Liar (Madison Kate #2)(35)

"As if there's not," I muttered my reply. "If you wanted a nice visit with your grandmother, you wouldn't have brought me along. This is too personal for us."

Archer grunted a sound that seemed almost surprised. Or agreeing. But either way, he just sipped his drink and stared into the fireplace. I knew because, despite taking him out of my direct vision, he was still in the peripheral. Always, permanently in my peripheral like some kind of nasty addiction I couldn't seem to shake.

Kody arched a brow at me, though, and I tilted my head at him in question. I sucked at interpreting his silent speech.

He rolled his eyes with a small smile and reached over to whack Steele on the arm. "Hey, bro. Want to go see if Connie still has that '62 Ferrari GTO in her garage?"

Steele let out a panicked sound. "That's a fifty-million-dollar car, Connie would never get rid of it."

Kody just shrugged. "That's what you said about the '57 Spider, too, but didn't she donate it to some charity auction?"

Steele paled to the point of ill and shot me a worried look. "You want to come check out some cars, Hellcat?"

I opened my mouth to accept, but Archer got there first.

"No," he snapped. "Madison Kate and I have business to discuss."

Steele blanched further— even Kody looked a bit uneasy—but Archer just gave them a flat stare back. "About Phillip's knives," he elaborated, and the tension dropping out of his two friends was unmistakable. Which made me wonder what other business they'd just panicked about.

"Okay, well..." Kody stood up and stretched his arms over his head. "Try not to kill each other while we're gone. And let’s all keep our fingers crossed that Connie hasn't off-loaded Steele's dream car to a charitable cause again."

Steele scowled, following Kody out of the room and muttering about negative thoughts.

Archer made no move to get up after they were gone, still staring into the fire with his fingers linked under his chin, and I gave an exasperated sigh.

"Come on, D'Ath," I groaned. "I'm not in the mood for more bullshit. Did you actually have anything to show me? Or were you just worried I'd somehow talk Kody and Steele into a three-way in the back of your grandmother's Rolls Royce?"

A short huff escaped Archer, like a laugh he was trying not to let out, and he slowly swung his gaze back to me. "I highly doubt it'd take much to talk them into that, Madison Kate."

I sighed and folded my arms under my breasts. "Okay, so, good to know you're a major cunt-blocker."

Archer's lips curled up in a smile, like he found me amusing. I liked that. Then I hated myself for liking it.

"What do you want from me, D'Ath?" I asked in an exhausted voice.

That was exactly the wrong phrasing to use, though. He slid out of his seat with fluid grace, and the next thing I knew, I was flat on my back against the velvet couch I'd been sitting on. His huge frame hovered over me, the hard planes of his body pressed along the length of my body and his lips a fraction above mine.

"I want all kinds of things from you, Kate. Ask me again, and I'll fucking show you." His voice was a husky promise of pure hedonism, and my body responded like a well-trained puppy. Thankfully, he stood up again before I could take him up on his vaguely threatening offer. "Don't say you weren't warned. Now, come on. I need to show you something."

He stalked out of the sitting room, but I didn't miss the way his hand dropped to his crotch to adjust his cock. Apparently my body wasn't the only one affected.

I took a second to suck in a couple of calming breaths, then hurried after him. As badly as I hated chasing him down, my curiosity was burning. I needed to know the mysterious reason for this whole Thanksgiving trip. What was so important here at D'Ath Estate that he'd suffer through me meeting his grandmother?

"Wait up," I snapped when I needed to actually run a bit to catch up to him, and he gave me a side-eyed look. "I'm sure we're not in any great hurry, so quit walking at double my pace just to piss me off. It's childish."

Archer rolled his eyes, then stopped outside a closed wooden door. He pulled an old-fashioned key from the pocket of his jeans and inserted it into the lock. The tumblers clunked heavily as he turned the key, then the hinges squealed as he pushed the door open to reveal a dark room.

"After you, Princess Danvers," he told me, holding his hand out in challenge. The interior of the room was pitch black and smelled musty, like it hadn't been opened in years. I hesitated. "Unless you're scared of the dark?"

I scowled at him. "Only if that darkness hides creepy look-alike dolls or masked men with pretty red knives." But because I could never freaking back down from a challenge, I stepped into the gloom without another pause.

My shoulders bunched, and I tensed myself for an attack. Not because I still suspected Archer of being the one who’d stabbed me—I was at least ninety-seven percent sure he had some interest in keeping me breathing—but because that would be the kind of school-bully bullshit that was right up his alley.

Nothing jumped out at me, though, and when Archer flipped on the light, I let out my held breath with a long exhale.

His quiet snicker said he hadn't missed it, either, and I seethed that he'd got one up on me. This time.

"So brave, Madison Kate," he murmured, flipping a lock of my hair when he walked past me. "I wonder how long that will last."