Quinn rolled her eyes but nodded in agreement.
I grabbed El’s hand. “I want you with me. No arguing.”
She squeezed my hand and grinned at me. “You’re lucky I like you bossy. I’m okay with it. I want you with me too.”
My stomach did a flip. At least I was getting to spend more time with her – it was the one positive to come out of all this bullshit.
We drove the rest of the way in silence. Quinn was texting and El was humming along to the songs on the radio. As we approached my neighbourhood I began to get really nervous.
What if she doesn’t like my place?
Shit… what if she doesn’t like Zefer?
“We’re nearly there.” I told El.
She sat up a little straighter and looked out the window. “Wow this is a really nice area.”
I smiled. “Yeah, it’s awesome out here.” I tried to calm my nerves as we pulled into my driveway. I stopped at the gate and keyed in the pass code.
1987 – Q’s birth year.
The gates opened and I drove the truck down the drive.
My house was big and classic. It was two stories and painted a light grey-blue colour. The window frames were white and their style complimented the colonial look I had been going for. It had brick trim features on the built up garden beds that matched the brick chimneys on the house. I’d done a lot of planting around the place, there were trees scattered over the large lawn – I even had an orchard out back that was quickly becoming established.
“This is home.” I announced. I couldn’t wait to show El the view out the back of the house, the porch wrapped around and overlooked the waterfront. It was my favourite part. It was a beautiful day today, the sun was out, but it was still freezing.
First, I would call Mark and deal with this bullshit, then I was showing my girl around.
Ellerslie still hadn’t said a word. “What do you think?” I prompted.
“Are you kidding?” She gaped. “This is your house?”
I chuckled nervously. “Ah, yeah. This is it.”
She moved her lips as if she was saying ‘wow’, but no sound came out. “Lawson this is amazing.” She looked around in awe. “I’d imagined something really modern, sleek, you know? Not this.”
“I like classic better.”
She smiled a sweet smile at me. “I like classic better too.”
I knew she’d like it.
I pulled into the garage and put the door down behind us. I jumped out and rounded the front of the truck just as El was getting ready to hop out. I frowned at her.
“He’s gonna get pissed if you don’t start waiting for him.” Quinn laughed from the back seat.
“What?” El looked confused.
“The door.” Quinn nodded in my direction. “He’s gonna get cranky if you don’t wait for him to open it for you. Texas boy remember?”
El's mouth fell open and she looked back at me. “For real?”
Bloody Quinn. She was always opening her big mouth.
I rubbed the back of my neck and gave El a guilty smile. “Kinda… yeah. My grandfather raised me to always open the door for a lady.”
El’s eyes shined at me. “Well then, if you’ll excuse me.” She gestured for me to move back.
I gave her a confused look but she waved me away with a flick of her hand. I stepped back and she pulled the door shut again.
I couldn’t help but laugh at her, sitting in there looking adorable.
Fuck I love the sight of her in my truck.
I opened the door for her and held out my hand. She took it, with a huge smile on her face and kissed my check once she was standing on the ground. “Thank you Lawson.”
I shuddered slightly at the sound of her using my name and turned to open Quinn’s door.
“Does Colt open your door Q?” El asked.
Quinn laughed loudly. “Ah, no. But I don’t expect him to.”
El giggled and looked around at my garage. “Holy shit! You really are from Texas.”
“How’s that?” I asked quizzically.
“Look at you.” She poked at my chest. “You’re massive, your truck is massive, and holy shit this garage is bigger than my apartment in L.A.”
I chuckled. She was right, I liked things big – in Texas, shit was always big.
I was about to make a dirty joke about how big I really was, but El got in first.
“I know what you’re going to say Lawson Pierce, and if you make a joke about the size of your junk I’m gonna scream.” She had a teasing look in her eye.
I held my hands up in mock surrender. “I wasn’t going to.”
She knows me too well already.
“Uh huh. Sure you weren’t cowboy.”
I pulled out their bags and gestured for them to follow me inside. “We need to go and call Mark.”
***
“Quinn, did you let Colt know you won’t be coming to the club?” I heard El ask from the living room.
Quinn seemed to be getting back to normal. She had taken a bath while I called Mark – he’d had us forward the email to him and I’d organised for my tech guy – Alex, to try and trace the email address that was used to send it.
Since we’d left the office early, and we didn’t want to leave the house, we’d all just got changed into comfortable clothes and curled up on the couch watching a movie while we waited for any news from Mark or Alex.
