Neanderthal Marries Human: A Smarter Romance (Knitting in the City) (31 page)

It felt like getting punched in the stomach
, she was so beautiful. She looked curious and composed, but not frightened, even though she’d been uncharacteristically quiet throughout the whole thing.

She was also wearing some kind of light pink wrap
dress, the kind that reminds me of a bathrobe, except the ties are connected. I knew, because I had previous experience with one of her other wrap dresses; all I had to do was pull the tie and the dress fell open.

I fucking hated Seamus.

I gritted my teeth and exhaled, fought the urge to order everyone out so that Janie and I could be alone. The only reason I didn’t was because my mother was right. Seamus wanted to make a statement. He was nothing but an irritating blip on my radar. If he didn’t put on his show now, it would be later.

My mother passed by me first, gave me a small smile,
and squeezed my arm. Then she surprised the hell out of me with a gentle peck on the cheek.

I felt twelve years old again. It made me feel forgiven.

Carl followed my mother. I was still shaking off my disorientation when he gave me a curt nod; I knew he would take care of them.

Janie trailed behind, hesitant, waiting for a cue
on how to act. She was so fucking smart it killed me. I grabbed her hand as she passed, settled for an irritatingly chaste kiss on her cheek. When she leaned close, I noticed that she smelled different, like perfume or a new soap, and I wanted to know why.

Stan
was last and muttered as he passed, “We’ll take them home.”

My
eyes slid back to Seamus before I said, “You do that.”

I heard the door shut.

Then
I walked to the bar and poured myself a whiskey, turning my back to the room. I was in no hurry now, and since I was in a bad mood, I was happy to share it with someone I disliked.

I downed the first glass with one quick swig
then poured two more generous fingers.

“
No thanks, I don’t want anything,” Seamus called.

“
I didn’t ask and I’m not offering.” I turned and glanced out the window of the presidential suite to the skyline of Boston beyond.

“
That’s not very nice.” Seamus whined, sitting down again. “After I did that solid for your girl.”

My eyes slid to t
he side and I glared at him.

“
He
gave
you all the money Jem stole.” Dan said this to his brother, shaking his head. “You didn’t do him a favor.”

“
I let her go, didn’t I?”

“
And Quinn could have busted open your operation with one phone call. You’d be rotting in prison right now, right?”

“
What are you doing here?” I asked the question slower this time, pausing menacingly between words.

Seamus shifted in his seat,
increasingly uncomfortable. “Didn’t know you were going to be so rude.”

“
Stop fucking around, asshole. Just spit it out.” Dan huffed, leaned back in the large leather club chair, and shook his head. He looked embarrassed.

Seamus was many things, but he was not stupid. He was resourceful, clever, and if he worked half as hard at a real job in a legit industry as he did laundering money, he
’d be very successful. But he didn’t. He was the ruler of a modest empire, one that I allowed to exist.

Or, rather, one
that I
had
allowed to exist. Because if I knew who needed money laundered on the East Coast, then I had valuable information.

But I didn
’t deal in information anymore, or at least I was trying to get out of it. This meant Seamus’s current position as the ruler of his realm was precarious at best.

And, right now, finding him in my suite, winking at
Janie, and keeping me from learning more about essential oil extraction methods, I was pretty sure Seamus’s reign was coming to an end.

“
I heard a rumor about you,” Seamus said, making a desperate show of his aggression.

I just
looked at him, because he hadn’t yet given me any reason to speak.

Seconds ticked by and he grew more agitated.

Finally, he blurted, “You’re one cold bastard, Quinn. I thought we were friends.”

“
No you didn’t.”

“
So, is it true? Are you cutting everyone out?”

I waited for a moment. Then
I strolled to the couch and sat down, stating the obvious. “This is a waste of my time.”

“
Are you going to cross me now?”

I squinted at him.
“Why would I do that?”

“
Because, if you’re not looking for influence, you don’t need my info.”

“
Seamus, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I run a security firm. I provide security for corporations—businesses, banks, hotels, et cetera. As far as I know, you are not affiliated with a corporation. You and I have nothing to do with each other.”

His eyes narrowed
and he studied my face like it held the key to his continued existence. “Just know this: you come after me, I come after you.”

Dan muttered a sacrilegious curse. He then followed it with,
“What are you even doing here, huh? What are you going to do? Send more guys to Chicago to get stabbed with knitting needles? Just let it go, Seamus.” He huffed in exasperation.

“
I can’t,” Seamus said to his brother, but his eyes never left mine.

“
You need to because Quinn is out; he’s been out for almost a decade, and everyone he cares about is untouchable.”

“
That’s a load of shit, Dan.” Seamus turned to his brother. “He isn’t out. He’s been building an empire, a global fucking empire of contacts, of people to use. He is the master of
using
people. I think I’m an excellent delegator, but I’m nothing,
nothing
in comparison. Now he wants to wash his hands? Too bad! Hands that dirty don’t get clean.”

“
Nothing we do is illegal.” Dan threw his hands up and yelled this to the ceiling.

“
Yeah, except the part about knowing. Your guy here is an accessory to hundreds of felonies because he
knows.
”

I was bored. Seamus
’s dramatics were boring.

