I wait for the man in front of me to get his latte, then join him at his table when he sits down.
He frowns at me, his eyes darting around the nearly empty coffee shop. “Uh, can I help you?”
“Every day for the past two weeks, I’ve had a package sent to my office at WXZ buildings.”
He shrugs. “Yeah, so?”
“And every day, someone other than Lily Sloane delivers it. Can you tell me why that is?”
He bristles. “You get your parcel on time, right? What’s your problem?”
“You see …” I run a hand over my jaw. “I don’t give a fuck about the parcel. I want Lily to deliver it.”
“You think that’s likely to happen now, you sicko?”
“I admire you for protecting her, Craig. I want to protect her too.” I lean forward and lower my voice like I’m letting him in on a secret. “You see, Lily is my girl, and I need her to deliver all of my packages from here on out.”
“And just who the fuck are you?”
“West Archer.” The corners of my lips curve upward. “You’ve heard of me, yeah?”
He rolls his eyes. Everyone in this city knows my name. “What the hell do you want with a sweet young kid like Lily?”
I glare at him. She’s not a kid. “Have her deliver all my packages, Craig.”
“Not a chance, you sick fuck.”
Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath and then level him with a look. “I assure you that she is in no danger where I’m concerned. I just want to check in with her.”
He snorts.
Looks like I need to play dirty. “And if you don’t want me to check in with my friends at the IRS and tell them about all the deliveries you do off the books”—I pause and watch the blood drain from his face—“you’ll have Lily deliver my packages. Am I making myself clear?”
He looks away, his teeth grinding together, but he eventually nods.
“I’m gonna need you to use your words, Craig.”
“Yes,” he spits.
“Good boy.” There’s a smile on my face as I leave the coffee shop. All I need is to spend some time with her and make her see how sorry we all are. How much we miss her. I can fix all of this, I know I can. If I can just get her to listen to me.
