Quinn (The Waite Family) (25 page)

Drew took his hand and stood. He was pulled into a huge bear hug that made him wince.
The man could hug like nobody Drew knew.

“Mr. Miller,

As you have noticed, I’m no longer at the hospital. I won’t go into details as to how I left, but I will tell you why.

I left because frankly, I don’t like you very much. And as you and I don’t seem to get along very well I’m sure you’ll understand that we would never work as a married couple. But we do have a child together.

I won’t keep you from the baby. I’m not the monster you seem to think I am and I wouldn’t do that to either you or the child. I will also keep you informed via a lawyer about the progress of my pregnancy and anything about said child.

Stay away from me. Please.

Quinn S. Waite”

Tommy read the letter again and tried very hard not to admire the girl. She had spunk, he’d give her that.
He grinned when he thought about her taking on an armed man when his wife had been in his clutches.
Yep, Tommy thought, he was going to enjoy having her as a daughter.
He looked up when his wife sat next to him.

“She’s got him in a twist, doesn’t she?”
Tommy nodded at Rose.
“I’m going to enjoy watching these two together. How about you?”

Tommy smiled bigger. “I was just thinking the same thing.
Do you think we should tell him where she is?”

Tommy had had several private detectives watching her for several days now. He’d known the moment she’d left the hospital and with whom.
The Grant women were a scary bunch and he hoped to never cross one of them.

The women, all five of them, minus the cop, had gone to the hospital about an hour after Drew had left according to the report he’d been given.
When they left they’d been a party of seven.
Mrs. Parker had shown up not long after they got there and had a car waiting out front for them.
His men had lost them twice and only figured out they’d taken Quinn to the airport because his pilot had noticed the Grant jet sitting on the tarmac when Tommy had called and asked him if he could walk around the hub and keep an eye out for the women.

“Strange thing, Mr. Miller,” the pilot, Augustus, had said.
“But the Grant plane is all gassed up and sitting here running.
Don’t know the pilot of that thing, but it sure is a biggin.”

“Do you think you can find out for me where it might be headed?
It’s very important to Drew.”
Tommy hadn’t wanted to get his hopes up, but it was just too opportune that they would be spiriting off a woman and the plane was ready to go.

“Ah, sure. Let me take a walk over and strike up a convo for a bit. Maybe the guy’s a talker. Can’t hurt to find out now, does it?” He called Tommy back twenty minutes later.
“They’s headed to Tennessee. Nashville.
Ever been, Mr. Miller? Would like to go myself sometime and take the missus.
She always had a thing for the singer that died a while back.”

Tommy was so grateful that he promised Augustus that he and his wife would go on vacation there as soon as it could be arranged. And he’d foot the bill.
It took him another hour to figure out Quinn had a sister down there. By the time he had her address in Nashville, Quinn was already landing.
Tommy went to his son’s room to wake him at noon not ten minutes after he’d gotten off the phone with another group of men to watch her there.

“No.
It won’t hurt him to stew in his own juices for a bit longer. Besides, I think the girl needs to do some thinking on her own.
It’s been a whirlwind of a last few days.”
Rose looked at her husband.
“I can’t help but be proud of her.
She certainly isn’t going to take any shit from him, will she?”

Tommy laughed and as the room glanced his way, he sobered up.
“No.
And I’m betting he’ll be a better man because of her.”

It was nearly five that evening before the others figured it out.
Tommy acted as surprised as the rest of them had when they did.
Secretly he had hoped it would be at least another day, but was glad for them.
He’d been about to bust with the knowledge.

