Chapter 17
Quinn looked up as I entered, and smiled. “Everything good?”
She didn”t have to wait for my answer. The second the words were out of her mouth, she registered the look on my face. Her eyes turned hard, her chin jutting up.
“Hawk,” she started.
I walked right past her. I couldn’t do this with her. Not now. I needed to think. I wanted the team—one to help her walk, three to guard. But they’d be too slow. Our best advantage in this moment was time. He wouldn’t expect us to hit the trail this early. Not with so much snow. And while the terrain was dangerous in this weather, I’d hiked that trail a hundred times since I’d come to Sawyers Bend. I could keep us from tumbling into a ravine better than I could stop a sniper”s bullet. All the guards in the world wouldn’t help if the man after Quinn had time to get into a tree and wait for us to pass below him.
Going to the bedroom, I dug into her pack and pulled out her winter pants. Coming back to the couch. I dropped them on top of her legs, saying abruptly, “Put these on. He was out there last night, watching us through the window. I know the trail is dangerous, but we have to go. Get those pants on while I call my team.”
My chest ached as the blood drained from her face, fear invading her beautiful blue eyes. She swallowed hard and gave a jerk of a nod. Quinn would fight me like a wildcat to get what she wanted, but the second she understood how serious things were, she did what she had to do. She was headstrong and independent, but she was also smart. This would be a hell of a lot easier if she wasn’t any of those things. But if she wasn’t all of those things, I wouldn’t have wanted her.
I grabbed my sat phone and dialed in, the line crackling.
“You good out there?” came the voice of my second-in-command.
“We”re headed back,” I said. “I need you to get a team on the trail headed for us.”
“If you can sit tight, we can be there in just over an hour. The snow is deep, but?—”
“No.” I cut him off. “Someone was here last night looking through the windows, not trying to hide their tracks. They”re not here now.”
Kane understood immediately. “They could be waiting to ambush you on the trail.”
“It’s a possibility,” I said. “Or they could be headed back this way. If they know Quinn is injured, they may think we won’t try to leave yet. We need to get her back to Heartstone Manor. That”s the priority. We”ll be on the move in less than ten minutes. Meet us on the trail. And have someone arrange a pair of crutches at Heartstone. Quinn is sure her ankle is sprained, not broken, but she”ll need the crutches to get around.”
“I”m on it. We”ll see you soon. And boss? Be careful.”
“I always am,” I said. Quinn had already been injured on my watch. It wasn’t going to happen again.
Hanging up, I turned to Quinn. “Anything in that pack you need in the next few days?” She shook her head, then shrugged a shoulder.
“I wouldn’t mind my toiletries bag and this book, but otherwise, no.”
I retrieved it, grabbed her toiletries from the bathroom, took the book from her hand, and packed it all inside.
“So, we”re going,” she said.
I nodded, busy grabbing her parka and giving it a shake. I carried it to the couch, along with her hiking boots. “You need to get these boots on. Lace the right one as tight as you can.”
She reached out her hands to take the boots. “I’ve got it. You get the fire in the stove put out. Then I guess we”re okay to go. Someone will come back later to get my pack?” she asked.
“I’ll make sure of it,” I promised.
Quinn nodded. I took care of the fire. I hadn’t added another log since the middle of the night, our body heat enough to keep us warm. When I turned, I saw Quinn had loosened the laces on her right boot enough to wedge her foot in.
“I”m going to get you back to the Manor,” I said. “Then you can see a doctor.”
“I don”t need a doctor. It”s just a sprain,” she said through gritted teeth as she pulled on her bootlaces, tightening them to support her ankle.
I nodded, wanting to argue and knowing it was a waste of breath. I paused, not sure how to get out what I needed to say. “Last night?—”
Quinn looked up at me, her eyes bright, a smile curving her mouth.
“It was a mistake,” I said. “It can’t happen again.” I waited, braced for an argument, for her face to crumple into sadness or anger or disappointment. I wasn’t going to give any ground, but I didn”t want to fight with her. Not about this. Not about anything.
She stared at me, her face frozen. Then she shrugged and went back to tightening the laces. “Okay,” she said, her voice muffled but steady.
“I mean it,” I said. “It was a one-time thing. It shouldn’t have happened, and it”s over.”
Quinn straightened, her boots laced and ready to go. Tossing her head to flip a loose strand of hair off her face, she said, “I heard you. One-time thing. Not happening again. I got it.”
“Okay,” I agreed, suddenly off-balance. She wasn’t going to argue. She wasn’t disappointed.
Wasn’t that what I wanted? For Quinn to be okay with it? For us to never, ever do that again. No more naked Quinn, right? I’d said it was over. She was fine with it.
Good, right? Right.
I couldn’t believe how much I wanted to dig my heels in and argue with her about— About what? There was nothing to argue about since we were apparently in agreement. But how could it be that easy? I”d been twisting myself in knots, and she was fine with it.
Get your head in the fucking game, asshole, I told myself. This is exactly what you wanted. The best-case scenario for how that could go. The only thing that matters right now is getting Quinn home safely.
