Chapter 4 Quinn #2
For one, this was a work lunch. Two, he was giving me nothing. And three, I had sworn off relationships for at least a year after my last one ended terribly.
The man I had been with started out charming and attentive, quick to shower me with compliments. I was infatuated instantly by him, pulled into his circle and let him spend all his time with me. And then when I gave in, the chase ended and then so did his intense interest in me.
I was na?ve. The switch was so sudden it gave me whiplash, but I was so far in I didn’t know what to do. It was comments on my outfits, or how I needed to spend more time with my own friends and not so much with his, how I needed to talk less.
I hated that he made me doubt myself. To the point where when he ended things with me, I convinced myself it was my fault, and I mourned what could have been.
Six months later I could see the manipulation for what it was but I couldn’t at the time. I didn’t like the person I became in that relationship. I wasn’t going to be fooled like that again, I wasn’t going to let the charm hide who people really were.
“So, you must be important to get to deal with us,” Noah said as we continued walking, pulling me out of my depressing memories of my last relationship. I had never heard of the place we were heading, but they clearly knew where we were going so I followed along blindly.
I laughed at his comment, making him frown. He was clearly confused about what I found funny. “Nope, you got stuck with someone low in the ranks.”
“Doesn’t happen to us often,” Oliver mused.
“Sorry to disappoint,” I said with a small smile.
“Don’t worry, you aren’t.” Noah sent me a cocky wink that was clearly honed with years of practice.
“Still doesn’t answer the question,” Theo grumbled in a blank tone as we turned another corner onto a quieter street. Off the main roads there was less lunch hour traffic, it helped that we were heading away from the core.
“I think it does,” I said back, earning a laugh from one of them. I wasn’t sure who it was since I was looking at Theo. “My boss told me to meet you and take you for lunch,” I shrugged, “so here I am.”
“I’m surprised he doesn’t want to schmooze us himself,” Oliver pondered thoughtfully.
“Well, don’t be offended. Dick Walters doesn’t go out of his way for many people.
Unless his boss is standing over his shoulder.
He passes his work off on the underlings, including these meetings, since he thinks they don’t result in him getting any money.
I’m honestly not sure he knew who you were, he was told to take you out and he sent me.
Sometimes he takes these lunches just to get a free meal but not often, he tends to think a woman is ‘better suited’ for the work.
“I was actually surprised he was in this week, normally this time of year he’s out of town on ‘business’ but I’m fairly convinced he has a girlfriend in every city he frequents.
” The words spilled out before I could stop them.
I slapped my hand over my mouth when I realized what I had said and stopped walking.
The men stopped too and turned to look at me.
After a moment, Noah broke into a laugh, clearly thrilled with my word vomit. Oliver smiled, but Theo just had an eyebrow raised, which seemed to be his go to. He was the hardest to read of the three. I didn’t know if he found my word vomit charming.
Not that I cared.
Not at all.
“Can you forget everything that I just said?” I asked, pulling my hands slightly away from my mouth. “I don’t really know who you all are and I would rather not get fired if this got back to my boss.”
“I like you,” Noah said coming to my side and slinging his arm over my shoulder, pulling me alongside him.
Normally I didn’t like strangers touching me, but nothing about the way Noah was doing it made it feel sleezy, it was like I had known him for a while.
A completely friendly and platonic gesture.
Plus, playboy was literally written all over his face and for some reason the honesty in that made me relaxed.
“Secrets safe with us, Q,” Oliver said as he pulled a door open for me.
Noah let me go as we stepped into the restaurant. I could feel Theo’s gaze between my shoulder blades, I tried not to look back at him. That man was intense, but his friends were great.
“It smells amazing in here,” I commented as I looked around the restaurant.
It was small and open with a smattering of tables in haphazard directions.
The walls were painted a vibrant teal color but there were posters and pictures covering almost every inch of the walls.
There was a large window that led into the kitchen, where you could see people cooking.
It felt like walking into the kitchen of someone’s home rather than a restaurant.
“Gracias!” a woman in her late fifties yelled at me in excitement as she came barreling toward us from the back. “Boys, who have you brought with you today?”
She came to a stop in front of me with a smile on her face as she wiped her hands on her apron and rested them on her hips. She screamed grandmother and was looking at the tall men behind me like they were part of her family.
