“For what it’s worth, I wasn’t lying when I told you I like this look. I think it’s my favorite so far. I wouldn’t mind it sticking around, but someday I would like to see the real Quinn, without all the smoke and mirrors.”
“Funny you should say that because this is my real color. The eye color has been mine for a while. I used to dabble in colored contacts but really hated them. I guess I was slowly weening myself off the disguises in recent months. This is me without the glamour. I was finally feeling comfortable, safe even. Guess I jumped the gun on that one, huh?”
“No, you’re still safe, and you should still feel comfortable. I won’t let anything happen to you. If I did, it would be like letting myself die. You’ve become that important to me.”
How had she found this man, and why had she waited so long to let him into her life and into her heart? Rolling toward him, she swung a leg over him and trailed a finger down his chest toward the sheet that covered him from the waist down. Her hand snaked underneath to find him aroused again.
“All those sweet words. I think you’re just trying to get me to do naughty things to you.” She nibbled on his ear.
“Not at all, but if sweet words are all it takes for you to get turned on, then I’ll keep it up.” She quirked an eyebrow at his choice of words.
“No pun intended?”
“Oh, I definitely intended it.”
With a growl, he rolled her onto her back and with one fluid move, he was inside her, driving away all the sad thoughts and filling her with a joy she didn’t know could exist. She clung to him like she was sinking, and he was the only thing keeping her from going under. Somehow, he had become a lifeline for her, one she wasn’t going to give up, because she finally realized she had done nothing wrong when she ran for her life and, damn it, she deserved to be happy.
When he woke up, the bed was still warm next to him. He was disappointed to find that Quinn wasn’t there. He stretched and breathed in deeply. He closed his eyes and then reopened them, rolling onto his back to stare at the ceiling. She had asked him what he did to survive. That was a loaded question; what hadn’t he done? He hadn’t gone to booze like so many did; he hadn’t resorted to violence, which also happened. But he also had his vice to get through the turmoil of all the cases. He was relieved that he had confided in Quinn, that he had told her the reason behind his one-night stands.
His stomach growled at the aromas coming from his kitchen. The woman was going to make him fat if she kept cooking for him. Of course, his eating food on the fly wasn’t really great for his waistline either. He was sitting up when he saw her come through the door carrying a tray.
“You’re awake! Fantastic, I made breakfast. I thought we could eat it in bed while we snuggled. Unless you prefer to eat in the kitchen.”
The sight of her walking toward him wearing one of his T-shirts was enough to make his mouth salivate. How could such a simple sight make him as horny as a teenage boy on prom night? Because he was in love; that’s why. There was no worry that he would gain weight from her cooking if he was busy burning it off rolling around in bed with her. She sat down next to him and held a piece of bacon up to his mouth. When he hesitated, she frowned and took a bite of it, chewing slowly and moaning that amazing way she did when she was eating something she considered delicious.
“You don’t like bacon?”
“I like bacon. I was just frozen by your beauty. Oh, God, do that again,” he whispered. “Take another bite. When you moan like that…” He grabbed her hand and placed it on the evidence of what that moan did to him.
“You are quite insatiable, Mr. Vanderbilt.”
“You have no idea.” Gently taking the tray from her, he set it on the bedside table and rolled her underneath him.
“You’re going to be late to work.”
“I’m willing to risk it.”
“Our breakfast will get cold.”
“Worth it.”
They were interrupted by his cell phone ringing, and, apologizing, he looked at the screen. The number was unknown, and he knew right away that it was Black calling. Quinn just smiled, grabbed a piece of bacon, and stripped off her shirt on the way to go take a shower; her adorable behind sashayed away.
“Vanderbilt.”
“I don’t have a lot of time to talk, but something big is going down. I don’t know what. All I know is that The Fixer is coming in to town to take care of a few problems. Apparently, he’d been dispatched to take care of something big and has been told to get back. All I know is someone important has been located, and the head honcho wants them brought to him and taken care of in front of him. Normally, he wouldn’t call his main clean-up guy back into town for just anyone. He has other flunkies that he can get to kill people on the fly, so whoever it is, he really wants them dead, and he wants it to be soon.”
