“Ellie’s fine,” Lucky quickly reassured his teammate. He waited while the other man passed on the message onto his wife before telling the other man, “Sorry to wake you both, but I—”
“Found something?” The sleepiness in the man’s tone had all but vanished.
Lucky’s grip tightened around the phone. “Unfortunately, yeah. I’m pretty sure I did.”
“Hang on.” The sound of rustling sheets filled the cell’s speaker. Seconds later, the other man cleared his throat and then, “Okay, I’m back. You said Ellie’s fine, so what’s up?”
“We need to get the team together.”
“Now?” Archer’s confusion was impossible to miss.
Hell, yes, he wanted to meet now. But the thought of the woman sleeping soundly in the other room had Lucky quickly reconsidering.
“In the morning,” he clarified. “First thing.”
“You gonna tell me what’s going on, or do I have to guess?”
Knowing Archer didnotsound like he was up for a game of Twenty Questions, Lucky quickly explained what he’d discovered on the security cam footage. His friend grew silent, taking a moment to process Lucky’s suspicions.
“You’re sure?”
“Pretty damn,” he answered honestly. “I mean, I still want you and the others to put eyes on the files to make sure I’m not missing something. But yeah.” He raked a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. “If I had to put money on it…”
A low curse reached his ear before Archer commented, “You’re right. The team needs to meet.”
I’ve been sayin’.
“I’ll call Logan and get it set up for first thing in the morning,” Lucky offered. Looking back at that same closed door, his chest grew tight as he thought about having to give Ellie the news. “I’ll let El sleep for a few more hours, and then I’ll bring her to the office.”
After agreeing on a time, Archer said, “Hey, listen. You stepping up the way you did today…that means a lot. To Cass, and to me. And we both appreciate you offering to stay and keep an eye on El tonight—”
“But…” The trailed word cut Archer off.
“But…I talked to Boyer about everything earlier. His schedule for this week was already light, so he shifted some things around and…well, now you don’t have to waste your time playing bodyguard after tonight.”
Waste my…
An unexpected rush of anger had his spine stiffening and his jaw clenching down tight. “You think keeping Ellie safe is a waste of time?”
It fucking wasn’t.
“What?” Archer’s voice rose half an octave. “How can you even ask me that?”
“Because that’s literally what you just said.”
“Wrong.” A deep, instantaneous denial. “What Isaidwas that Boyer can stand in, soyoudon’t have to wasteyourtime watching over El. Not thatprotectingher was a waste of time.”
“Semantics.”
“Apples and oranges, asshole.”
“I can keep El safe,” Lucky bit out the solemn vow.
A stretch of silence passed before his teammate came back with, “Never said you couldn’t.”
“Then what’s the fucking problem?”
“Thereisno problem. I just figured your time would be better spent working your magic behind the keyboard.”