Chapter 26
Reid
I’m pinned between Ash and Hunter in the back of an SUV as we drive at speed down the expressway. As the youngest, I was always relegated to the middle seat, but I suspect this time, my brothers have chosen their positions so they can act as props to my sagging frame.
Jake’s driving and Mace is up front with him, murmuring into his phone. “We’re right behind you,” he says softly. “How are you feeling? Are you lightheaded?” He listens. “Good. I’ll explain when we get there. Once you get home, let Connie look after you. I’ll see you soon. I love you, Slayer.”
Connie is our housekeeper, and the nearest thing we have to a mother figure since my mom died six years ago. I miss Mom, and Dad too, but knowing how different Quinn’s upbringing was, I’m grateful to have had two loving parents for as long as I did.
Quinn’s never known stability except the life she carved out for herself and Blake.
Is that why she couldn’t trust anyone else to bring her sister home?
Is that enough to forgive her for doing Ilya’s bidding without argument?
Does it go any way to explain why she told me she loved me at the very moment she was offering up Maddie and Lily as sacrificial lambs?
“The girls both seem to be fine,” says Mace, glancing back at us when he finishes the call.
“Yeah, Maddie says she hasn’t noticed any side effects so far. She’s just in shock,” replies Hunter. “But I’m not going to rest until I see her for myself.”
Mace glances back at me. His eyes are cold. “Same.”
Ash leans towards the door and takes something from the side pocket. He hands me Quinn’s purse. “At least one mystery is solved.”
“I need to check it,” Mace says, reaching through the gap in the seats.
“Give me a fucking break,” I hiss, clutching Quinn’s purse to my chest.
“Leave it for now, Mace,” Ash says. “We can reassess everything once we’re home.”
Mace doesn’t say anything else. No one says anything else, and eventually the grey cityscape gives way to green fields and rolling hills.
I catch sight of the glistening expanse of Lake Michigan now and again, but mostly I just stare off into space.
My brain stalls every time I try and fail to order my thoughts into something that makes sense.
Eventually give up. I register when we arrive home on some level, but I don’t move until Ash pulls and Hunter pushes me out of the car.
I’m numb from the neck up, or I think I am until I see Hunter sweep Maddie into his arms. Lily leaps at Mace, wrapping her legs around his waist. The bodies of each couple meld into each other like they’re forming two halves of the same puzzle. I thought I had that with Quinn.
When Maddie catches me silently falling apart, she pulls away from Hunter, but before she can reach me, I turn away. “I’m sorry,” I call out as I bolt.
I race through the house, rushing past Ash’s open study door.
More doors pass in a blur, and when I reach the kitchen, I don’t stop.
I’m heading for the back exit. I need to find somewhere far enough away that no one will hear me scream, but Connie steps into my path.
I almost knock her over, but she’s stronger than she looks. I fall into her open arms. And I sob.
“Oh, sweetheart,” she says, standing on tiptoe so I can press my head into her shoulder while she rubs my back. “The girls said there was an attack. Thank goodness they got away, but your friend…?”
“They took her, Connie. Or maybe Quinn left of her own accord. I don’t know,” I confess. “And she wasn’t just a friend. I thought she was so much more.”
After more soothing, I pull away from Connie’s embrace.
Dropping Quinn’s purse on the counter, I push the heels of my hands against my eye sockets to stem the flow of tears.
I need to get my shit together. I should go and check on Maddie and Lily.
Mace is right to blame me for putting them in danger.
“I can’t believe she lied to me.”
“You’re in shock. And it’s going to take time to process everything,” she says. She narrows her eyes on the dried blood around my nose. “Let’s get you cleaned up before we do anything else.”
While Connie fetches a cloth, I press a hand against my chest to steady my thumping heart.
I’m immediately reminded of Quinn standing in the coffee shop with Mikhail’s arm tight around her throat. She’d rested a hand over her heart and tapped once. If that was some kind of message, I don’t understand it.
Connie hands me a warm, damp cloth. “Does it hurt?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.”
She knows I’m not talking about my injured nose.
“I’ll get you a stiff drink.”
Once I’ve wiped the blood from my face, I turn my attention to Quinn’s purse. Had she left it in the car by mistake? I suspect not. Every single one of her moves had been planned meticulously.
When I open her purse, I find three phones.
One is her regular phone, but the others are ones I haven’t seen before.
Each of the new phones is wrapped in a piece of hotel stationery, secured with a hair tie.
