by Jayne Blue
The place was wide open as we walked inside. She had a marble staircase spiraling off the foyer and I followed her to the back. Like her penthouse in Corpus Christi, this place had floor-to-ceiling windows. She went to the sliding door and stepped outside onto a gleaming white patio. Beyond that, she had one of those pools that look like they merge straight into the horizon with no edge.
“I just need some air,” she said. I bit back the smartass comment I made every time I came to L.A., which was hardly ever. I fucking hated this place. Thick air, snarling traffic, plastic people. But in the middle of all of it now was Quinn.
“Baby,” I said, “you still need to tell me what happened. You were crying.”
I had a loose plan when I decided to come out here. I just wanted to see her again. I hadn’t stopped thinking about her since the minute she walked away. No. Since the minute I pushed her away. Now I felt like the world’s biggest asshole. This girl was hurting. I wasn’t thick-headed enough to think I was the reason, but here she was, all alone in this big fancy house.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” she said, sniffling. A little of the light came back into her eyes. She trained them on me and her smile came back. All I wanted to do was take her, hold her close, and drive away whatever had made her sad.
“Why are you here?” she asked. I’d caught her off guard. Now, back in her own element, she started to recover. She ran a hand through her silky hair. I’d been so glad to see her, I hadn’t really looked at her until now. She wore a tight black skirt and white blouse with the top button open. I could see a hint of the swell of her breasts and damn if my jeans didn’t tighten. I pushed those thoughts away. Though she’d straightened her back, something still made her vulnerable. Whatever else I planned by coming here, now I meant to find out why.
“Happened to be in the neighborhood,” I said. I walked down the patio, finding the edge of the pool. It dropped off and the blue water cascaded into a jacuzzi below it. I wondered if Quinn ever took the time to use it. Or was this just part of the trappings of her life, something people like her were supposed to have but never truly enjoyed? No sooner had that thought popped into my head before another one followed right behind. I wanted to watch Quinn slide naked beneath the water. I’d hold her close and kiss all of her pink parts as we watched the sun dip behind the hills.
“Right,” she said, setting her jaw to the side with a smirk. She crossed her arms in front of herself and kicked off her heels. Barefoot, she walked over, standing beside me.
“You’re not going to tell me why I found you crying?”
She raised a brow. “You sure you want to hear all of that?”
I turned to her. This had been a whim. A half-baked plan. But as I stood beside her, the sweet scent of her perfume filling my head, my answer thundered through me in time with my pulse. “Yes,” I said, crooking a finger beneath her chin. She tried to look away but I wouldn’t let her. She may have stopped crying, but whatever set her off still churned behind her eyes.
“I had a really shitty meeting with the producer of the film I wanted to make,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut. When she opened them, they glistened with new tears.
“Quinn?”
She pulled back. Then she hiked her skirt and sat at the edge of the pool, dangling her feet in. For an instant, it made her look like a little girl to me. She shielded her eyes from the sun as she looked up at me. I squatted down beside her.
“It’s just ... I know I should be grateful for all this.” She gestured toward the house then the view beyond it. “I am. I’ve worked my ass off to get it. It’s just …”
I took a stab at it. “They’re not going to let you make the movie you want?”
Letting out a defeated sigh, she splashed one foot through the water. “It seems the great and powerful Oliver Ransom thinks I’m only good for one thing.”
White haze clouded the edge of my vision. My pulse slammed into my ears. “Quinn.” My voice took a dark tone. I steadied my breath to try and get a hold of it. “Did he …”
“I’m not ungrateful,” she said. She hadn’t looked back up at me. She wasn’t yet aware of the quiet, powerful rage simmering inside of me. “The Ransoms signed a development deal with me based on the brand I’ve already established. I’m not trying to be one of those insufferable people who doesn’t realize how lucky they are. I am. I know it. And I’m not ridiculous enough to argue that my looks are some kind of curse. I know what people see. I know what they expect of me.”
