Chapter 39 Theo
Theo
Ifucking hated the ceiling in my room.
Trying to sleep was fruitless, but here I was lying in my bed trying to will my eyes closed but it wasn’t working. So instead I was staring at the ceiling at two in the morning.
I’d stood outside earlier today until I couldn’t see Quinn’s car anymore. She’d driven away with my heart and I didn’t want it back.
Everything I was, everything I had was hers, whether she wanted it or not.
I had picked up my phone way too often tonight trying to decide if I should text her to check in.
That was the opposite of space, but I was losing my mind a little bit.
She’d found out a lot about her dad today and I had to imagine she wasn’t okay.
Her whole demeanor was broken down and I hated seeing her that way.
It was worse knowing that I had a part in that.
I knew she was staying at Asher’s, and I was currently trying to see if I could evict the tenants who’d taken over my space. If I couldn’t be with her in this house, at least I would be in the same building.
Besides, this home wasn’t home without her in it anymore.
Texting each of the guys individually had resulted in the same response every time.
I asked them to add me back to the group chat and they all told me I wasn’t allowed until Quinn approved it and refused to tell me anything about her.
I was strangely missing the constant ping of the group, even though it pissed me off most days.
My phone rang from where it lay next to me on the bed. I snatched it quickly since it was a bad time of night to be getting a call.
For a moment I thought I was dreaming, because Quinn’s smiling face was on my phone with her incoming call. I didn’t stare at it longer than a moment before I answered, my heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest with worry.
“Quinn? What’s wrong?” Because that was the only reason I could think of for her to be calling me. The other side was quiet but I heard her sniff.
“I don’t know why I called,” she answered in a small voice. I moved to sit on the edge of my bed, muscles tight.
Should I go to her?
“Are you okay?” I could hear in her voice that she wasn’t.
“I…” I heard her sniff again and my heart felt like it was cracking in my chest. I grabbed my sheets trying to hold myself back. “No.” Her voice cracked. My instinct was to ask her how to fix it but I fucked us up. I needed to fix it on my own.
“What do you need?” I asked, standing up so I could pace. There was a reason she called me and I would do whatever she asked of me.
“I just…” She let out a sigh. I could picture her sitting in the spare room at Asher’s place closing her eyes and biting her lip. “Can you come over, please?” The break in the word please had my chest bleeding for her. I was already pulling on my grey sweats and a hoodie over my head.
“I’ll be there in under fifteen minutes, baby,” I said as I sprinted down the stairs. I heard the beep, she’d hung up on me.
Which was fine, I could drive faster if I wasn’t listening to her whimper or cry over the phone.
I flew into the parking garage and parked in one of the penthouse spots, I didn’t give a shit if my truck was towed.
The elevator felt like it took forever, I was slipping out before the doors were fully open.
I normally walked right into Asher’s place since I knew the code, but all of this was in Quinn’s hands.
So I knocked, not giving a fuck if I woke Ash up.
The door was pulled open and Quinn was standing in front of me.
She was in a large T-shirt that looked a hell of a lot like mine and nothing else.
Her hair was piled messily on her head, pieces of it were falling in her face.
But the thing that I hated was her red eyes.
She must have been crying for a while before she called me. Which meant that I was her last resort.
That was better than nothing.
I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, she slammed into my chest, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and pressing her face into me as she started crying. I wrapped my hands around her holding her to me, but I didn’t want to stand in the doorway.
So instead, I lifted her up, her legs wrapping around my waist.
I kicked the door closed and walked to her bedroom.
She didn’t let me go as I toed off my boots and sat on the bed, resting against the headboard.
She unwrapped herself, moved her arms down so she could bury herself in my chest. I kept my arms around her as she continued to cry.
I made shushing noises, telling her it was okay as I brushed my hand down the back of her head, my heart breaking with every noise she made.
The room was dark, the apartment quiet. Only soft light was coming from under the door from a hallway light we’d left on.
I looked around her room for a moment, noticing that she had all her clothes piled in a suitcase, like she wasn’t staying here long.
And I didn’t know if I should be happy about that or scared out of my fucking mind that she could change her mind at any moment and leave.
At least I had the money to go where she did. Hiding in Italy? No problem, I could have a house there in a day. Anywhere she decided to move I could relocate to.
Did that make me a stalker? Perhaps, but I would do anything just to be in the same city as her, even if she didn’t talk to me. To be there in case she changed her mind or needed me.
After a while, her crying slowed and she took a few big breaths. I didn’t push her to talk, just continued to hold her close as I felt her start to relax. I took some comfort in the fact that she didn’t release her tight hold on me.
“How did you know where I was staying?” She finally asked in a small voice.
“I always know where you are,” I replied softly as I continued to move my hand down her head. She made a noise but stayed quiet for another few moments.
“I was just upset about everything and all I could think was that I needed you,” she whispered it like a confession into the dark room.
I didn’t know what to say to her right now.
Because I wanted to tell her that I had ripped my heart out and left it for her.
That I needed her always and there was no one else I wanted her to call.
That I know I’d hurt her, but I needed to make sure she was safe and to do that I needed to play by my father’s rules.
