9. Ew, ew, ew. #2
In record time, he returned the file folders to the back of the SUV, got behind the wheel, and started the engine. “I love the way you think, Mrs. Samuel Quinn.”
“What? You’re hot in that jacket.”
He smiled. “Well, I’m certainly glad you think so. You’re not so bad yourself.”
I regarded my laptop with a sigh. “This is a mess. You really should quality check your wives, Sam. I mean, you did an excellent job of getting rid of the first one, but you may have jumped the gun on the second one.”
“If you say so, Calamity Queen.”
“See? That right there is evidence you need to at least make sure you’re marrying a quality woman. I’m a disaster on two and four feet.”
“You picked me, and I’m not letting you talk yourself out of how perfect we are for each other. I heard you very clearly, Bailey. You wanted to know how you could make the bastard marry you, so I helped you figure that out.”
He really had. “It turns out you’re not really a bastard, your parents are really nice, and I even like the rest of your family despite their oddities.” I sighed. “My mouth always gets me into trouble.”
“You’re perfect for me, and that’s all I care about.
I should have quality checked Audrey a little better, but realistically?
Because of her, I now have you. That means a lot to me.
Life won’t be perfect, but while you’re a disaster on two and four feet, you’re my disaster on two and four feet.
So, we’ll go figure out why and how the hell Audrey had gotten into so many messes, put an end to the rabies and gorgon dust issues, and start the rest of our lives without that looming over our heads.
Will we find out everything? Probably not.
But I’ll sleep better at night knowing we stopped two dangerous threats to humanity. ”
“That sounds like a plan to me.”
“Good. Now chin up, work your magic with numbers while I drive, and prepare yourself. I need therapy. I’m terribly distraught and in dire need of your love.”
“And you say I’m something else, Quinn.”
“Well, you are.”
“Kettle,” I accused.
“But I’m a very happy kettle, my beautiful pot.”
I rolled my eyes and focused on the spreadsheets, wondering what other secrets they hid.
Quinn made up for lost time through a mix of driving a little too fast for my comfort and refusing to stop until we reached the hotel, resulting in us arriving right on time.
As promised, dinner was ready shortly after our arrival, and rather than worry about rabies, gorgon dust, and Audrey McGee’s long-lived treachery and betrayal, I spent the rest of the night with my husband.
The evening was quiet, and I wondered what storm lurked in our future.
When morning came, I woke first, tiptoeing around the hotel room to let Quinn sleep, a rarity thanks to his genetics. I tidied and packed, and when I ran out of things to do, I ordered breakfast for both of us and resumed my work chasing after information on Audrey’s activities with Chief Morrison.
As a public figure, people took pictures of police chiefs often, especially when they went out into public unexpectedly. While my husband’s looks made him a common target of photographers, Chief Morrison oversaw the protection of the rich, which offered him a certain amount of prestige.
With Audrey’s receipts as a guide, I scoured the internet for evidence of the woman’s wrongdoings.
As I expected, Chief Morrison was popular with newspapers in the Hamptons, leaving me to wade through hundreds of pictures of the asshole.
Restricting my search by date helped, and after an hour of searching, I began uncovering photos of him with Audrey in the background.
Not only was Audrey in the photos, so was the idiot cadet I’d squished like a grape for threatening my husband.
Then, like some omen determined to ruin my day, I found a picture of Audrey with the person I’d recognized at the demonstration. That got me on the move, and I bounced onto the bed to wake my husband.
With startling speed, he caught me in his arms and dragged me down onto the mattress. “Wicked woman, sneaking out of my bed while I slept. I should discipline you for not cuddling me awake.”
Damn it. I didn’t want to work when he talked like that. “I love you, but I found something important.”
That woke him up, although he didn’t release me. “On a scale of one to ten, can it wait an hour?”
“I’d worry about it the entire hour,” I admitted.
“All right, my beautiful. I’m up, I’m up. What did you find?”
Someone knocked at the door, and I wiggled free of his hold. “Breakfast!”
He chuckled while I hurried to retrieve our food, carting the trays to the coffee table, doubting I’d ordered enough. I tipped the gentleman, thanked him, closed the door, locked it, and fell upon my food like a starved beast.
“It’s like watching a shark, but instead of blood, you’re attracted to maple syrup.”
“And it’s not even the real stuff.”
“How is that not criminal?”
“I will eat your pancakes,” I warned.
