Releasing Me (29 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY

Quinn

I called Addy
later that afternoon to see if she was up for dinner, but she never answered her phone. I must have messaged her a hundred times with no response. Finally, I left work early because I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. She seemed off earlier this morning, like something was bothering her. I kicked myself for leaving her as I managed to hit every fucking red light. When I finally pulled into the parking garage, I was relieved to see Karma was still there. On the way up in the elevator I tried to calm myself down. She loved listening to her rock music, so I figured that was why she didn’t hear her phone. When I opened the door to the condo everything was quiet, no music, no vacuum, no TV, no Addy.

“
Addy?
”
I yelled as I did a quick sweep of the first floor.

No answer.

Running up the stairs, I continued to call out her name, but everything was silent.
“
Fuck!
”
I yelled as I ran my hands through my hair. Then I checked the closet, all her stuff was there, nothing looked different from that morning. Looking around for a note, I came across her phone on the kitchen counter. The screen showed all my missed calls and messages. I clicked on her calendar to see if she had an appointment I didn’t know about, but there was nothing for that day. It wasn’t like her to leave without her phone, but it was possible. I was going crazy. I couldn’t just wait so I called down to Tom.

“
Mr. Cohen, how can I be of assistance?
”

“
Tom, did you see Addy leave the building today?
”

“
Yes, probably around ten this morning.
”

“
Did she say where she was going?
”

“
No, sir, she actually seemed unusually quiet or distracted.
”

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

“
Did she take a cab?
”

“
No, sir, she walked … heading south if I remember correctly.
”

“
And you haven’t seen her since?
”

“
No, sir.
”

“
Call me as soon as you see her again.
”

“
Yes, sir.
”

I was known for my calm, controlled, business-like demeanor, but with Addy I was a fucking shaky finger on a hair trigger. It was how I knew I had fallen in love with her. My need to protect her trumped all concern for myself and everyone else in my life. It was the reason I nearly died after I found her on the ground, naked, beaten, and unconscious. She was mine to love and protect, and I fucking failed her in every way that night. Those blue doe eyes of hers looked at me as if I was some hero for saving her life, but it was bullshit. She was too blind to see that had it not been for my epic fuckup she would never have been
“
in the wrong place at the wrong time
”
as she liked to say.

An hour later, I decided to go look for her. It was going to be getting dark soon, and I couldn’t sit around at home doing nothing. Tom had instructions to call me as soon as she came back, so I jumped in my car and drove to all the possible places I thought she might be. But after two hours of driving everywhere I could think of, I still hadn’t found her and Tom hadn’t called either. When I got back to my condo I called the police, but of course they gave me the whole spiel about twenty-four hours … missing persons report … reasonable belief that something had happened … fucking blah blah blah. They said that since she was seen leaving on her own accord that abduction didn’t seem likely. I couldn’t even begin to imagine where she would have been going on foot in such cold weather. The more I thought about it, the more the image of her knocked out in the snow kept popping into my head.

I must have brought Mac’s number up on my phone a dozen times after I got back, but I never pressed
send
because I knew how much Addy hated to worry her pregnant friend, and I was feeling like an ass of a fuckup for even having to consider making another call about how I failed to protect Addy.

By ten I was in need of a drink. I’d gone from worried to pissed, back to worried, and then to fucking outraged. I replayed our morning over and over, but I couldn’t come up with any reason why she’d leave. We’d had some playful banter about her ring and the proposal, but Addy knew me. She knew it was just a stupid game and in the end she would bring me to one knee. The desperation to find a reason why she might be mad was agonizing because I knew if she wasn’t mad, then something was wrong and she was in danger, or injured, or worse …

*

Sleep evaded me and by five in the morning I couldn’t
wait any longer. Since I had five more hours until I could file a missing person’s report, I decided it was time to call Mac.

“
Quinn,
”
was all she said in a groggy voice.

“
Sorry to wake you but …
”
I had trouble saying the words.

“
But Addy’s gone,
”
she said knowingly.

“
Fucking hell! You’ve heard from her?
”

“
We need to talk.
”

“
Mac, where is she? Is she okay? When did—
”

“
Quinn! We. Need. To. Talk.
”

“
So talk.
”
I was irritated and impatient.

“
Not on the phone.
”

I never even let her finish. Instead, I was on her doorstep in just under two and a half hours. She answered the door in her robe with her hair pulled back in a bun.

“
Quinn.
”

“
Mac.
”
I stepped in and she took my coat.

“
Can I get you some coffee?
”
she asked.

“
I’m fine. Where’s Addy?
”

“
I don’t know. Come have a seat.
”

“
What? You don’t know? Then why the hell am I here?
”

Evan came down the hall.
“
Quinn,
”
was all he said as he kissed Mac, then her tummy, and grabbed his briefcase.

“
Bye, honey, I love you,
”
she said as he walked out the door to the garage.

She plopped down on the couch and I sat in the chair across from her.

“
She’s gone.
”
Her face wrinkled with pain.

“
What the fuck does that mean? Gone where?
”

“
I don’t know. She wouldn’t say and I didn’t ask.
”

“
Why the hell not?
”

“
Because she didn’t want me to have to lie to you when you came looking for her.
”

“
I don’t understand …
”
My head was a clusterfuck; nothing Mac said made any sense.