It was as if I split into two people. There was the rational part of me that could hear and process everything she was saying. That guy wanted to tell her he knew what he saw. Then there was the other guy. The darkness. I held my breath waiting for her to say the thing that might change things forever.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m blathering.”
“Did he kill your movie?” I asked, stunned I could form a complete sentence.
She snorted out a bitter laugh. I wanted to wrap my arms around her. I wanted to bring her close to me and kiss her senseless and drive the sadness out of her eyes. Tiny beads of sweat formed at her temples. Her cheeks were flushed. Dipping her toes in the water wasn’t going to be enough.
There were wildfires raging far across the canyon. They probably wouldn’t reach this far, but the air had that charred smell and burning heat. I reached for Quinn, gently pulling her jacket off her shoulders. Her white silk top was sleeveless underneath and she drew her arms around her, even though I knew she wasn’t cold.
“He didn’t kill the movie,” she finally said. “But he killed mine. They want to go in a different direction.” She made air quotes around the last two words.
“They fired you?”
Quinn shook her head. “You know, I think that might have been better. They want me in the movie all right, but they want the brand. I’ll be there to look at and shake my tits so everyone gets their fantasy. You know who he wants to play you?”
“Me?”
Quinn smiled; she pulled her feet out of the pool and drew her knees up. “They want somebody like Lamar Brock, you know the actor in all those action movies who used to play in the NFL?”
“Yeah,” I said. “He’s Bear’s favorite. He’s got some kinda stupid catchphrase.”
“Dayum straight!” she said, doing a pretty good job mimicking the guy’s voice. “Broad comedy and boobs. That’s what Oliver Ransom wants.”
“So tell him to fuck off,” I said. “Do something else. Wait for something better.”
Quinn turned to me. Her sad smile gutted me. “This was it, Dom. This was my big chance to try and take control of my career. I’m never going to get another shot like this one. My choice is to do what Ransom wants, make the movie his way, or kiss my career goodbye.”
The white haze came into my line of sight again. It was as if my heart reacted faster than my eyes did. Quinn kept her arms wrapped around her knees. My eyes traveled up her and zeroed in on her left arm. Just above her elbow, the skin was discolored. Four reddish-purple streaks marred her perfect skin in the exact shape of a hand.
“Quinn.” The monster rose inside of me. I reached for her, careful not to grab her in the way I knew someone else had. I looked at her other arm. Three more bruised lines, fainter than the ones on her left arm, but still there.
“Tell me what happened,” I said, my tone flat. Quinn’s eyes widened and she slowly got to her feet.
“No, Dom.”
“Quinn ... tell me what happened! Did he do that to you? Did this Ransom fuck put his hands on you? Someone did. Don’t lie to me.”
She broke. Her eyes fluttered and she took a step back.
“Did me make you …” I couldn’t finish the sentence. Bile rose in my throat and my fingers played near the holster beneath my leather vest. I’d fucking kill him.
“He didn’t force himself on me,” she said. “Not like that. Not a ... casting couch situation. He just made it clear this movie needed to be made his way o
r not at all. It’s just ... God. It sounds naive to even say this. I know how this industry works. I’ve been in it since I was ten, remember? It was stupid of me to think they’d let me do something different. I mean, the money I make being this ... thing ... they created, it pays for all this. It keeps my mother and my agent secure. It keeps the studio secure.”
I dug my fists into my palms hard enough to draw blood.
“Dom,” she said. “I’m okay.”
“You’re not okay,” I said. Letting out a hard breath, I finally reached for her. Careful to use a gentle touch, I put a hand on her shoulder and guided her to me. Her breath hitched and she let me tuck her under my arm. I kissed the top of her head.
“I’m sorry,” she said, hiccupping. “I’m not like this. This isn’t who I am. It’s just, when you’re around you make me feel so ... well ... me.”
I leaned back so I could see her face. Though hers were red-rimmed, her smile finally reached them.
