Page 100 of Diamond In The Rough

“I think he just gave you the sex talk,” Lix sniggers. “Will you take him to the doctor about that rash on his cock, Arch? He’s been scratching a lot lately.”

“I’m done with this conversation.” I take our call off speaker and place the phone at my ear. It’s not much, but it excludes Felix at least a little, and brings me to just Archer. “Your case dangerous?”

“Not for me.” He tosses his laughter and turns serious once more. “Dead guy is already dead. Killer’s in the wind for now, but Fletch and I are figuring it out. Felix within earshot?”

I look to my left and purse my lips, because he grins, playful and stupid. Just like his dog. “Yep.”

“Alright, well… You like that chick? Tiia?”

Frustrated, I sit back in my seat and close my eyes. Abandoning my knife, I bring my free hand up instead and pinch the bridge of my nose between my thumb and finger. “Yep.”

“She good for you?”

Yes.

No.

I have no fucking clue.

“Dunno.”

“She has your back?” he tries instead. “If shit hits the wall and things are looking dangerous, is she gonna run toward you or away?”

Again… “I don’t know.”

He sighs. “Okay. If shit turns bad and she’s in danger… are you gonna take her bullet?”

This one is easy. “Yes.”

Silence hangs, coating our call in what I know is disappointment. Fear and frustration. But optimism, too.

“Guess Minka and I should come across at some point and have dinner, then. Is she diabetic? Any medical issues we should know about that may be cause for concern?”

I’ve never, in all my life, had a relationship with Archer where we would just… chat on the phone. He left us when he was sixteen. Ditched New York and made a life on the other side of the country. But a soft chuckle rolls along my throat now. A stupid, happy sigh escaping my lips.

“No diabetes.”

Of course, that word alone piques Felix’s interest and brings his eyes across to mine.

“But she’s got this hearing thing going on.”

“A hearing thing? Like, she’s deaf?”

“Sort of, I guess. But not fully deaf, and not permanent. It’s a temporary thing where she has trouble hearing when there are other noises around.”

“Like, street noises and stuff?”

“Yeah. She hears just fine in private settings. But if we’re in the street, or the club, or a truck is rumbling past or whatever…”

“Oh, Fletch had something like that a few years ago. He was fine, but if we were questioning someone at their house, and the neighbor started their lawnmower or whatever, he couldn’t hear shit. He got pretty good at staring at lips for a while there.”

“Yeah, she does that, too. Watches lips. Felt kinda weird at first.” But I think I’d die if she stopped now. “She said she had an ear infection and that the doctor says it’ll go away.”

“Fletch’s did. Took a good long while. And we got used to it, so we’re not even sure when it got better. It just…” I know he shrugs. I hear the rustle of his clothes. “Did. His was from a gunshot too close to his ear, though. He heard bells for weeks after that.”

“No guns near Tiia.” I hate the image that swirls in my mind. The scene that plays out on the backs of my eyelids. Worse, I hate that my stomach clenches at the thought. That my feelings are already all caught up in a woman I’m not sure I have a future with.

I mean, do I have a future with any woman? It’s not like my life is all that conducive to long-term romance…

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