Chapter 16
I want a girl who’s easygoing, but also very passionate. Like , she loves taking naps, but will kill you if you wake her up.
— Atlas to Quinn
QUINN
“ Any updates?” I asked Atlas as I stood outside of Shayne’s hospital room.
It was going on four in the morning, and I hadn’t slept a wink.
Sadly , Shayne hadn’t either.
“ Not a one,” Atlas said from where he was standing.
I groaned in frustration. “ She could be anywhere at this point.”
“ True ,” Atlas admitted. “ But she’s cocky enough that she’ll think she didn’t do anything wrong. She was at the end of her four days in a row. Maybe she just willingly played dumb.”
I didn’t know.
I didn’t keep tabs on her like she did on me. I didn’t know what she did in her spare time.
What I did know was that she needed to be found, and fast, or I’d have to start looking for her myself.
“ You want me to stay with her while you head to the station?” he asked. “ And how’s she doing?”
“ Surprisingly well,” I admitted. “ Her not being able to feel pain is making the staff somewhat excited, so don’t be surprised if they come in here to check on her more than they need to.”
He and I both knew that Shayne needed a babysitter.
But also, I wanted to get down to the station and make sure that I could get Costas to admit that none of the drugs he’d been dealing, or the prostitutes, were in anyway remotely related to Shayne .
Shayne had already given her statement to a member of my team who had no affiliation with me or Shayne . In doing so, we made sure that it was an impartial statement, and I wasn’t even in the room when it happened.
However , Costas was a different story.
I’d been chasing his ass for a fuckin’ lifetime, it felt like.
He was mine.
“ Actually ,” I said as I poked my head in the room. “ Are you okay if I head down to the station and question your brother? I have some things I need to take care of, and Atlas just got off shift so he can stay with you.”
Shayne rolled her head on the pillow, looking exhausted.
“ As long as you bring me back breakfast when you come. Hospital food isn’t going to cut it today,” she grumbled.
Turning back to Atlas , I said, “ Give me a minute?”
Atlas nodded and took up his spot on the wall, crossing his arms over his chest and perfecting the act of intimidation.
With the door closed tightly behind me, I headed in Shayne’s direction.
She watched me come, not turning away like she would’ve done only twelve hours ago when I started to get too close.
“ What ?” she wondered when I continued to stare at her.
I leaned both of my fists into the bed on either side of her hips and stopped with my face only a few inches from hers.
I studied the bruising on her nose, eyes and lips closely before saying, “ The doctor said she’d be in at six to check everything.”
She nodded, her eyes drooping.
“ Try to get some more sleep?” I suggested.
“ They’ll just wake me up when I finally manage to get there,” she grumbled darkly.
I tucked a stray lock of her black hair behind her ear before saying, “ And Ande already texted, saying she was heading this way after her shift ends in two hours. If you don’t want her to know…”
“ We’re never going to be able to hide this from your family, are we?” she wondered.
“ Probably not for long, unless we go on a long vacation far away from people who can drop in unannounced,” I admitted. “ My family’s nosy. Not to mention, you’re going through a lot of bad things being hit at you in all different directions. The pregnancy…”
“ Pregnancy ?”
My shoulders sank, and I looked toward the door where Ande was standing in her flight suit, likely still on shift.
“ What are you doing here?” I asked, hoping she’d not notice the switch in topics.
Ande rolled her eyes. “ I’m not the young, impressionable kid who’ll fall for it when you change the subject.”
I sighed.
Shayne squeezed my hand for a few short seconds before letting me go and turning to her best friend, and my baby sister.
“ There are some things we’re not ready to talk about yet,” she said. “ We’re working out some things before we take any big steps.”
Well , the steps had already been taken. I couldn’t unimpregnate her. Nor could I take away the loss that she’d suffered—we’d suffered. But what I could do was allow Shayne to handle Ande .
Leaning forward, I pressed my lips to the side of Shayne’s mouth. “ I’m heading to the station. I’ll be back soon. Text me when you know what the doctor has to say, please.”
She nodded, her eyes still sleepy. “ I’ll text you the moment I know.”
I pulled away and made my way outside, managing to avoid brushing past my sister who was still holding up fort in the doorway.
I was two steps outside the room when I turned around and said, “ I love you with my whole soul, Shayne .”
My sister drew in a deep breath, but I didn’t wait to hear what she had to say. Nor did I wait to hear whether Shayne was going to say it back.
After letting Atlas know he was on duty, I made my way to the elevator and waited for it to arrive, my eyes on my phone as I read through the multitude of messages that’d come through in the ten minutes I’d been saying goodbye to Shayne .
The door to the elevator opened, and I was unsurprised when Ande slipped into the car with me.
I leaned my shoulder against the wall, kept my eyes downcast, and waited.
It didn’t take her long.