“Come on,” I said, my rage still at a rolling boil; I kept it out of my voice. “Let’s get the hell out of this heat.”
Quinn reached for me; lacing her fingers through mine, she led me back into her house. “I’m sorry I’m such a mess,” she said. “I’m glad you came, but I wish you’d called. You caught me at a bad time.”
I knew I’d caught her at exactly the perfect time. She let go of me and we wound our way to her kitchen at the back of the house. That was open too. She had a long, black granite bar in the middle of it. Her refrigerator took up an entire wall with see-through glass. She pulled out a bottle of wine and two glasses.
“You mind?” she asked. “I don’t usually stock beer or anything harder here. This is the good stuff though.”
Everything about this woman was the good stuff. She poured herself a glass then offered one to me. I couldn’t stop staring at the handprints on her arms. I just needed to know one thing, though I knew I might spook her if I pushed too hard.
“Oliver Ransom,” I said. I didn’t touch the wine but swirled it in the glass. “That’s who you met with today? Not our little friend Noel?”
Quinn nodded. “Oh no, Uncle Oliver and Noel hatched their plot to fuck me over days ago. Oliver was just there to drive the point home. He’s God in this town, Dom. If I don’t do what he says, my career is fucked. It’s either make The Club the way he wants or he’ll find another actress to do it.”
“And he put his hands on you to make his point?” I existed outside myself. How the fuck I was even able to form complete sentences was a goddamn miracle.
Quinn rubbed her arms, realizing for the first time I’d seen the bruises. I think it was the first time she saw them. She reached for her jacket and put it back on. Then, she saw my eyes.
“Dom.”
I took a drink of the wine. She was right, something harder would have been a hell of a lot better.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she said, her smile lit with genuine honesty for the first time. “But what did you expect to find?”
“I didn’t care what I’d find,” I said. That was true enough when I lit out of Port Azrael. Now that I was here, the answer was less clear. I’d just barged into Quinn’s world. She wasn’t hard to find and that alone scared the shit out of me. Even before today, I’d seen firsthand how badly people wanted to get to this woman. If I could find her with two phone calls, others could. That little rent-a-cop in the booth at the bottom of the hill couldn’t keep her safe.
She slid off her stool and came around the other side of the island. “I do wish you’d called,” she said. “I have to work tonight. I’ve got to go in and redub some lines for another movie I did. It could take a while. The director’s pretty picky.”
“Not another Ransom, I hope.”
She put a light hand on my sleeve. I knew she felt granite. I was projecting calm but not very well. “It’s not,” she said. “But I have to be out of here in less than an hour. Do you think you might ... stay?”
“What, wait for you here in this dump?” I asked. Quinn slid her arms beneath my leather cut. More than anything I wanted to draw her into me, fold my arms around her, and keep her safe from everything. She needed that. God, had this town jaded her so badly she didn’t see how much danger she was in?
“I’m not sure I like the idea of you heading out alone. You should have somebody with you.”
“Are you offering yourself up?”
I turned to her. She had her head tilted to the side; her eyes took on a dreamy quality. The blush rising in her cheeks lit a flame inside me. I wanted this woman. Yeah, I’d rode out here on a whim but now that I had her in my arms, I never wanted to let her go.
“I wish I could,” I said. “But I do have some business of my own to take care of while I’m here.”
“Hmm. Are the Dark Saints expanding all the way to Hollywood?” There was real curiosity in her tone.
“You still doing research?” I asked. I’d only meant it as a light question, maybe even a joke. The second I said it, I felt like a real ass. Quinn’s smile dropped. Of course, those Ransom assholes had smashed her dream. If the bruises on her arms weren’t enough of a reminder, there I went rubbing it in.
“I didn’t mean …”
“Oh,” she said, flapping a hand. “I know. I know what you meant. It’s okay. It’s just ... I have some decisions to make.”
