The room wasn’t big, there were three or four rows of chairs before what would be called the altar where the officiant stood. She didn’t see any other strangers in the room. Archer and Derren were there at the front with Kristof.

Nya hadn’t spoken to Kristof about this happy occasion, but he seemed relaxed enough about the idea of his dad hitching his wagon to Ester’s. The three men were kind of huddled and it was strange to see them all wearing shirts and slacks.

She didn’t think she’d ever seen Archer in slacks. Her smile widened as she thought about how handsome her man was, and wondered if one day she might be walking towards him.

Her lover seemed relaxed and she took that as a good sign that nothing dire had happened last night. She checked all three men for bruises and blood and when she saw none, she relaxed some more. Nya didn’t imagine that the ceremony would take long, and afterwards, she’d grill Archer for answers.

Ester led her to the front and took her flowers away before she stepped back. Nya turned to try to figure out why the woman had moved behind her, and then Archer moved up in front. She looked left and right and realized that the official was looking at her.

“Archer?” Nya asked and he took her hand up to his lips.

“Time to shit or get off the pot,” he said.

She had no idea what he meant until she took a second to absorb the surroundings. The officiant was in front of them. She and Archer were at the center of the altar. Ester stood behind her while Derren and Kristof stayed behind Archer. When she turned to where the congregation should’ve been, she saw she’d been wrong, there were people there.

Two people were right at the back of the room against the wall in the furthest, darkest corner, Tag and Gio.

“Tag,” she said and took an involuntary step in his direction, but Archer’s hand in hers made her bungee back.

“You chose me,” Archer said and she stopped to search his expression.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “I don’t understand what…”

His hand slid onto her cheek and he cupped her jaw. But Ester leaned in behind her to whisper, “Me? Faithful? I didn’t think you’d ever buy that.”

Nya tried to turn her head to look at Ester, but Archer held her firm to look straight into her eyes.

Fuck.

He wasn’t smiling. He was looking into her and he wasn’t asking a damn question. Archer knew everything before everyone else knew it and the fucker had managed to get her to the altar without her having a clue what was happening.

Ester’s manicured fingertips popped up in front of her eyes to show something in a pincer between her thumb and forefinger. Archer took the sparkling item from his mother. “It was my mother’s,” Ester said at Nya’s back.

The woman that Ester had worshipped and fallen apart without. The woman who’d helped to raise Archer and held the family together during the only happy times of Archer’s childhood.

“Can we hurry this up?” Kristof asked.

But Nya was too busy looking at the diamond ring in Archer’s hand. “So?” he asked. “Shit or get off the pot?”

That wasn’t exactly the most romantic proposal, but that’s what it was. “You’re proposing,” she said. “This is our wedding day!”

“She’s quick,” Kristof said.

Nya couldn’t be offended by his sarcasm, she was still in shock. She couldn’t believe this. Archer hadn’t proposed, hadn’t even hinted that he was going to soon. Yet, here they were, together at the altar.

“Shit,” she said, although it might not have been in response to what he said.

But Archer was sliding the ring onto her finger and she glanced toward the corner where Tag was seated with Gio. Tag was here. She could be reassured that he was alive and relaxed enough that he didn’t appear to be bruised or bloody although in the darkness of the corner she couldn’t make out all of his features.

Gio was incidental and yet there was something profound about the fact that both men were present and neither were objecting or making a scene.

Nya looked at Archer again. “How did you know I’d say yes?”

He leaned in to whisper in her ear. “I know fucking everything,” he said and threw an arm around her shoulders as he turned them towards the officiant. “You heard my lady, let’s do this.”

The ceremony was short, Nya was right about that. They were asked to repeat vows and Archer said everything he was supposed to. He had wedding bands. Wedding bands! Nya had no idea how he’d managed to get those so quickly when she hadn’t even been aware this was happening.

Ester had only come to her after Tag said he was leaving five days ago. Had it been because she’d chosen Archer that he felt obliged to do this?