A strand of Quinn’s hair is caught in the elastic of one, and the sight steals my breath.
The first time we met, I’d acquired a strand of her hair, never imagining that Quinn would be the woman to not only steal my heart, but to break it too.
Before I can unwrap the phones, Simon and Levi arrive.
“The others are gathering in Ash’s study,” Connie tells them as she sets down a glass of Griffin label whiskey in front of me.
“Yeah, we heard them arguing,” says Simon. He’s a regular in Connie’s kitchen and doesn’t ask permission before he starts opening cupboard doors. “I’ll check in with them in a minute. I just need a glass or a container.”
Simon’s a colossus of a man, but he flinches when Connie swipes at him. “Get your dirty mitts out of my cupboards,” she says, glaring at his hands. She gasps when she realizes it’s not dirt, but blood. “Who’s injured?”
“I’m fine,” Simon says gruffly.
“He was shot,” explains Levi. “I’ve patched him up, but the doc’s on his way.”
“He’ll need to check over Lily and Maddie first,” Simon insists. “Although I heard Lily yelling at Mace, so I’m guessing they’re good?”
“They’re right as rain,” Connie assures him. “You’re the one with a bullet in you.”
Simon winces as he reaches up to grab two glasses from a shelf while Connie’s distracted by his injury. “The bullet went straight through my arm. It’s a scratch, that’s all.”
“It had better be,” Connie says. “You promised to help me dig over my vegetable patch.”
“I could do that with one hand tied behind my back. Stop fussing,” he says as our housekeeper attempts to pull his jacket off to check his wound. “I’m working, Connie. If you want to make yourself useful, find me a couple of straws.”
Connie mutters, but she leaves Simon in peace long enough for him to take three Ziplock bags from his pocket. One holds a small vial, and the other two contain clear pink liquid. He decants the liquids into the glasses.
“It’s the rosé Maddie and Lily were drinking,” Levi explains for my benefit. “Simon spotted Quinn with the vial.”
“When you’ve worked in clubs as long as I have,” Simon explains, “you can’t look at a drink without wondering if it’s been spiked. Especially when one member of the party refuses to drink and acts decidedly uncomfortable.” That would be Quinn then.
Simon takes a couple of testing strips from his wallet, because of course the former bouncer carries drug tests around with him, and sets them down on the counter. He uses the straws Connie gives him as droppers so he can place samples of the girls’ drinks onto the two strips.
“How long will it take?” I ask.
Simon puts a timer on his watch. “Ninety seconds.” He picks up the last bag containing the vial, scrutinizing it without taking it out. “My guess is it’s GHB, but I don’t think the girls drank enough to cause significant harm. I spotted the vial on the table just in time.”
My stomach twists with dread as we wait, even though the results are a forgone conclusion. I must still be in denial. “Why would Quinn put the vial on the table where you could see it?”
“I’ve been wondering the same thing,” says Levi. “It could have been a signal for Ilya’s men. They would have been watching.”
I put the sequence of events together, but it doesn’t add up. “There are more discreet signals she could have used, but even so, why signal before Maddie and Lily had finished their drinks?”
Simon’s watch beeps and he squints at the two testing strips, holding them up to the light. “They’re both clear.” He shrugs. “It must be a drug the test strips can’t detect. God knows what the Russians have access to.”
There’s another possibility. “What if Quinn didn’t spike their drinks?” I ask.
I might have to accept that it was a planned move to isolate Maddie and Lily, but I’d like to believe Quinn would go against Ilya’s orders to drug them.
Simon doesn’t look convinced. “We’ll send everything to the labs, but it could be a while before we know anything for sure.”
I can’t wait that long. I need answers now. I need to know how worried I should be about Quinn because if she has disobeyed Ilya, if she’s the reason the girls got away, he’s going to make her pay. I don’t dare imagine what’s happening to her right now.
I wipe a clammy palm on my thigh and pick up one of Quinn’s extra phones. With a snap of the hair tie, I unroll the notepaper covering it. I’ve never seen Quinn’s handwriting before, but I know it’s hers.
This is the burner phone Ilya slipped into my shopping bag yesterday. The phone number he used no longer works but Mace might get something from it.
My fingers tremble as I unwrap the second phone and read the note.
This is my new burner phone. Strider’s number is stored in it. Call him.
She knew she’d be taken. Damn it, Quinn. Whatever plan she’s put into action isn’t Ilya’s. Our conversation from last night comes back to haunt me.
“What if I get lost?” she’d asked.