“ I don’t care that you’re my brother, Quinn ,” she said softly. “ If you hurt her again, I’ll never speak to you again.”
That sent my heart seizing in my chest.
“ It’s not my intention to,” I admitted to her. “ She’s not worried, Ande . So just leave it at that until we navigate this, please?”
“ She’s not worried about anything because she feels like she has nothing to lose.”
I whipped my head around, staring at my sister.
“ What ?”
“ You heard me,” Ande replied. “ That’s how she truly feels—she has nothing else to lose. That’s why she went into flying helicopters. That’s why she learned to fly commercial jets. That’s why she goes and jumps out of planes every Saturday for fun. That’s why, when you can’t ever find her, she’s floating the river by herself. She literally doesn’t care. There’s not a single thing she could do to hurt herself that would hurt worse than losing you.”
I looked down at my feet, studying the way my boots looked like they could use a good polish.
“ It was never my intention to let her go, Ande ,” I told her.
She knew this.
They all knew this.
The only one not to get the memo was Shayne .
“ I know.” She spoke barely above a whisper. “ But you just have to understand, whatever you’re doing with her, it needs to be real. It needs to be the best damn thing she’s ever experienced, because if she has to go through losing you again, I’m not sure that I won’t have to learn to live without her, too. It was hard enough losing Addison . I can’t lose them both.”
I stiffened my spine and said, rather grumbly, “ She won’t get hurt. I won’t hurt her again. I’ll be right here, for the rest of always, and make sure that she never questions me and my motives ever again. I won’t let her go. I won’t live without her. I won’t allow myself to ruin this a second time. I barely survived the last time, too.”
Ande studied my face for a few long seconds before she said, “ So , a baby?”
My heart physically ached. “ No . No baby. Probably never a baby.” I hesitated. “ We don’t want anyone to know. At least not yet. She’s still processing everything, and it’s a lot to process.”
“ You know she won’t be able to keep it a secret for long, right? I mean, our family is so nosy,” she asked as the elevator doors opened and I headed in the opposite direction of her. “ I’m her best friend! She even told me about your penis size!”
That last part was announced to half the ER waiting room.
With a shake of my head, I headed to my cruiser, and then the station.
I called Boseman on the way, and by the time I arrived in the interrogation room, Costas was sitting there waiting for me.
He waited for me to take a seat before saying, “ It’s about fuckin’ time, jackass. I’ve been waiting on you to get here forever. How’s my sister?”
I took a seat, leaned back in the chair, and said, “ She’ll be a lot better if she’s not implicated in the operation you were running out of her house.”
The derision in my voice penetrated his cool, calm, and collected features.
“ I wouldn’t have had to do it out of the fuckin’ house had you gotten your shit together sooner!” he snarled. “ You had your own brother in my operation. He was there for a frickin’ year. I tried everything to get him to narc on me, and there you were, watching and observing. Jesus Christ , y’all are slow.”
I shook my head to try to clear it. “ What are you trying to say?”
“ I’m saying that I had to nearly start selling pussy to get you to pay attention for real.” He rolled his eyes. “ And tell your brother he can’t hide that white fuckin’ hair. It’s easy to spot him when his hair grows like a goddamn weed.”
I didn’t reply to that, unsure what I was supposed to say.
Gable had been made, and Costas hadn’t killed him?
What the hell was going on right now?
I looked over at the two-way glass, wondering if I was hearing this correctly.
Was he saying what I thought he was saying?
“ How about you spell it out for me, Costas ,” I suggested when I turned back to him.
“ You know it’s not easy to just get out, right?” he asked.
I felt my insides freeze at his words. “ Yes .”
“ Well , I’ve been trying to get out for years,” he grumbled. “ But nobody fuckin’ lets you go. Just when I start to pull away, I’m dragged right back in. And I decided, the easiest way to deal with this was to get arrested. That way I’m not killed when I do go. Shayne’s not in danger. Short of goddamn murder, I’ve been trying to get you to seal the deal for years.”
Seal the deal.
He’d wanted me to arrest him this entire time?
“ I didn’t like watching my sister fuckin’ break when it came to you,” he said darkly. “ And you left because of me. You wanted her to choose you, and she wouldn’t. Not after the childhood we had. Our bond is something you’ll never understand. But now, she doesn’t have to choose. I’m going away for a long time, and you’re going to keep her safe while I’m there.”
“ About that…”
“ A full confession. Zero desire for a lawyer right now. And the assurance that everything was all him, and he hid everything from Shayne ,” the chief said. “ That’s about the best outcome you could’ve asked for.”
I headed back to the hospital to be with my girl, only to find out that she’d checked herself out of the hospital AMA —against medical advice—and disappeared.
“ Where is she?” I snapped at Atlas , who was talking to a harried looking nurse.
Atlas looked over and scratched the back of his head. “ I was takin’ a piss and came back to find her gone.”
“ Well , fuck.”