Page 60 of Archer
“It’s not easy running a bakery in these times, Rose… everyone goes to the supermarket…” my dad said. “If… if I didn’t pay the bills, we’d get shut down. We were going to lose the house. We’d starve—”
“Oh, and this is so much better?” I asked and he looked crestfallen, his eyebrows drooping.
“They said that, that… that they’d give me a deal.” As he said it I could see the humility on his face. “As an apology, for your mother…”
“And youbelievedthem?” I gave a bitter laugh. “How can you possi—”
“I’m so sorry…”
“Did you ever try to be honest with me?” I demanded to know. “Have you ever thought that it might be best for me?”
“Yes… I… I wanted to tell you…” he said. “After I got… revenge.”
Once again, all the men burst out laughing. Slink clutched his ribs and keeled over as he said, “You? Get revenge on us? Ha!”
“I’m aware I’ve failed,” he said. “I drove myself crazy trying to find out how… eventually I gave up… and decided I’d keep Rose safe instead.”
So many conflicting emotions filled me. On one hand, I was furious and disgusted at his cowardly parenting methods, but on the other hand…
“Dad,” I said, fresh tears pooling in my throat. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Rose…” His dark eyes looked broken as they looked at me, but he managed to drag the tiniest grin up his lips. I was so appreciative that he managed to attempt to conceal his misery in his last moments. “We’ll be okay, sweetie…”
“All right, let’s cut this corny shit,” Ray said and pulled out a long knife from a leather pouch on his belt. “Time to repay your debts, Ronald.”
“No, please don’t!” My throat was raw from screaming when Ray hovered over my dad. Rope burns cut into my neck and wrists, but I couldn’t stop the adrenaline pumping through me, forcing my fruitless attempt to escape. I tried to look away from the blade dangling over his chest, but I couldn’t stop staring as I wept, “Don’t… please…”
But I knew there was no hope.
Blackened rotten teeth spread across Ray’s malevolent face, gripping the knife’s handle with two hands and raising it above his head.
I found the strength to shut my eyes, wincing and sniffling, bracing myself for the mushing sound that would come any moment. Holding my breath, I imagined my dad’s face as he dropped me off at Archer’s. The last time I saw him. Doing whatever he could to protect me, even if it wasn’t the best idea. He tried. He tried so hard, to provide for me, that he even wound up here.
“Dad…”
CRASH.
“What the fuck?” Ray’s voice roared and I shot my eyelids up. Inside my chest, hope fluttered when Ray’s face filled with wrath, turning away from my dad and to the door of my dad’s office. A bright, warm, and powerful optimism shined inside me when the door smashed off the hinges and to the ground.
Standing there, with a pistol between his hands and a team of men wearing matching yellow and green emblems on their leathers, was my hero. With my hoarse, sore, dry throat and through my astonishment, I managed to breathe out a single word.
“Archer.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Archer
As the door of Ron’s bakery crashed to the ground, I was determined and assured with my brothers behind me. Crow had his revolver loaded and ready to kill and Maverick held a combat knife between his knuckles, white from his tight grip. Wrench and Tank each had their fingers hovering over the triggers of their Glocks, and Rooster was beside Ripper, their bare hands clenched into fists in the air. Confidence fueled me.
Then the door smacked against the floor of Ron’s office and it vanished. Instead, I was revolted. Though I’d seen many screwed-up crime scenes at the hands of the Freeway Fucks, this was different. When someone who you cared for more than you thought possible was tied to a cement pillar with a thick, braided rope, it was a new level of disturbing.
“What the fuck?” Ray whipped around with a long blade in his hand. His eyes grew black with malevolence when he saw us in the doorway, more pissed than I’d ever seen him.
“Archer.” Rose gasped out. When I saw her cheeks were reddened and swollen, and her pretty pink lips bloody and puffy, I’d never felt the need for revenge so strongly.
“Rose,” I said. My gaze fell to the desk between Rose and me, and the sickening vengeance inside me grew thicker.
Poor, frail Ron, the wholesome baker, was lying limp as a human punching bag in front of Ray, and I realized we interrupted them right in time. Gripping my gun tighter, I choked back by my hate long enough to spit out a few words.