“Yeah, I called him. He can’t leave till the night manager arrives at 9.00pm, but he asked if he could come and see me then. I told him I wanted to go with him to his place. I want to give you guys your space.”
“Honestly Q, it’s fine. We’re just hanging out.” El replied.
“Pinkie promises don’t get broken El.”
What in the hell are those two going on about?
I heard El sigh. “I know. I’ll tell him. I’m just scared.”
I walked into the living room. “Scared of what?” I asked. El jumped, she hadn’t seen me come in.
“Ah, um… just that this person might try and hurt us.”
I didn’t think that was what she was really scared about, but the thought fired me up none the less. I looked at her with my eyes blazing as if I was ready to hunt. “I won’t let anyone hurt you El.”
She’ll tell me when she’s ready.
She nodded and bit down on her lip. “Anyway, we’re forgetting about all of that for tonight, what should we do now?”
“How about I show you around the house? I’ve got someone I want you to meet.”
El looked at me in confusion. “What? Like a cleaner or something?”
I laughed at her. “No El. Not my cleaner. C’mon I’ll show you.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her up. “Are you coming Q?”
“Na I’m good. Me and him don’t see eye to eye anyway.”
She was right about that.
I pulled El by the hand out of the lounge and into the games room. “This is the games room.” I gestured across the room. “And that, is Zefer.”
El ignored the room and zoned in on my dog, sitting on his big padded bed.
I was suddenly nervous again. I loved this dog, and I really had no idea if she even liked dogs at all. “Are you okay with dogs?”
She ignored me and walked over to where Zef was still sitting. I hadn’t given him the command to move – he would sit there until I did.
“Hi Zefer.” I heard her say in her sweet voice. She crouched down in front of him and held her hand out for him to sniff. “I’m El.”
He looked at me for permission and I nodded. He sniffed her hand and she patted his head. That was all it took. Zefer pushed up against her hand and begged for more attention. Bloody dog was as much of a sucker for her as I was.
I made my way over to them and I heard her crooning to him. “Oh you are just so handsome aren’t you? What a pretty boy.” I grinned.
Thank god for that.
“He’s a Doberman right?”
“He sure is. He’s about
2 years old. I got him a few months ago from a rescue centre. Someone had dumped him, he was a little bit skinny, but otherwise fine.”
“He’s gorgeous.”
“Yeah he’s a lot like his owner.” I smirked.
She rolled her eyes at me and carried on patting Zefer.
“He’s been awesome to train. We’ve got a few basic commands down. He’s eating well and seems to have bonded with me, but he doesn’t seem happy when I leave.”
“What do you do with him while you’re at work?” She asked.
“He has free run of the house and if I haven’t had time to walk him, I have a young boy from down the road come down and walk him after school.”
“So he’s here on his own a lot?”
I nodded. “Yeah he is.”
“That’s probably what the problem is. Doberman’s are pack animals. You’re part of his pack now – but when you’re not here he’s all alone. You might need to consider getting another dog for company, or looking into dog daycares.”
I stared at her.
“What?” She asked. Zef had rolled over now and El was scratching his belly.
“I shook my head. “Nothing. You’re just amazing.”
She smiled at Zefer. “Your daddy is crazy isn’t he?”
My heart leapt in my chest – I had a vision of her talking like that to our children. The clarity of it took me entirely by surprise. But what surprised me the most was that I wanted it. I wanted it all with her. It completely shocked me. I’d accepted a long time ago that kids weren’t on the cards for me, but now…
She’s the difference.
I watched her turn my big, strong guard dog into a complete ball of mush and I felt myself fall for her a little more. My phone rang in the lounge and I froze.
“Go and answer it cowboy. We’re fine here.”
I jogged out of the room and scooped up my phone.
“Lawson Pierce.”
“Lawson, its Mark.”
“Hey Mark, tell me you have something.”
“I do, but I doubt it’s going to be very helpful. The photos were taken on a high quality Canon camera, with a long-range lens. It’s not cheap, so whoever this is, they haven’t spared any cost on their equipment. The photo was printed at a small print centre a few blocks over, the order was submitted online and picked up ten minutes later – the problem is, they don’t have security cameras. One staff member thought they remembered a male, the other thought female. So obviously that is a dead end.”
“Fuck.” I muttered.
“I looked into Piper’s phone and mail and there’s nothing to find there. It’s possible she’s using other inmates, but without going through the entire place we just don’t know. It doesn’t seem likely to me, so at this stage I think we should put her out of our focus.”
