“Why don’t you just call her?”
“Quay.”
“What?”
“Leave it.”
“Then leave your mood at the crib, man. We don’t need it round here. You got half the building afraid to talk to you,” Quay chastised, glaring when he received a flippant wave from Quest. “What happened between the two of you?” he queried softly.
Quest turned suddenly, slanting Quay a fierce stare before he literally brushed past him.
Quay, of course, was undaunted and simply followed his brother to the other side of the office. “You’re a fool if you let her get away,” he surmised.
Quest had just reached his desk when he heard the words. Both hands curled into massive fists, which he brought thundering down to the maple surface. Everything jumped in response. A few papers and a cup of pens splashed to the floor.
Quay stood quietly, taking in his brother’s murderous expression. Silence bathed the room until the phone buzzed. “Yeah, Jazz, this is Quay,” he greeted.
“Um, hey, Quay. Is Quest there by any chance?”
“He’s here, J,” Quay supplied when Quest remained mute.
“Michaela is here to see him.”
Quay fixed Quest with a taunting look. “Send her up, Jazz,” he told her.
“You stay out of this, Quay,” Quest ordered, his tone low and dangerous.
Quay folded his hands across his chest. “Or what?” he challenged, grinning devilishly at his twin. “Seriously, Q,” he said, sobering a little. “She’s too special. I won’t let you lose her.”
Quest blinked, looking as though he was actually surprised that his brother noticed about Mick what he had the moment he’d met her. The elevator chimed then and its doors opened.
Mick felt much the way she had the first day she’d stepped into the Ramseys’ hallowed penthouse office. Like before, she was uncertain and curious. But with those feelings came a new sensation of being hopelessly in love. She was there to tell Quest that she was leaving. Childish as it may have been, she prayed he would ask her to stay. As much as she wanted to help Johnelle Black, she knew she’d stay if he asked her to. Aside from their fiery physical encounters, she had no idea of his feelings. Perhaps this meeting would tell her if his feelings even trickled in the same direction as hers.
“Hey, girl!”
Mick uttered breathless laughter at the sound of Quay’s roar before she was pulled into one of his crushing hugs.
“How you doin’? I hardly get the chance to see you with my brother keeping you locked away,” Quay complained playfully.
Mick tossed a few curls from her eyes and returned Quay’s broad grin. “I’m good, and I see I don’t need to wonder how you are.”
Quay winked. “Lookin’ good, huh?” he said, probing shamelessly for a compliment.
Despite her mood, Mick couldn’t resist laughing. “Is Quest here?” she finally got around to asking.
“Come on,” Quay instructed, dropping an arm around her shoulders as he led her deeper into the office.
Mick’s shivers had nothing to do with the long, muscular arm settled across her shoulders or the sheer fabric of the powder-blue shirt she wore. She had never relished confrontation.
“Q, look who’s here!” Quay bellowed, when he brought Mick into the main office. He grinned at his twin, even as his eyes narrowed in a clear warning for his brother to remain civil.
Quest’s hazy gray stare had already softened. He had no idea how much emotion radiated from his stunning gaze. He nodded once toward Michaela.
Quay rubbed his hands together, satisfied by his reaction. “All right, sweetness, I’m gonna give y’all some privacy,” he told Mick.
“Actually, Quay,” she called, curving her hand across his wrist, “you should hear this too,” she said, risking a quick glance at Quest. “I spoke with Johnelle Black,” she announced.
Quay’s dark gaze lost its cool, relaxed appearance. Instantly, he realized why his brother was in such a foul mood.
“We talked about her daughter,” Mick said. “She doesn’t believe it was suicide and wants me to conduct a new investigation.” She stopped and turned to Quest. “I accepted. I’ll be leaving Seattle in a couple of days.”
Quest went rigid, his eyes now as black as the shirt he wore. He couldn’t move, though every nerve ending cried out that he do something—anything to stop her from going.
