Irrefutable (The Apprehensive Duet Book 2) (24 page)

Her pissed off glare slowly morphs to guilt then exhaustion. “Sorry. It didn’t really occur to me to think outside the box. But in my defense it’s been nonstop. I’m stressed and frustrated and I kind of need you to cut me some slack please. I’ll try to be a little more insightful.”

I can tell she’s drained and still upset, so I push it all away for right now. I’ve made my point. No reason to hash it out now when something obviously didn’t go right. “Okay. But we’re coming back to this later because I’m pretty pissed about it. What went wrong? Couldn’t find it?”

Quinn finally takes off her coat and sighs. “Oh, I found it. But I need a shot before I tell the rest of the story.”

Turning, she heads toward the kitchen and I follow as she heads straight for the bottle of vodka on the counter.

Wordlessly, Quinn grabs the bottle, pours a shot and downs it all in one giant gulp. A red hue shades her face as a look of disgust follows it.

“How the fuck were you drinking that with no chaser?” she gasps wiping the drops of liquor sitting in the corner of her mouth.

I’m guessing the quick topic change means that Quinn needs a small distraction right now.

You’d never know by her seemingly cool demeanor, perfect black dress pants, and pristine silk blouse that she’s probably freaking the fuck out on the inside. She’s on the verge of crashing and not a hair is out of place. If I didn’t know Quinn, I’d think she was an incredibly hot, in control woman who just drank a nasty shot.

“This coming from the woman whose drink of choice is a dirty martini. Besides, I was too busy to notice the nastiness of it because I was kind of having a heart attack over here.” I smile, giving her the distraction she’s seeking.

She shoots me a sad smile and says “Well, I guess I was doing you a favor then because this tastes like shit.”

Reaching around Quinn, I open the cabinet that I keep the liquor in and step back. “Take your pick of something better. I think Tiff had some wine stocked in there too. Want me to go grab you the sweats you left here last weekend? Seems like you could use something comfortable.”

“Oh my God, yesss,” she agrees, her entire body deflating as she rests her forearms on the counter and hangs her head.

The sound of bottles clanging together as Quinn shifts through them can be heard down the hall as I head to get her clothes. Quinn is struggling with opening a bottle of wine when I get back to the kitchen.

“Here,” I say handing her the clothes. “Go change and I’ll do this.”

“Thanks,” she answers softly and heads toward my bedroom.

While opening the bottle for her, I find it hard to hold on to the anger I was feeling at her when she walked through the door. It was pretty fucked that she didn’t have the decency to call me, but at the same time I understand she’s under a lot of pressure. But I need to remember that this time around I can’t let her walk all over me again. So for now, I’ll let it go until she tells me what went on today.

Grabbing a glass from the other cabinet, I pour Quinn’s wine and get myself a bottle of water from the fridge. With a drink in each hand, I head in to the living room and wait for Quinn.

As soon as she reemerges in her bright pink sweats, I pat the seat next me and say, “Come on. You’ve got some talking to do.”

She grabs her glass off the table before sitting and making herself comfortable. “I found the file,” she says bringing the glass to her lips and taking a sip. “But we can’t do anything with it.”

Huh?

“What do you mean you can’t do anything with it? How is it possible to find a completely fraudulent file and not be able to use it?”

Sighing, she begins explaining to me. “Jordan called our lawyers as soon as I got to his office with the file. After going over it with a fine tooth comb, they said there was nothing they could use. Everything in the file led back to me and only me. Even the bank accounts. He pulled off the perfect plan it seems.”

She sounds so defeated, and that’s not the Quinn I used to know. The old Quinn would’ve grabbed this problem by the balls and stormed through. “You can’t give up.”

“We’re not, yet,” she assures me just before downing half her glass. “Jordan has a friend with the Feds. He reached out to see what she thinks, but he hasn’t heard back from her yet.”

What the fuck? “If he’s got a contact in the FBI, why the hell didn’t he just call her in the first place?”

“Because they used to fuck, and from the way he sounded a little hesitant on calling, it didn’t end well, so he didn’t want to have to call in that favor unless we had to.”

This situation just keeps getting better and better. As soon as she gets a break, it’s like taking twelve steps back. Even though it goes against everything inside me as a man I hope like hell Jordan can pull this off for her. Regardless of how much I hate him being the one saving her, I still need her saved. She can’t keep going on like this. We can’t keep going on like this. How the hell are we supposed to start working on a life together when we’re constantly fighting her father instead of fighting for us? Everything is on the back burner right now and I have a feeling that one day soon everything just might boil over.

