Yep. Quinn knew that was true. That was why, the moment Wyatt had left her place last night, she’d gotten on the phone to tell her brother about the bruise on her arm.
No way did she want Wyatt to rat her out again. He would probably make the entire thing bigger than it was.
Luckily, she was also able to tell Mason that Darren was leaving that night so there was no need to worry.
The last thing she needed was Mason marching into town and forcing answers out of her. He was well-trained. But he was no match for men with superspeed and strength. And if she told him about her research, there was a definite possibility he would put himself in danger.
Pushing the thought to the back of her mind for the moment, Quinn gave her full attention to the people in front of her. “If you’re here for coffees, I should warn you, I’m not the best barista. If there were learning plates for people in my position, I would be wearing them. I could ask Mrs. Potter to come out—”
“Don’t be silly,” Lexie cut in. “As long as there’s caffeine in the cups, we’ll be fine.”
Quinn was liking these people already. “Done. So, four coffees. Anything else?”
The women laughed like Quinn had just told a joke, whereas the men shook their heads.
Asher turned to Eden. “Imagine if the women came to Mrs. Potter’s Bakehouse and just ordered coffee.”
“I would die of shock,” Eden muttered.
Lexie looked up at the big men with a stern expression. “You mock all you want. I’ve never seen either of you step out of here without food in your hand or full bellies.”
Asher shrugged his shoulders while Eden grunted. Quinn hid a chuckle at the alpha men being put in their place.
The women pointed out the pastries they’d like and Quinn began plating them. When Lexie and Shylah were done, Quinn tried to hide her shock. Tried and failed.
Twelve. They’d chosen twelve different pastries to share between the four of them. “Are you guys going to be able to finish all these?”
If they said yes and followed through, she would be surprised. Surprised and impressed.
Shylah threw her head back and laughed. “Good heavens, no. What we don’t eat now becomes dessert tonight.”
Asher scoffed. “If it lasts the trip home.”
“Women who don’t count their calories. I think you’re my kind of people,” Quinn joked.
Lexie chuckled as she shifted Fletcher in her arms. “Life’s too short to count calories.”
Shylah nodded. “Damn straight.”
That had always been Quinn’s thinking. “Take a seat. I’ll get the coffees ready, then bring it all out to you.”
As Quinn made a start on the drinks, Mrs. Potter stuck her head out of the kitchen. “Do you need help?”
“I’m okay, but I’ll come get you if that changes.”
Which was a likely scenario. But, who knew, maybe she would make four coffees without so much as burning the milk.
Mrs. Potter nodded and disappeared again.
“Need any help?”
Quinn almost jumped a whole foot at Shylah’s voice right beside her. It was lucky the milk had remained in the pitcher. “You move just like my brother. Silently.”
“I wish I was that slick.”
Yeah, Quinn too. “I should be okay. Thanks for offering.”
As Quinn went back to making the coffees, she expected Shylah to move back to the table. Instead, she leaned her hip against the counter.
“How are you finding Marble Falls?”
A heck of a lot better than she’d expected. “Surprisingly, I’m really enjoying it.”
Shylah tilted her head to the side. “Surprisingly?”
“I thought I’d be so bored in a small town. Not just that, I thought I’d lose my mind without my job as a journalist.” Yet here she was, mind fully in place.
“Bet you investigated lots of awesome stories while in New York.” There was excitement in the other woman’s eyes.
Quinn lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know if I’d use the word awesome. I worked the crime beat, and it always frustrated me how often the bad guys got away. Sometimes, catching the perpetrators of the crimes seemed near impossible for police.”
Actually, more than sometimes. Quinn always wanted to see justice follow an injustice. Unfortunately, that wasn’t always the case.
The smile fell from Shylah’s lips. “Oh, I bet. The guys are always frustrated that they can never quite catch their enemies. It’s heartbreaking to watch. At least your bad guys don’t have superhuman speed, right? Wouldn’t be able to get away so easily.”