“Valeria,” Noah walked over, leaned down and kissed both of her cheeks. The other men followed suit as Noah turned to me. “This is Quinn, Quinn this is Valeria, Pedro’s wife.”
Valeria didn’t hesitate to lean in for a kiss on both my cheeks as well before her hands landed on my cheeks. “Beautiful girl.”
“Thank you.” I stood there awkwardly as she held my face in her hands. After a moment of evaluation, she smiled at me again, nodded and dropped her hands. I felt like I had just passed some kind of test.
“I told these men not to bother me with floozies so if you’re here that means you aren’t one.” I didn’t know the right response to that comment as one of the men coughed, like they were trying to cover a laugh.
“Well, considering I just met them I doubt they were certain about that…”
“No, no, dear. With some people you just know. When I met Pedro I just knew.”
“That he wasn’t a floozy?” Noah did let out a laugh this time and I earned a smile and a wink from Valeria, unbothered by my interruption.
“The man was a dork and wouldn’t stop talking about the proper way to chop onions, but his soul spoke to mine.” She reached over, patted my shoulder twice and then turned away from me, not giving me a chance to ask any questions.
Valeria herded us to a circular table in the back as the guys talked amongst themselves. She walked away with a pat on Noah’s face. She didn’t leave us any menus, and I tried not to fidget in my seat.
“Even if you did order food she would bring out whatever she wanted anyway,” Theo’s voice was low as he spoke to me. “We’ve tried.”
“She hasn’t done us wrong yet,” Noah said, rubbing his hand on his flat stomach in anticipation of food.
“I take it you guys are here often?” I looked around at the dark restaurant.
I loved the place. It was warm, the tables were close together but not so much that you felt like you were on top of each other and the music was quiet so you could still hear conversation at your table.
No one else in here was in a suit, the vibe relaxed, like no one was rushing to get back to the office.
“We’re here about once a week,” Oliver said. I was momentarily distracted as Theo rolled up the sleeves on his dress shirt, revealing muscular forearms covered in tattoos. His ink was all done in black, but I couldn't make out the specific designs without staring at him for too long.
“Wait.” I looked over at Oliver with a frown, no longer distracted by Theo. “I thought you were just in town visiting.” That’s what Richard thought anyway. Right? I needed to ask more questions before taking these meetings.
“Nope, we relocated here just over a month ago,” he replied.
“Oh.” I bit my lip and pulled on the sleeve of my blazer.
I hated being uninformed, I should have gotten their names and googled them before coming here.
Normally it didn’t matter who I was meeting with.
I guess it still didn’t. “Did your company move you here?” Oliver and Noah shared a look and laughed.
“Dick Walters didn’t tell you who we are?” Noah asked between laughs.
“Uh… No…” I looked over at Theo since the other two men were looking at him.
“Have you heard of Knight Enterprises?” The way he said it was like he expected the answer to be yes, like I just hadn’t put the pieces together before.
“Are you going to be mad if I say no?” He looked me over for a moment, like he was trying to tell if I was lying. I held his gaze and waited.
“Huh,” Oliver said just as Valeria and two other waiters came walking up to our table with enough food to feed a small army.
“Thank you,” I said with a smile to the server as food was placed in front of me.
Once it was all down, they walked off without an explanation. “Did she know you were coming? That was so fast.” I looked at the mass of food around us.
“Noah called ahead. I have another meeting at one that I can’t miss,” Theo said, looking down at the watch on his wrist. I wasn’t one for watches, but that thing looked fancy. The other two men wasted no time digging into the plethora of tacos in front of us.
“So you aren’t going to tell me what Knight Enterprises is?
” I asked as I grabbed a taco from the plate in front of me.
I took a bite, closed my eyes, and let out a moan.
I knew a good taco, but this might be the best I’d ever eaten.
The way the spices on the meat melted together with whatever sauce was on it was perfection.
I opened my eyes again and swallowed my food to see Theo’s eyes locked on my face. I licked my lips to get the sauce off them and noticed a slight tick in his jaw.
“Spectacular, right?” Noah asked around a mouthful of food.
Theo cleared his throat, moved his eyes from mine and looked back at his plate. “Knight Enterprises is our company.”