“Can you be out of the office by seven tonight?” Alex asks just before I’m about to say goodbye.

It’s freezing today and I have another block until I get to my building. If I hadn’t needed to get out of the office so bad, I would’ve ordered lunch in so I didn’t have to deal with this bitter cold wind. “I’ll probably be done at my office by then, but I have to meet Jordan after,” I tell him as I pull my coat tighter around me.

Sitting inside my office after everything that happened this weekend was getting to be too much for me. I needed to get away. Dr. Stein wasn’t in today so I called Alex instead. Lucky for me he was already heading into the city.

“Meet me outside your building at seven,” Alex instructs me. “We’re going out.”

His timing is terrible. “We can’t go out tonight. Jordan and I are meeting regarding the merger.” We’ve decided to use talking about the merger as a cover for the plan. Alex knows we’ve been waiting to hear from Jordan’s friend. It took Jordan three days to get her to even meet with him about the file. Usually the Feds are jumping to get a tip for a big player, so Jordan must have really fucked this woman over. But now that we have the meeting, I’m not missing it.

“We have a date,” Alex says sternly.

Talking in code sucks because we have no set code. Just guessing at riddles. Anyone listening in would think that we’re high on something. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Chuckling at me in irritation, Alex calmly says, “Seven o’clock. Just trust me, Quinn.”

Because that’s not ominous or anything.

“START EXPLAINING NOW, please,” I demand as soon as I get close enough to Alex to not have to yell.

“Well, hello to you too,” he says with a bright smile as he turns to hail a cab.

Guess you can smile when you’re the one who knows what the hell is going on. “Answers, Alex. You’ve had me a freaking wreck since this afternoon.”

Shaking his head, he argues “No way. This is all on Jordan. I’m just the messenger. You want to blame someone, blame him.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I ask as Alex ushers me into the cab waiting at the curb.

“Jordan called me after he finished speaking to you,” he begins. “Apparently, he really fucked this FBI chick over, and she told him no way was she doing him a favor no matter how big of a catch it was. Somehow he worked her down and got her to agree to meet with him but he had to take her to dinner.”

Are you shitting me?
“Has he lost his fucking mind? He pulled a morning-after-sneak-out on the girl and now he thinks it’s a good idea to take her on a date when he needs a favor from her? He’s going to fuck this up!”

“Chill out,” he says sliding flush against me and tossing his arm over my shoulder. “Jordan’s going out to a nice dinner and hopefully will smooth talk his way into getting help, and we’ll get to have a nice night too.”

“I’m more worried about him smooth talking his way into her pants and fucking this up for us,” I pout. Jordan’s been starting to come out of the box he forced himself in when he thought he had feelings for me. I’m worried he’s going to try adding this chick to his party.

“Oh stop,” he chides. “Put a smile on your face and pretend like you’re a little excited to spend the night on a date with me.”

Picking my head up, I tilt it toward him and smirk, “A date, huh?”

“Yes, a date,” he nods. “A night where we’ll finally be free to be ourselves. No one following us taking pictures. We have some reconnecting to do. I want to hear more about all the non-blackmail shit you’ve been up to the last few years.”

Hearing about all the ways the two of us spent that time away from each other is not high up on my list of fun. I’m not stupid to think that Alex hasn’t been with a slew of girls, I mean look at him. I just don’t want to think about them or how one of them is probably better for him.

“Relax,” Alex whispers softly into my ear. A little chill runs through me as the warmth of his breath hits the sensitive skin below my ear. “Nothing to be worried about, Quinn. But it is something that we need to discuss.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” I sigh nestling into his side as we make our way to where Alex has picked to have dinner.

THE AIR AROUND our table is so full of uncertainty it’s stifling. Now that we’ve placed our orders and there’s nothing to distract me, I feel stuck in this awkward stare-off with Alex. He picked one of my favorite seafood restaurants on the water near my house. At least I’m not far from home in case this doesn’t end well. We’re about to rip open old wounds, and I don’t really agree with it, but I know Alex seems to need it.

“We can’t avoid it forever,” Alex breaks the silence. “You need a distraction for the night and we’re not using sex this time. I know you don’t want to do this, but I need the truth, Quinn. I need to know why you just cut me off. I’ve been avoiding asking for the last two weeks, but I told you you’d hear about my needs and this is one of them. I need to know why. How could you do that? I get being scared and angry, but you were as cold as fucking ice to me.”