“Like hell you’ll eat my pancakes, you wicked woman.” The threat of losing his breakfast to my gluttony got him out of bed, and he wrapped in his robe before joining me on the couch. “What did you find?”
“Remember that guy I wanted to run the facial scan on?”
“I do.”
“I found a picture of him with Audrey, that cadet I squished, and Chief Morrison. I did a search and checked by dates, matching them to when she went to the Hamptons. I found enough pictures of her with Morrison to generally confirm she was seeing him. I think I even found a picture of them in the coffee shop together.”
“You’re right. She has really horrible taste in men.”
“Well, she had the right idea with you, but she was too stupid to figure out what to do with you when she had you. I’m smart. I know exactly what I should be doing with you. I do wish we’d brought our pets.”
“Actually, I think I’ll have them fetched for us—or at least Sunny. We might need her.”
Crap. “I don’t want to be shot with more ambrosia, Quinn.”
“That is not my idea of a good time, either, but I’ve learned where you go, trouble follows—and ambrosia is serious trouble.”
That it was. “I could go for some napalm, though.”
“When can’t you go for some napalm?”
I took my time thinking about that, nibbling on a piece of bacon. “Whenever you take your shirt off?”
“Why is that a question?”
“Why did you ask me such a hard question? It’s napalm! Napalm is so much better than ambrosia.”
“You get hungover, Bailey.”
“But before the hangover, napalm is life.” I devoured the rest of my bacon before demolishing my pancakes. “Okay. I’m ready to work.”
Quinn stared at my empty plate. “You’re not still hungry, are you? Are the twins already rising up to turn my beautiful cindercorn into a ravenous beast?”
“The twins have not been around long enough for that yet. I’m not even at the weird smells or morning sickness phase yet. That nonsense starts in a week or two, and then you can spend the rest of this pregnancy convincing me they aren’t trying to kill me.”
“They’re not trying to kill you, Bailey.”
“But are you sure?”
He regarded my stomach with interest. “I know people we could ask.”
“The archangel, your uncle, or other?”
“All of the above,” he admitted. “But my uncle seems to be the one obsessed with unicorns, so I’ll start with him.”
“Do you think it’ll be safe for our puppies and our most vicious huntress to come with us?”
“Sunny will be fine, and we’ll be careful with Blizzard and Avalanche. I’d really rather Sunny come with us, and I’d rather not separate her from Blizzard—and Avalanche whines if Blizzard leaves her.”
“But what about our babies? They’re with our babies.”
“Beauty and Sylvester will understand. They’re already unusual.
Gorgon whelps usually aren’t allowed to have any pets until they’re at least twelve.
It’s too much of a risk to the animals. I’ll just tell them the pets need to be trained.
Gorgon whelps understand training, so they won’t think twice about it.
Training our pets isn’t punishing them, and they know this. ”
“They’re so different from human children, aren’t they?”
“In a way, but it’s necessary. Don’t feel badly about it, Bailey. We’re protecting our children this way.”
I scowled but nodded. “We are. And this whole rabies thing has hurt our family enough.”
“That’s right. And if we can sink Morrison with his involvement in the rabies outbreak, we’ll nail him on multiple murder charges.”
“If Morrison runs from bail, do you think they’ll tell us?” I asked, allowing my insecurities to come out, so I wouldn’t bottle it up and have it explode out later.
Time—and Quinn—had changed me.
For the most part, I loved the woman I’d become since tumbling into his life.
“Probably not,” he admitted. “With my heritage and tendencies, they—mostly meaning Commissioner Dowry—will believe I’ll do anything necessary to protect you, which is correct.
I will. You’ve already demonstrated you’ll do whatever is necessary to protect me.
By neglecting to tell us, they stop us from pursuing the matter personally. ”
“Except we are. Pursuing the matter personally, that is.”
“We are, but we are doing so in a questionably acceptable fashion. We are using only resources publicly available or already have in our possession. We’ll have to avoid looking at the facial recognition results to make that stick, but since it hadn’t processed when we last looked at it, we can get away with a technicality on that score.
The CDC rabies resources will look innocent enough.
I mean, there’s no reason to think Audrey was involved with that. ”
“Was she rabid?”
Quinn sighed. “Yes, she was. Her hive sisters, too. She was likely infected at least a few weeks before she kidnapped you, too. The surrogate was also treated for rabies. The whelps are all fine, however. Fortunately, most diseases don’t transfer from surrogate to egg.”
“What happened to her? That poor woman.”