Say something! Mick pleaded silently, knowing she was a fool. You, say something! she ordered herself. No! As badly as she wanted this man—wanted to be a part of his life—she would not humiliate herself more by begging him. After all, she was in love with him, not the other way around.
Sighing, she turned back to Quay. “Thanks for being so great,” she said and laughed when he pulled her into another crushing embrace.
“Don’t you be a stranger,” he ordered, pressing a kiss into her curls.
“You either,” Mick said, her voice a bit muffled against the fine fabric of his blackberry suit coat.
Across the top of Mick’s head, Quay fixed his twin with a disgusted stare.
“Bye,” Mick whispered as she stepped back. With barely a glance in Quest’s direction, she all but ran from the room.
“Fool,” Quay breathed at his brother, before he too left the office.
Alone, Quest stared down at his desk but a moment, before he shoved all the contents to the floor.
“Mick, wait!”
Michaela’s steps halted on her way to the elevator. She whirled around, her eyes blurry with tears. On seeing the man bounding toward her, her first thought was that it was Quest. Her face clouded again when she saw that she was mistaken. “Oh, Quay, it’s you.”
“Sorry, baby,” he apologized, frowning when he saw the wetness on her cheeks. “Hey,” he soothed, using his thumbs to dry her face.
The tender gesture forced another slew of tears from her eyes. The elevator doors opened then and Quay hurried her inside.
“It’s all right,” he continued to reassure her as she cried fervently.
“Damn it,” Mick muttered, pulling away. “Weak,” she called herself, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “Damn tears,” she hissed.
“Hey, don’t do this,” Quay whispered, keeping his hands folded across her upper arms as he leaned down to peer directly into her eyes.
“I shouldn’t have come here today,” Mick said, through her sniffles. “I knew it wouldn’t make a difference, but I had to see him.”
“You don’t have to explain a damn thing to me. Hell, I’m glad you’re doing this, Mick.”
The sadness left Mick’s eyes as her curiosity soared. “What?” she whispered.
Quay’s gaze was unwavering. “I need you to do this.”
The elevator arrived on the ground floor, but Quay gave Mick a chance to prepare herself before he let the doors slide open.
“Jazz, hold my calls. I’m taking Ms. Sellars to her car,” he told his assistant.
When they reached the rental Altima she’d acquired after her third week in Seattle, Mick just stood at the driver’s-side door. She waited patiently, simply staring up into Quaysar’s handsome face.
“The party that night was my idea,” he said, folding his arms across his chest while leaning against the trunk of the hunter-green car. “Quest had to get the room in his name because I had a…not so nice reputation with many of the finer hotels in town.” He grinned with a shrug. “My parents were sick of it and not about to put their names to a room I’d be in charge of.”
“Who was Sera there to see?” Mick asked, easing her hands into the pockets of her silver-gray crop pants.
Quay shook his head. “Probably me. She didn’t have class with Quest or any of our other cousins who went to the school. At least I don’t think she did,” he added quietly. “Anyway, I don’t know if she even knew the other guys who were there.” He looked over at Mick. “Far as I know, Sera Black was no one’s ‘girl.’ Everybody knew her, though. Pretty, smart
, somethin’ special. Too special to be played with or messed over. She wasn’t easy and we Ramseys didn’t like to work for our sweets back then, if you know what I mean. Still, Sera liked us for some reason. Liking me is probably what got her killed.”
Mick stepped closer. “Quay—”
“Didn’t you know?” he cut in, standing to fix her with a lopsided grin that held little amusement. “I’m cursed.”
“Huh?”
“Ask Quest. Hell, ask anybody in my family. Every girl who ever really liked me, moved away, came up missing…or died.”
“Quay—”
“You think I’m exaggerating? I wish I could think like that,” he said, his onyx stare softening as he reminisced. “Q is the only one who knows this, but in high school there was a girl. I had to let her go because of this crap.”
Mick pressed her lips together and stepped closer to rub Quay’s shoulder.