Before he slid the ring onto her finger, she pulled her hand away. “Wait,” she said and tension sprang into the air. “You love me, Fella? You’re doing this because you love me?”

“Why the fuck else would I do it?” he asked. “Yes, I fucking love you.”

“But you didn’t want to do it last week. Why now?”

She might feel guilty about asking the question or having this conversation in front of so many witnesses. Except, by not even bothering to propose, Archer hadn’t afforded her the opportunity to ask them in private.

“You chose me,” he said.

“You didn’t think I loved you? You didn’t think I would?” she asked. “You thought I would choose Tag; that I would always choose him.” Her hand dropped to her side and she took a half-step back. “How could you not know that I love you?”

“I never thought you didn’t,” he said. I just… didn’t know if it was enough. You were right about me, Squirm. I need stability and I want to give my woman security. I wanted to be your guy, but I could never be as long as you belonged to him and you did belong to him, Squirm. For fifteen years, you did.”

And Archer had needed proof that he’d surpassed Tag in her estimations. Nya hadn’t known it was possible for Archer to be insecure and maybe that wasn’t the right word for what he’d felt, but he hadn’t believed she would give him the stability he needed. Not until she walked away from Tag to stand by Archer’s side.

This had been her failing; she hadn’t made him see how deep her feelings ran. “You give me what I need, Fella,” Nya said. “There isn’t anyone I value more than you.”

He curled his fingers around her wrist and lifted her brand up between them. “You belong to me, Nya Yorke. And every day I’m gonna show you this and remind you that nothing will ever change that. I won’t let you walk away. I won’t let you leave me. And I will never break your heart again. We’re gonna do this now, today.”

He was so damn sure, Nya felt the prickle of her hackles rising as arousal tickled her lower spine. “Oh yeah? And if I say no?”

“Hmm,” he exhaled a single beat of a sinister hum and his mouth slanted. “I can have any woman I want. Blackmailing you would be easy if you want to convince yourself that I’m making you do this against your will.”

Oh, he got her. He understood. He read her mind. He felt her emotions as strongly as if they were alone. This was reminiscent of the first time they made love; she was playing, and he played right back.

“Maybe I’m just looking for payment,” she said, letting her chin rise slowly. “Trouble is, everybody’s price is different, and you don’t know mine.”

“I think I do,” he said and she gasped when his arm shot out to hook her waist and he hauled her body against his. “I think I know exactly how to tempt my horny one.”

She had once promised to give him information in exchange for sex, but she leaned back against his arm when he ducked down to try to kiss her. “How do I know you’ll treat me right if I give you what you want?” she asked, losing the battle to restrain her smile.

Archer got lower without kissing her, but his face almost came to rest on hers. “You want vows?” he asked. “How about I vow to eat my Cheerios every day, Nya Yorke. I vow to cook for you. To clean.” Only because she wouldn’t do it right, but saying that might shatter the moment, so she kept the quip to herself. “I’ll take care of you, pay your rent, your bills, and you’ll always have free cable, baby. Anyone who hurts your feelings, your heart, or that beautiful body will wear my mark for the rest of their lives after I’ve taken the ounce of flesh you’re owed. I love you, Squirm, and you’ll know it every day.”

He let her go to pull back the cuff of his shirt, yanking it so hard that the button came clean off.

Nya inhaled when she saw the gauze on his wrist. He grabbed the adhesive on the corner and ripped it off without flinching. “Arch!” she called, but his name disappeared when she saw what was burned into his wrist.

It was a mark that hadn’t been there before, a brand of his own. But instead of his initials, they were hers, her married initials. “Squirm—”

“Archer,” she murmured and her finger drifted toward the wound she recognized as only a few hours old. “God, you idiot, why did you—”

“Because any pain you feel, I feel,” he said and grabbed her wrist to align it with his. “You belong to me and I belong to you. If you bleed…”

“You bleed,” she whispered.

