Chapter 16
Quinn remembered the stories that Knox had told about Keeneston, but it was nothing compared to finally seeing the small town where he grew up. Fall decorations lined Main Street as several business owners were outside planning Christmas decorations as it grew closer to December.
This included the fire department who currently had the firetruck parked in the middle of Main Street with a ladder extended as one of the firemen hung some lights over the street.
“Did that little old lady just smack a huge firefighter with a broom?” Quinn asked, thinking she was seeing things.
“That would be Miss Lily. And the big lumberjack-looking fireman is Conley Wilson. Nolan Flynn is the one moving the ladder and Flint Adler is the one on top of the ladder. Then the man hiding from Miss Lily is Jack Calloway,” Knox told her as he pulled up and parked several car lengths behind the firetruck.
“Hey, Knox. Good game last night. This must be Quinn.” Nolan smiled down at her from where he was maneuvering the ladder. “Hi. I’m Nolan.”
“Nice to meet you,” Quinn called up to him.
“Hey! I’m Flint,” Flint yelled from the top of the ladder. “Do me a favor and don’t say yes until Christmas Day.”
“Say yes to what?” Quinn questioned, only for Knox to hurry her past Jack who said hello before they got stopped by Miss Lily and Conley.
“Why ma’am, you’re prettier than a picture,” Conley told her with a big smile.
“Well, at least you can see that even if you can’t tell the star is too far to the right,” Miss Lily said with a harrumph. “Hello, dear. I’m Miss Lily. It’s lovely to meet you.”
Quinn couldn’t help but smile at this feisty lady who might be five feet tall now but she still wielded a broom with the ease and grace of a twenty-year-old.
“Come on. I’ll introduce you to the rest at the café,” Knox said to Quinn after kissing Miss Lily’s cheek.
He opened the door and inside two elderly women who looked very similar to Miss Lily sat at a table. A table Quinn soon realized was at such an angle that they could ogle the firemen.
“Miss Daisy, Miss Violet, this is my girlfriend, Quinn Kennedy.” Quinn loved the way Knox sounded so proud when he introduced her. And did he introduce her. To every. Single. Person.
“Oh my gosh,” Quinn said, bending down to get a good look at the two babies belonging to the woman she’d just met. “They are the most adorable babies.”
“Thank you. They’re the best thing my sugarbear ever gave me.
But by that happy look on your face, I’d say you got something good last night too.
” Aniyah gave her a wink and instead of it bothering Quinn, it somehow seemed very supportive.
Like something Helena would say and so it just made her laugh.
“You would love my best friend,” Quinn told her before Knox suddenly yanked Quinn away when Aniyah began looking in her purse for an oil to give her.
“No thanks!”
Geez. Knox looked pale and he was sweating. “Are you okay?” Quinn asked him, giving Aniyah an apologetic glance over her shoulder as Knox escorted her to a table for four.
“Trust me, you don’t want those oils. They burn. Her husband must be a superhero,” Knox whispered as he pulled out a chair for Quinn.
“No, you do not want them,” a man said, leaning over to their table. “Hi. I’m Warrick Hawkins. My dick was red for a week after them.” He turned his head to the other man at the two-person table and smirked. “But it was worth it to beat you.”
The man rolling his eyes introduced himself as Dylan Davies. He also advised her to run if Aniyah ever pulled out her oils. Now Quinn was more than a little curious.
“Or you can be smart and never touch them to begin with.”
Quinn looked up at a man dressed in black cargo pants and a black long-sleeved athletic shirt.
Next to him was a smiling woman who instantly took a seat next to Quinn.
“Hi. I’m Delaney and that’s my husband Kale.
I’m so excited to meet you. I just love Knox and I’ve heard so many kind things about you. ”
“You’re just not man enough,” Dylan taunted Kale, the discussion clearly not over yet.
“His lettuce would wither,” Warrick added and suddenly Dylan and Warrick went from competitors to teammates.
“Okay, guys, you both have big dicks. We need to get down to business,” Knox said with a roll of his eyes. “Kale, what do you know about Nico’s betting program?”
Quinn was stunned for just a second before she gasped. “Knox! You can’t tell him anything about it. It’s confidential intellectual property.”
Kale just gives her a friendly smile. “I remember you from the hospital. Good to see you again. And I already know all about your program. I looked over it before it went live. I was the consultant.”
That stunned Quinn even more. “You’re the one who sent me the notes? I saw some of the places you changed what I did. You saw things I never would have caught. Thank you. But your name was never made public.”
“That was at my request,” Kale told her. “I did it only as a favor. My business partner usually handles these more outward-facing jobs where you have to work with people.”
“My husband likes to work as if everyone around him is in the military. So, if it’s a group job, normally Alex or his wife handles it.”
“So, can you trust him now with what’s going on?” Knox asked her.
“You don’t happen to know anything about hacking, do you?” Quinn asked Kale.
Kale looked highly amused as his wife tried not to laugh out loud. “Yeah, we know a little about it. What do you want hacked?”
“My program.”
Quinn stood up, ready to go to her meeting after telling Kale and Delaney what she wanted hacked and why, but that she’d need permission from Sebastian to allow them into his systems too.
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Kale said, standing up too. “Sebastian wants us at your meeting.”
