Accidentally on Purpose (Heartbreaker Bay #3)(27)

She got inside Hunt Investigations and hit her first snag. She didn’t have a key for the interior door to the back offices. But hold on a minute . . . there was a light on in the back—

“Elle?”

She just about swallowed her own tongue when Joe appeared on the other side of the glass partition, looking at her in surprise.

“Hi,” she said, mind racing. “You’re working late.”

“Stupid report on a takedown that went bad earlier.”

Her heart stopped. “How bad?”

Joe blew out a breath. “Our guy threw a knife before we could relieve him of his weapons, and let’s say he had good aim.”

“Oh my God,” she said, stomach jangling. “Who’s hurt?”

“We got lucky. The blade would’ve hit our contract worker because he didn’t duck as fast as the rest of us. But you know our gang, someone’s always gotta play the hero.”

She did know. She’d heard the stories. These guys had all at one time or another saved each other’s lives. “Who dove for him and got stabbed?”

“Who do you think?” Joe asked. “Archer, of course.”

Elle felt the blood rush out of her head and her vision went cobwebby.

“Hey. Hey, whoa there . . .” she heard Joe say from a million miles away. And then his hands were supporting her, bringing her into the back, pushing her into a chair.

Well, she’d accomplished getting into the interior offices if nothing else . . . “How bad?” she whispered.

“It sliced through his biceps,” Joe said. “Not too bad. He tried to tell the paramedics he only needed a Band-Aid but they insisted on stitches. He’s probably already done and in bed.”

Elle nodded as her vision cleared. “Good to know. Thank you.”

“No problem.” Joe stroked a hand down her arm, clearly trying to soothe. “But if you didn’t know about the incident, what are you doing here?”

Uh-oh. Good question. She stood up and didn’t have to one hundred percent fake the tears in her voice when she met Joe’s gaze. “I left something here.”

Joe took one look into her eyes, saw the tears, and clearly panicked. “Where is it? I’ll get it for you.”

She wrung her hands together and let a tear fall. “I wouldn’t want to bother you—”

“It’s no bother.” He whirled around the office and pounced on the box of tissues sitting on Mollie’s desk like it was a pot of gold.

He pulled out just about every tissue in the box and shoved the whole mess at her, the whites of his eyes showing. “Tell me what you need.”

She sniffed a little dramatically and made a show of dabbing her eyes. “It’s in Archer’s office.”

He blinked. “Uh—”

She started walking down the hall and got just inside Archer’s office to flip on the light when Joe caught up to her.

“Elle—”

“It’s on his computer,” she said, opening it, willing it to boot up fast.

Joe reached around her and gently but firmly shut the laptop. “I’d do just about anything for you, you know that, but I love my job.”

She met his gaze.

His own was apologetic and regretful, but also filled with steely resolve. “I have orders.”

“Not to let me in?” she asked incredulously.

“Not to let anyone in his office.”

“But I’m already in.”

He grimaced. “I know and when he finds out, I’m going to end up right back here facing down him instead of you, and no offense cuz you’re scary as shit, but he’s scarier. If I let you on his computer, my ass is fired and like I said, I love this job. Don’t make me get tough with you, Elle.”

He was braced for her to fight him but here was the thing. He was a sweetheart and she couldn’t do it to him. “You sure Archer’s okay?”

“He’s been through way worse.”

Knowing this to be true, she sighed and strode out of the office ahead of him, cursing herself and her stupid impulses when it came to one annoying-as-shit Archer Hunt. So he would read her email, so what? She’d meant every word. Mostly.

Okay, so only parts of it.

Dammit and he’d been hurt tonight too! She got to the outer door and realized Joe wasn’t right on her heels. She could hear him coming down the hallway but she couldn’t see him yet. Thinking quickly, she opened and shut the office door, hard.

And then crouched down behind the reception couch to wait until he left. She was going to delete that damn email and then she was going to stop lusting after Archer no matter what. On her own terms. Terms that allowed her to go see for herself that he was really okay after being stabbed. Because if he was going to die, it would because she killed him, not because of some scumbag bad guy.



Archer hated hospitals. Hated the smell, hated the sound of the machines beeping and hissing, hated the pale walls that always seemed to close in on him. He hated everything about them and had ever since his mom had died after her very long, very tortured battle with cancer.

If he never stepped inside one again in his entire life he’d be perfectly happy.

A nurse popped her head in and smiled at him. “You look ready to get out of here.”