“I loved her, Mick. She was the only one. The only one, Mick,” he stressed, fixing her with a stern look. “That was in high school. Do you know how many women I’ve known since then? None of ’em ever came close to her.”
“So you invited Sera to the party?” Mick asked, hoping to shift the conversation away from the woman who still haunted Quay’s dreams.
Quay cleared his throat. “Only the guys were invited,” he clarified, smoothing a hand across his close-cut waves. “There was an open invitation for all the girls—as many as we could fit into that room.”
“Would’ve been easy for her to go unnoticed then,” Mick pointed out.
Quay curved a fist into his palm. “I wouldn’t know. Drunk as I was.”
“You don’t remember anything?”
“Not a damn thing, besides what I just told you and after I woke up.”
“Where were you?”
“In the hotel room. In bed, butt-ass naked.” Quay shook his head, staring off as though he was envisioning the scene. “Q was sitting at the foot of the bed, he was the only one there, he—he looked like he was in a daze or somethin’. I started to call to him, and then I heard the screaming. I never asked Q what he was doin’ there just sittin’ spaced out like that, and he never asked why I was naked in bed and passed out while a naked girl was splattered on the sidewalk below our room.”
Mick propped both hands on her hips. “What do you think happened?”
“I don’t know!” he snapped, leaning back against the car. “But I’ve been too scared for too long, Mick. I need answers. The only reason this thing was covered up is that Q was involved. My parents never asked him to explain it. They just did what they had to do to make it go away. But I know, Q, it’s me I’m concerned about.”
“You think you—”
Quay was shaking his head helplessly. “The Ramseys got a lot of secrets, Mick. Second generation out did the elders royally. Quest’s always been there tryin’ to protect us fools. I just pray none of this involves him.”
“So do I,” Mick whispered.
Catrina Ramsey had always taken pride in the fact that she never interfered with her sons’ private affairs. By doing so, she’d received the greatest reward. They came to her with their worries willingly without her ever having to ask. She basked in knowing her boys held her opinion in such high regard.
But now, one of her boys was keeping her out of the loop. Catrina realized she was indeed like every other mother on earth: nosy and proud of it!
When the elevator doors opened to the penthouse office at Ramsey Group, Catrina walked in with the grace of a queen. “Quest? Quaysar?” she called.
Her voice was soft—so soft that people often wondered how the tall, molasses-toned beauty with such fragile looks had managed to rear two rambunctious boys at once. Catrina, however, was patient to a fault. That soft voice she possessed held an underlying firmness that warned her twins and every other man she knew to stand and take notice.
The elevator doors closed with a soft thud while Catrina stepped slowly through the dim office. She found comfort in the mellow atmosphere of her surroundings while natural motherly concern told her the boys should work in better lighting.
“Quaysar? Quest?” she tried again. Again she received silence as her answer. Sighing her disappointment, she debated on leaving.
“Price for admission is a kiss.”
Catrina whirled around, hearing the voice sound from the depths of the room. Propping both hands on her slender hips, she grinned. “That’s a price I don’t mind paying.” She laughed seeing Quest emerging from the shadows. They shared a hug and Catrina paid her price by smacking a kiss to her elder twin’s jawbone.
Quest, like his brother, always enjoyed visits from Catrina. If it was true that laughter was the best medicine, Catrina Ramsey had a storage tank full of the stuff. That day, however, she wasn’t there for comic relief as she quickly informed her son when he questioned her visit.
“I’ve noticed you’ve been down lately,” she said, slipping her hand through the crook of Quest’s arm.
He laughed shortly and bowed his head. “How could you tell that when we’ve hardly seen each other over the last few weeks?”
“And I don’t like being shut out,” Catrina argued, with a quick toss of her head that sent her beautiful clipped sliver-gray locks bouncing around her face.
“Quest ran a hand across the back of his neck. “Ma—”
“Who is she?”
The soft question caught Quest off guard and he hesitated.
Catrina noticed and her mahogany-brown eyes widened expectantly.