“
Get to the point.” Dan sliced his hand through the air. “What do you want?”

“
I want assurance that your decade of squeaky clean information gathering isn’t going to come back and bite me in the ass, that’s what I want.”

Seamus wasn
’t the first person I’d had this conversation with. The first question most of my private clients had after they found out I was offloading their account was, “What assurances do I have that you’re going to keep my secrets?”

What they didn’t know
was that if the secret was bad enough, I’d already spilled it. People with reprehensible secrets weren’t used; they were exposed.

If the secret was drug distribution, human trafficking, or any other form of
mass destruction or exploitation of an individual, that information had already been passed to the right people, people who could make it stop without my involvement being revealed.

I knew
with certainty that my involvement would never be known because the right people—the people who ultimately made the bad guys pay—didn’t know I’d been the one to provide the evidence.

Luckily, very few of the private clients were of this type. Most of them were of the hiding funds offshore type,
the tax evasion type, the recreational drug user type, or the cheating on their spouse type. Their secrets ranged from embarrassing to potentially life and career devastating, but very rarely—in my estimation—consummately evil.

“
Seamus, you’re an idiot.” Dan was out of patience.

I glanced from one brother to the other. Physically, they were very similar, six foot, stocky, brown eyes.
They could have been twins. My brother Des and I didn’t even look related. We were approximately the same height, but he was blond and took after my mother.

Des
had been my hero; just like Seamus had been Dan’s hero. But whereas Des’s values of honor and courage were easy to admire, Seamus was a selfish asshole.

Seamus glared at his brother
. “Get off your fucking high horse….”

“
That’s enough.” This conversation was going nowhere and it needed to end. “Seamus, I have nothing to offer you other than assurance that I am entirely disinterested in your existence.”

Seamus
sniffed, scowled, but nodded. “Yeah. Okay…good.”

I waited a moment, allowed
him to relax, get comfortable in the promise of my indifference.

T
hen I added, “Don’t give me a reason to become interested.”

***

Just when I
thought the day couldn’t get any worse, more hell broke loose.

I walked into my parents
’ house and found Jem.

Actually
, I walked in on my dad slapping handcuffs on Jem. She was lying face down, her cheek pressed into the wood floor of the entranceway. He had one knee on her back, pinning her in place, though, giving credit to her crazy, she was doing her best to break free from his hold.

“
You haven’t read me my rights,
pig
,” she shouted as she squirmed, thrashing her long legs.

“
Fuck a duck, look who it is.” Dan stopped short just inside the door then glanced at my dad, “Sorry, Mr. Sullivan.”

My dad heaved a sigh
; otherwise, he appeared to be completely composed.

“
Where’s Janie?” I asked, craning my neck to check the living room.

“
Not here,” my dad answered. “They left this afternoon, aren’t back yet.”

Worry surged in my gut
, and I pulled out my phone. I turned away to call Stan.

“
Boss.” He answered on the first ring.

“
Where are you?”

“
Beau Boutique.”

I frowned.
“What the hell is that?”

“
The hell if I know. I’ve never seen so much pink in my life. How many dresses does she hafta try on? And they’re all white! The ladies are drinking champagne outta glasses the size of my thumb. But don’t worry, Boss. They don’t have beer. I asked.”

“
Jesus Christ, Stan….”

“
I know, right?”

“
No.” I hit my fist against the door jam. “You were supposed to bring them home.”

The line was silent for a moment then Stan whispered,
“You want me to take champagne from your mom?”

I rolled my eyes, t
hought about telling him to get his ass back to the house, but then I imagined Janie and my mom’s reaction if I tried to dictate their comings and goings. It was better that my mom stay and drink her champagne. Under the circumstances, it was probably good the ladies were out.

“Fine. They have one hour. Text Dan the address.”

I ended the call and turned, found Dan standing behind me.

“Everything okay?”

I nodded, glaring at him. Then, because all hell was breaking loose and Dan was keeping his shit together, I decided now was the moment.

“Will you be my best man?”

He blinked at me. Then his eyes narrowed and he looked abruptly irritated.
“Of course. Why the hell you even asking that shit? I’ve already talked to your mom about the tuxes.”

“
Good.” I tried to frown, failed. “Let’s go.”

We walked back to the entranceway where
my dad and my handcuffed future sister-in-law were still on the ground. I nodded once to my dad, communicating silently that Janie and Mom were fine, then shifted my attention to Jem. She was intermittently mumbling to herself then screaming. She had just tried to bite my dad’s arm, and was being giant a pain in the ass.

She wasn
’t supposed to be in Boston. She wasn’t even supposed to be in the States. I’d dropped her in Rio with a hundred thousand dollars in cash and a new passport. She promised me that she would disappear. I didn’t really believe her promise, but I hoped she would never be my problem again.

I
stepped into her line of sight, leaned against the wall, and rubbed my forehead. I was getting a headache. She looked tan, which—for her—meant very freckled. It also meant her eyes seemed lighter, not amber like Janie’s looked against her pale skin. Jem’s looked almost yellow.

“
I just left Seamus,” I said.

Panic
flickered behind her eyes. She quickly clamped down the flare of emotion and lifted her chin defiantly. “So? What do I care?”