“Any idea who it is? Can we move on them to get them protection?”
“No clue. I just know it’s someone he’s been looking for, and he wants them gone.”
“Thanks for the information, keep your head down. I think things are about to boil over, and we need to be ready to move when the time comes.”
“I hope you’re right. I’m ready to be done with this.”
“Soon.”
“It won’t be soon enough.” The phone went dead.
Ethan would be lying if he said he wasn’t worried about Harrison Black. With each phone call, the man sounded more strained. He wasn’t sure how much longer they had until he was at his breaking point. Undercover work was hard and dangerous; you had to give yourself over to the world you were immersed in and walk a fine line between good and evil. Some could never get back from that.
“That’s how you were at the hospital so quickly that night,” Quinn said quietly from the bathroom door, a towel wrapped around her.
“Yeah.”
“Surprised it took me that long to figure it out. I mean, I knew that you were his contact, but I didn’t realize that he had you in the loop that night.”
“It’s been hard because Caleb isn’t in the loop. There are hard feelings when it comes to Black.”
“Why? I didn’t even know that he knew Kara until the night he delivered Becky to me.”
“He was the officer that was bringing Kara home the night she was abducted. He got called out on a bogus call.”
“Oh, no! He was the one that let her go with that psycho? She never told me that.”
“Right, and Kara never blamed him. There wasn’t anything he could have done differently.”
“How did I not know it was him?”
“Kara didn’t want anyone to know. She said he wasn’t to blame, and that was it. In the chaos that night, and probably to protect me, Caleb never told me who’d slipped up. When Kara was rescued, she told Caleb to zip it about Black, and he listened. It wasn’t until later that Black told me he’d been the one to let her go with that asshole. He was torn up by it. I talked to Kara about it after I talked to him. She said there was no reason for him to still feel guilty. He didn’t intend for it to go down the way it did. She also told me that Caleb was still holding a bit of a grudge and to try not to bring him up for now.”
“That’s why he went undercover.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, when the need to put somebody deep undercover came up, he volunteered. I think he feels this is his way to finally make amends.”
“That’s why he risked himself that night to get Becky out. It wasn’t safe for him to do that. He took one hell of a risk. Honestly, I was surprised he didn’t get caught that night.”
“I wasn’t sure he could handle the job. He isn’t in the best of places mentally, and the guilt is overwhelming for him. I convinced Cap to let me be his handler, and he agreed. The one condition being that Caleb wasn’t allowed to know that I’m his contact.”
“Caleb is a good man.”
“Caleb is the best man I know. However, he’s blinded by his love for Kara, and I know that he’s almost to that
point where he can forgive Black, but we just couldn’t risk letting him know. Not yet.”
“He’s going to be mad at you.”
“He’s going to be royally pissed, but he’ll get over it. Family forgives each other for the small stuff, and we’re family.”
A little later, they were both fed and dressed and on their way out the door. Quinn was going to go to the center again and try to get some work done. She hoped she’d find out some more information about Jasmine, but she wasn’t holding her breath. Ethan held her hand the whole way to the center, and she smiled lazily while she stared out the window of the car. He insisted on walking her into the building, and they were standing in the center of A Place to Hope talking to a couple of volunteers when she heard a scream. Whipping around, she saw a bloodied woman stagger through the door and collapse. People rushed to the crumpled form, and she had to push her way through them to get to the hurt woman. Once she broke through the outer circle, she knelt beside the prone form as Ethan knelt on the young woman’s other side. He reached for her wrist and checked for a pulse without hesitating, even though there was blood everywhere. It took a while for Quinn to recognize the person in front of her because she was so badly injured. She wasn’t a woman at all; she was a teenager. The very teenager she had been worried about.