“Aren’t you sick of hearing about our women problems?” Quest inquired, folding his arms across his navy short-sleeve crew-neck shirt.
Catrina’s expression was serenity personified. “I never tire of it, because those problems are always so interesting,” she admitted, unable to contain her laughter then.
“So happy we can amuse you,” Quest told his mother, his expression sour.
“Oh, baby,” Catrina soothed, stepping closer to pat his chest, “I just know something’s different. True, we haven’t seen much of each other lately, but when we have, I’ve noticed something about you that concerns me.”
Quest looked down into his mother’s upturned face. At first, his misty gray gaze revealed nothing, but slowly his resolve began to crumble. “It’s very confusing, Ma,” he admitted with a shake of his head. “I’ve never met anyone like Mick.”
Catrina eased one hand into a side pocket in her cream flair-legged pants. “Mick? Sounds spunky,” she noted with a sly smile.
“Short for Michaela. Michaela Sellars,” he explained.
“What a beautiful name,” Catrina said, going to perch on the back of the sofa. “Sounds sort of familiar.”
“She was here to write that book we all said no to,” Quest told her, stretching out on the sofa. “She agreed not to write it, but she’s spoken with Johnelle Black and the woman’s convinced her to at least get on board with a new investigation into Sera’s death.”
“I see.” Catrina sighed, a part of her praying this new investigation would actually be a good thing. “So where do things stand between the two of you now?” she asked.
“Nowhere,” Quest said, frowning as he recalled the scene in his office two days ago. “She’s left Seattle.”
“And you just let her go?” Catrina snapped suddenly, turning to glare at her son from her perch on the sofa.
Quest watched his mother with a look of total exasperation. “Ma, didn’t you just hear what I told you? She’s going to dig up all that old mess.”
“Maybe she will,” Catrina predicted with a shrug. “But I don’t think that’s why you didn’t stop her from leaving.”
Something flickered in Quest’s deep-set eyes and he looked away. “Ma, I admit it, I don’t have a clue what to do. I sure as the devil don’t know what to say to her.”
“How about I love you?”
“Love?”
“Don’t you?”
The simple question sent real
ization rolling in like a tidal wave. Quest pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes. “Ma, I’m in trouble,” he groaned.
“And I’m so happy for you.” Catrina laughed.
“I don’t even know what to make of my own feelings, let alone hers,” he said, pushing himself up on the sofa. “She’s so closed off sometimes. She gets this faraway look in her eyes and I know there’s a lot of pain fueling that look.”
“Is it from a past love?” Catrina asked.
Quest shook his head slowly. “I can’t say. How in the world did she get under my skin so fast? I don’t really know a thing about her.”
Catrina leaned over to pat his cheek. “Maybe it’s time you found out.”
Again, Quest’s expression clouded. “The way things happened before…it’s probably too late. She’s so damn tough. I don’t know.”
“Are you afraid she won’t be completely open with you?”
“I honestly don’t know, Ma,” Quest said, so frustrated he bolted from the sofa. “I can’t even begin to figure her out. I think if she answered every last question I’d lay out for her, I’d still be starved to know more.”
The firm admission only increased Catrina’s delight. She couldn’t believe he was so uneasy over this woman, when he’d known so many. Yes, she thought, her baby was definitely in love.
Savannah, Georgia
Michaela arrived in the city on a mission. She was there to meet with Jamilla Stokes and Harriet Forman, former classmates of the Ramseys and Sera Black. When Mick left the airport, however, she was stunned, having never visited the beautiful southern city. Evidence of its rich culture was everywhere. Mick spent her time strolling the quaint shops, enjoying a late lunch at a Creole café, and taking in the myriad of sights. She told herself not to get caught up in the beauty of another city, remembering what had just happened.
She knew, of course, that she was safe on that count. She’d never have to worry over losing her heart to another man. Quest Ramsey, she believed, had effectively spoiled her for any other and she hadn’t even slept with him…yet.
A Lover's Dream Page 14