“Have you ever met Sebastian?” Delaney asked as Knox placed a large bill on the table before the four of them waved goodbye and headed out of the café.
“No. I have only talked to him a time or two over the phone,” Quinn admitted.
“Well,” Delaney said, dropping her voice as if she were going to spill all the tea. “He comes across as very gruff and bossy, but he’s a secret softy. You should see how much he loves his wife, Greer. It’s very sweet.”
Quinn tried not to be nervous as they approached a historical downtown building that looked like all the other downtown buildings.
It was painted a slate blue with white trim and the street number above the door.
It wasn’t until Knox held open the door and she saw SA Tech Headquarters sign on the back wall that she realized they were in the right place.
“Hey, Gianna,” Delaney said to the secretary. “This is Quinn. She’ll be around a lot more. And this is Knox.”
Gianna was in her late twenties and had a picture of two kids on her desk. Her hair was a riot of brown curly hair that was somehow both wild and put together in perfect spirals. Gianna stood up and held out her hand.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’ve met so many people this past week. I just moved here from New York City,” Gianna told her as she shook her hand before turning and shaking Knox’s hand. “It’s a bit of a culture shock.”
“I understand that,” Quinn told her. “I just moved from New York a couple of months ago.”
Gianna’s eye lit up. “Then we have to get together and compare notes!”
Quinn smiled and knew she’d made a new friend. “I’d love that.”
“Yay. I’ll call you. We have your number on file. Follow me to meet with Mr. Abel.”
Gianna got up and led them down the hall. She knocked on the door and let them in. “Talk to you soon!” Gianna told her before heading back to her desk.
“Miss Kennedy.” Sebastian Abel was forty years old, tall, intimidating, and powerful.
He also rarely smiled. Combined with the deep voice, it was enough to unnerve anyone.
Next to him was a shaggy guy a little older than Quinn in baggy cargo pants and a hoodie.
Total techie. And probably the person brought in to replace her if they fired her.
“Mr. Abel. I’m sorry we have to meet under these circumstances.” Quinn didn’t fold under his intense stare. She maintained eye contact with him even though she really wanted to run and hide.
He nodded and then looked to Knox. “Great game last night, Knox. Miss Kennedy will call you when she’s done here, but it will be a while.”
Knox shook hands with Sebastian and smiled, so Quinn knew he wasn’t upset about being kicked out of the meeting. “No problem. I need to run to the stadium anyway. I’ll do that now.
“Dude,” Shaggy said with a little roll of his eyes as if Sebastian’s shortness was annoying.
“Hey, Alex. Thanks for coming to help my girl out,” Knox said, shaking Shaggy’s hand.
“Dude.”
“This fount of vocabulary is Alex. He works with us,” Kale explained as Knox slipped his arm around her waist.
“Nice to meet you, Alex.” Quinn didn’t shake his hand since he was already opening up his computer.
“Text me when you’re ready for me to pick you up. Show ‘em what you got, Q,” Knox whispered before placing a quick kiss on her temple and heading out.
“You have a new woman at the front desk,” Delaney said as she waved bye to Knox.
“Gianna is from my New York office. She ran things there for the past year. With Greer getting closer to delivering our baby and with her transitioning her work to Keeneston over the next year, I thought it best to bring in more people since I’ll truly be making this my headquarters.
I can keep the general employees in the NYC office, but my personal support team will be moved here,” Sebastian explained before turning to Quinn.
“Dude.” Alex smiled and turned his phone around and showed a picture of a woman and a newborn.
“I’m so happy for you and Roxie,” Delaney told him.
“Adorable,” Quinn agreed.
Sebastian cleared his throat, but she saw him tap his phone and on it was a 3D ultrasound image of a baby sucking its thumb. Aww, there was the soft interior. “Let’s get down to work. Good idea on the barcode patch, Miss Kennedy. It seems to be holding.”
“Quinn asked for a hacker to see if we could find out who was trying to hack her program,” Kale told Sebastian and Alex.
“Dude.” Alex’s fingers flew and then on the television in the office his screen appeared.
“Alex and I were already working on this,” Sebastian told them. “It’s coming from the inside.”
Quinn gasped. “It’s not me!”
“I know. Last night, according to your company phone, you were at Knox’s house. However, we have been chasing down the false IP addresses until we found it was coming from this hotel,” Sebastian said as Alex changed the screen.
Quinn frowned. “That’s right by our office.”
“It’s more than that,” Sebastian told her. “It’s the hotel where your former team is staying.” Quinn felt upset and yet not surprised at the same time. “From your expression I take it that you’re not surprised by this.”
“Not really. They didn’t appreciate me getting the job with Nico,” Quinn answered truthfully.
“I wanted to meet you in person and now I know my instincts were right,” Sebastian told her. “I don’t think you have anything to do with this on any level, Miss Kennedy. You need a hacker. I got you three. See what you can find out when you start digging.”
“This might be better done at my place,” Kale told the group, leaving Quinn to wonder where that was.
Sebastian nodded. “Take Miss Kennedy with you and keep me updated. I need to check in with Greer. Alex has everything we worked on. He’ll show you in more detail,” Sebastian told her.
“If you need anything else from me, don’t hesitate to reach out.
I’ll come by later to check in and to get an update. ”
“Thank you,” Quinn told him. “So, where are we going?”
“Foreign soil,” Kale said with a wink.