“If you hurt…”

“You hurt,” she said, understanding his need for this brand.

“And for every second that you’re in pain…?”

“You’re in pain,” Nya said and a tear slipped from her eye as she smiled. “I love you so much, Chase.”

“I know it, Squirm,” he said and let his fingers sink into her hair as he pulled her up and matched their mouths.

The kiss got deeper and she curled her fingers into his shirt and yanked herself higher, wishing she could throw herself up into his arms. But that might be a bit too intimate for this moment. He’d branded himself or had one of the guys do it for him. He’d marked his body to prove it was hers. He hadn’t gone out and got a tattoo, he hadn’t even used his blades to carve the letters.

Archer had endured the pain exactly as she had and he’d done it voluntarily.

“Uh… I now declare you husband and wife…” the officiant said, quite clearly off-kilter, and Nya couldn’t imagine that this was a typical ceremony.

She was laughing as they broke their kiss and hugged, but that only lasted a second before Ester pulled her back and into her arms, and then there were hugs and kisses and back slaps as they signed what had to be signed and moved down the aisle into the hallway again.

Elation made Nya forget for a second that she must have gone right past her friend. “Tag,” she said, but as she turned to go back through the door Tag and Gio came out.

Nya’s smile fell and she held her breath as she waited to see how Tag would react to what she’d just done. He took her hand and guided her away from the others. Nya looked over her shoulder to see Archer watching them go, but he didn’t chase them down, didn’t pull Nya back, didn’t interfere.

Tag pulled her into a hug and every single muscle of her body loosened. He was alive, he wasn’t angry at her anymore or if he was, he was letting it go at least for this minute and as she let herself sink into his arms, Nya put her arms around her friend.

“Tag, what happened? The job? Everything that happened—”

“Shh,” Tag said, easing back and stroking her hair to then put his palms on her cheeks. “Archer got to us before we left for the job. Shaw explained that Lucas, the fucker was gonna screw us over. We didn’t go to the job and that was a damn good thing. The cops showed and busted a couple of guys, the rest fled. Everyone’s on the run, scrambling, turned out Archer did more than save our lives, he saved us from jail too.”

“So you’re best friends now? You knew this was happening? The wedding?”

“No, not until after. Archer took us to a safehouse with people he trusted… I still don’t like him,” Tag said, but he was smiling, which was an improvement. “We talked. I wanted to shout, wanted to take a swing at the guy.” He always did. Both of them could be accused of wanting to pummel the other. “But, Yorkie, I don’t know, there’s something in his voice when he talks about you. It wasn’t ‘til we had nothing but time I realized we’d never talked, him and me, not like equals. There was always a debt to be settled or a drama going on, or we were too busy trying to outdo each other. But when we were just two guys drinking beer, talking about a girl… I get it, Yorkie. I get that he cares about you and I get that I can’t always give you everything you need. He is willing to go further than I am. He is.”

That suggested Archer had been explicit with Tag about what he’d done to Damien. It took a lot for Tag to admit that Archer would go further, but now that he did, she understood that they could only rely on each other for so long.

One day Tag would have a wife, and if Nya had turned her back on Archer and given Tag her all, she’d be cast aside with nothing when Tag met the woman destined to be his future.

“Tag—”

“We’ll probably always think each other are arrogant pricks,” Tag said. “But I have put you through a lot, Yorkie. A lot more than you deserve, especially in these last few months. We use each other as a crutch.”

“That’s ok!” she exclaimed, clinging onto him with a sense of desperation in her heart. He seemed so calm, but this conversation felt so final. “We love each other, you and me. We have for so long… You were the only one I trusted and—”

“You can always trust me and I’ll always be here for you. But you were right when you said that Archer was your future. I just need to find one of my own.”

It must have been difficult for him to see her forging a path on her own and going into the arms of another man, trusting another man, relying on him more than she relied on her oldest friend. “I don’t—”

“Archer won’t screw me over because he loves you,” Tag said. “I have to give him the same courtesy.”