“I agree. I don’t think it’s her. She never gave a shit about me anyway so it makes no sense that she’d threaten El or I now.”
“There’s still the possibility of Ellerslie’s ex-husband. Should I look into it?”
I deliberated about it for a minute. I knew I shouldn’t agree to it without asking El first, but I already knew she’d say it was a waste of time. I decided to go with my gut on this one. “Yeah I want you to look into it. El probably won’t be happy, but regardless of what she says, I need it checked out.”
“I’ll get on to it. How’s your sister?”
“She’s doing better. Still a bit shaken I think, but better. I have her here with El and me.”
“Good. I’m worried about this person spreading their threats around. Have El’s brother be on high alert.”
“Yeah I’ll call him shortly.”
“Well that’s about all I have for now. I want you to contact me if you hear back from your tech man. Hopefully he can locate where the account was activated.”
“Will do Mark. Thanks.”
I hung up the phone and jumped when I saw Ellerslie leaning against the doorframe watching me – Zef sitting at her feet.
“Is he following you around already?” I chuckled.
She just raised an eyebrow at me.
Shit.
“What exactly am I not going to be happy about?”
I ran my hand through my hair. “That was Mark, Piper is a dead end, so is the photo print centre. I’ve told him to look into Baxter. It’s the only other lead we have right now El.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Fine.” She shrugged.
“What?” I was expecting a fight.
“Yeah fine. I’m telling you it’s a waste of time and money, but hell, if that’s what you want to do, you go right ahead.” She waved a hand in front of herself.
“Okay?” I half asked. I felt like I was treading in unchartered waters here.
“Hey Q?” El called out into the lounge.
“Yeah?” Quinn called back before she appeared in the hallway.
“What’s your thoughts on Baxter being the ‘stalker’?” She made quotation marks with her fingers.
Quinn shook her head. “Na. No way. The guy’s a pussy. He wouldn’t have what it takes to do this.”
El gave me a ‘see?’ look.
“I don’t care.” I insisted. “It’s my money and I’ll waste it how I see fit.”
She shrugged at me again and strolled back into the lounge with my dog hot on her heels.
47. Quinn
We finished watching our movie and Lawson called Reeve to fill him in on the latest drama. Unsurprisingly he kicked off and demanded to talk to both El and I. He eventually calmed down, but I heard him talking to Lawson after that and I was pretty sure I heard the word bodyguard being thrown around.
El was gonna be so pissed.
I’d made a joke that Zefer could be her new bodyguard. That earned Lawson a hopeful look from El, and earned me a ‘shut the fuck up’ glare from my brother. I’d just laughed and gone back to messaging Colt. He was feeling shitty for taking so long to get to me, but I had assured him I was fine.
Besides, it’s not like he’s my boyfriend or anything anyway.
El and Lawson made a delicious Asian chicken noodle dish for dinner whilst I sat on my ass and watched T.V.
A girl could really get use to this.
We were all currently sitting around the lounge having a beer. “So what happens now?” I asked Lawson.
He took a long pull of his beer before answering. “For now, I think we just stick together. No going anywhere without Colt, Reeve or I. I’m actually feeling a bit average about Colt being included in this – I barely know the guy. Can he even handle himself?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure he can handle himself just fine. He’ll be here to get me soon, so you can ask him yourself.”
“You’re not staying?” He looked pissed.
I shook my head. “Nope and I don’t want to hear a word about it. Colt’s place will be perfectly safe. No one has a clue where I am, and let’s be honest, I was just a messenger for the two of you anyway, nobody cares.” I hated to bring it up, but it was true. My fear wasn’t for me – it was for them.
“She’s right.” El looked at Lawson. “She’s completely safe. She has Colt. And whoever is doing this is trying to get to us Lawson. Me and you.” She gestured between the two of them. “Q will be fine.”
Lawson blew out a deep breath. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m just trying to protect you both.”
“You’re doing a good job Law. We’re safe and I haven’t heard you rip the shit out of anyone for a good few hours. You’re doing pretty well.” I teased.
El hopped up and moved to where Lawson was sitting. He instantly opened his arms for her and she nestled into the space between his legs.
They are just too cute.
She held his face in her hands and forced him to look at her. “I know you hate this, but you can’t keep us with you twenty four seven.”
“I can fucking try.” He growled.
“Law.” El scolded. “Honestly. We’re okay. Breathe. I promise I
won’t go anywhere without you for the entire weekend, and Quinn won’t go anywhere without one of you boys either.”
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