selfishly Arch and I liked having her around.
She sighed, her shoulders rising and falling. "Yeah. I guess." Her gaze returned to Archer, and a deep frown creased her brow. "You're doing that wrong."
He raised an eyebrow at her in the mirror. The unsplit one, that was. He was trying to apply butterfly stickers to the other one, but he hadn't cleaned even the worst of the blood away, which prevented them from adhering.
"You think you can do better, Princess?" He wasn't even subtle in taunting her, but she'd take the bait. She always did. I was starting to think she enjoyed the verbal sparring as much as he did.
Fucking hell. We needed to get her home to her cushy mansion before this life really did corrupt her irreparably.
She just huffed and slid out from under my arm to take the wash cloth from the edge of the basin.