At those words, Quinn almost dropped the pitcher of milk. Swinging her eyes to Shylah, she studied the other woman. “Did you say superhuman speed?”
“Yeah, because…” Shylah paused, a frown marring her brows. “Don’t you…I mean, I thought…” A moment of panic crossed over the other woman’s face as she struggled with her words.
Placing the pitcher on the counter, Quinn took a step toward her. “Shylah, did you just say that the guys are chasing an enemy with superhuman speed?”
Shylah opened her mouth but no words came out.
“Shy!” They both swung their heads around at Eden’s voice. “You got a message on your phone.”
“Coming.” Shylah gave Quinn an apologetic look before moving back to the table.
Quinn was slow to get back to what she was doing. Shylah’s statement was rolling around in her mind, creating more questions than answers.
Had her words just been a figure of speech? Or was it possible that Mason and Wyatt knew that men with superspeed existed?
Not only existed, Shylah had used the word “enemy.”
Did her brother have enemies that he was hunting? Could those enemies be the same people who broke into the pharmaceutical companies?
Turning back to the coffees, she finished what she was doing, surprisingly not making a single error. Surprising because her mind was anywhere but on the task at hand.
A couple minutes later, Quinn carried the first two coffees to the table. Asher immediately jumped up and grabbed the remaining drinks from the counter. He also helped Quinn carry the pastries.
Pushing what Shylah had said to the back of her mind, Quinn plastered a smile to her face. “Thanks for the help. Marble Fallers are crazy helpful. Wyatt helped me with his order the other day, Shylah just offered to help make the coffees, and now you’ve helped me serve.”
“What can I say,” Shylah shrugged, “we’re a friendly bunch.”
Lexie shook her head. “Don’t be fooled, Shylah has no idea how to use that machine. She would have been zero help.”
Shylah leaned back like she was offended. “Maybe that’s true, but I would have given it a crack. I have a can-do attitude. Anyway, Quinn, how’s your brother? We miss him and Sage.”
“He’s okay. We’ve texted each other a bit, but that’s it. I think he’s pretty invested in making sure Sage spends time with her brother. I don’t know the entire story there. Just that they’ve been separated for a while.”
The entire group nodded.
Shylah leaned forward. “Did he tell you that Eden and I have Nunzie and Dizzie?”
He definitely did. When her brother had told her he wouldn’t be in town, the first question she’d asked was who was looking after the dogs. Because she was not a dog person. Far from it. She had zero faith in her ability to keep animals alive.
“I’m glad it’s you and not me.”
Eden shook his head. “I’m not.”
Shylah hit him lightly on the shoulder. “They’re cute.”
“Is the mess they make cute?”
And that right there was another reason she did not want to look after them. She could barely clean up after herself.
Asher put his hand on Eden’s shoulder. “This is why I live in an apartment, my friend.” He glanced out the window, then at Quinn. “I hope you’re getting home before the storm comes in.”
Quinn
looked out the window again. If possible, the sky had gotten even darker. “The storm is supposed to hit around six. I’m hoping to get out of here at five and hightail it home.”
Boy, was she glad that she’d driven to work today.
“Well, I’m going to start cleaning up. Call me over if you need anything.”
Smiling at the group, she made her way back. The moment she stood behind the counter again, her thoughts went back to Mason. To Wyatt. To the men who were strong enough to throw an adult across a room and kill them on impact.
Quinn was almost certain that her story and what Shylah had said couldn’t possibly be related. She was probably just so invested in this whole thing that she’d misunderstood what the other woman meant.
Then why did she have this uneasy feeling in her gut?
Nibbling on her bottom lip, Quinn eyed her bag for a few seconds before moving to it. Pulling out her phone, she dialed Mason’s number. She’d ask him if he knew anything about men with superspeed. About whether he had superhuman enemies. He would say no, call her crazy, and that would be that. Easy.
Only Mason didn’t answer. The call went straight to voicemail.
