Nya used her key to get into Archer’s apartment and found Ester spreading Archer’s knives out on the dinner table, making them into shapes.

“What are you doing?” Nya asked.

“They’re quite pretty.”

Nya went into the kitchen to pull out her supplies. “I told you they’re sharp, you shouldn’t play with them.”

“You need to put ice on your cheek,” Ester said when she joined her. “It’s really starting to swell.”

As nice as it was that Ester cared, there was little to be done to help her injuries now. “I don’t think ice helps sixteen hours after the injury,” Nya said, though she didn’t know exactly how long it had been since she’d been hit, it was evening now, so she had to be close.

After packing away the supplies, she went to pick up a knife, using its reflective surface to check out her face. “Did Jonno give you any trouble?” Nya asked.

“Nope, bastard. I was hoping I might have some fun.”

Nya began to slide the knives back into their pouches. “There’s a new neighbor under me. I met him on the stairs.”

“Is he yummy?” Ester asked. Sex appeal was high on Ester’s priority list.

“He got sexier when I put my inner bitch aside.”

“You’ve been testy all day,” Ester said. “I’ve been ignoring it ‘cause I figured you’re pissed about Jonno, or it’s all those pregnancy hormones zipping around inside you. Your boobs look bigger, are they sore?”

Trying not to rise to the bait, Nya held onto her patience. “I’m not pregnant,” she said, aware that Ester just liked to tease her.

“Then it’s something else, what is it?”

Nya couldn’t answer that, so she changed the subject. “Have you decided what to do about the court papers?”

Ester’s arms flopped to the table. “I’ve already torn them up, you’re getting your way.”

Well at least she’d achieved something today. “Thank you. I know Derren will appreciate it.”

“I didn’t do it for him. I did it for you,” Ester said, making sure there was no confusion about her motivation. “Are we going to talk about the other thing you said?”

“About Damien?” she asked, drawing her finger down one of the blades she’d just put back. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Not him,” Ester said. “About the ridiculous thing you said about Archer, about how you’ve lost him.”

The sting of a cut made Nya yelp and when she looked down she saw her blood smeared on a knife, the one with his initials carved into the tip. Turning her arm to see her brand, she recognized that this was the knife used to put the mark there. It had just sliced open her finger and blood dripped from the wound. Although it was deep, she didn’t feel pain, she no longer felt anything.

“Nya?” Ester asked.

Her gaze leaped up to the soft sound of her friend’s voice. Before she could respond, the front door opened. Archer took three steps inside, dumped his bag, and slammed his door. “What the fuck have you two done?” he asked.

Neither of them had spoken to him and Jonno didn’t have a cellphone because they’d taken it from him, turned it off and put it in a kitchen drawer, so Archer couldn’t really know the truth… At least, Nya didn’t think he could.

Seeing Archer standing there, Nya tried to make herself feel. She figured it would be easier to embrace her physical wound than the emotional numbness. But it didn’t work.

Heading for the kitchen, she turned on the faucet to wash away the blood. “I’m gonna go downstairs and cover this,” Nya said, when she returned to the dining table.

“You cut yourself?” Archer asked. “Why the fuck are my blades out? I told you not to play with them.” Like they were a forbidden toy and the women were disobedient children. “There are Band-Aids in the bathroom. You know where they are.”

“Uh,” Ester stood up, put an arm around Nya, and scratched her jaw. “Nya can’t use the bathroom right now.”

“Why not?” Archer asked, suspicious to the end, but this time, he had good reason to be.

“What do you think of Nya’s boobs?” Ester asked. “Do you think they look bigger than normal?” Ester nudged her. “Take ‘em out, let him see.”

Nya was mortified she’d use such a blatant distraction technique. “Ester!”

“They’re fine,” he grumbled. “What’s wrong with the bathroom?”

Staying breezy wasn’t going to fool him. “Nothing’s wrong,” Ester chirped. “We just… have a guest.”

The smile in her voice was so out of place, there was no way to sugarcoat what Archer was going to find in there.

“A guest?” he asked. “A guest in the bathroom?”

Ester pressed her lips together. “Mm hmm.”

