grimaced. "I don't know that we need to be borrowing trouble right now, Kate."
My sound of protest was cut off when Kody added, "What about a trade out? It's happened before."
Archer frowned, thinking, then shook his head. "We have no one to offer, and Moore wouldn’t be any better off with the Reapers. Worse, even."
Kody sighed. "Good point. Zane would jump at the chance to make an example out of him. I'm guessing that's what Ferryman is doing too. Dallas has made it way too obvious he's loyal to MK over anyone else."
I cringed. "I can imagine that's a pretty big no-no in gangs."
"Yeah, you could say that," Archer murmured. "Leave it to me; I'll have to think about it, okay? I still don't fucking like Moore, and I trust him even less. But I can see Bree's happiness is important to you..." He ground the words out like it caused him physical pain to be a nice person. It was cute as hell.
Grinning, I slipped out of Kody's embrace and climbed on top of Archer to crush my mouth against his in a grateful kiss.
"Thank you, Sunshine," I whispered when our kiss ended, my arms still tight around his neck and his banded around my waist. "I promise, Dallas and Bree deserve our help. We need more allies anyway, right?"
Archer grumbled a noise but kissed me again in response.
"You guys keep that up and we're gonna have to test Archer's willingness to share again," Kody warned, giving me a sly grin when I looked over at him.
Archer huffed, then shocked the damn pants off me. "I'm not against the idea," he muttered as he dipped his face to kiss my neck.
I swallowed a gasp of surprise and shook my head. "You're in a rare mood, Archer D'Ath," I commented with a laugh. "But it'll have to wait. Our lovely wedding planner is calling in around twenty minutes, remember?"
Archer sucked lightly on my neck, making me groan. "So what you're saying, wifey, is that we need to make you come in less than fifteen minutes? That's easily doable."
I laughed then pushed back from him with my hands flat on his chest. "Did you get fucking body snatched or something?"
"Also, we don't even have fifteen," Kody added, checking his phone. "Zed's on his way over now to discuss floorplans and artillery."
Archer let out a long sigh, then ruffled his fingers through his ink-black hair. "Fine," he growled. "To be continued."
My brows flicked up, but I nodded anyway. I sure as hell wasn't saying no when he was in a sharing mood. My pussy was already damp in anticipation of later.
"If we're expecting company, I better get dressed," I said with a sigh, then reluctantly climbed out of Archer's lap. I was wearing just a baggy T-shirt—one of Kody's—and hot pants underneath—good enough when it was just the three of us, but probably not acceptable for company.
I hurried up the stairs, and the doorbell rang before I reached my bedroom. By the time I’d changed into jeans and put a bra on, I'd already missed half of the discussion with Zed. Not that I fully understood what was going on anyway.
They all sat at the dining table with blueprints of our wedding venue—a non-denominational chapel on the north side of Shadow Grove—spread out between them. They were discussing choke points and lines of sight, and within around two minutes they'd totally lost me. Which was fine because I wasn't going to make them sit there and explain it all to me. I didn't need a crash course in the tactics of an ambush. I just needed them to know what they were doing.
I had one role at this wedding.
Bait.
I tuned back in when Zed nodded his head at me. "What precautions have you put in place for your girl?" His question was aimed at Archer, even if his cold, assessing gaze was on me. "She can't exactly wear Kevlar. First fucking clue that the wedding is a sham, when the bride arrives in a bulletproof vest."
"I'm glad we agree on that point," I murmured, giving Archer an I-told-you-so look.
He rolled his eyes and exhaled heavily. "We're still working on it," he admitted reluctantly. "For now, we just need to focus on ensuring all vantage points are covered by our men so there's no opportunity for Kate to be shot by a ranged weapon. Clear?"
Zed jerked a nod. "Clear. We want to bait the trap, not throw food to the rats." His phone