His (18 page)

“Roy was driving me here but we got stuck in traffic, so I ran the last two miles.”

“In your suit?”

“Yeah.”

I smile at him. “I’d hug you if I wasn’t such a mess.”

He reaches for me. He’s on his knees on the bathroom floor, and I’m sitting on the edge of the bathtub. I sink against him and close my eyes.

“You’re okay now,” he says softly.

“Turner said she’ll help me clean up, but . . . can you help me instead?”

Andrew has seen all of me, and I’m more comfortable with him than Turner. I also just want to be near him right now.

“I would but . . . I have to go take care of something,” he says.

I lean back and meet his gaze. “Oh. You mean work?”

He shakes his head. “I’ll be back in a little while. My security team is on alert, and I promise you are completely safe here.”

“But . . . you’re leaving?”

He kisses the back of my hand and stands up. “I have to. I’m calling Ty to come over and look at you.”

I nod and swallow hard. I don’t want him to go. Andrew is the comfort I need right now. But what can I say?

“You have to go?” I ask.

“I do. I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay?”

“Yeah. Okay.”

He walks out of the bathroom, and a couple minutes later, Turner walks in with a mug of chai tea and a stack of fresh clothes. She helps me take a shower and dress in yoga pants and a T-shirt. I try not to think about Andrew the entire time, but I can’t help it.

Why would he run two miles to get here and then leave within a few minutes? Doesn’t he know how much I need him right now?

Ty arrives right after Turner settles me into Andrew’s bed. Like Andrew, he’s ridiculously handsome. Blond, blue-eyed, and tall, he has a contagious smile.

“Let’s have a look,” he says kindly, checking over my stomach, neck, and face. I hope he doesn’t ask any questions about Andrew and me, because I’m too emotionally fragile to think of a good cover story right now.

“Can you look at the dog, too?” I ask as he presses on my stomach gingerly. “Ow, that hurts.”

“Yeah, I’ll take him to an animal hospital,” Ty says.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Sure I do. He’s important to you, and you’re important to Andrew.”

My heart pounds faster.
Am
I important to Andrew? Am I any more important than anyone else on his payroll?

“You’re lucky,” Ty says. “Bruised ribs for sure, and you’ll be sore for a few days. But I don’t think it’s anything more than that. I’ll need to run blood work today and again tomorrow because we want to make sure none of your internal organs are damaged.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

“I’m prescribing some pain medicine. You’ll need it.”

I sit back against the pillows and nod. Ty takes a syringe and a small bottle from his medical bag.

“Would you like something to help you rest?” he asks.

“No. Thanks, but no.”

“Okay. You guys call me if you need anything at all, okay? Anything. I’ll text Andrew when I get the dog taken care of. I guarantee they’ll admit him. He’s not in good shape.”

“Don’t let them put him down,” I say, my voice shaking. “I don’t want that. He saved me.”

Ty pats my hand reassuringly. “I’ll treat him like he’s my own, Quinn. I promise.”

He leaves, and I lie back on the pillows Turner fluffed up behind me. Where is Andrew?

The reception. I sigh as I realize he probably went to that reception we were supposed to go to together. The thought of Dahlia hitting on him again makes me irrationally angry. I’m not thrilled with Andrew right now, but still. He’d better manage to fend her off without my help this time.

I cry about the letters some more and try to commit Bethy’s photo to memory. If karma is a thing, I’ll see those assholes again, and I’ll have my knife next time.

Afternoon turns into evening, and the bedroom is dark when Andrew pushes the door open. I’d almost drifted to sleep, but I sit up when I see his broad-shouldered silhouette in the doorway.

“Andrew?”

“Hey,” he says softly. He walks into the room, and I turn on the nightstand lamp so I can see him as he approaches the bed.

It can’t be. It can’t possibly fucking
be
. But it is.

My mouth falls open in shock as he holds out the black bag to me. I recognize it immediately.

It’s my fucking purse.

Andrew

She grabs the large black purse and throws it open, digging into a pocket. When she pulls a couple envelopes from inside, her eyes widen and fill with tears.

“What is this?” she demands. “What . . . how?”

I sit down on the side of the bed. “The how doesn’t matter. You wanted it, and I got it.”

She scoots to the side of the bed and slips out of it, wincing from the pain. “The how
does
matter, Andrew. It matters a fucking lot.” She holds the letters up in the air. “How did you do this?”

“Hey, you need to be in bed.”

“Answer me,” she says, her eyes pooling with emotion. “Because right now I feel really violated.”

