Quinn (The Waite Family) (12 page)

Drew agreed.
He took several more bites before he finally took a large bite of salad.
This, too, was a work of art.
Fresh greens with small, cut up vegetables, salad dressing that was made by the cook and not purchased from a store.
Croutons that were still slightly warm and toasty sat on top with bits of fresh mozzarella too.

It wasn’t until they were served their cherry crunch that his grandda brought up Quinn again.
Drew felt so bad that he told him what had happened between the two of them, well, most of it anyway.
He wasn’t sure why, but he supposed it was because he needed to tell someone.

“She all right then?
Poor girl.”
He shook his head.
“You ever meet her ex-husband?
What was his name…Wicket, Carl Wicket.
Heard tell he was one sorry son-of-a-bitch.
Hit her too.”

Drew had heard that too.
“How long were they married?”

“I would say about two, maybe three years.
That other girl, Sydney, the one in the Special Forces, she came home on leave and took Quinn to the gym and taught her how to fight.
I’m pretty sure it wasn’t clean fighting either.”
Grandda cackled.
“Heard tell that boy lit out of town when he could move again after she took him on
,
a few days after he was released from the hospital.”

Drew laughed.
He could see her too, all up in someone’s face giving them what-for.
He leaned back in his chair, too full to think about moving. “You didn’t ask me if I did what she’d said. Why?”
He was touched by the shocked look on Grandda’s face.

“Because I know I didn’t raise you to hurt a woman.
She’s had a hard life.
You want her, you’re going to have to help her get over that part of her life.
She is more than worth it, if you ask me.”

Drew played with his melting ice cream on his plate and didn’t look up when he answered.
“I don’t. Want her, I mean.
I know what you say is true. She has a lot of…hurt, I guess, but I want no part of it.
No part of any woman for that matter. I’m not getting married, Grandda. I told you that before.”

“Son, you know you don’t mean that.
She’s in love with you and if I’m not mistaken, you’re in love with her.
Drew, don’t—”

Drew’s cell phone ringing saved him from having to lie to his grandda about his feelings for Quinn. He was in love with her, but there was no way he was going to marry her. Not anyone for that matter.
He was happy to see the ID was Alyssa.
He’d even take her knowing what happened between him and Quinn right now over having this conversation with Grandda.