“It’s not your fucking fiancé, is it? That guy’s a crook.”

“We know that,” Ester said, nodding and looking at Nya as if she wanted her to nod along. But Nya couldn’t move. “No, Woodrow is old news, we got rid of him last night…. Did you meet the new neighbor? Nya says he’s sexy.”

Archer strode to the end of the dining table. “Stop trying to change the fucking subject and spill it.” Lifting the back legs of the chair he was leaning on, he slammed them down. “Tell me what the fuck you did.”

“How do you know we did anything?” Ester said. “If you don’t know about Jonno—”

“Jonno?” he asked. “What the fuck is…?” Nya saw clarity cross his features. “Oh my fucking God, you have Jonno in the bathroom? How the fuck did you manage that?”

Ester grabbed Nya’s chin to raise and twist her head. “He beat on Nya,” she said, pointing at Nya’s concealed bruises. “He hit her! Again and again! But she wouldn’t give you up! He wanted to know where you were, but no, Nya wouldn’t tell him! She told him to go fuck himself!” Great, Ester didn’t know that she was putting emphasis in all the wrong places. “We were talking about her bastard of an ex, Damien, he’s a real piece of work. You better deal with him or I will.”

“Damien?” Archer was confused and Nya didn’t blame him. “What’s he got to do with—”

“Nya was telling me all about him and what a bastard he was. There was a knock on the door and we thought it was Derren, so I went over to answer it, but it wasn’t fucking Derren, was it? It was that prick! And as soon as he saw Nya, he started waling on her. He was going to whip her with his belt and I—”

Archer was already storming across the room. Ester went hurrying after him, but Nya was slower. This was exactly why she hadn’t given Archer details about Damien when they were together, because this was the man she couldn’t control.

By the time she made it to the bathroom, Archer had a hold of Jonno by his shirt. He was holding him high, and he must have gotten a couple of hits in because there was blood pouring from Jonno’s nose. But he punched him twice more, bloodying his knuckles and letting his victim’s head ricochet off the bath.

“You worthless piece of shit, you’ve done it now,” Archer sneered down at him. “No more free passes for you.” He punched him again then whirled around. “You two go downstairs, give me one hour, and you’ll never see this worthless cocksucker again.”

Archer had told her that he didn’t like killing here. So either he planned to get rid of Jonno fast or he planned to take him somewhere else. He had off-site locations that he used for work he didn’t want traced back to the apartment.

“You were right,” Ester said, turning to her, and Nya realized she was only half paying attention.

“About what?”

“When you told Derren that Archer still got pissed off when people hurt you,” Ester said, gesturing to the two men. “I’m beginning to see your point.”

“Derren won’t be coming back,” Nya murmured and drifted out of the room.

Nya didn’t get halfway up the hall before Archer’s large hand curled around her upper arm and yanked her backwards. She knew she was being ushered into the bedroom, but she didn’t put up a fight. Wandering in as he closed the door, Nya was dazed.

“Did he hurt you? Let me see?” Archer asked, coming around to get in front of her so he could take her chin.

Nya shook her head free and walked backwards. “It’s fine,” she said.

“Then let me see.”

He came at her again and she tried to turn around, but he just moved in front of her. They kept going with this dance until she was against the dresser and had no way to escape. Looking as far left as she could and then as far right, she wouldn’t let her eyes touch his as he got enraged by what he saw.

“No fucker gets away with putting his hands on you, especially not here,” he snarled. “I’m doing this one alone. I’ll cut off everything that dangles, I swear it. I’ll make him scream. I’ll make him beg.”

“Whatever makes you happy,” she said and squeezed out from between him and the drawers.

“He’s one of your seven and you want him to suffer. I thought you still wanted—”

“I don’t know what I want,” she said, stopping at the door. “He’s your friend and if he’s useful to what you do, cut him loose, I don’t care.”

“Whoa, wait a second, who the fuck are you?” he asked and this time when he came over to take her arm, she lifted it out of his grip, but did as he wanted and looked at him.

“Ester did what she had to, to protect me. I appreciate that. But he’s a lowlife, like every other lowlife out there. Taking him out’s not gonna make any difference to how safe the streets are.”