“
Do you know how the fire started?
”

Whoa, whiplash! The new direction was unexpected.
“
Yes … well, no … I mean she said it was a lightning strike.
”

Mac nodded her head then sipped her tea.
“
How did your dad’s business get into ‘legal trouble?’
”

“
What does that have to do with anything?
”

She wouldn’t answer. Instead, she just kept that pathetic, pained look on her face.

I sighed.
“
One of his companies manufactured a product that allegedly caused some injuries.
”

“
What was the product?
”

The truth was I never paid that much attention to the specifics of the lawsuits against my father’s company, at least the product specifics. Even after he died and I took over his business affairs, it was all about the money and legal mediation to reach settlements before they went to court. It wasn’t my company. It was an inherited thorn in my side.

Rubbing my temples, I tried to remember the specifics.
“
Some natural gas or propane tubing.
”

“
What was the issue with it?
”

“
Fuck, Mac! What does this have to do with anything?
”
I gritted between my teeth. I swore her damn pregnancy hormones were messing with her brain.

She took a deep breath then began to speak.
“
They manufactured corrugated stainless steel tubing which was a new type of gas line that was installed in homes. The problem or defect in the product was that even a nearby lightning strike could cause the line to become electrically energized. Then that power surge had the potential to puncture a hole in the line and cause a
fire
.
”

The whole damn room spun. I tried to formulate a sentence, but I couldn’t.

“
Addy wasn’t in a good place after the fire. In fact, she wasn’t around here at all. We left the country for a year while my dad handled all the legal aspects of things. Addy never cared about the lawsuit; she knew it wouldn’t change anything. My father had a different opinion and since it was his family too that died in the fire, he took it upon himself to … make the responsible parties pay.
”

Still confused, I shook my head.
“
It … it wasn’t my company.
”

“
It doesn’t matter. COVE was the name she connected to the fire … now she has a face to go with the name.
”

Letting my head fall to the back of the chair, I closed my eyes.
“
Where is she?
”

“
Quinn, I
really
don’t know.
”

“
Well, then I’ll just have to find her,
”
I said with certainty as I pushed myself to my feet.

“
You won’t find her.
”

“
You don’t know what kind of resources I have.
”
I couldn’t believe she doubted me.

“
Doesn’t matter. Addy is infinitely more intelligent than both of us combined, and she has unlimited resources. So I don’t care if you’re the fucking FBI or head of Homeland Security … you won’t find her until she’s ready to be found.
”

“
So you’re not worried about her?
”
I asked with my arms crossed over my chest.

“
Of course … I’ll always worry about Addy.
”
She rubbed her hands over the little bump of her belly.
“
But I have to prioritize now, and Addy knows it.
”

I walked to the couch, bent down, and kissed Mac on the cheek.
“
Thank you and … I’m sorry.
”

As I walked to the door she called out,
“
What are you sorry about?
”

“
Your brother and Sage … they were your family too,
”
I replied as I buttoned my coat.

“
Quinn?
”

“
Yeah?
”

She paused for a moment, contemplating her next words.
“
Nothing, have a safe flight home.
”

Nodding, I forced a smile then left.

*

Addy owned me. She once asked me if I’d give it all up for her. At
the time I couldn’t answer her hypothetical question because it seemed so ridiculous. By the time I arrived back in New York to the silence of my condo … my empty Addy-less condo, I knew the answer. Yes, positively, absolutely, unquestionably, one hundred percent, without a fraction of a doubt, yes. I would give it all up for her. I, too, would live with her in a cardboard box.

The sensible part of me knew that Mac was right. Addy probably couldn’t be found unless she wanted to be, but I had to try. I wasn’t the FBI or head of Homeland Security, but I knew people who were connected to both. I was willing to spend every dime I’d ever made to find her. She either would come back to me or I would spend the rest of my life searching for her. In my mother’s words:
“
Find your one true passion in life and follow it. Follow it until you take your last breath.
”

It only required a few phone calls to get things going. A buddy of mine, Harrison, had been in the Army’s Special Forces and after he got out he started his own private investigation business. He was perfect for the job because he had a lot of connections and mad, raw instinct. Once I had the right people lined up to search for Addy, I focused on COVE’s connection to the fire. It wasn’t an easy task either. Since the onset of lawsuits that started nearly a decade earlier, so much information had been confiscated from the company, and with the fucking mess of lawyers and their attorney-client privileges, almost everything was labeled
“
confidential,
”
aka off-limits to the son of the company’s dead cofounder.

What I did find out were the specifics on the product. More than one company manufactured that type of flexible tubing and my father’s company was not the only one dealing with lawsuits. The manufacturers blamed the installers and vice versa. Very few cases made it to court; most were settled through mediation. In the end, the manufacturers had a hard time making a case for themselves because patents were being filed and new lines of lightning resistant tubing were already in production.

The obvious question by wrongful death attorneys at that point was,
“
If there was nothing wrong with the original product, why the revisions?
”
The more I looked into things the easier it became to see why my father’s life ended the way it did. Living with the guilt of innocent lives lost because of something he funded was emotional suicide. Then there was the nightmare of figuring how to keep a company going after such a huge financial hit. He employed hundreds of people and they needed their jobs. They depended on their stock in the company, health insurance, and retirement. When business is good, there’s no better view than from the top. But when something as catastrophic as a major class action law suit happens, the CEOs start to feel crushed at the bottom, not just financially, emotionally too. Success doesn’t come without risk.