Chapter 5
My dad’s the best. He loves me more than anything. My mother keeps trying to scare him away, but he promised he’d never give up.
Ali remembered Grace’s firm statement, spoken with utter conviction. She remembered hoping the child was right, that it wasn’t some idealized image of her father she clung to.
Now she was certain.
She’d gotten her first aid kit from the cupboard she stored it in, and at Hayley’s suggestion gave it to Quinn.
“He’s had to deal with worse,” she’d said.
“Military?” Ali guessed. At Hayley’s nod and questioning look she explained, “I did a job for a retired commander in the Navy. They have that air…”
Hayley smiled widely. “Yes, they do.”
Now they were standing by the window with the best view of the house next door, while Quinn had Colby’s arm stretched out on her kitchen counter, already cleaned up with the antiseptic she kept on hand.
She remembered the feel of his hand when she’d touched him.
Not soft, office-bound hands, but tough, roughened hands. A working man’s hands.
“Could go either way,” Quinn said. “Stitches might help, but not sure they’re really necessary. It’s long, but not too deep.”
“I can’t leave until I know Grace is okay.”
“I figured as much,” Quinn said, clearly unsurprised. “There are some butterfly bandages in here that could hold things. You’ll likely have a righteous scar, though.”
“Won’t be the first,” Colby muttered.
Ali watched him as Quinn worked, saw him wince once, but otherwise remain expressionless.
It wasn’t until his arm was cleaned and bandaged and Colby had flexed it slightly that he looked up at the man who had been efficiently doing the work. He seemed to hesitate, then asked, “You’re not…those Foxworths, are you? The Foxworths, I mean?”
One corner of Quinn’s mouth quirked upward. “Depends on what you mean by that.”
“Ogilvie. Flood.”
So he did know, Ali thought as he named the disgraced politicians Foxworth had helped bring down.
Their disgustingly crooked former governor, and the even more disgusting senator turned powerbroker—or at least that had been his plan before Foxworth had uncovered that his wife’s death, which he had milked for all it was worth, had been a murder contracted by him.
Ali glanced at Hayley, who was smiling. “Read the news, do you?” she asked in a cheery tone.
“When I think I can stomach it,” Colby said sourly.
Quinn laughed. “I’m with you there.”
“But I only paid attention to that because I’d already heard of you. From a guy I’ve done some work with.”
Fascinated, Ali watched the exchange, getting the feeling there was more to this than just recognizing a well-known name.
“And that would be…?”
“Local building contractor. Guy named Drew Kiley.”
Ali blinked. She knew that name, had seen signs for Kiley Construction at sites in the area.
He’d built a couple of buildings in town that had become gathering places, because they were beautiful, well designed and constructed.
She’d even read that he’d been offered some very big projects but had turned them down, because that wasn’t what he wanted to do.
She also knew she hadn’t mistaken the sudden change in demeanor in both Quinn and Hayley at the mention of that name.
Nor, apparently, had Colby.
“So you are that Foxworth,” he said. “The ones who helped him.”
“He was our third case, after Hayley and I met,” Quinn said.
“He told me his life was a mess, and then it got worse, but you guys stepped in and saved it all. Him, his wife and their little boy.”
“Drew,” Hayley said, “understated his part in saving it all. As usual.”
Colby smiled slightly, and nodded. “Sounds like him. He’s a good guy. And great to work with. We kind of see eye to eye on things.”
Quinn nodded, then tilted his head slightly. “So, if we call him and ask about you, he’ll have good things to say?”
Colby blinked, pulled back a little. “Yeah. I think so. I hope so. But why—” He stopped abruptly when Quinn pulled out his phone, clearly intending to make that call right now. “Say hello for me,” he added, sounding a little bemused.
Ali was a little surprised at how quickly Quinn had the head of the company, Drew Kiley himself, on the line. After a quick moment of greetings exchanged, Quinn asked to put him on speaker for the rest.
“We’re here with someone who says he’s done work for you. Colby Kendrick.”
“Colby?” came a deep, male voice from the phone. “He’s there?”
Quinn nodded at Colby, who answered. “I’m here, Drew.”
“You okay? Grace okay?”
“For now, I think.”
“But there’s a problem?”
“We’re still assessing,” Quinn said. “I just wanted your take.”
“My take is that Colby Kendrick is a great guy. And one of the best carpenters I’ve ever worked with. That Village Center project you guys like so much? He’s the one who saved that undertaking.”