Sure, for a bit there I'd convinced myself I wasn’t good enough for her. But now knowing what it was like being without her, I couldn’t do it. I was planning on keeping her, if she let me.
When I looked down at her, she was looking up at me, but she was staring off into space. She looked exhausted, now wasn’t the time.
“You’ve had a rough day, Quinn.” I wiped a stray tear off her check and then put my arm back around her. She let out a long sigh that hitched a little at the end.
“It was shit.” She was still staring blankly ahead. “Did you sleep with someone since we’ve been apart?”
I pulled back at her question, the shock of it sending adrenaline through my body. “Of course not.”
“There was a bartender at Pulse that said—”
“Quinn,” I cut her off firmly, grabbing her chin so her eyes met mine. “I have not looked at, let alone touched, another woman since I met you. You might not trust me right now, but please trust that.”
She watched me for a moment before nodding. I waited a beat before I reluctantly let her chin go. It was almost like she was pulling herself back together. But I saw it, her fear of having me here when she said she needed space. I didn’t want to hear it so I spoke first.
“Let me stay tonight,” I said, trying not to sound desperate. “I haven’t been sleeping and I know it’s my own fault for pushing you away. But I can’t fucking sleep without you beside me, Love.” My chest squeezed tight as I watched her, my eyes dancing between hers while I waited for her to decide.
“I haven’t been sleeping either,” she admitted as I let out a breath. Some of the guard I’d seen her put back in place dropped away and she tightened her arms around me and tilted her chin back down. “Stay,” she mumbled, already drifting off to sleep.
I moved us down in the bed so I was on my back and held her close against my chest as I closed my eyes and fell asleep quickly.
Soft light was filtering into the room. Quinn had pulled the curtains closed but not the black out blinds, so as the sky lightened so did the room.
It was after eight and I had pulled myself from her an hour ago.
I didn’t want her to have to struggle to decide if she was upset about me being in her bed in the light of day.
I’d left my sweater beside her and was now leaning in the doorway watching her.
I had no idea where Asher was, but he hadn’t come and bothered me yet. I saw her starting to stir and watched as she reached over to where I’d been. Before she could panic or think it had been a dream, I spoke quietly.
“Morning.” I watched as she rolled over and popped an eye open to look at me.
“Were you watching me sleep?” she asked in a groggy voice.
“Yes,” I answered unapologetically.
“Creep,” she said with a hint of a smile that had me sending her one back in return.
I watched as she rubbed her puffy eyes from her heavy cry last night and then pushed herself up slightly so she could look at me. All I wanted was to crawl back in bed and hold her, but being here for her and giving her the space she wanted was a fine line to walk.
“I couldn’t leave until you were awake,” I said with a shrug, still leaning in the doorway.
I was still an early riser despite how little sleep I was getting.
But I’d passed out hard with her last night and felt more awake than I had in weeks.
“I made you coffee, it’s on the counter.
” She smiled a little and looked down at the bed.
“Thank you for coming when I needed you.”
This time I couldn’t resist. I pushed off the doorframe and walked into the room.
“Always,” I said with a kiss to her forehead. When she looked up at me, I held her gaze, seeing her doubts there. “And I’m going to make you believe it.” I gave her one more kiss on the forehead before I pulled away. “I’ll see you soon.”
“You sound pretty confident.” Her voice was soft behind me.
I turned back to look at her. “I don’t lose, Quinn, and I’ve never run from a challenge. I’m not running from this.”
Leaving her with that, I turned and walked out of Asher’s apartment with determination rolling through me.
I was the first one in the boardroom, probably for the best considering I’d called the meeting.
If I had any hope of getting Quinn back, I would need all the men involved.
They’d agreed to help me get her to the office so I could come clean.
I hoped that meant they would be on my side about this too.
One by one they filtered in, drinking their coffee and chatting about the development.
We purchased land and were now waiting on building permits.
Something that took a lot longer for the regular person but that wasn’t us.
We had connections we were using to push it through.
We were also consulting architectural firms to start the design.
“What is this about anyway?” Noah asked as the last one to slip into one of the chairs. I hid my laugh. I’d gotten a meeting into all of their busy calendars, labelled it important but gave no one any information. They would show up for anything. No questions asked.
“Someone showed up at my house late last night and left this morning, I assume it has something to do with that,” Asher said, shooting me a look.
I knew he would’ve known I had been there. Jaxson had procured top of the line security technology companies along the way that now operated under Knight Enterprises. All our homes had them which included motion cameras on the door and alerts to our phones for any activity.
The guys looked at me with raised eyebrows.
“Didn’t she ask you for space?” Will asked skeptically.
“Seems like the opposite, man.” Oli shook his head.
“Fuck.” Noah pushed his hand through his hair. “Are you stalking her? Do we need to have an intervention?”
“We threaten a lot of interventions with him,” Jaxson muttered.
“I can ask Q what she wants,” Noah said, pulling out his phone.
“Enough.” I sighed. “She asked me to be there, I am not stalking her. But I do need all your help.”
“About fucking time,” Asher said as all they focused on me.
I had a lot of grovelling to do and I needed their help.