When he said nothing more, I blew out a long breath of frustration. It was fucked up, but I was actually hurt that Kody and Steele hadn't been the ones to find me. Why had it been Archer, the one who barely tolerated my presence? And why the fuck did he even care?
I should have just voiced those questions out loud, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with his cagey bullshit. I'd rather the tense, angry silence.
"Why?" he snapped after a long silence.
I frowned, trying to follow his train of thought. Why was I asking about Kody and Steele? Ugh, good question, dude.
"Why'd you go to that shitty hotel instead of coming home?" he clarified. "I know what you thought, but the detective on your case said he cleared all that up. He told you we were investigated and cleared, didn't he?"
I nodded, my lips tight.
"So what's your fucking problem, Madison Kate? Are you still pissy about that argument? Is that why you went to Zane?" His hands tightened on the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white, but his eyes remained on the road.
I scoffed a bitter laugh. Of course he'd make this about himself. "Our argument had nothing to do with this, D'Ath," I informed him in a scathing tone. "It may come as news to you, but you're not the center of everyone's universe. Certainly not mine."
But also, that so-called argument made me cringe when I thought about it. They'd been telling me the truth, and I'd been so firmly entrenched in my beliefs that I'd refused to listen.
"So why go to Zane?" he demanded, his voice full of cold fury. "You saw what happened to his guy. You're fucking lucky you made it out of there alive, you fucking airhead."
My own anger rose to the bait, scorching through me. "Because I'm fucking sick to death of being lied to, Archer. It's about damn time I started getting some answers, and your brother was actually quite accommodating."
He scoffed. "Oh yeah? What did he tell you? Or did he just spin the conversation to pump you for information and give you nothing in return?"
I started to protest, but... fuck.
"That's what I figured." Archer was pure fucking condescension. "Zane didn't get to where he is without learning a thing or two about how to manipulate people."
I huffed, not responding as I stared out of my window. But Archer was feeling chatty, apparently.
"And what exactly have we been lying to you about, Madison Kate?" he continued.
Not: We haven't been lying to you. No, he was asking what I thought they'd been lying about. Sneaky bastard.
I rolled my eyes, not interested in playing his game. "Omission is still lying, Archer, and you damn well know it. Until you three start coming clean about what the fuck is going on, you're on my shit list."
He shrugged. "Maybe I like it there."
Dickhead.
"Good, then that's where you can stay."
The rest of the drive was in silence, but after Archer parked us inside the garage and hit his remote to close the garage doors, I had a moment of weakness.
"Where did you get your knife from?" I asked before either of us stepped out of the car. I watched him from the corner of my eye as he froze with his hand on the door handle. "The red butterfly blade you showed me after Bree's party."
"The one you accused me of stabbing you with?" he asked, an edge of bitter disappointment coloring his tone. "The police swabbed it, you know. There was no evidence of your DNA."
I bit my lip. I knew that... but it was hard to reconcile with what I'd seen. "They told me," I admitted. "But that guy, the one who stabbed me, he had the same knife. You have to admit that's more than a coincidence."
"No, he didn't," Archer disagreed. "Those blades are handmade, each one unique. It may have looked similar to mine, but it wasn't the same."
"Oh." My heart sank. It was the one clue I had, the only thing that might point at who wanted me dead. But that made sense as to why Zane had a similar one too.
Archer sighed, scrubbing a hand over the thick stubble on his cheeks. He looked like he hadn't bothered to shave in weeks, and his face was discolored with healing bruises. He'd look like shit if I wasn't still so inexplicably attracted to him.
"It's not a coincidence, though," he said eventually. "You're right on that part."