“
Violated
?” I stand up and face her. This is not the reaction I was expecting. I thought she’d be thrilled to have her sister’s letters back.

“You just
happened
to find the men who robbed me in the largest city in the world? How fucking stupid do you think I am?”

“Quinn, look—”

“No,
you
look.” She approaches me and points at my face. “Explain yourself.”

I sigh deeply. “I can’t.”

“You mean
won’t
.”

“No, I
can’t
.”

“Andrew—”

“Where are you from? Why’d you send Bethy away? Why don’t you have any ID?”

Her nostrils flare with anger. “You know I can’t tell you any of that.”

“
Won’t
,” I say firmly. “Same fucking difference, Quinn.”

“What is this?” she yells. “Is this some mind game you’re playing with me? You want to get my story so you . . . what? What the hell did you
do
, Andrew?”

“I got your letters back. That’s what you wanted. How about a thank-you?”

“Thank you? You can’t possibly think I’m this stupid.”

I roll my eyes, exasperated. One of those assholes who mugged her hit me in the stomach and I’m sore. Definitely not up for a fight.

“We both have secrets, Quinn,” I remind her. “And the how behind
this
—” I point at her purse on the bed “—is one of mine.”

“You hired them.” Her accusing tone makes me flinch.

“Are you fucking serious?” I roar, not caring who hears me.

“You set it up so you could save the day. Maybe they got out of hand with the beating, I don’t know.”

I step back, feeling wound so tight I could explode. “That is the craziest shit I’ve ever heard. You think I’d do that?”

“There’s no other rational explanation for how you got my purse back. None. If I’m wrong, please tell me. You have no idea how much I want to be wrong right now.”

“You’re wrong.”

“Then
how
?”

“I don’t answer to you,” I remind her. “I’ve done every possible thing I can think of to make you happy since you got here, and I tried to do that again. You were crying. They hurt you. I did what needed to be done. Can’t you just leave it at that?”

She just looks at me, and the answer is in her eyes. I see doubt there and the return of the hard, steely gaze from the first night we met.

“I’d never hurt you,” I say, taking a step closer to her. “And I’d never let anyone else hurt you, either.”

A purple bruise marks her cheek, and her lip is swollen. I hate what happened to her today. The deep, burning anger I feel for the men who touched her is familiar to me. I felt it after 9/11, when I lost my father. That kind of anger is dangerous without an outlet. Making those three thugs sorry and getting Quinn’s letters back had been my only option.

She swallows hard and looks at the ground. “Thank you. I’ll sleep in my room.”

And when she walks out of the room, she takes everything we’ve built with her. The familiarity, the closeness, the
trust
. . . gone.

I unknowingly ruined everything. But I know if I could do it over, I wouldn’t change a thing. I can’t sit by while men like those assholes get away with hurting Quinn. She’s been hurt by too many people.

I go into the bathroom for a long, hot shower. I want her in my bed tonight, so much. She could have another nightmare. God knows she’s got plenty of reasons to.

I already knew her sister’s name. It’s the name she screams during the nightmares. Bethy is everything to Quinn. I can hear the terror in her voice when she says her name.

When I get out of the shower, I dress in clean underwear and a T-shirt and climb into bed. No reason to sleep naked without Quinn next to me. I already miss the feel of her warm, slight body next to mine.

I stare at the ceiling, worries shooting rapid-fire in my mind. The biggest one is that Quinn will leave. She’ll just slip away without warning to escape me because she’s afraid of me now.

If she does, I could find her. Just as easily as I could figure out who she really is if I wanted to. She has no idea I’m one of the hardest people in the world to keep her kind of secrets from.

I wouldn’t, though. If she goes, I’ll have to bear it and remember that being close to someone is impossible for me. It was only a matter of time, anyway. But I was really hoping the time wasn’t this close.

Quinn

The security guards are named Steve and Micah. I’ve seen them often in the four days since the attack because every time I try to leave the house alone, one of them follows me. They don’t even try to be discreet about it.

I’d complain to Andrew, but I’m still not speaking to him. If he asks me a question, I reply, but that’s it. I’m dreading Thursday, when we’re going to his mother’s house for Thanksgiving. My face is still purple and yellow with bruising, which I’m sure won’t escape her notice.

As I walk past Micah in the warehouse’s parking garage, he puts on his dark, stocking beanie, preparing to follow me.

“It’s okay, I’m riding with Roy,” I say.

“Mr. Wentworth said you’re starting volunteer work at the homeless shelter today, and he wants me to go with you.”

I lower my brows. “Go with me? Why?”