“Jasmine, can you hear me?” Ethan was on the phone with 911, and his eyes snapped to hers when he heard her call the girl by name. “Jasmine, honey, please stay with me.”
It was obvious what had happened. Someone had beaten her and brutally raped her, if the blood smeared down her inner thighs was any indication. Quinn blinked back tears of rage and focused on the girl in front of her. The girl who was only sixteen, the same age Quinn had been when she had escaped her own private hell. She reached out and held the girl’s hand. Things looked really bad for her, and she wasn’t sure the ambulance would make it in time. A scream sounded from behind her, and she heard Shawna yelling Jasmine’s name. Jasmine’s eyes fluttered and then opened.
“Ms. Sanders…” She licked her lips and closed her eyes.
“Shhh…honey, we’re getting you help, just hold on.”
“He told me…to give you a message.”
“Who told you?” Quinn was instantly on high alert.
“He said to tell Jenny he’s coming for her…he knows where she is…and she can’t hide.”
Jasmine lost consciousness again, but Quinn hardly noticed. She released her grip on Jasmine’s hand and swayed to the side. The room seemed to fade around the edges, and all she could hear were the two words resonating in her head, tell Jenny. Quinn, the fearless, was no longer fearless. Quinn, the brave, was now trembling from head to toe because only one person could have sent that message. The monster had reared its ugly head and found Jenny. Found Quinn. She didn’t feel the strong hands on her until she was lifted by them. She didn’t see the kids staring at her or hear their whispers; all she heard was that name over and over in her head.
Jenny. Jenny. Jenny.
An awful keening moan sounded, and it took her a moment to realize it had come from her. She didn’t hear Ethan whispering to her, asking her what was wrong. The room was spinning when she felt her body sinking and then rocking back and forth. The calming motion coupled with the sound of Ethan’s voice finally started to break through her panic, and she blinked, looking around the room. Her office…they were in her office.
“You back with me?” he asked, kissing her brow.
“What? How did we get in here?”
“I carried you in here before you fainted in front of all the kids.”
“Jasmine?”
“The EMTs have her right now. They got here just as you—”
“Started to panic.”
“Yeah. Jesus, Quinn, you scared the shit out of me. You got white as a sheet and then swayed. For a second, I thought you were hurt—shot or something—but I didn’t hear a shot or see any signs of an injury. I didn’t know what was going on. Then the EMTs showed up. I grabbed you as you started to breathe erratically. What the hell happened? What did she say to you?”
“You…you didn’t hear what she said to me?”
“No, I mean, I was on the phone with 911. I was giving them her vitals and the rundown of what was going on when I saw her talking to you, and then you just checked out. Your face went blank. I watched you swaying, torn between helping her or catching you. Thankfully, the station is just down the road. Their response was insanely fast. What did she tell you?”
“The person who did that to her gave her a message for me.”
Ethan’s whole body tensed against her. She didn’t know how to soften what she was about to say. She didn’t know what to do at all anymore. The fearless Quinn had disappeared the moment Jasmine had spoken that name. Had she ever been fearless at all? She doubted it, because one word, and she had retreated into that scared sixteen-year-old she had left behind. She could hear the words Jasmine said, but it wasn’t Jasmine’s voice. It was his. The way he said Jenny had always creeped her out, even when she had thought he loved her. To this day, she would recoil when she heard the name. The feeling had never disappeared, and she worried that the next Jenny she came across would wonder why she had behaved so oddly when she was introduced to them.
“Quinn?”
“Wh-what?”
“You spaced out again. I asked what the message was and why was it for you?”
“‘Tell Jenny he’s coming for her, he knows where she is, and she can’t hide.’”
Was that voice really hers? It sounded so far away and foreign. It couldn’t possibly be her voice, but it had to be, right? The words were the ones she was thinking, and she felt her mouth moving, but it felt so alien to her.
“You lost me. Is Jenny from the center? Why would he tell Jasmine to tell you something that was meant for Jenny?”