“Honor among thieves,” she whispered.

“Something like that.”

“So if there’s no Phoenix, and Lucas is in jail—”

“Lucas isn’t,” he said. “Lucas wasn’t ever getting his hands dirty on the job. He’s pissed. At Shaw especially. But if Archer’s right that this is some sort of payback for what went down with the Hexam’s, then I can’t be around here. I sure can’t be worrying about revenge on Lucas; he’s got resources that I don’t have right now. One day I will. One day I’ll be back at the top, but right now Gio and I need to figure out what’s next.”

“And what is next?” she asked. “You can start again here. You can—”

“No,” he said. “There’s too many memories. Too many skeletons… You know, Yorkie, when I thought about going to Phoenix and starting something brand new, it was exciting. I got a real kick out of making plans and thinking about the possibilities.”

“And they’re not possibilities that exist here? You’re still going to Phoenix?” she asked.

Tag inhaled and shrugged at the same time. “I don’t know. We’re going to hit the road for a while, see what comes our way. I was real pissed at Gio for a while and he’s not too happy about all the shit I did when I was with Farrah. I just need a change of scene, you know?”

Nya didn’t want to agree with him or understand. “You can’t leave,” she said. “I can’t—”

“You can.” He smiled and put a knuckle to her chin. “You are like my little sister, Yorkie, and I will always be there for anything you need. But you’re Archer’s girl now, and he’s gonna take care of you right here. I’m gonna check in. I’m gonna keep my eye on him, I’ve told him, he’s not off the hook.”

When she saw Gio approaching a few feet behind Tag with Archer and the others loitering at his rear, she clung tighter to Tag. “I’m not ready to say goodbye. I’m not ready to see you go,” she said.

But he smiled and bent down to press his mouth onto hers. “I love you, Yorkie,” he whispered on her lips and pushed her hair from her face with two flat hands. “I’ll call you, ok?”

She nodded, digging her teeth into her lip to try to stop the tears, but they were already flooding her face. “I love you too,” she whispered and her voice cracked.

Tag dropped his arms and took a step back, putting only a foot between them, but she suddenly felt so cold. He must have felt Gio behind him because he moved to the side to fall into step with his partner and with one last smile, Tag walked away from her.

Nya didn’t turn to watch him go, but she listened to his footsteps for as long as she could. They eventually faded into the melee of noise created in this public building with its cavernous, echoing halls.

Archer was moving toward her with Derren and Kristof flanking him. Archer hated emotional women and she imagined that Derren and Kristof felt much the same because they all had their own experience with Ester. But this was so difficult. Tag had said goodbye to her on one of the happiest days of her life.

Ester’s eyes looked so soft as she moved up beside Derren and Nya didn’t think before she rushed forward into the woman’s arms. “Oh, my daughter, shh,” she said, stroking her hair and holding her close. “You’re safe, my sweet, you’ll be ok.” Ester held her so tight and it was just what she needed, to feel that belonging. Her surrogate mother smelled so good, like comfort, and softness, and acceptance.

Nya wept into her new mother-in-law’s shoulder until she felt a heavy hand on the back of her head. “Squirm?” Archer said.

Forcing herself to sniff and straighten her shoulders, Nya tried to wipe her tears with one hand as she moved out of Ester’s arms. But when Archer turned her around, she didn’t see judgement or anger in his gaze.

“You be kind now, Chase,” Ester said.

Archer didn’t take his eyes from his new wife. “You want me to go get him?” Archer asked her. “We can keep him chained to the bathroom floor, you know, like a pet. We can feed him and I guess I can walk him a couple of times a month.”

He made her laugh. Her husband sold it good. And it was only hilarious because if she said yes, he actually would chase Tag down and drag him back to the apartment to keep him as a pet. “Really?”

He shrugged. “We’ll get used to the screaming,” Archer said. “And we have two bathrooms now, so I can still work in yours.”

