by Jewel E. Ann
Dumb-ass!
“Fine, then at least tell me what plans I ruined last night,” I mumbled.
“Oh, you mean the restaurant I rented out just for the two of us at the price tag of … a small fortune? The grand piano that was brought in to be played by a well-known pianist whose name I will never reveal. Or do you mean the mountains of flowers, daises, and of course lavender roses that were scattered throughout the entire dining area. Oh, and by the way … I gifted your organic vegan truffles to the waitstaff.”
“You’d better be kidding me,” I said in disbelief, yet the stabbing sensation to my heart told me he was serious. He had planned the most romantic proposal on the most romantic night of the year and I squashed his plans. “Then why did you act so distant in the car? Why did you ignore me and let me get all worked up?”
“I wanted to throw you off a bit, so it would be a bigger surprise. I love getting you all worked up then shocking the hell out of you. Unfortunately, you turned the tables on me last night.”
“Jeez, you must have been pissed, incredibly pissed.” I felt punched in the gut.
“It was the first time I slept in the guest bed, so yes, a little pissed.”
I turned to face him, going for the innocent doe eyes. “Will you ever forgive me?”
“Eventually.” He smiled. His expression turned serious. “So you’re miserable living in New York with me?”
Exhaling, I focused on his chest as I traced his muscles. “Definitely not you, just here. Don’t get me wrong, I’d live in a cardboard box on the street with you if that’s where I had to live to be with you. I miss Chicago or maybe I just miss the feeling of home. I dream about a wooded acreage just outside of the city with wildlife, lots of privacy, and a small meadow of wildflowers. I dream about porch swings in the morning and a fire pit for roasting marshmallows in the evening. I imagine bird houses, wind chimes, and large blooming lilac bushes in the spring.”
“And how many kids do you see running around in your meadow of wildflowers?”
He completely surprised me with his question.
Glancing up at him, I shrugged my shoulders and smiled. “If they’re yours, then at least a dozen.”
“If they’re mine?” he said in a firm voice. “Who else’s would they be?”
Giggling, I kissed his chest. “You never know … Tom from the front desk has been giving me the eye since I gave you head in the parking garage.”
“Christ! What is Tom … sixty, seventy years old?”
“Some women like older men … they’re more mature and experienced.” I laughed, admittedly crossing over into the ridiculous realm.
“Yeah, Tom’s experienced with taking his medications three times a day and pissing every ten minutes because his prostate is so damn old.”
I laughed until the moment passed. We held each other in silence for a while, and just as I was starting to drift off to sleep Quinn spoke.
“Do you ever wonder if your attack had anything to do with your parents?”
“No,” I answered while I yawned.
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I’m still alive.”
“Yeah but—” he tried to argue.
“But nothing … my parents were targeted because of what my dad did many years ago. If that person wanted me dead, I’d be dead. It was an act of revenge and they got it. If anyone truly believed I was in danger, I would have been put into witness protection by now. You need to let what happened to my parents go. I have. And as for my attack … it was random, some idiots, probably high and in need of money for more drugs. This is New York City after all.” I reached around and clenched his firm butt. “I hope after tonight when you look at me you can envision me naked on top of you instead of left for dead in the snow.”
He peeked under the sheets. “I think I can conjure up a few new images.”
*
I woke up early the next morning. Surprisingly, Quinn was still in bed so I quietly made my way downstairs. When I turned on the light the ring on the couch caught my eye. I picked it up and started to slide it on my finger.
“Don’t even think about it.”
“Shit! You startled me,” I screeched as I turned.
Quinn walked toward me wearing only his black boxer briefs. Grabbing the ring, he slid it onto his pinky finger. It didn’t even fit past his first knuckle.
“Are you serious? You no longer want to marry me?” I asked in disbelief.
He chuckled as he slid his arms inside my robe pulling me into him. “Oh, I’m going to marry you. I’m just not going to reward your bad behavior.”
“So what exactly do you call last night?”
“Courting.” He smirked as his hand slipped into the back of my panties.
“Oh, so now you’re courting me?”
“Hell no! I’m letting you court me.”
I grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand out of my panties. “I am not courting you,” I huffed as I marched into the kitchen.
“Maybe you should ask me to marry you,” he suggested with a sly smile.
Turning on my heel, I fisted my hands on my hips and shrugged my shoulders. “Fine. Will you marry me?”
He clenched his hand on the back of his neck and rubbed it as he pursed his lips and looked up at the ceiling. “I’ll think about it.”
I squinted my eyes at him before turning and grabbing the electric teapot. “You’re a real shit,” I grumbled.
Quinn’s phone rang before he could respond. He grabbed it off the counter. “Yes?”
He was silent for several minutes. Whoever called had a lot to say.
“Fucking unbelievable. God! I wish this would just go away.”
I grabbed two glass tea cups from the cabinet.
“Set up another meeting with Cove’s attorneys.”
The sound of glass shattering stopped his conversation.
“I’ll have to call you back,” he clipped. “Don’t move, baby. What happened?”
Shards of glass were scattered at my bare feet. Quinn hopped up on the island and grabbed me, lifting me from the mess.
“Sit here,” he said as my feet dangled from the counter. He slipped on his shoes and grabbed the broom. “How’d you drop both glasses?” he asked while sweeping up the mess.
“Uh, I don’t know … they just … I just …”
After he finished sweeping up the glass, he scooted my legs around so my feet were over the sink.
“Let me wash off your feet in case you have any small slivers of glass on you.”
I nodded.
He dried my feet then helped me off the counter.
“Baby, what’s wrong? You look like you just saw a ghost or something.”
Rubbing my hands over my face, I shook my head. “No, I’m fine. I guess I just startled myself when they slipped out of my hands. Uh … who was on the phone?”
“It was my dad’s business partner. Remember I told you about the legal issues my dad was dealing with?”
I nodded.
“Well, his partner is still trying to keep their investments and reputation untarnished, even though it’s way too late for that. My dad knew it years ago, that’s why he’s no longer living.”
“You said Cove’s attorneys. What is Cove?”
“The name of their corporation, it’s the abbreviation for Cohen-Vessey. I hate to rush out, but I need to get showered and head into the office.” He kissed my cheek and jogged up the stairs.
Grabbing my stomach, I rushed to the hall bathroom and vomited. My whole body shook. Then, reaching for the sink, I pulled myself up and splashed cold water on my face.
Deep breath … I am peaceful, I am strong.
Easing the toilet seat down, I turned and sat on it with my elbows on my knees and my head resting in my hands. I don’t know how long I sat there, but when I heard the tap of Quinn’s shoes on the stairs I shut the door and locked it.
A few minutes later he knocked on it. “I’m leaving, baby. You okay?
”
Taking a deep breath, I fought to steady my voice. “Yeah.”
“I’ll call you later. Maybe we can go to dinner,” he called as his voice faded the farther he moved from the door.
“K,” was all I managed.
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 d
amn 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.
