Sworn to Be His ( The Archer Family 3)

And then what? Stay in her bed forever? Good plan.

She yawned and reached for her phone. Then, after a quick glance at the time, she groaned. Time to meet her maker. Pay the piper. Make the doughnuts.

Making quick work of prepping for the day, she shoved her hair into a ponytail and petted Lisa before scooting out the door and speeding to work. When she rolled into the parking lot, she was only ten minutes

late.

"Not bad," she muttered, then scanned the parking lot for Derrick's car.

"Not here," she mumbled, furrowing her brow and looking around again. "Odd."

Hitching her canvas tote on her shoulder, she hit the elevator, waiting for the ominous creaking of the pulley, and then closed her eyes when the lift finally halted.

"Here goes nothing." With a little ding, the doors opened and she stepped into a room full of bustling, buzzing detectives.

It was like everyone in the department had already been there for hours, all shuffling and chatting and waving papers in the air. Again she glanced around for Derrick, but when she caught no sign of him, she made her way to her desk, careful to listen in on conversations as she passed them by.

"They're saying it's a code orange. All officers are to be on the alert—"

"Babe, I need you to stay calm—"

"It could be anybody—"

Jade pursed her lips and sat her bag in her seat before heading straight for the captain's office. Supervisor Sanders was sitting behind the desk, his jowled face resting in the palm of his hand while he reviewed some paperwork.

"Sir," she said, and he glanced up at her, though he didn't seem to register her presence. "Is everything okay? Did I miss the morning meeting?"

"I'm holding the meeting later in the day. When we have more information." He said it slowly, almost gravely.

"Right, um. Anything I can do?"

"Just get back to work for now. And remain calm."

"Right. Okay." She nodded and headed from the office. In all her time moping this weekend, she hadn't even bothered to consider what this breech might look like in the grand scheme of things—what her coworkers would do in the face of such a massive crisis.

Derrick's words rang in her ears as she headed back to her desk:

"Jade, we don't have time for this argument. My only concern is getting you someplace safe right now...You worked harder on this case than anyone else. If they're going after anyone, it's going to be you."

She could be in real danger right now. Greater than anything she'd ever been in before.

So why was it she felt so hollow?

"Hey," A deep voice sounded from behind her and she turned to find Zac leaning on the corner of her cubicle.

"Hey," she nodded. "Tough morning in the office."

"Yeah, tell me about it. Seems like I really stepped into things at a bad time." He offered her half a smile, but she couldn't find the energy to return it.

"Right." He shoved his hands in his pockets. "I was here over the weekend with Derrick. Heard about the trouble in paradise."

"Oh? You...did." She tried to keep her face as blank as possible, even despite the stab of panic in the pit of her stomach. Derrick had talked to people about their problems? Had talked to Zac of all people?

The panic twisted into something more sinister at the thought as she pursed her lips, considering. "Must have been a hell of a weekend with all this going on."

"It's looked a lot like this for the most part. Lots of running around. Let me tell you, Derrick wasn't much help. He was MIA most of the weekend."

"Oh?" She tried to sound disinterested, but had a feeling it was no use. The second she heard Derrick's name she knew her ears pricked up like a puppy whose owner had just come home from work. She just couldn't help it.