I handed her the parka and the gloves I”d found stuffed in the pocket. “All right, gear up.”
She did as she was told without protest. I did the same. When we were ready, I crouched in front of her and she climbed on my back, the straps of her daypack looped over her shoulders.
As we left the cabin, Quinn let out a mournful sigh. “So much for my vacation. It”s so beautiful out here. I can’t believe we have to leave because of some fuckhead with his zip ties and whatever the hell is wrong with him.”
She sounded genuinely sad, almost like she was fighting back tears. For the cabin. Not for me. If I had feelings, that would fucking hurt. But I didn’t. I was a machine. I had a job to do. I couldn’t afford feelings.
I put one foot in front of the other as I went down the narrow, uneven trail, the footing hidden by the snow. I needed my full attention on what I was doing or I’d fall and take Quinn down with me. And still, I couldn’t stop hearing the mournful tone of her voice over her lost vacation and leaving the cabin. She’d been just fine with me telling her we were over.
Not that we’d even been anything. It was one night. She hadn’t cared about that, but she didn”t want to leave the cabin. The cabin that didn”t even have running water or electricity. And still, it rated higher than sex with me.
Fuck. Stop thinking about it. Focus on the trail and getting Quinn to safety.
It took all my discipline to keep my attention on the trail and our surroundings. I had both of our weapons easily at hand, but they wouldn’t do me much good if I was so far up my own ass I didn’t hear him coming.
I listened and watched, but the forest was quiet around us. Not the creepy quiet that comes with a predator, just the normal stillness after a storm. I caught the sounds of birds and the occasional crack of a branch as something small passed, but nothing else. The rustle and thump of my boots in the soft snow was the loudest sound in the quiet. I moved slowly, testing my footing before transferring my weight, glad of my caution when I encountered rocks and downed branches hidden by the snow.
It was slow going, but so far the only threat was the uneven footing. When my internal clock told me we’d been on the move for almost an hour, we came to the place where the trail split. From here, we could move faster. I couldn’t see my team, but they’d reach us any minute. I had one more thing I needed to say to Quinn, and I knew it would be easier to say while we were alone.
Or maybe I wanted one more private conversation, even if it was a fight.
“Quinn,” I began carefully, “when we get back, I need you to stay in the Manor. No more sleeping in the woods. Not until we find this guy.”
Every muscle in her body went stiff, her fingers clenching on my shoulders, her grip hard, even through my parka.
“I can’t.” Her voice was strained, so tight I thought it would break.
Not expecting her response, I thought about what she’d said. Not I won’t, but I can’t. I didn’t understand, but I wanted to.
“You have to,” I said as gently as I could. “He was going to hurt you, Quinn. We can’t keep you safe if you’re out in the woods. And I can’t risk security at the Manor to put enough of my team on you to keep you safe in the hammock. I need you to stay in the Manor with everyone else.”
“Okay,” she said, and this time her voice did break. But that was all she said.
Okay.So different from the “Okay” she’d given me when I told her we were over. That one hadn’t exactly been cheerful, but it hadn’t been this pained acceptance. “Quinn? I know?—”
“You don’t know.” Her tone was so bleak I wasn’t sure I’d have recognized it as her if she hadn’t been speaking directly in my ear.
“Then tell me,” I pressed, knowing this was not the time for personal confessions. Whatever kept her away from the Manor, I knew it had to be personal. Thanks to my position as the head of security, I knew everyone’s secrets. But I didn’t have a clue about this. What was she hiding? Why didn’t I know about it?
She didn’t answer, but I felt her shake her head against the back of my head.
“Quinn,” I tried again, “what happened there? Was it your father?”
Another shake of her head, but no words.
“I can’t help if you won’t talk to me,” I said.
“You can’t help anyway,” she whispered, her voice barely audible above the crunch of my feet in the snow.
I didn’t want to accept that. We didn’t have time for me to push harder. In the distance, I caught a glimpse of winter camo and a gray hat I recognized. In minutes my team would surround us. Not long after that, I’d deliver Quinn to Griffen. I was out of time.
“Promise me you’ll stay in the Manor,” I said.
One more nod and her strained voice in my ear. “I promise.”
She didn’t say another word. My team caught up, taking positions in a loose circle around us as we covered the rest of the ground back to Heartstone Manor.
In the bright sun, surrounded by unbroken snow, the Manor was straight out of a storybook. It looked as if nothing bad could ever happen there. Yet Quinn’s face when I handed her into Griffen’s arms told a very different story. She’d closed down completely, her face blank, her eyes on the ground, not meeting mine.
“Keep her inside,” I told Griffen, wishing I had more to say, that I could give an order that would fix whatever was wrong and take that frozen expression off her face.
“The house is secure,” Griffen said. “Go find this guy.”
I nodded, hoping it would be that simple. Find the guy who’d jumped her in the woods and solve whatever problem had led him to think Quinn was a target. But nothing was ever that simple.