Ali kept watching, fascinated by all of this. “It was just an idea that worked,” Colby said, sounding almost embarrassed by the praise.
“A genius idea,” Drew corrected. “Turning that narrow breezeway into a full, covered patio with a play area not only made it a better community center, it solved the problem of how and where to run the power and plumbing lines to the new building.”
“It worked,” Colby repeated.
“That it did. You made us look really good. And I’d hire you full-time in an instant, you know that, right?”
Ali saw Colby swallow as if his throat was tight. “Thanks, man.”
“Quinn, anything I can do?” the man on the other end asked.
“We’ll let you know, Drew. Thanks.”
“Any time, you know that,” the man said. Then he added, rather vehemently, “He really is one of the good guys, I promise.”
“Thanks for confirming it.” Quinn ended the call.
Confirming it, Ali thought. So Quinn had already thought so? She wasn’t surprised. You didn’t run an organization like the Foxworth Foundation without being a pretty good judge of people.
Only then did she notice their dog was staring at Quinn, and when Quinn looked back, he gave a short, sharp little yip.
“Yeah, yeah,” Quinn said with a wry smile. “I know, you told us so.”
“Told you…what?” Ali asked, fascinated by this dynamic. And the more time she spent around the Foxworths and Cutter, the more she wondered if she had the knack at all to deal with a dog.
Hayley was smiling when she answered her. “That look he gave us when we first found Colby here? That’s his ‘fix it’ look.”
“Fix it?”
“As in there’s something wrong that we can fix,” Quinn said.
“And,” Hayley added, “that he’s decided this person deserves our help.”
Colby tilted his head, a thoughtful look coming over his face. “Drew’s kid, Luke… I remember him saying you had a magic dog.”
Both of the Foxworths laughed.
“Seems that way sometimes,” Quinn said. Ali found that fascinating, since she never would have guessed the tough-looking guy had a fanciful streak.
“Is he ever wrong?” Colby asked, looking at the dog a little warily.
“Hasn’t been yet,” Quinn said. “Besides, how could I ever doubt the dog who brought Hayley to me?”
Colby looked bemused again, so much that Ali wondered if he’d quite absorbed what had just happened here. She felt the sudden need to make it clear.
“So…you’ll help him, and Grace?” she asked.
“Looks that way,” Quinn said.
She looked at Colby, saw it register. He drew back slightly, looking from the dog to Quinn to Hayley. “You mean…?”
“You’ve got the Foxworth Foundation behind you now,” Hayley said gently. “And we’ll get this sorted out, whatever it takes.”
Colby swallowed, staring as if in disbelief.
Ali had the thought that his ex had belittled him so much that he couldn’t quite believe an organization on the level of Foxworth would actually help him.
She’d convinced him he wasn’t worth that kind of help.
Ali felt a little nauseous. She knew people like Liz Hollen existed, but so far she’d managed to keep them out of her life.
And she was seized with the urge to help Colby get this one out of his.
“Yes, we mean it,” Quinn assured him when Colby didn’t—or couldn’t—speak. “So you need to mean it, too. We’ll have to probe, ask questions you might not be comfortable answering.”
“Just remember,” Hayley put in, “that we’re not them, and we won’t hold anything against you short of maybe murder.”
“Not yet,” Colby said dryly.
“We’ll need to know it all. And you need to answer any questions honestly, even if you can’t see the reason we need to know.”
“I…all right.”
“We’ll need to keep a close eye on Grace. Do you live nearby?” Hayley asked.
He shook his head. “I’m a few miles away.” He lowered his gaze. “It’s just a little place but I like it.”
Ali didn’t doubt that “little” was in comparison to the place next door.
“Okay,” Quinn said. “We can set up and work from our headquarters, which is a lot closer.”
“Why don’t you stay here, to keep an eye on things?” Ali said.
Colby’s head came up sharply, but it was Quinn who answered. “We’re used to working from anywhere, but it could get a little chaotic. Coming and going and all.”
“I don’t mind. I already like Grace so much. It would be an honor to help.”
Colby sat there at the kitchen counter, staring at them all for a long, silent moment. Then he slid off the barstool to his feet. He looked at Ali. “Where’s your pup?”
Her brow furrowed. “He’s in his playpen. Why?”
“I want to go thank him. If he hadn’t started barking and I hadn’t grabbed him… I’d still be facing this alone.”
And in that moment all Ali could think was what a fool Liz Hollen was.