He’d wanted to take her to a doctor but she’d refused to go anywhere with him. So he’d given her his own pocket knife and told her she could use it to protect herself against him if she felt the need.

  Then he’d taken her to an urgent care clinic and had her checked out. She’d needed stitches on her cheek where she’d been hit hard enough to split the skin but that had thankfully been the worst of her injuries. He’d then taken her home and put her to bed on his couch, where she’d slept like the dead.

  Or like a girl who’d not been safe in so long she’d forgotten what real sleep felt like.

  He’d known this because he watched over her for hours. In the morning he’d made her breakfast and then gone to take a shower. When he’d come out, she’d been gone, the agate stone sitting on top of the folded blankets he’d given her to sleep with.

  He’d been suspended from the force, and rightfully so. He’d fucked up big-time on multiple levels and his father had just barely managed to keep him on the force at all.

  But Archer had quit. He’d realized he wasn’t cut out for having his hands tied just because his idea of right and wrong didn’t match up with someone else’s.

  This hadn’t gone over so well. In fact, his dad had been so furious they hadn’t spoken for several years afterward, not aided by the fact that since his mom had died of cancer ten years ago, they’d never been able to see eye-to-eye. Without the sweet, loving peacemaker of the family around, there’d been no one to mediate.

  Eventually they’d managed to be in the same room again without the inevitable fight over Archer’s habit of making bad choices. They even spoke on occasion now. Holidays. Birthdays. That time a few years back when his dad had been shot in the leg on the job that was still the guy’s entire life. And Archer got that. Just as he got that his hardcore cop dad was never going to understand that Archer had done what he’d had to.

  Or why.

  And yet he’d just promised Elle he’d go to the retirement party, where he’d likely have to face much of the entire force.

  One of these days he was really going to have to figure out this strange hold and power Elle had over him.

  But not today.

  Chapter 5

  #EverythingIsBetterWithChocolate

  That weekend Archer and some of the guys went camping. It was something they tried to do every few months when they all had a few days off at the same time. It involved four-wheeling, fishing, and usually some form of stupidity since they were all so competitive. But hey, no one had died yet and they’d only needed an ER trip that one time back when someone had dared Joe to climb a tree and he’d fallen out of it, breaking his collarbone.

  Archer drove. Spence rode shotgun with Joe and Finn in the backseat. It was an hour and a half drive to Big Basin Redwoods State Park and they stopped along the way for supplies.

  Beer and bait.

  When they got there, Archer got out of the truck and inhaled deep. The city was gone. They were in the mountains now, surrounded by ancient three-hundred-foot trees and enough nature to quiet even the busiest of minds.

  The reason he came . . .

  They spent the day hiking, fishing, and making increasingly ridiculous bets, the latest being that whoever caught the least amount of fish had to take a dip in the river. It was February. The river was an ice bath.

  Highly motivated to stay dry, Archer caught three fish. Spence and Joe caught two each.

  Finn only managed one and grumbled the entire time he was stripping down to his birthday suit, muttering dire warnings about hypothermia.

  The rest of them just grinned, toasting themselves and their brilliance while Finn climbed into and out of the water in record time.

  “Maybe you should get better at fishing,” Spence said to a teeth-chattering Finn.

  Finn yanked his clothes back on and flipped Spence the bird.

  Archer tossed more wood on the fire and shoved Finn close to it. Watching Finn lose had been fun. So was the righteous knowledge that he was the best fisherman out of all of them. But that didn’t mean he wanted Finn to die of hypothermia.

  “If you’d lost,” Finn said to Spence. “You wouldn’t have had the stones to go in.”

  “Oh I’ve got the stones,” Spence said. “The stones to walk over there and discover an algae on the surface. A skin-eating algae.” He smiled. “One that makes swimming unsafe.”

  Finn blinked. “Huh. I didn’t think of that.”

  Spence tapped his temple with a finger. “Not just a hat rack.”