She tried to open the door, but he slammed it shut before she got it an inch. “I’ve been gone less than forty-eight hours. When did your indifferent twin arrive?”

“I just don’t see the point in getting worked up over an idiot like Jonno, and you shouldn’t be thinking about going to jail just because I got slapped around. It’s not the first time it’s happened and it won’t be the last.”

“It fucking will,” he said. “I’ll take down any guy who—”

“Yeah, I know you will.” Nya was just so tired, so fed-up with it all, she couldn’t make herself care.

She patted his chest to try and get him to back away so that she could open the door. But he didn’t move, instead he grabbed her chin to force her head back so he could examine her closer.

“Are you still pissed about the other night? I thought you couldn’t stay mad at me.”

“I’m not mad. But we said distance and I slept in your bed last night, that’s not distance.”

Glancing over his shoulder, he fixated on the mattress for a few seconds. “You slept here?”

“I couldn’t leave Ester alone with Jonno and she had a shitty night. She found out the truth about Woodrow, and she had a fight with Derren.”

“He told me,” Archer said. “I should’ve been around when you met him.”

“Why?” she asked. “I set him straight, made sure he knew I’m nothing to you.”

“You’re not nothing,” he said and she could forgive him for being bemused, he was looking at her like he didn’t recognize her. “What changed, Ny? I prefer it when you’re screaming at me.”

An idea had been playing in her mind today, one that she couldn’t voice until she’d spoken to him. “How would you feel about your mom staying downstairs?”

“Ester?”

“Yeah, I mean the rent is paid and the place is all set up. I think she needs a permanent address, at least for a few months. You might be able to get her to see out the lease.”

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“I don’t know yet. I spent all day yesterday at Tag’s and I was thinking…” Nya was so used to going off on rants with him to get her thoughts in order that she almost did it on instinct. But she was proud of herself this time when she didn’t. “I think he needs a clean break. It wouldn’t hurt us to try out a new city.”

“You’re running away with him? You’re still pissed that I shouted at him, so you’re gonna punish me by fucking off?”

“Punish you?” she asked, beginning to feel like she didn’t know him. “Archer, you’ve been begging me for weeks to leave you the fuck alone. I know you tell me I’m not going anywhere, but it’s the only way we’ll move on. I’m sorry about Jonno and about your mom; she’s agreed to drop the case against Derren. So you can let him know that’s taken care of.”

“What about Sizzle?” he asked. “You can’t fuck off and leave that.”

“I can find a manager, maybe, I don’t know. I’m not gonna fuck off tomorrow, I’ll take a few weeks to do it properly. Maybe I can sell. If I do, you’ll get the money. After everything you’ve done—”

“I don’t want your fucking money, or your gratitude, I want you here.”

Nya didn’t miss the irony that they were standing in his bedroom. He’d wanted her here, hard and fast, hot and sweaty, dozens of times before. That was the bed they’d first had sex in and it was going to be the room they said goodbye in.

“I appreciate everything you’ve done, Archer.” She stroked his face. “I don’t care what anyone says, I know that you’re a good man.”

Opening the door, she slipped out. He didn’t stop her, he was probably too stunned.

There was noise in the bathroom, but the door was open, so Nya was sure that Ester wasn’t in any trouble. She just liked taunting the man chained to the floor. Nya didn’t bother with the emotional goodbye. It wouldn’t be the last time she saw them.

She’d have to talk to Tag and as Archer had said, Sizzle needed to be dealt with before she could go. But she could be gone in a week, maybe two, if Tag was willing to move as fast as she was. Leaving Archer might be the hardest thing she would ever do. But as long as she was here, they would keep circling each other, and she would never be able to be with another man in an apartment Archer had paid for.

If he moved on before she did, Nya would have to lie in the bedroom beneath, listening to him screwing another woman. It wasn’t healthy. Archer had asked her to leave him alone. The only way she could do that was to walk out of his life.

So as Nya went back to her own apartment, she thought about calling Tag and what she’d say to him. But he knew her well enough that he wouldn’t ask too many questions. Either he would go with her or he wouldn’t. If he said no, she’d have to decide if she wanted to leave alone, and just how far she would go.