Okay. So she couldn’t ask Mason. Not right now, anyway. And even if she did ask him, there was a possibility, a huge possibility, that he wouldn’t tell her the truth. The man had spent most of his life trying to shield her from danger.
Wyatt might be the same.
Maybe there was another way to find the information she needed…A possibly dumb way, considering the current weather. But when the hell had bad weather stopped Quinn from getting to the bottom of a story?
Wyatt was just pushing through the door to his apartment when his phone began to ring. Dropping some grocery bags on the kitchen counter, he fished it out of his pocket. Mason’s name flashed across the screen.
“Eagle, what’s going on?”
Just as the words left his mouth, loud thunder echoed through the apartment. The storm was rolling in early.
“That sounded close,” Mason said across the line.
He wasn’t wrong. “It was. Has it hit Lockhart yet?”
As if on cue, more thunder sounded, followed by heavy rain.
“It has. We’re in the thick of it.” There was a small pause. “Have you seen Quinn this afternoon?”
Wyatt frowned at the concern in his friend’s voice. “No. I’ve been at Marble Protection all day and am only just getting home now.”
“Okay. Hunter called to give me a heads-up that Shylah might have accidentally told Quinn we have enemies. Less-than-human enemies.” Wyatt cursed under his breath. “I also had a missed call from her. I tried calling her back, but the calls are going straight to messages. I called Kye, because you mentioned he was trailing her today. He was following her car at the time and said she looked like she was heading to my place.”
Wyatt immediately went on alert. He hoped like hell she was safe in her apartment, because there was no way she should be out driving in this weather.
“Give me a sec, I’ll check if she’s back.”
“Thanks. I never got around to taking my spare key back. Do you still have it?”
Damn, Wyatt had almost forgotten about that. He’d meant to return it to Mason when Quinn moved in, but had never gotten around to it.
Moving to his study, he opened the safe and spotted the key immediately. Grabbing it, Wyatt headed across the hall. He knocked on the door, then stopped to listen. There were no sounds coming from the other side. But then, the rain was pelting down, drowning out a lot.
He lifted the phone back to his ear. “I can’t hear her, but the wind and rain are loud. I’m going to check to be sure.”
“Thanks.”
Unlocking the door, he walked inside and did a quick check of every room.
No Quinn.
“She’s not here.”
Mason cursed across the line.
Kye was with her, and Wyatt trusted his friend. He still wanted eyes on her himself, though.
He was about to walk out, only to stop when something on the kitchen counter caught his attention. Taking a step closer, a frown marred his brow. It was a piece of paper with Salina Pharmaceutical Drug Lab written on it, as well as a couple of words Wyatt had never seen before. Pharmaceutical ingredients, maybe?
What the hell is this? Does it have something to do with the story she’s working on?
“Eagle, has Quinn mentioned anything to you about the story that lost her her job?”
There was a brief pause before Mason answered. “Just that it involved a theft. She said she’d stopped looking into it.”
“Did you mention anything to her about John or Salina Pharmaceutical Drug Lab?”
“No. I don’t talk to Quinn about Project Arma. What’s going on, Jobs?”
Was it possible the story she was working on, the one that she got fired for, was connected to them?
“She scribbled the name of the lab on a piece of paper.”
Mason was silent. Wyatt started moving.
“I’m going to your place. Make sure she’s okay. Later, I’ll get answers.”
“Make sure she’s safe, Jobs. Safe from the storm…and also, from our kind.”
It was rare for Wyatt to hear his friend nervous. But he was. Probably as nervous as Wyatt.
“Already done.”
Hanging up, Wyatt went back to his place and grabbed his keys. He had a whole lot of questions that needed answering. But first, he had to know that she was okay.
Chapter 11
Switching off the engine, Quinn watched the rain fall.
Okay. She was here. Here at her brother’s house to snoop through his things. To find out if he knew anything about these not-quite-human men.