  The sun went down fast up here. One minute it was daylight and in the next breath, inky black night. They got more serious about the fire, drinking the beer while Archer cooked the fish. As he was doing that, Spence went through their stuff and said “what the ever loving fuck?”

  Everyone turned to look at him.

  “Where’s the junk food?” he asked.

  “In the gray bin,” Finn said. “I personally loaded it up with chocolate, graham crackers, and macro marshmallows because last time I got the minis you guys bitched about it for two days.”

  “There’s no gray bin,” Spence said. “Where is the gray bin?”

  “Shit,” Finn said. “It must not have gotten in the truck.”

  “We can’t go on without the s’mores,” Joe said, looking stricken. “I’ve been looking forward to them all day.”

  Archer agreed. They needed s’mores. But the nearest store was thirty minutes out and they’d all had a few beers. “Too bad Google Express doesn’t deliver to Timbuktu.”

  “If I’d known Finn was going to be stupid,” Spence said, “I’d have programmed my latest drone to drop the supplies right to us.”

  “It’s Finn’s fault,” Joe said. “He should have to fix it.”

  “How?” Finn asked. “How in the holy hell do you expect me to fix this?”

  “Call Pru,” Spence suggested.

  “Call her what?”

  “Call her out here to bring us s’more supplies.”

  Finn let out a rough laugh. “I can’t do that.”

  “But you can FaceTime her from the grocery store to make sure you’re buying her the correct brand of tampons like you did last week?” Archer asked.

  “Hey,” Finn said, pointing at him. “That was supposed to be our secret.”

  “Call her,” Spence said.

  “She’ll laugh at me and tell me to suck it up.”

  “See that’s the thing,” Joe said logically. “We’re all single. We don’t have anyone to call without looking like a complete pussy. But you, you already have Pru, so who cares if she laughs at you?”

  Spence nodded at this logic. So did Archer.

  “Okay, but for the record,” Finn said, launching into defense mode, “I care.”

  Spence pulled out his phone.

  “What are you doing?” Finn asked him, sounding nervous.

  “Wait for it,” Spence said, and then spoke into the phone. “Pru? Finn needs you.”

  “Oh my God,” Finn protested, trying unsuccessfully to grab Spence’s phone away. “Give that to me.”

  Spence covered the speaker piece on his phone and flexed his muscles as he avoided Finn’s reach. “Been working out,” he whispered proudly.

  “At least tell her I didn’t break my collarbone falling out of a tree,” Finn demanded.

  “One time,” Joe muttered. “I only did that one time.”

  “Finn needs you to bring the makings for s’mores,” Spence said to Pru. “Big marshmallows. The biggest, Pru. Enough to feed”—he looked around at the guys, counting the four of them—“eight.”

  They all nodded. Double sounded good.

  The last thing Elle had planned on doing Saturday night was driving up to Big Basin in the dark with Pru and Kylie to bring Finn some mysterious item he had to have. They’d tried to get Willa to come too but she and Keane had turned off their phones.

  They were smart.

  And probably going at it like bunnies.

  Elle didn’t blame them. In fact, she was a little envious of them.

  “Thanks for coming with me,” Pru said. “I’m sure you were both busy.”

  Kylie laughed. “If by busy you mean staying home and trying to beat my Lumosity score, then yes, I was very busy.”

  Elle was driving Finn’s vehicle because Pru didn’t have one, and also because she couldn’t find her glasses. Elle wasn’t a camper. In fact, she’d never camped. She didn’t see the appeal of sleeping on the ground or having to use the wild frontier as a bathroom. Nope, she required electricity and a flushable toilet.

  They’d left the city behind long ago and she’d never seen such darkness. She leaned closer to the windshield, squinting into the black night. The road was a bitch and she didn’t want to miss the turnoff. “I can’t believe we’re doing this. You so owe us. And what are we delivering anyway?”

  “It’s complicated,” Pru said noncommittally, a very large brown bag at her feet.

  “Complicated how?”

  Something in Pru’s silence sent impending doom through Elle’s gut. She slid another look at Pru. “He’s camping alone, right? Because that’s what you said. Even though camping alone is stupid and selfish because of the danger, and Finn isn’t either of those things.”