“Oh, Fella,” she said, lifting her arms to loop them around his neck. “Is there anything you wouldn’t do for me?”

Nya didn’t notice the others drifting away, but they must have because she and Archer found themselves alone. “The only thing I won’t do for you, or anyone else, is hurt you,” he said. “If you want me to drag him back here, I will.”

And he would, but she got pragmatic. “But you agree with what he’s doing,” Nya said as Archer swiped the tears away from her face.

“I agree that without him around you won’t be in trouble as much. There’s less chance of you getting hurt,” Archer said.

“More than that. You think it’s right for him. What did you guys talk about last night?”

“Guy talk.”

Nya didn’t know if that was a thing, but she wasn’t going to argue because whatever had been said, it worked. Tag was right, they didn’t like each other, but somehow they’d grown to respect each other. Tag was more emotional than Archer, just like her he often led with his feelings and thought things out later.

“You think he’ll be ok?” Nya asked.

“I’ll keep my ear out.”

That did make her feel better because Archer would always be able to find out what was happening in Tag’s life, even if her friend wasn’t forthcoming. Still, hearing about it and taking action were two different things.

“And if you hear there’s trouble?”

“Depends,” Archer said and she had to grab his face to make him look at her.

Yeah, that was exactly what she was worried about. “What does that mean? ‘Depends’ what does it depend on?”

“It depends what kind of trouble,” he said. “I don’t like the guy. But we’re married now, Ny, so unfortunately the fucker’s just become my family.”

Just when she thought her tears had dried, they started all over again. But these were a different kind of tears, these were the happy kind. There was no blood between her and Tag, but she loved him like a brother and Archer had just acknowledged the depth of that bond.

“I can’t believe we’re married. I didn’t even know—”

“Yeah, you’re not as smart as I thought,” Archer said, sliding into an unimpressed tease. “You really thought that Ester and Derren would get married after all the shit they’ve been through?”

“How do I know?” she asked. “Ester sold it! She made me talk to you about getting Derren to declare his true feelings!”

“Yeah, he didn’t do any of that.”

“I bet you all had a great laugh at my expense,” Nya said, pinching his arm. “You bastards.”

“Hey, I’m bleeding for you, Squirm,” he said and she took a minute to examine his wrist again.

“You’re some idiot,” she said. “I can’t believe you did this.”

It didn’t matter how close she got to the wound or how much she prodded it, Archer never flinched. “I’m surprised it took me this long to do it,” he said. “When it’s healed, we’ll get it tattooed, just like yours.”

“No laser treatment to have it removed as soon as we have our first fight?”

His lips slanted. “Baby, our entire relationship is a fight,” he said, hooking his arm around her neck and turning to lead her towards the door.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“We have reservations at Louie’s,” he said.

“We do? Like a party?”

“Here’s how it will go… Ester’s gonna get drunk, she’ll fight with Derren who’ll take her home and probably fuck her just to shut her up. Kristof’s gonna make sure nothing kicks off, and that no fuckers sneak up on us. And I plan to do you hard in the restaurant restroom before taking you home for our wedding night.”

He was probably bang on and she was excited to experience every second of the night ahead. “No honeymoon?”

“We fly out tomorrow,” he said, leading her down the stairs towards the lobby.

She hadn’t expected that, she’d been kidding. “Fly out where? I don’t have a passport.”

Archer kissed the top of her head. “Sure you do, Squirm,” he said.

“How in the hell did you—”

“I know a guy.”

Yep, of course he knew a guy. Archer always knew a guy. He’d managed to get her married without her realizing that was happening. Getting her a passport without her knowledge would be a breeze.

Archer’s wife.

She wasn’t just his girl, they belonged to each other. They wore each other’s brand. It was scarred into their flesh and the mark they left on each other was more than skin deep. They belonged to each other all the way to the core.

Archer was in her blood just as she was in his. From now until the end of time they’d be linked in body, brand, and soul.