“Uh…no” Ellie’s spine stiffened, her heart slamming against her ribs for a whole other reason. “You won’t.”
“No, really.” He completely ignored her stark denial of his offer. “It’s no big thing.”
No big thing?
Having any man sleep over was a big thing. Havingthisman stay the night…
Feeling uncharacteristically flustered, she began stumbling over her own attempt to dissuade his ridiculous plan.
“That’s not what I…” Ellie started. “When I said I didn’t want to leave my apartment, I didn’t mean…” Her throat grew tight, and—
Spit it out, already!
Clearing away the sudden stricture forming in her throat, Ellie drew in a deep breath and got herself back under some semblance of control. “That was not an invitation for you to stay the night.”
It was hard enough tobreathewith him standing under the same roof. Never mind spending the entire night with him under it.
“You can’t be left alone.” Archer’s expression was unmoving.
Beside him, Cassie was nodding her head before the man had even finished speaking. But Ellie wasn’t paying attention to her close friend’s movements. She was too busy staring back at Archer with utter disbelief.
He was kidding. Hehadto be kidding. But when Ellie searched the man’s dark brown gaze…
Oh, shit. He’s not kidding.
“Okay, wait. Let me stop you right there.” Ellie lifted a palm. “While I truly do appreciate everyone’s concern…really, I do…this whole bodyguard protection detail conversation is completely unnecessary.” She looked back to Lucky before adding, “Not to mention, a total waste of your time.”
“Keeping you safe is never a waste of my time.”
His deep, almost gravelly response was so immediate, his expression and tone so completely sincere, Ellie could almost let herself believe he meant those precious words. Still, she couldn’t—wouldn’t—allow her underserviced hormones to be the driving force behind her decisions.
She’d made that mistake once before. With Neil. Now the guy was like a bad penny, always popping up when she least expected.
Focus, El. This isn’t about Neil or the man’s unwillingness to move the hell on.
Her inner voice was right. Her current situation had absolutely nothing to do with her ex-friend-with-benefits and everything to do with a random, unknown assailant. One who’d come damn close to shooting her today.
Even so… “I’m sure you have much more important things to do than babysit me,” she reiterated her previous point.
“Someone tried to shoot you today,” Cassie jumped back in. “That’s pretty damn important, don’t you think?”
Yes, that was important.Ifthe shooter had been aiming at her. But as far as she or anyone else knew…
“Someone shot into acrowdthat I just happened to be a part of,” she reminded her worried friend. “We still don’t know who the shooter was aiming at, or if they even had a specific target to begin with.”
It wasn’t Harvey. Itwasn’t.Ellie felt that truth to her bones.
But if not Harvey, then who?
Chapter 6
“I’m downloading the footage from the courthouse security cameras as we speak.” Lucky’s gaze remained on Ellie’s. “As soon as it’s finished, I’ll go through it frame by frame to try to narrow things down. If I can figure out the bullets’ trajectories, then I should be able to determine where the shooter was standing. Any luck, one of the cameras caught the asshole’s face.”
With Ellie’s emotions already running off-the-charts high, she shot the man an undeserved scowl.” It’s been like…” She checked her watch. “…threehourssince the shooting took place. How do you not already have that information?”
A flash of surprise and something else flew across Lucky’s brilliant blue stare. The second it did, she found herself wanting to take back the sharp, snarky words.
What she could only describe as hurt vanished from his eyes. A beat later, his tempting mouth lifted with the man’s signature crooked grin. “Sorry to disappoint you, counselor, but contrary to what Hollywood likes to portray, hacking into a government entity’s server isn’t always as easy as one would think. Now, to answer your question more directly…” His deep voice remained steady. “I would have accessed it sooner, but I was a little busy making sure that sweet ass of yours was going to be okay.”