  “Turn right!” Kylie called from the backseat. Their resident navigator had her nose practically pressed to her cell phone screen. “In twenty-five feet.”

  Elle turned right and the road went from asphalt to gravel. Bumpy, rutted gravel that took every bit of her concentration for the half mile until they came to the campgrounds.

  “I think half my fillings just fell out,” Kylie said.

  “Campsite twenty-four,” Pru said.

  Five minutes later they rounded a tight corner and came upon the correct campsite. Elle calmly parked, turned off the engine, and stared out at the rip-roaring campfire, around which sat one, two, three . . . four men-sized shapes, one of them looking suspiciously like Archer. She felt the righteous annoyance that always hit her in his presence, for him simply being a breathing human being. “Dammit, Pru.”

  “It’s not what you think,” Pru said quickly.

  “No? Because what I think is that you’re a big fibber,” Elle said.

  “Okay, so it’s a little what you think,” Pru said, sagging in defeat. “But mostly I didn’t want to drive up here alone. I knew you wouldn’t come if I told you that Archer was here, and I really needed to deliver the s’more supplies. They were desperate.”

  Even as she said it, the guys all stood up and turned toward them with varying degrees of expressivity. Finn was out-and-out grinning, clearly excited to see Pru. Spence was looking hopeful, which made sense now that Elle knew their true mission. Spence had never met a dessert he didn’t love.

  Archer had never been one to give anything away, but his expression was relaxed, far more so than Elle had ever seen.

  The wilderness agreed with him.

  That is until his sharp gaze beamed in through the windshield—which he wouldn’t have been able to see through if Kylie hadn’t chosen that moment to open her door so that the interior light lit them up like they were in a fish tank.

  Archer stilled for a single beat and his carefree smile vanished.

  Terrific. She’d ruined his evening. Just as she’d ruined his life once upon a time—it was good to know she still had it. “Let’s just get this over with.” She said it calmly but she was having an inner and private moment of panic and anxiety, feeling a whole lot like that stupid sixteen-year-old daughter of a grifter, who’d continuously put Elle and her sister, Morgan, into desperate situations, using them as pawns, making them all live like thieves in the night.

  Finn and Joe rushed forward like eager puppies, grabbing the brown bag. Well, Joe grabbed the bag and Finn grabbed Pru, the two of them in a tight lip lock like they hadn’t just seen each other earlier in the day. In fact, given how they were busy eating each other’s face, it was as if they hadn’t seen each other in years.

  Leaving the lovebirds at the car, Joe smiled at Kylie and Elle. “Ladies, welcome. Come to the fire and get warm.”

  “We’re not staying,” Elle said.

  “Oh just for a few minutes?” Pru asked, tearing her mouth from Finn’s to do so. “Please?”

  Elle looked down at her heels. She’d assumed they were doing a quick turn and burn. It was Saturday but she’d worked regardless and had left straight from the office. And since she hadn’t expected to stay, she hadn’t bothered to change.

  Joe took in the problem with one sweep of his observant gaze. “Hold on,” he said, and running to the fire, he shoved the bag into Spence’s arms and then ran back for Elle.

  Before she could stop him, he’d scooped her up and carried her to the fire. “I know how you feel about camping,” he said earnestly.

  “Joe,” she said on a laugh. “Put me down.”

  “Do I have to?”

  “Yes!” Under any other circumstances, she might’ve enjoyed the physical contact of being up against a man. Joe was tall and built and sexy as hell. He had a trouble-filled smile that promised a girl a good time, and she knew thanks to gossip that he had the moves to back up that unspoken promise.

  But the only thing she had backing up was the air in her lungs because she could feel Archer’s gaze on her. Dark. Assessing.

  “It’s not that Elle doesn’t do camping or bears,” he said dryly. “She doesn’t do hiking shoes. Or, apparently, jackets.” With that, he shrugged out of his down parka and came toward her.