I finally did pull her to me. Quinn sank against me and tilted her head back. She needed kissing. So did I. I touched my lips to hers, letting the heat unspool between us. She was so good. So sweet. If she sensed the darkness swirling around me, she didn’t let on.
“How late will you be?” I asked.
Quinn’s eyes snapped open and she gave me a full smile. “You’ll wait?”
“If you want me to.”
She lifted a hand to my brow and smoothed the hair back from my eyes. “God help us both, but I do. But Dom, it’s complicated. My life ... is complicated.”
“I’m not asking for a date, Quinn,” I said. “Nobody in your life has to know I’m here.”
She reared back. “No. I didn’t mean that. Dom, I don’t care what other people think about you. I mean, I do, because you’re ... that is ... you’re not ... shit. What I’m trying to say is that I care about you. And I don’t care who knows it. But yeah, heading out in public with you in this town is going to draw attention. I’d just like ... quiet. At least for a little while.”
“I get it.”
“Midnight,” she whispered. “I should be back by midnight.”
“You’ve got a driver?”
“I do. A good one.”
“And you’re not going to be around any asshole with the last name Ransom?” Again, my blood started to boil.
Quinn stepped out of my arms and crossed her heart. “No Ransoms. This project is with an entirely different studio. The last of my Night Terror movies. At least for now. I get to go scream into a microphone for a few hours. And you know? That might be kind of cathartic.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll meet you back here by midnight.”
“Good,” she said. “I’ll make sure they know to let you in down at the gatehouse. You’ve got my cell if you run into any problems. Now, the sooner I get down to the studio, the faster I can get back. Can I trust you to stay out of trouble for the rest of the day?”
Smiling, I pulled her back to me. The blood rushed straight to my dick. This woman cast a damn spell on me the second I laid eyes on her and it was only growing. I crossed my heart with my finger the same way she had done. Quinn kissed my nose and grabbed her purse and cell phone off the counter.
“Help yourself to anything,” she said. “Tomorrow, I’ll show you this town the right way.”
She blew me a kiss and headed for the door. The minute she closed it behind her, the darkness came back in and settled over my heart.
I went back outside and stood at the edge of the patio overlooking the canyon. I slipped my phone out of my jacket and dialed Axle. He answered on t
he first ring.
“You busy?” I asked, my tone a flat monotone. Axle read the seriousness of it instantly. As club enforcer, of course he was the first person I’d call. He could assemble a crew fast and get on a plane within the hour.
“What do you need?”
“There’s a guy,” I said. “He just messed with someone I … care about. I’m looking to send a message.”
“Quinn,” Axle said. “Man ... is she okay?”
“For now,” I said. “But nobody’s looking out for her. It’s just ... me.”
“Yeah,” Axle said. “I get that.”
“This one might make some noise. But it’s well out of town and, Axle, it’s worth it. I need you to call our guy and figure out where Oliver Ransom is going to be over the next twelve hours. He shouldn’t be hard to find.”
“Oliver Ransom. Shit, Dom, even I know who that is. You weren’t kidding about the noise. If you’re heading where I think you are with this, we gotta run it by Bear.”
“Go ahead,” I said gritting my teeth. I knew Bear. Josie had invited Quinn to the clubhouse. She didn’t have official friend-of-the-club status or anything, but Bear would know where I was coming from. I’d almost be willing to bet my life on his willingness to help.
Axle cleared his throat then a silence fell between us. I heard him draw in a sharp breath. “Okay. Are we making noise or are we doing something more permanent?”
“For now, noise,” I said, clenching my fist against my thigh. “But be ready for something permanent.”
“On my way,” Axle said and clicked off the phone. I lit a cigarette and took a drag as I watched the sun rise high over the canyon.
Chapter 15
Quinn
I’d told Dom I’d be home by midnight. It ended up closer to three a.m. I had a missed call and two texts from him when I finally left the recording studio. Bleary-eyed, throat burning, and my voice ragged from overuse, I slid into the backseat of the car while Jason, tonight’s driver, shut the door for me.