“We’re back home now. Everything is fine.
But…but the building has been trashed. Whoever got in managed to ransack the place pretty good before the police arrived.

~~~

Quinn looked at what was once her office. It was a mess. Her computer was in several pieces on the floor and all the keys on her keyboard were strewn all over the room.
Filing cabinets had been turned over on their sides and though they couldn’t be opened, they had done a great deal of damage to the outside of them. Even her chair, her favorite chair, hadn’t been spared. There were slash marks all over it and the stuffing pulled out, and it too all over the room.
Quinn sat down on one of the turned over cabinets and looked around. It wasn’t until she spoke that she realized Alyssa was there.

“It’s just stuff.
Nothing here that can’t be replaced.”
She came over and sat next to her on the cabinet.
“I’ve already had you set up in another office on the upper floors near mine.
All you need to do is go and pick out some furniture for it.”

Quinn didn’t want new furniture. She wanted this furniture.
She leaned over and picked up a broken plant and tried to push in back in the dirt.
It wasn’t salvageable so she tossed it back down.

“Do you know who did it yet?”
She had seen the other offices and hers wasn’t even the worst of the mess currently being cleaned up.

“No. The police said kids, but I don’t think so.
I don’t want to brag, but I’m not sure that the ‘kids’ in this area would do this to us.
I have some of my friends asking around. If any of them know anything I’ll know it soon enough.”

Alyssa had spent ten years living on the streets until just recently. She had been hiding from her mother and uncle at the time.
And she was right, if any
one of the homeless people knew then they would tell Alyssa in a heartbeat. They loved her very much. Then there were all the things she’d done for them as well.

“I guess I should get to the store.
I don’t suppose you’d like to come with me, would you?”
Quinn looked over at the door before she answered and noticed the big man standing there.

“I’m afraid he’ll have to come with us.
Cain has decided I need a bodyguard until this is settled.
That’s Franz Kennedy.
He’s on duty until noon and then someone else takes over.” Alyssa didn’t look happy about it, but Quinn knew that she was touched that Cain cared.

They were riding over to the office store when Quinn thought about Drew. She’d not seen him all morning and wondered about that. She thought he’d come by at least once to make sure…she wasn’t sure what he’d make sure of, but she hoped he’d come by.
She had something to say to him.
She had all her notes in her bag and had rehearsed them several times so that she could say it just right.
There were eight pages. She hoped he’d let her get at least halfway finished before he walked away. Somehow, she doubted she’d get the first sentence out before he left her.
Quinn realized she’d missed something from Alyssa when she laughed.

“Where were you just now?
I even started telling you about the incredible sex Cain and I had last night and you didn’t bat an eye.
I had the same problem with Drew before he left this morning too.”

“Left? Where did he go?”
Quinn knew she’d made a mistake in asking the moment Alyssa lifted her brow.
“I was just wondering with all that’s going on why he’s not here trying to make sure you don’t get into any trouble with the insurance company or something.”

Alyssa didn’t say anything for so long Quinn fidgeted on the seat. She normally didn’t squirm, but Alyssa was making her nervous.

“He was. Here, I mean. But something came up in one of the offices in Paris and he went to oversee it. He should be back sometime next week or the week after. Why?”

The car door was being opened and Alyssa handed out seconds later. Quinn hoped it would give her enough time to come up with an answer.
She wasn’t sure what to say even after having to pretend to forget her purse and go back inside the plush car and get it.
She was hoping Alyssa would forget the whole thing once they got inside the store, but no such luck. As soon as the clerk left them alone, Alyssa asked her again.

“I just thought as your lawyer he’d need to make the claims for the insurance, that’s all. What happened in Paris?”

“There were some issues with one of the hotels.
Some talk about them going on strike.” Alyssa put her hand on her arm and looked at her.
‘”Quinn, tell me what’s going on. Please? You’re my friend.”

Quinn looked at the desk in front of her and came to a decision. She couldn’t hide from Alyssa and she knew it. So she decided to give her half of the truth.
Soon it would be time to take action, but not today.

“Nothing.
We just had another fight. You know how we are always at one another’s throats.” She turned away to hide the hurt.
“I like this one.
And I think I like that credenza over there too.”

Alyssa looked as if she wanted to say more, but didn’t. Quinn was relieved when the salesclerk came back and helped them with their purchases.
It was a long day, but Quinn knew she’d made the right decision in not telling her.
She knew that she’d hurt Alyssa, but she also knew that she would forgive her.

Shannon was on hold.
As much as she hated making an appointment, she needed to get in to see her daughter. She looked down at her list of things she needed Alyssa to take care of while the hold music droned in her ear.
She’d been on hold for nearly ten minutes already.

She’d tried to get in
to see Alyssa again two weeks ago, but with all the camera crews and police there she decided to wait.
She’d had to purchase a paper to find out what was going on.
Someone had tried to break in. The paper had said that it had made a mistake in the reporting of the incident and it wasn’t kids breaking in and they now had been told it was vandalism from a group of people.
The paper said the police w
ere
investigating information given to them by an outside source.

The first person Shannon thought of was Guinevere.
She said she was going to make them pay and Shannon thought it was just the kind of white trash thing she’d do. Hire thugs to break into a building and wreak havoc.
All she’d managed to do was tighten security and to make Shannon’s life much more difficult.
Shannon wished the woman would just go away and leave them all alone.

“Hello, Mrs. Howard? I’m sorry you had to be on hold for so long. The service said that you wanted to make an appointment to see Mrs. Waite.
Can you tell me what this is regarding?”

Shannon wanted to scream at her, but knew from past experience all that got her was hung up on and still no appointment.

“Yes. I’m her mother. I’ll come in and see her today. This morning would be good for me.
I can be there at around eleven.”
Shannon heard the small laugh, but ignored it.

“Mrs. Howard, I’m afraid I don’t have any openings for today. The next appointment I have open is…let me see.”
Shannon could hear the clicking of nails on a keyboard.
“The next appointment I have open for her is on Monday, September twenty-second.”

Shannon looked over at the calendar on her desk. It was June tenth.
Three months, she expected her to wait three months to see her own daughter? Oh no, that wasn’t going to fly.

“I’m afraid that simply won’t do. I need to talk to her now. You will need to bump someone and put me into their slot for today.
I refuse to wait over three months to come in and have a very important conversation with my own daughter.”
Shannon’s temper was on the edge and it took all she had to reel it in.
“I would request that you contact Alyssa and tell her that I need to see her immediately. Tell her…tell her that it’s a matter of life or death.”

With a “hold please,” Shannon was back to listening to elevator music.
She knew she had lost it, and took several deep breaths to try and regain control of her temper.
The nerve of that girl, her own daughter, treating her as if she was less than what she was when she’d hired and fired her kind daily when she’d been in charge.

She should have known all along that her husband had loved his precious daughter more than he did her.
Shannon didn’t think having affairs like she had should have had any bearing on her part of his estate. And what on earth had he expected her to do, wait around for him to be there for her?
It was entirely his fault that she’d had to turn to others for sex.
And then to be reduced to begging for money was beyond cruel. If Nathan were still alive she’d murder him herself for the way she was—