She wasn’t sure if she was hoping to find something or not.
Instead of getting straight out, Quinn spent a full minute watching the downpour outside. She would like to think it was because she loved the sound of the rain, but really, she was working up the courage to get out and walk through it.
Maybe if she moved fast enough, she wouldn’t get wet. Was that how it worked?
Or maybe, if she sat and watched the rain long enough, it would stop. That seemed like wishful thinking. And the weatherman would probably agree. He’d predicted torrential rains until morning.
Glancing at her phone, she let out a sigh. Still dead. It died just before her shift had finished. She really needed to grab a car charger. Either that, or just charge her phone before work and not try to rely on twenty percent to get her through the day.
Glancing back at the house, she sucked in a deep breath.
Okay. Suck it up, Quinn. A little rain never hurt anyone.
The spare key was kept in a lockbox on the side of his house. The very unshaded side of the house. There was no way she could save herself from getting soaked.
When she’d first arrived in town, Quinn had needed to get into his place to grab the key to the apartment. Her brother had explained where the key was hidden over the phone, since he’d left for Lockhart just before her arrival.
She laughed when she saw it. No one would have known it was a lockbox. It was recessed into the wall and positioned behind a bush.
She still remembered wondering if he really needed that much security. At the time she hadn’t thought so. If it turned out these men were enemies of her brother’s, then yes. Yes, it was needed and probably more.
Placing her hand on the door handle, she said a silent prayer that she wouldn’t be drowned, then climbed outside.
The rain hit her like a freight train. It was fast and frenzied and threatened to push her to the ground. Gritting her teeth, Quinn ran to the side of the house. She stumbled twice along the way, barely saving herself from landing in pools of mud.
Lifting wet fingers, Quinn took her time typing the password. Knowing Mason, if a mistake was made, something terrible would happen. The place would probably become impenetrable. Maybe a huge alarm and sirens would sound.
Thankfully, she didn’t make a mistake. The pad opened and Quinn swiped the key. Good. One more run through the storm, then she would be in.
She was almost at the front door when her foot slid and she hit the ground with a thud.
Dammit.
Her hip took the brunt of the fall. It hurt like hell. Ignoring the pain, she pushed to her feet and ran the few remaining steps to the door. Unlocking it, she pushed through.
Once inside, she stepped up to Mason’s home alarm and typed in the code. Another layer of security.
Once the door was shut, Quinn shook her arms. Water dripped from every inch of her body. Anyone looking at her would think she’d just stepped out of the ocean. As well as being wet, she was damn cold.
Switching on the light, she went to the kitchen and grabbed the towel off the oven. A tea towel wasn’t optimal, but at least it would partially dry her until she got upstairs.
Stripping off her heavy, wet sweatshirt, she dried as much of her body as possible. Her T-shirt stuck to her chest. Jeepers. The moment she got home, she would be stripping off every piece of clothing and climbing straight into a warm bath. Maybe with a glass of wine. The couch with a blanket just wasn’t going to cut it anymore.
She’d only visited Mason’s home the one time. Just like last time, she was in awe of the space. She could not for the life of her figure out why the man needed two stories, five bedrooms and a ton of acres.
Did he plan to have four kids and a farm full of animals?
Hanging the towel back on the oven, Quinn moved to the living room. Okay, so the question was, where would Mason keep top-secret information on superhuman enemies? Office, right? Wasn’t that where everyone kept important information?
Moving up the stairs, Quinn stepped into the office. She would be quick and efficient. She needed to get home before the storm got worse and the roads became undrivable. Starting with the desk drawers, she systematically worked her way through the room.
Drawers, cupboard shelves, little nooks in the furniture…she checked everything.
Ten minutes later, she had nothing. Nothing but bills, receipts, and home documents. None of which meant anything to her. She had discovered a wall safe but there was no way she’d be able to access the thing. What a waste of a trip.
Wyatt: A steamy contemporary military romance (Project Arma Book 5) Page 8