But he did plan to pull his son aside and have him talk with another woman. He didn’t know her very well, but from what he’d been able to find out, he thought that Drew should speak to Morgan Grant.

~~~

Drew hoped his dad was satisfied. He’d been sitting in this room for over twenty minutes waiting on Mrs. Grant to talk to him. She’d had an emergency and had had to deal with it first.
He didn’t know what it could be, but waited.
The front doorbell had rung several times since he’d been sitting here.

He’d met Morgan a few years ago at a fundraiser. His grandda had wanted to go and didn’t want to have to find a woman to go with. Drew had actually met all the Grant women then, including the matriarch, Mrs. Margaret Parker.
There was a scary woman, he thought with a smile.

When the door opened to the study, Drew stood up.
He nearly bolted to the door when the same women he’d been thinking about all walked in.
All of them.

“If this is a bad time I can…why don’t I come back when you
’
r
r
less…when you can see me alone.
I just came here because I…my dad…fuck.”
Drew flushed when the elder woman huffed at him.

“Your parents, I’m sure, taught you better manners than that,” Mrs. Parker said with a look as she sat down and nodded to the other women.

“Yes, ma’am, she did.”
Drew remained standing until the women all sat down. He eyed the door and when Cait laughed, he turned to her.

“You’ll never make it.
Sit down, Drew.
Morgan said that you were going to go after your pregnant girlfriend and that you needed advice.”
She went to the bar and brought him back a tumbler full of amber liquid as he continued standing.
“You might need this.”

“I’m sure you ladies will understand that I think I should just go and get her. She and I need to talk, that’s all. I’m sure that we can get a lot accomplished that way.”
He looked at the door again.

“And what will you say to her once you see her?
I’m curious only because you seem like a reasonably intelligent man.
What will you say about the baby she’s carrying and her plans to let you into her life?”
Drew thought her name was Dane.
“Yes, I’m Dane.”

He sat down hard.
He’d heard stories about this Grant woman. She’d been helpful in all sorts of cases of missing children over the years. He’d also heard that she was a billionaire as well.

“The stories are for the most part true.
But it’s not only children I find, but adults as well. It doesn’t always end well, but James, my husband, is there for me every night, as are our three children.”
She sat closer to the end of the couch and reached her hand out to him.
“Would you like to know when you’re going to die, Drew?”

He’d been reaching out to take her hand and snatched it back so quickly he hurt his wound. He glared at her when she laughed at him.

“Behave, Dane.
She can’t tell you when you’ll die. She’s being mean to you.
I’m Taylor by the way. Byron is my husband.”
She smiled at him.
“You didn’t answer the question.
What are you going to say to her when you get to her?
Because I’ll tell you right now, if we’re not all satisfied with your answer we’ll simply hide her again.”

He knew in that moment that they had helped Quinn.
He sat down on the couch and looked at them all. He was in the presence of great beauty and wealth. He looked around the room and wondered what their husbands did to keep them so happy-looking. Drew was in over his head, not just with these women, but the one he only just discovered he loved.

“I’m going to beg her to forgive me. I’m going to tell her every day, every minute, and every second of every
day that I don’t deserve her and that I love her.”
He leaned back on the couch and took a deep breath. “I don’t suppose you ladies would mind giving a fool some help in keeping his wife…future wife, as happy as you all are, would you?”

“That’s a good start, young man.
A very good start.
My Dan, bless his soul, used to bring me flowers and candy for no reason at all.
Made my week when he did that.
My sons do it for me now and again, but it’s not the same as when it’s from your spouse.”
Margaret looked around the room.
“Spencer brings me truffles dipped in dark chocolate and eats them with me while we watch a movie.
Devin, he brings me roses, pink ones on the blush of blooming.
Then there’s my Byron, he brings me tickets to a gallery opening that’s not his own, or tickets to see a play he’ll hate and goes with me.
Jamie brings me wicked things just to make me blush and because he knows that I’ll call his friend and ask her about them.
Nicky spends money on me foolishly because he knows that I delight in knowing he can.
And Damon brings me to the cemetery on the birthdays of the two men I have loved and lost.
Then he takes me to my favorite restaurant and we go home.
They may not seem like special things to you, but they are from the hearts of my children. Their wives are like my daughters, every one of them have a big piece of me because they have given me a chunk of theirs.”

Drew looked around the room and was astonished to see them all openly crying.
He looked at Margaret and smiled. “My mother likes snowmen. Weird ones, not just the white balls stacked on top of one another. I get her one every time I see a display. I never thought about how much it meant to her.”
He took out his wallet and showed them a picture of her room she’d set up with them.
“She sent me this last fall. She’d had the room done just for them.”

Morgan took the picture last. She stared at it for a long while before handing it back to him.
When she spoke Drew knew that his father was a brilliant man and planned to tell him the next time he saw him.

“She doesn’t need you. Not really.
No woman needs a man to dictate to them, to order them about.
Nicky and I…when I found out I was pregnant with the boys, he’d arranged our wedding, where I’d live, and also who would take care of me. He never asked me, he just assumed he knew more than me and that he was going to be the boss.
It wasn’t until the twins were born that he realized he needed me as a part of his life and not the other way around.”
She wiped another tear away before she continued.
“Do you love her, Drew, really love her?”

“Yes. I love her with all my heart.”

She nodded. “Good, then go and get her.”

Quinn was bored. Not just bored, but out of her gourd bored. She’d already read four books and she’d decided that she hated doing crafts.
Her sister didn’t have a very big kitchen in her apartment so cooking wasn’t that easy to do. They’d eaten out all three nights she’d been there and now she wanted a home cooked meal with all the trimmings. She was just getting ready to go to the store to get a roast when the phone rang.
She groaned when she saw who it was.
Pulling on her coat she didn’t answer, but waited for him to leave a message.