  The initial buzz of warmth at the realization of how well he knew her vanished when she saw his intention. “Not necessary,” she said, eyes glued to the midnight blue flannel shirt he wore beneath, opened over a matching T-shirt, both stretching to accommodate his broad shoulders.

  “Your lips are blue,” he said. He wrapped her up in his jacket, which was deliciously warm from his body heat and, adding to the torture, also smelled like him. Which was to say delicious.

  She opened her mouth to say something, she had no idea what, but it didn’t matter because the minute he’d finished tucking her into his jacket, he turned away from her and headed back to the fire.

  “I’m not cold,” Pru said. “I’m wearing my new camping jeans. They’re fleece lined.” She executed a little twirl. “They’re thick, so as a bonus, I won’t get any splinters sitting on that log in front of the fire.” She stilled and then twisted around, trying to see her own ass. “Wait. Are they too thick? Do they make me look fat?”

  The look of panic on Finn’s face did improve Elle’s mood very slightly.

  Pru gave him the big eyes. “Do they?”

  “No.” Finn looked a little like a deer in the headlights. “No. Of course not.”

  Joe nudged him. “Man, when a woman asks if she looks fat, it’s not enough to say no. You gotta look and act surprised by the question. Leap backward if necessary.”

  Finn grabbed Pru and pulled her down into his lap and sank his fists in her hair, staring into her eyes. “I don’t think you look fat in those jeans. I don’t think you look fat in anything. Or in nothing at all. I love every inch of you.”

  Pru grinned. “Thanks, babe. I love you too.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “That was a test.”

  “Yes.” She kissed him. “But don’t worry. You passed.”

  Elle felt another little tug of envy and wondered if she’d ever feel so comfortable with someone that she could open herself up like Pru had, in front of an audience no less, as if she didn’t care if the entire world knew how much she loved Finn. Elle had always assumed that kind of love made one weak. But nothing about what Pru and Finn had felt weak to her.

  They roasted marshmallows. Elle was trying hard not to rush Pru, but she really wanted to get out of there before she did something stupid. Like melt a marshmallow over Archer’s hot bod and lick it up.

  “Truth or dare!” Joe decided, handing out beers to everyone.

  “What, are we twelve?” Elle asked.

  Joe just grinned, looking very relaxed, reminding her that the guys had a head start on the beer. An all-day head start.

  “Chicken?”

  This came from Archer, uttered in his low, sexy voice, and her stomach executed a free fall. She risked a peek at him and caught sight of a predatory smile barely curving his lips. She shifted a bit. Was it hotter all of a sudden? Or was that only her internal temperature that had skyrocketed? “I just think that games are dumb—”

  “Me first!” Pru said happily, clasping her hands. “Spence! Truth or dare?”

  He thought about it until Pru gave him a hurry-up gesture.

  “Give me a minute,” he said. “I’m trying to decide how evil you’re going to be if I choose dare.”

  Pru smiled, and Spence swore. “Okay,” he said, “so very evil. Truth.”

  “Well that’s no fun.” She pouted.

  “What’s no fun is taking a dip in the river in February. Truth,” he repeated firmly.

  “Hmm.” Pru stared at him intently. “What do you want out of life?”

  He stroked his chin, giving it serious thought. “Tacos. What?” he said when she rolled her eyes. “We had fish but I’m still hungry. Did you bring anything besides s’mores stuff?”

  Spence was always hungry. They all ignored him.

  “Me next!” Kylie called out, bouncing on the log on which she sat, clapping her hands. “Elle. Truth or dare?”

  Elle narrowed her eyes. “Why me?”

  “Truth or dare?” Kylie repeated.

  She sighed. “Truth. But only because I’m not leaving this log for any stupid dare.”

  “Okay,” Kylie said so happily that Elle knew she’d walked right into Kylie’s plans, whatever they might be. “You always look so fantastic and perfectly put together.”

  “Thanks but that wasn’t a question,” Elle said.

  “Do you ever let anyone see you when you’re not . . . perfect?”