“Because I’m Jenny.”
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“Wait, you mean…son of a bitch, it’s him? He’s here?”
“That would be a big hell yes.”
“How did he find you?” It was his turn to sound panicked.
“My guess is by accident. Fate can sometimes be cruel, but Karma is a bitch and if he thinks he’s going to uproot me…well, Karma’s coming for him.”
“There’s my Quinn. You had me scared for a bit there.”
“Oh, you should be scared. I mean, I’m terrified, but I’m not running. It’s more important now than ever to stay put because I know who your big, bad, ugly guy is. I can identify him, and he doesn’t like loose ends.”
“Oh my God, how did I not connect it right away? I’m the cop, not you, but I didn’t see it. Paulie was chatting Jasmine up. Paulie worked for the guy we’re trying to take down.”
“Bingo. My worst nightmare happens to be your guy. Isn’t that lovely?”
“All right, at least we have all the cards on the table now. The big question is: what are we going to do about it?” he asked.
“Oh, we’re going to take him down and get our town back. That’s what we’re going to do.” Quinn replied, venom in her voice. “He’s not going to come in here and hurt my kids, this center. No way. No matter how scared I am of him, I won’t let him hurt anyone else. I know who he is, and I can help take him down. I freaked out for a second there, but I’m back.”
“You may be back, but now I’m freaked out, and I’m not sure I’m on the same page as you. I want you away from this case. I’m going to arrange for you to be put in a safe house.”
“No way. Been there, done that, not going back.”
“I’ll go with you.” He knew his voice was pleading, and he was on the verge of a full-blown panic attack. Her calm was also terrifying to behold.
“Not a chance. Ethan, they’re taking children off the street in broad daylight. However they found me doesn’t matter. What matters is that they have been messing with me for days. First, they tried to run me over. Then they hurt Officer Rodriguez. She nearly died because she was there to w
atch over me. Now they raped and beat Jasmine and brought her here to deliver a message to me.” She stood up and looked down at him. “I need you to let me do this.”
“You don’t need my permission, Quinn. You’re going to do what you want, no matter what I say.” His voice was tight, and his face was set in stone.
“Ethan, I know I don’t need your permission, but I do need your understanding and acceptance. This is my decision to make. Mine. I know we are two parts of a whole—at least, I like to think we are—and after this is all done, we will have an equal say in everything. But, right now, for this one thing, I need to make the decision. Please understand.”
“I understand; I don’t like it, but I understand. Quinn, can you honestly tell me that next time you won’t do the same thing? If you hear a child is in danger, you’ll stand by and let the police handle it?”
“This is different, you know that. I need to set this right. If I would have done something all those years ago, maybe this wouldn’t be happening.”
“We don’t even know for sure if he’s the one behind all this.”
“Yes, we do. At least, I do. I know it’s him. He’s smart. All these years he’s immersed himself in shadows, but I would know him anywhere, even if fourteen years have gone by. He is the monster in my recurring nightmares; he is the boogeyman in the shadows, but I will stop him. It’s time I do a little damage by breaking those shadows.”
“What if you can’t? What if something goes wrong? Then what? I don’t want you to be bait because I’m selfish. I need you here, safe, out of his reach.”
“I know, but what would you do if I told you that you had to give up your job or lose me forever? Your job is dangerous. I will constantly worry about you.”
“Is that what you want? For me to quit the force? Because I will if it means I get to keep you.”
“No! That’s not what I’m saying. Ethan, you’re an extraordinary detective. I would never ask you to give that up, and you can’t ask me to not see this through. I love you, and we’ll get that future together—the one with the white picket fence and as many children as we can manage—but we need to end this. I need to get him out of my life. I want what we deserve, and we deserve a future with no shadow looming over us. Our future children deserve that.” She took a step toward him and brushed her finger against his cheek. His face softened, and he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close.
Breaking Shadows (Darkness Falls Book 2) Page 26